Seeing the world in « triangulation »: Research on Africa and Islam via Japan, following the steps of Junzo
Kawada and Ippei Tanaka Sesssions I, II, III

ICAS International Conference, 24-28 August 2021

Kyoto Seika University

This round table is organised by the "triangulations" research group of EHESS Fondation France-Japon (FFJ), composedof junior and senior researchers whose academic trajectories connect knowledge paradigms and field experiences betweenJapan, France and various societies in Africa and/or the Muslim world. The aim is to explore triangular approaches, withreference to the geodesic measurement method, by applying them to the methodological and theoretical positions ofresearchers in the production of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences.
To do so, particular emphasis is laid on the work of Japanese anthropologist Junzo Kawada (1934-), one of the pioneers ofAfrican studies in Japan who has been working on the Mossi society of Burkina Faso and earned his PhD under thesupervision of Georges Balandier, in France. His thought is characterised by the concept of "cultural triangulation" (bunkano sankaku sokuryō), an approach whereby he proposes a method of discontinuous comparison, setting aside the issue ofdisseminating practice in related social spaces, but which aims to single out contrasts and constants, as well aspossibilities of transfer and adaptation, from a perspective that is not only descriptive but also creative.
Other Japanese authors, by investigating distant societies from the Japanese standpoint, have also carried out researchquestioning the understanding and assimilation of the Other in the Japanese society and mindset. Ippei Tanaka (1882-1934) was one of the pioneers of Islamic studies in Japan, by considering Islam from the perspective of China andChinese religious reconceptualisation, resulting in a pan-Asian vision that has ensued an integration of Islam that differs from Western-centric worldviews.