At this time, Dr. Shirakawa invited Professor Yoshimura, now the Director of the Shirakawa Institute, to come to his home and listen to his vision for the new institute. Professor Yoshimura explained this episode to us as follows.

“In his later years, Dr. Shirakawa often talked about ‘reviving the East.’ He believed that Chinese characters, the international language of East Asia, would serve as the axis for cooperation among the peoples of the region. Chinese characters lie at the foundation of Japanese culture, but looking at the current culture of Chinese characters, we see that Japan uses joyo kanji, or Chinese characters for common use, China uses simplified characters for official use, and Korea uses very few Chinese characters, so historically and regionally speaking, the ties within this sphere of countries that use Chinese characters have weakened. Therefore, Dr. Shirakawa conceived the institute as a center for revitalizing the culture of Chinese characters, which he saw as something that permeated the East Asian region and would continue to do so well into the future.”

The Shirakawa Institute defines Eastern written culture as "the culture expressed in the East Asian world through the medium of writing by the people who created Chinese characters, the people who adopted Chinese characters, and the people who adopted Chinese characters alongside developing their own forms of writing.” “By researching Eastern written culture, we aim to promote exchange among the countries and regions of East Asia and to reconsider the richness of the cultures of each country and region,” explains Professor Yoshimura.

Although Dr. Shirakawa passed away the year after the institute was founded, the institute has continued to conduct research and undertake educational outreach activities in a way that carries on and expands upon Dr. Shirakawa’s vision. These achievements were recognized by the university, and in 2018, the institute was upgraded from a term-limited center to a permanent one.

The field of research that Dr. Shirakawa established was so original and groundbreaking that it came to be known as "Shirakawa Studies" or "Shirakawa Grammatology.” We asked Professor Yoshimura what made this field so unique.

“When you mention Dr. Shirakawa, his research on Chinese characters is the first thing that comes to mind, but you can trace the origins of his work back to his interest in the Manyoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) poetry anthology when he was a young man. Dr. Shirakawa had been reading the Shijing (Classic of Poetry), China’s oldest collection of poetry, since his teenage years, and sensed a connection between Japan and China in the wider cultural sphere of the East. In order to understand the Manyoshu and the Shijing, he felt it necessary to delve into the cultures and histories of East Asia underlying them, so he worked his way backward to ancient Chinese literature and came across ancient scripts like the oracle bone script, which was used from the late Shang to the early Zhou dynasty, and the bronze script of the Zhou dynasty. This marked the beginning of Shirakawa Grammatology.

What is noteworthy about Dr. Shirakawa's research is that he systematically studied not only the scripts, but also the underlying histories, peoples, cultures, and ideologies of East Asia. Using these elements as a foundation, he further explored the origins of Chinese characters by tracing the oracle bone script by hand one character at a time in an attempt to put himself into the mindset of the ancient people who conceived it.”

While there are numerous studies on the origins of Chinese characters, the persuasive power of Shirakawa Grammatology lies in its overwhelming breadth of vision. But this is not all Dr. Shirakawa worked on. He also made significant achievements in the deciphering of the Shijing and in the study of Japanese culture.

“Including his comparative study of the Manyoshu and the Shijing, Dr. Shirakawa explored culture and thought not only in terms of Chinese characters but also in the larger framework of East Asia, and this is what led to the development of disciplines such as Eastern Studies or East Asian Characters and Culture,” explains Professor Yoshimura.

So, how have written cultures connected the peoples of East Asia over the years? Professor Ohgata provided us with the following example.

“There is a story about Naito Konan, an oriental historian, who, when he visited China, corresponded with local literati using written Chinese characters. Naito's writing exuded his personality and learnedness, which earned him the respect of the local literati. Similarly, when the Korean envoys visited Japan, they exchanged Chinese literature and Chinese poetry with the Japanese literati. In classical Chinese, which is a written language that differs from the spoken language, it is customary to include a number of references in short texts. In this way, you can convey your learnedness and personality to others by entrusting something larger to just a few characters. In this way, I think the richness of the Eastern written culture is something that transcends national borders.”

Another aspect of the Shirakawa Institute is its educational outreach activities. In addition to holding Kanji Expedition, a hands-on course for both children and adults, the Institute has been actively engaged in a range of unique activities such as the development of kanji teaching materials for elementary school students, certification courses for kanji educators (which certify the ability to teach kanji), and the free distribution of the Shirakawa Font, a font of ancient characters. Professor Yoshimura explained this to us as follows.

“Hiroyuki Kubo, a staff member in the Kinugasa Office of Regional Planning and Partnerships and a member of the Shirakawa Institute Steering Committee, has been playing a central role in our educational outreach activities. In addition to running the Kanji Expedition classes, he gives many guest lectures throughout Japan and promotes the Institute’s kanji educator training course.”

Professor Ohgata adds, “Dr. Shirakawa authored three dictionaries: Jito, a dictionary that traces the origin of kanji, Jikun, a dictionary of ancient Chinese words, and Jitsu, a Chinese-Japanese dictionary. The Jito and Jitsu trace the origins of Chinese characters all the way back to the oracle bone script, and they are designed to deepen your understanding of Chinese characters as a whole because when you look up one character, it makes you want to learn about other characters. There were no dictionaries that could trace characters back to the oracle bone script before Dr. Shirakawa’s works were published, so these dictionaries broke with conventional wisdom and presented a new way of looking at Chinese characters. Our mission is to spread the appeal of Chinese characters and Shirakawa Grammatology."

The spirit of Shirakawa Grammatology is also being applied to the classroom. Until recently, elementary schools in Fukui Prefecture, where Dr. Shirakawa was born, incorporated Shirakawa Grammatology studies into their kanji education curriculum. Mr. Kubo, who was mentioned above, was also invited to lecture at several of those schools.

The Shirakawa Research Institute is now in its fourth year as a permanent facility. “We only have three divisions, so the first thing we need to do is enhance our research framework,” says Professor Yoshimura about the Institute’s future prospects. “At the same time, we want to increase opportunities for young researchers to present their research and focus on training the next generation of researchers.”

According to Professor Yoshimura, Dr. Shirakawa once told him before his death to “go beyond what I have done.” Meanwhile, Professor Ohgata described the future of Shirakawa Grammatology as follows:

“With regard to ancient Chinese scripts, many new materials have been discovered in recent years, including some that provide new interpretations for the oracle bone script and bronze script. Naturally, these are materials that Dr. Shirakawa never saw. We do not treat Dr. Shirakawa’s work as a bible; rather, we plan to expand upon and evolve it going」 forward.”