Email: yenyichan[at]sophia.ac.jp
Tell: 03-3238-4039
Office: 10-628

CHAN Yen-yi

Assistant Professor
Premodern Japanese Art

B.A., National Chengchi University, Taiwan
M.A., Ph.D., University of Kansas

Research and Teaching Interests：
My research has focused on religious spaces in premodern Japan. I am currently writing a book “The Kōfukuji Nan’endō and Its Buddhist Icons: Family Memory and History of the Northern Fujiwara Clan, 800-1200,” which examines how the Nan’endō (Southern Round Hall) at Kōfukuji in Nara became a realm of memory whereby narratives of the dead and history of the family were weaved into miracles and devotional activities surrounding the building and its sacred icons. Another research project explores the formation of religious figures and body in Japanese visual culture with particular attention given to representations of Shaka in various media and performances of his body in rituals, such as nehan-e and Shaka nenbutsu-e.

I teach courses in premodern Japanese art, which examine topics, such as sacred places, material and visual culture of pilgrimage, body and face in Japanese art, and networks of Buddhist visual culture in Asia.