Ken Daimaru

Presentation

Ken Daimaru is historian, an Associate Professor in Japanese history at University Paris Cité. He is the author of « Between War Wounds and a War of Wounds: The "Humanitarian Bullet" Debate in Europe and Japan, 1890-1905 » (Mouvement social, 2016) and « Preserving the health of the masses. Medical Expertise and the Birth of the Japanese Imperial Army, 1853-1894 » (Histoire, médecine et santé, 2020). He is a member of the scientific committee of the Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle and of French Academic Network on Asian Studies, and qualified member of the jury of the Shibusawa Claudel Prize.

 

Current researchs

Ken Daimaru's historical research is rooted in Japan, where he has been conducting archival work since the early 2010s. Starting with questions about the circulation of knowledge and practices in modern and contemporary East Asia, he seeks to lay the foundations for a historical anthropology of the body and health, which has led him to take an interest in Japan through diverse angles such as the relationship to illness and medicine, the images of body, the social organization of intellectual practices, the link between science and war, the history of collective memory, the governance of the health and the environment, and cross-border relations.

His recent research has led him to study the history of the Japanese health system in the context of the military expansion, from the 1850s to the beginning of the 20th century, of what became in a few decades a regional power. His current research project aims to analyze the social, political and cultural dynamics on several scales, in several areas with varied medical cultures over which the Japanese imperium has extended, for a more or less long period. He thus proposes a comparative and connected history of health knowledge and practices in the Asia-Pacific region under Japanese influence from the middle of the 19th century to the 20th century.

 

Research career

• Since 2020 : associate professor at Université Paris Cité (UFR LCAO) and member of the CRCAO.
• Since 2022 : co-director of the Paris Graduate School of East Asian Studies.
• Since 2023 : member of the Scientific Committee of the French Academic Network on Asian Studies (GIS Asie)
• 2020 : member of the Bureau of Young Researchers of the GIS Asie.
• 2018-2020 : assistant professor at Aix Marseille University and a member of the Institute of Asian Research (IrAsia).
• 2018 : post-doctoral fellow at the France-Japan Foundation at EHESS.
• 2017 : PhD thesis at the University of Paris Nanterre, under the supervision of Annette Becker, in international cotutelle with Shimazu Naoko (Birkbeck, University of London) and under the co-direction of Emmanuel Lozerand (INALCO). This work is devoted to the study of the management and treatment of the health of the Japanese population in the context of its military expansion and at the time of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
   

Research programmes

• Since 2019 : international collaborator of the programme "Historising war: from epistemological concepts to new social expectations" directed by Makoto Sasaki (Komazawa University) and funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research KAKEN.
• From 2016 to 2018 : coordinator of the international research programme "Thinking Innovation through the Interactions between Science, Culture and Society" carried by the EHESS and funded by the Suntory Foundation and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. 
• From 2015 to 2017 : coordinator of the international research programme "History across Borders" carried by the EHESS and funded by Tо̄shiba International Foundation.
• From 2014 to 2018 : member of the international research programme « Understanding Institutional Change in Asia : a Comparative Perspective with Europe » carried by the EHESS, Oxford University, the Freie Universität Berlin and Waseda University and funded by EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.
• From 2014 to 2015 : member of the Labex programme "Art and Post-Memory in Rwanda" directed by Pierre Bayard and Soko Phay-Vakalis.
   

Fellowships and awards

• 2018 : Distinction for the Contemporary History Prize of the French Association of Contemporary Historians in Higher Education and Research (AHCESR).
• 2016 : resident at the Villa Kujôyama (Kyôto, Japan).
• 2014: Gerda Henkel scholarship of the Research Centre of the Historial de la Grande Guerre with the support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the Conseil départemental de la Somme.
   

Supervision

• Thesis committee: Sophie Rainaut "Childhood and Masculinities in Imperial Japan: an Age of Exploration Marked by Innocence or the Target of Instrumentalization? (1918-1945)", PhD thesis in History. École normale supérieure de Lyon, Thesis supervisors : Arnaud Nanta, Isabelle Konuma.
• Thesis committee: Myriam Akian. "Archaeology and the Creation of Memory in Japan: Protection and Promotion of Archaeological Sites from 1955 to the Present Day", PhD thesis in Oriental Languages, Civilisations and Societies. Université Paris Cité, Thesis supervisors : Annick Horiuchi, Laurent Nespoulous.
• Thesis committee: Shiori Nosaka "The Bacteria, the Vaccine, and the Empire. Bacteriology and the Management of Epidemics in Japan (1880-1930)", PhD thesis in History of Sciences. EHESS, Thesis supervisors: Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Bernard Thomann.
• Thesis committee: Alexis Markovitch "Between "high" and "low" cuisine. For a history of the modern Japanese culinary system (1872-1945)", PhD thesis in History, Societies and Civilizations. INALCO, Thesis supervisors: Emmanuel Lozerand, Emmanuelle Cronier.

2023-2024

• M2. Chloé Sengez: "Mutations in School Physical Education in Contemporary Japan. Case Study at Suita City Takanodai Middle School (Ōsaka prefecture)".
• M2. Mathieu Nedic: "Great Kantō earthquake and the violence inflicted on Koreans as seen by primary schoolchildren (1923-1924)".
• M2. Lahire Lacamp : « The Representation of the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria in the French Newspapers (1931-1933) » (en codirection avec Anne-Sophie Bentz)
• M1. Chloé Neckebrock: "Being a Combatant at the Time of the Southwest War (1877). A Historical Study of Representations of Masculinity".
• M1. Alexis Henx : « Go and its democratization process in Japan, 1868-1939 ».
   

2022-2023

• M2. Naguissa Hollner : « The School and the Memory of Atomic Bombing. A Socio-Historical Study of the Middle School Peace Education Program in Hiroshima and Tōkyō ».
• M1. Mathieu Nedic : « Grand tremblement de terre du Kantô et répression politique : le cas de l'assassinat d'Ôsugi Sakae (septembre-décembre 1923) ».
• M1. Chloé Sengez : « La réforme scolaire au Japon en débat et en pratique. Étude du cas de yutori kyо̄iku (l’éducation moins stressante) dans l'enseignement secondaire du premier degré, 1980-2000 ».
   

2021-2022

• M2. Etienne Marq : « Deux prêtres catholiques face à la nation japonaise au tournant du XXe siècle. Étude de la coopération et des écrits d’Alfred Ligneul et Maeda Chōta (1893-1907) »
• M1. Naguissa Hollner : « L’école et la mémoire du bombardement atomique. Étude de cas du programme d’éducation pour la paix au collège municipal Niho d’Hiroshima »
• M1. Liam Maléfant : « Fearful democracy: the logic of Red Purge in Japanese universities during the American Occupation of Japan, 1948-1952 » (codirection with François de Chantal)
• M1. Lahire Lacamp : « La presse française lors de l’invasion de la Mandchourie jusqu’au retrait du Japon de la SDN (1931-1933) » (en codirection avec Anne-Sophie Bentz)
• M1. Océane Ferreira Pinto : « Les mémoires des ouvriers de l’usine de gaz toxiques à l'île d’Ōkunoshima dans le Japon contemporain, 1937-1989 »
• M1. Laure Le Quellec : « La mission Iwakura (1871-73) et le développement militaire du Japon au début de l’ère Meiji par le prisme de la relation franco-japonaise »
• M1. Elinor Ragot : « La rébellion de Shimabara (1637–1638). Contextes et acteurs d’une révolte localisée »

2020-2021

• M1. Julia Grosjean : « Le travail des femmes dans l'effort de guerre au Japon, vu par la revue Nippon fujin (novembre 1942-janvier 1945) »
• M1. Clara Manière : « L'homosexualité au sein de la classe guerrière vue par le film Gohatto d’Ôshima Nagisa (1932-2013) »
• M1. Ibouny Soumaré : « Les déchets plastiques au Japon des années 1970 à nos jours : la réponse du gouvernement japonais face aux enjeux environnementaux »

Research thematics

• Risk regulation, legal constructions, public actions
• Knowledge, territories and environment
• Medical mobilities, migration, intercultural contacts, care relationships
• Global health and security crises

CRCAO research programmes

• Forms of text and uses of images in Japanese books
• Modernity and Dependency in the Asian Sphere: the Fictions and Realities of Colonial Japan on the continent (1901-1945)

External research programmes

• Historising war: from epistemological concepts to new social expectations
• Capitalisms, Technologies, Society and Health - An Euroasian project

Teachings

• Undergraduate course 1 : Introduction to East Asian Studies, Université Paris Cité
• Undergraduate course 1 & 2 : Cultural History of Japan, Université Paris Cité
• Undergraduate course 2 : Japanese traditional knowledge and techniques, Université Paris Cité
• Undergraduate course 3 : History of Japan: Texts and Methods, Université Paris Cité
• Master seminar : History and Sociology of Beliefs and Knowledge, Université Paris Cité
• Seminar History of sciences in East Asia (Master LOPHIS, Université Paris Cité) (participation)
• History of Contemporary East Asia : Sources, Methods, Objects (with Alain Delissen and Victor Louzon)

Publications (HAL Archive Ouverte)

Ouvrages

Chapitre d'ouvrage

Article dans une revue

Communication dans un congrès

Thèse

Autre publication scientifique