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Hirosato, Daisuke Iwai

Portrait of Hirosato, Daisuke   Iwai

Iwai Hirosato 岩井大慧 [also Iwai Daisuke 岩井大慧] (1891, Shiba, Tokyo, Japan ‑1971) was an administrator of the Toyo Bunko (The Oriental Library) from its foundation by Iwasaki Hisaya (1865−1955) in November 1924, and a researcher in Buddhist History specializing in the Yuan and Sung dynasties in China and in the history and geography of India.

A professor at the Faculty of Arts at Komazawa University in 1945, he oversaw the reorganization of Toyo Bunko as a branch of the National Diet Library (Japanese Parliament Library) in 1948, assuming the position of head librarian (文庫長). After retiring in 1965 he donated 610 volumes from his personal library to Toyo Bunko, while other sections, including 1,572 Japanese titles and 201 titles in western languages were donated to the library of Komazawa University. (from The History of Toyo Bunko)

Publications [indicative]

  1. [ed. with Ishida Mikinosuke 石田幹之助] 東洋歷史參考圖譜 / [編纂監修者石田幹之助, 岩井大慧] Tōyō rekishi sankō zufu / [Atlas of Oriental History], Tōkyō : Tōyō Rekishi Sankō Zufu Kankōkai, Shōwa 5, 1930 東京 : 東洋歷史參考圖譜刊行會, 昭和 5 [1930], 15 vol. 
  2. “広法事讃を通して再び聖武天皇宸翰浄土詩を論ず[Reexamination on the MS Roll written by the Emperor Shōmu 聖武 and the Kuang-fa-shih-tsan 広法事讃 by Fa-chao 法照]”, 東洋学報 Journal of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunkoトウヨウ ガクホウ, vol. 21 n 2, 1934.
  3. 支那史書に現はれたる日本 Shina shisho ni arawaretaru Nihon [Japan in Chinese Historical Records], Tōkyō : Iwanami Shoten, 1935 東京 : 岩波書店, 1935, 80 p [with Kokushi Kenkyūkai 國史研究會]
  4. “The Buddhist Priest and the Ceremony of Attaining Womanhood During the Yuan Dynasty”, Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, the Oriental Library, vol. 7, 1935, p 105 — 161.
  5. 東洋文庫十五年史 [編輯者岩井大慧], Tōyō Bunko jūgo-nen shi [henshūsha Iwai Hirosato] , [15-Year History of the Tōyō Bunko Library], Tōkyō : Tōyō Bunko, Shōwa 14, 1939 東京 : 東洋文庫, 昭和14 [1939], 883 p. [ed.]
  6. A study of the varied names for ​“Japan”,Tokyo : Central Federation of Nippon Culture, 1940, 62 p. [ENG]
  7. Some historical studies of Buddhism in China & Japan, Tokyo : The Toyo Bunko, 1957, 1 vol. [ENG]

  8. On the Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary published by the Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, Tokyo, 1953, 20 p. [part of Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, Ac Iaponicum, Amacusa, 1595]

    see a complete bibliography penned in 1961 by Enoki Kazuo, a colleague of Iwai Hirosato at Toyo Bunko.

photo: Dr. Iwai Hirosato’s portrait from 岩井博士古稀記念事業会編纂委員会（編）『典籍論集：岩井博士古稀記念』1963年、岩井博士古稀記念事業会 [An Anthology on classic texts: A Commemorative Volume in Honor
of Dr. Iwai on his 70th Birthday], Tokyo, 岩井博士古稀記念事業會, 1963.