On July 13, the second lecture of the Faculty of Letters Public Lecture Series "The World Opened Up by the Faculty of Letters," titled "The History and Present of Asia," was held at the North Hall on the Mita Campus as an endowed lecture by Kyokuto Securities Co., Ltd.
Following an address by Yoshimitsu Matsuura, Dean of the Faculty of Letters, a lecture titled "Tradition and Modernity in Asia—Focusing on the Middle East, Especially Egypt" was given by Satoshi Katsunuma, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Letters (Major in Asian History). The lecture provided a detailed examination of the process of adopting modernity in Egypt, also taking modern Japan into consideration, and clarified the role of tradition in the modern era of the non-Western world and the continuity between tradition and modernity.
Next, Ryuichi Sugiyama, Project Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo, gave a lecture titled "Modernity and Religious Institutions in Iran—Modernization Promoted by Religious Endowments." Through an examination of the process of forming national consciousness and culture and of social and economic development utilizing the waqf system (a religious endowment system stipulated by Islamic law), the lecture showed that the return to tradition did not conflict with modernity but rather promoted it.
During the discussion session with nearly 100 participants, a wide range of topics were discussed, including major questions such as "Why should tradition be preserved?" and "Is Westernization the only form of modernization?," as well as what led the speakers to study Asian history and their stances on conducting historical research. The public lecture concluded on a very high note.