Prof. Hans Martin Krämer

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Biographical Note
Research Interests
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Contact Room: 113 Phone: +49-6221-54-7661 E-Mail: hans.martin.kraemer@zo.uni-heidelberg.de Office hours: Monday, 14.00 to 16.00

 

Biographical Note

 

Research Interests

  Further research interests, documented by publications in edited volumes and journals, include modern Buddhism, Islam in Japan, Christianity in Japan, the history of the allied occupation following World War II, social and welfare policy, comparative fascism, problems of modernity and modernization, man and nature (especially animals), food studies, higher education, and the Japanese left.

1. Mahāyāna in Europe: Japanese Buddhists and Their Contribution to Academic Knowledge of Buddhism in Nineteenth-Century Europe

2. Spiritual Pan-Asianism: The Religious Dimension of a Political Movement in Early Twentieth-Century Japan

 

Examples for institutions include Japanese muslims, the secret society Kokuryūkai 黒竜会, the theosophical movement in Japan, Baha’i adherents, or a part of the new religious movements such as the Japanese Ōmotokyō 大本教 or the Chinese Shijie hongwanzi hui 世界紅卍字会. Individuals who combined political pan-Asian agendas with religious goals, many of whom were united in the anti-colonial struggle in India, include James Cousins, Paul Richard, Ōkawa Shūmei 大川周明, or Tanaka Ippei 田中逸平. The French Paul Richard, a former Protestant pastor, then a protagonist of spiritual and theosophical circles in Paris, before traveling to India where he met the political activist and later guru Sri Aurobindo, is a particularly interesting example, not in the least because it is so little known. In 1914 Richard traveled to Japan together with his wife, who was later to become the spiritual leader of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram; both stayed in Japan for four years, where they built extensive networks with anticolonial activists from all over Asia, at the same time never giving up a spiritual vision for a religiously united Asia. The first goal of this project is to collect the writings and papers of Richard, which are to be found all over Europe, India, Japan, and North America (where Richard spent the last years of his life), an effort which has already started with the help of collaborators from Japan, the United States, India, China, and several European countries.

 

3. Progressive Theory and Social Practice in a Working-Class Neighborhood: The Tōkyō Imperial University Settlement House, 1923–1938.

4. The Social History of Human–Animal Relations in Early Modern Japan

 

While this explanation is plausible in itself, it operates on the unquestioned assumption of a lack of intensive contact with animals in Japan before the nineteenth century. Beyond stating that there was no intensive mass animal farming in premodern or early modern Japan, however, the history of everyday experiences of Japanese with animals has in fact never been the subject of research. To what degree were animals actually used in everyday life, especially in farming? How close did humans and (production) animals live together? Due to a dearth of sources, these questions are not easy to answer. A first attempt will be made, however, by tapping agrarian manuals (nōsho). These were produced in great numbers during the Tokugawa Period (1603–1868), and although most of them do not treat animals as their main subjects, many do in fact contain chapters, passages, or brief remarks about animals. Based on the 72-volume edition Nihon nōsho zenshū 日本農書全集, such passages will be evaluated, before drawing on further textual and visual sources at a later stage of the project.

 

 

A complete list of all publications is available via the Heidelberger Dozentenbibliographie.