Faculty of Liberal Arts

Professors Information

Email: k-okita[at]sophia.ac.jp
Tel: 03-3238-4036
Office: 10-649

OKITA Kiyokazu
置田清和

Associate Professor
Literature, Philosophy and Religion

B.A.,International Christian University
M.St., Ph.D., University of Oxford

Research and Teaching Interests:
Love, hatred, and jealousy – I am interested in understanding powerful emotions and how they are expressed in various art forms, such as drama, poetry, and song. Academically, my research explores classical Indian theories of aesthetic experience and their engagement with Hindu devotional traditions in the early modern period (fifteenth ~ eighteenth centuries). I also work on the discipline of Hindu theology (Vedānta), which deals with the nature of reality, the means of knowledge, and the ways to achieve liberation. In terms of teaching, I teach courses on the history of classical Indian poetics, the history of Indian intellectual traditions, and classical Indian literature. I also teach a course on the concept of ‘religion’ and its impact in Japan.

Selected Publications

Books

2014, Hindu Theology in Early Modern South Asia: The Rise of Devotionalism and the Politics of Genealogy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Journal Articles

2020 “Rejecting Monism: Dvaita Vedānta’s Engagement with the Bhāgavatapurāṇa”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 48: 3, 447-465.
2020 “The Authorship of the Commentary on Vopadeva’s Harilīlā”, The Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 68: 3, 1107-1113.
2019 “Bitextuality in Bhāgavata Purāṇa” X.29. The Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 66: 3, 1043-1048.
2018 “Ethics and Aesthetics in Early Modern South Asia: A Controversy surrounding the Bhāgavata Purāṇa Book X”, International Journal of Hindu Studies, Special Issue, Translating the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, ed. by Anand Mishra and Monika Horstmann, 22: 1, 25-43.
2017 “From Rasa to Bhaktirasa: The Development of A Devotional Aesthetic Theory in Early Modern South Asia”, The Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 65: 3, 1066-1072.
2016 “A Vedāntic Refutation of Buddhism in Eighteenth Century North India: The Tattvadīpikā of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa”, Journal of Vaishnava Studies, 25:1, 153-162.
2016 “The Influence of Śiṅgabhūpāla II on Bengali Vaiṣṇava Aesthetics”, The Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 64, 1081-1087.

Book Chapters

2019 “Divine Transgression: Devotion and Ethics in Bengali Vaiṣṇavism”, The Legacy of Vaisnavism in Colonial Bengal ed. by Lucian Wong and Ferdinando Sardella (Oxford: Routledge), pp. 212-232.
2019 “Singing in Protest: Early Modern Hindu-Muslim Encounters in Bengali Hagiographies of Chaitanya”, Bhakti and Power: Debating India’s Religion of the Heart ed. by John Stratton Hawley, Swapna Sharma, and Christian Lee Novetzke (Seattle: The University of Washington Press), pp. 159-170.
2017 “Salvation through Colorful Emotions: Aesthetics, Colorimetry, and Theology in Early Modern South Asia”, Historicizing Emotions: Practices and Objects in India, China, and Japan. ed. by Barbara Schuler (Brill), pp. 100-112.
2017 “Quotation, Quarrel and Controversy in Early Modern South Asia: Appayya Dīkṣita and Jīva Gosvāmī on Madhva’s Untraceable Citations”, Adaptive Reuse in South Asian Literatures and Artseds. by Elisa Freschi and Philipp Maas, Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag), pp.255-280.
2014 “The Bhāgavata Purāṇa in Four Verses: Jīva Gosvāmī’s Kramasandarbha” Ravi M. Gupta (ed.) Caitanya Vaisnava Philosophy: Tradition, Reason and Devotion(Farnham:Ashgate), pp. 61-66.

COURSES

Faculty of Liberal Arts

Courses No	Title	2022 Semester Offered
THP101	THINKING PROCESSES	Spring
RPH304	SOUTH ASIAN AESTHETICS	Spring
RPH392	HINDU TRADITIONS	Autumn
RPH482	RELIGION AND CULTURE OF INDIA	Not Offered

Graduate Program in Global Studies

Courses No	Title	2022 Semester Offered
JS548Z	RELIGION AND MODERNITY IN JAPAN	Autumn
JS725Z	ADVANCED STUDIES IN RELIGION AND MODERNITY IN JAPAN	Autumn
AG551Z	STUDIES IN EMOTION	Autumn
AG733Z	ADVANCED STUDIES IN EMOTION	Autumn