was a Japanese historian of China and professor emeritus at

Kwansei Gakuin University , colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 u ...

Career

Ichirō Inaba graduated from the

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = National university, Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff ...

Graduate School of Letters in 1966. He studied under Ichisada Miyazaki, and his doctoral thesis was on official historians of the

Six Dynasties Six Dynasties (; 220–589 or 222–589) is a collective term for six Han-ruled Chinese dynasties that existed from the early 3rd century AD to the late 6th century AD. The Six Dynasties period overlapped with the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms, ...

. Following graduation, he lectured at a university for a year and two months before landing an assistant job at

Ritsumeikan University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan, that traces its origin to 1869. With the Kinugasa Campus (KIC) in Kyoto, and Kyoto Prefecture, the university also has a satellite called Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) and Osaka-Ibaraki Campus (OIC). Tod ...

, where he taught Chinese Historical Thought and Pre-Modern Chinese History after 1977. In October 1978, he visited China with a group of historians and archaeologists. He was promoted to full professor in 1979, and a year later he joined the School of Humanities at

. He stayed there for over two decades before retiring in 2005.

Works

Inaba's research focused on the historical and economic views of Chinese statesmen, historians and philosophers, including

Sang Hongyang Sang Hongyang (Chinese: ; c. 152–80 BC) was a Chinese politician. He was a prominent official of the Han Dynasty, who served Emperor Wu of Han and his successor Emperor Zhao. He is famous for his economic policies during the reign of Emperor ...

Sima Guang Sima Guang (17 November 1019 – 11 October 1086), courtesy name Junshi, was a Chinese historian, politician, and writer. He was a high-ranking Song dynasty scholar-official who authored the monumental history book ''Zizhi Tongjian''. Sima was ...

Mozi Mozi (; ; Latinized as Micius ; – ), original name Mo Di (), was a Chinese philosopher who founded the school of Mohism during the Hundred Schools of Thought period (the early portion of the Warring States period, –221 BCE). The ancie ...

Mencius Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mèngzǐ (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucianism, Confucian Chinese philosophy, philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, second to Confucius himself. He is part of Confuc ...

, Xunzi,

Han Fei Han Fei (233), also known as Han Feizi or Han Fei Zi, was a Chinese philosopher or statesman of the " Legalist" (Fajia) school during the Warring States period, and a prince of the state of Han. Han Fei is often considered to be the greatest r ...

, Yuan Jue, and

Zhang Xuecheng Zhang Xuecheng (; 1738–1801) was a Qing dynasty historian, writer and philosopher. His father and his grandfather had been government officials, but, although Zhang achieved the highest civil service examination degree in 1778, he never held hig ...

. He wrote a chapter for ''Chinese Medieval History Research'' (中国中世史研究, Kyoto University Press, 1970) and contributed several entries to the western reference book ''A Sung Bibliography'' (French: ''Bibliographie des Sung'',

The Chinese University Press The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press is the university press of the Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by ...

, 1978). His own books include ''Chinese Historical Thought: A Study of Jizhuanti'' (中国の歴史思想―紀伝体考, Sobunsha, 1999) and ''A Study of the History of Chinese Historiography'' (中国史学史の研究, Kyoto University Press, 2006), which collected his papers from several decades. He also authored a travel photography book titled ''Traveling in Jiangnan: Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai'' (江南旅情―蘇州・杭州・上海, U-Time, 2005), featuring photos from the

Jiangnan Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, incl ...

region of China.

Death

In 2017, Inaba died from acute

subdural hematoma A subdural hematoma (SDH) is a type of bleeding in which a Hematoma, collection of blood—usually but not always associated with a traumatic brain injury—gathers between the inner layer of the dura mater and the arachnoid mater of the meninges ...

Ikoma, Nara is a city in the northwestern end of Nara Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on November 1, 1971. As of April 1, 2017, the city had an estimated population of 120,741, with 49,672 households. It had a population density of 2,300 persons per km², ...

. He was 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inaba, Ichirō Historians of China 1936 births 2017 deaths Kyoto University alumni Japanese sinologists 20th-century Japanese historians 21st-century Japanese historians People from Osaka Academic staff of Kwansei Gakuin University Academic staff of Ritsumeikan University