On November 20, 2025, Prof. Yoshihara Hiroto, Professor at the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University and Director of the Institute for the Study of Japanese Religious Culture, was invited to deliver a lecture titled “Deities, Buddhas, and Kings Crossing Seas and Rivers: Primitive Myths of China, Korea, and Japan” at Lecture Hall 111 of the School of Foreign Studies (SFS) at Nankai University. This lecture was the 11th session of the “Distinguished Scholars Forum on East Asian Culture,” co-organized by the SFS Center of East Asian Cultural Studies, the Virtual Teaching and Research Office for Japanese History and Social Culture (Ministry of Education), and the Department of Japanese. The event was chaired by Prof. Liu Yuzhen, Director of the East Asian Cultural Studies Center. Prof. Han Lihong, Head of the Department of Japanese Language, and Prof. Liu Yuebing, Dean of the Institute of Japanese Studies at Nankai University, participated as discussants.
The lecture was conducted both online and offline. Before the lecture, Prof. Liu Yuzhen spoke highly of Prof. Yoshihara’s long-standing dedication to mentoring Nankai students and extended a warm welcome on his return visit after six years. Over 50 faculty members and students attended the lecture on site, including Associate Prof. Wang Xinxin, Deputy Head of the Department of Japanese Language, Lecturer Jin Zhenglin, Lecturer Cui Xueting, foreign teachers Yuya Matsuoka and Mina Hirano, and Associate Prof. Wang Yuling from the Institute of Japanese Studies, along with undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students from the Department of Japanese and the Institute. In addition, more than 50 faculty members and students from universities in China and Japan—including Nankai University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing International Studies University, Hunan Normal University, Shanxi University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Dalian Maritime University, Kyoto University, and Waseda University—participated online.
At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Yoshihara introduced the story of “The Golden Statue of Yangdu Emerging from the Islet,” depicted in Cave 323 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Based on classical texts from China, Korea, and Japan, he then analyzed the transmission of the narrative of “a Buddha statue arriving from across the sea” in East Asia. Furthermore, taking the “Legend of Conception by Sunlight” (solar impregnation) recorded in Hachiman Gudōkun Engi from Japan’s Heian period as an example, he provided an in-depth analysis of an alternative myth of Japan’s founding, distinct from the well-known myth centered on Amaterasu, and pointed out that its prototype can be traced back to China’s Han Dynasty.
During the discussion session, Prof. Han Lihong highly praised Prof. Yoshihara’s broad historical perspective, while Prof. Liu Yuebing commended the rich visual and textual historical materials presented in the lecture. In the subsequent Q&A session, faculty members and students both online and offline actively engaged in discussions with Prof. Yoshihara. In the end, Prof. Liu Yuzhen summarized the lecture and once again expressed sincere appreciation to Prof. Yoshihara for delivering such an insightful presentation.
The lecture lasted nearly two hours and concluded successfully amid warm applause.
