Seiichi Iwao

Seiichi Iwao (岩生 成一, Iwao Seiichi, June 2, 1900 – March 21, 1988) was a Japanese academic, an historian and author. He was for many years a professor at the University of Tokyo.

Early life

Seiichi was born in Tokyo. He attended the University of Tokyo, graduating in 1925.

Career

Seiichi was a member of the faculty of the University of Tokyo. His contribution to Japanese historiography is measured in the effect his teaching and example produced in a younger generation of students.

Indonesian history

Prof. Iwao was considered a leading scholar in the colonial period of Indonesian history. His study of Japanese towns in South Asia before the Pacific War was published in A study of Japanese Towns in the South (南洋日本町の研究, Nan'yo Nihonmachi no kenkyu). The research used documents of the Dutch East Indies Company in the archives of the Hague and Jakarta.

Japanese history

Prof. Iwao's research and writing covered a broad range, including his early work on Japanese emigrant communities in South Asia and his later work on the Edo period of national seclusion (sakoku).

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Seiichi Iwao, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 100+ works in 200+ publications in 7 languages and 1,500+ library holdings.

• 1940 – A study of Japanese Towns in the South Seas (南洋日本町の研究) Nan'yo Nihonmachi no kenkyu (1940)
• 1943 – Early Japanese settlers in the Philippines (1943)
• 朱印船貿易史の研究 (1958)
• 朱印船と日本町 (1962)
• 鎖国 (1966)
• 近世の洋学と海外交涉 (1979)
• 荷蘭時代台灣史論文集 (2001)
• 1982 – Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History (1982), with Burton Watson
• 2002 – Dictionnaire historique du Japon, Vol. I; Vol. II(2002), with Teizō Iyanaga, Susumu Ishii, Shōichirō Yoshida et al.

• WorldCat Identities: 岩生成一 1900-1988

Affiliations

• Japan Academy, elected 1965.
• Franco-Japanese Historical Society (Societe Franco-Japonaise des Sciences Historiques; Nichi-Futsu Rekishi Gakkai)
• Japan-Netherlands Institute (Nichi-Ran Gakkai)

• Japan Academy: Deceased members.

Honors

• Imperial Academy, Imperial Academy Prize, 1941
• Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1970.

• Japan Academy: Imperial Academy Prize, 1941: "A Study on the History of the Japanese Quarters in the South Seas in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries".