Kayoko Fujita藤田 加代子

Education History /
Work Experience

I studied Japanese History at Osaka University (Japan) and pursued postgraduate study in early modern Japanese history at Osaka University, as well as the history of early modern European expansion at Leiden University (the Netherlands). Alongside my historical research, I have valued opportunities to develop my career in teaching history in socially and culturally diverse environments. I have taught at various international higher education institutions at both undergraduate and graduate levels, including courses in Japanese History, Global History, and the Historical Sociology of Globalisation at Leiden University, Osaka University, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and Ritsumeikan University. I have also worked as a Japanese language teacher (A1) for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years and Diploma Programmes at Het Rijnlands Lyceum International School (Oegstgeest, the Netherlands). In parallel with my teaching, I currently serve as director of collections and library at the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University.

Specialization /
Research Interests

Research keywords

Early modern Japan (16th–19th centuries), Edo-period society and culture, trade and cultural exchange in Asia, kimono and textiles, consumption and everyday life, global connections

Specialization / Research Interests

I research Japan’s foreign relations and material culture within early modern global networks from the sixteenth century, with particular attention to intra-Asian and long-distance trade and the ways these exchanges reshaped society, economy, and cultural values. Drawing on archives alongside visual sources and textile objects, my recent work examines how the production and consumption of imported and domestically made textiles helped articulate hierarchy and collective identity in Edo-period Japan. I also collaborate with museum curators on research relating to textiles and visual / material sources.