From October 8 through 12, the Center for Asian Studies was pleased to co-host an extended visit to the University of Colorado by Dr. Haruo Shirane, the Shinchō Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at Columbia University. As the author or editor of nearly thirty books, Professor Shirane is undoubtedly the leading scholar of pre-modern Japanese literature in the English-speaking world today.
His visit to CU was a special treat for the undergraduate and graduate students who have used his textbooks and anthologies in their courses at CU and other institutions. During his three full days in Boulder, Professor Shirane guest-lectured in two separate classes (an undergraduate and a mixed graduate/undergraduate course); presided over a lunch-meeting with the graduate students in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations; and delivered an enthralling public lecture titled “Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and Arts,” based on his most recent book of the same name. The lecture was standing-room-only, with an audience of some eighty faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and members of the larger Boulder community in attendance.