, commonly known as , was a Japanese historian and

Sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

. He was the founder of the Kyoto School of historiography, and along with

Shiratori Kurakichi Shiratori Kurakichi (白鳥庫吉, March 1, 1865 – March 30, 1942) was a Japanese historian and Sinologist who was one of the pioneers of the field of "Oriental History". Biography Shiratori graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and joined ...

(the founder of the

Tokyo School Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

), was one of the leading Japanese historians of East Asia in the early twentieth century. His most well-known book is called '' Nara''.

Biography

He was born in what is today

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

. He distinguished himself as a journalist. In 1907 he discovered

Manwen Laodang {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 ''Manwen Laodang'' (滿文老檔) is a set of Manchu official documents of the Qing dynasty, compiled during the late Qianlong The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his Tem ...

in Mukden. As an authority of Chinese history, he was invited to Kyoto Imperial University by Kano Kokichi in 1907 and got involved in the foundation of the Department of Oriental History. Naitō's most influential contribution to historiography was the recognition and analysis of the "Tang-Song transition" as an important watershed. He argued that the social, political, demographic and economic changes that occurred between the mid- Tang dynasty and early Song dynasty represented the transition between the medieval (''chūsei'') and early modern (''kinsei'') periods of Chinese history. In Japanese history, Naitō argued that

Yamataikoku Yamatai or Yamatai-koku is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period The Chinese text ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' first recorded the name as () or (; using reconstructed Middle Chinese p ...

was located in

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

rather than in Kinki.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naito, Torajiro 1866 births 1934 deaths People from Akita Prefecture Japanese Japanologists Japanese sinologists Academic staff of Kyoto University Japanese journalists 20th-century Japanese historians Akita University alumni Historians of Japan Historians of China

Biography

Further reading

References