Organizers
Yoko Taniguchi, Ph.D. (Literature)
Yoko Taniguchi, Ph.D. (Letters)
Professor, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
◆Research Themes◆
Archaeological Science, Conservation Science, Research on Wall Painting Techniques and Constituent materials
I am interested in technologies of mankind, especially in the materials and techniques of various manmade products using both scientific and historical analytical methods.In recent years, I have been particularly investigating the painting materials and techniques of polychromed objects including wall paintings and sculptures in Central Asian countries.
◆研究業績◆
・13歳からの考古学シリーズ『なんで人は青を作ったの？青色の歴史を探る旅』（2025年）
・中央アジアの壁画の彩色技法と材料について ─バーミヤーン遺跡の仏教壁画を中心に：周辺地域・構造からの視点─（2025年）
・文化財保存修復学会業績賞（2021年）
・読売国際協力賞（2020年）
・アフガニスタン出土仏頭・デッサン展覧会：（メタバースによるバーチャルミュージアムの試み）
・『バーミヤーン壁画の材質と技術』
・シリア、アイン・ダーラ遺跡の保護プロジェクト（文化庁）
・大エジプト博物館保存修復センター支援事業（JICA）
And many others (https://trios.tsukuba.ac.jp/researcher/0000000075)
Satomi Hiyama, Ph.D. (Art History)
Satomi Hiyama, Ph.D. (Art History)
Assistant Professor, Toyo University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Eastern Philosophy and Culture
External Researcher, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig "Wissenschaftliche Bearbeitung der buddhistischen Höhlenmalereien in der Kuča-Region der nördlichen Seidenstraße"
Visiting Researcher, Ryukoku Universitym Research Center for World Buddhist Cultures
◆Research Subjects◆
Buddhist Iconography, Central Asian Buddhist Art History, Cave temples and their wall paintingss in Kucha and Dunhuang in the 5th to 7th centuries.
My research focuses on the iconography of the wall paintings of the Buddhist cave temples along the Silk Road. I try to reconstruct various aspects of Buddhist culture in the so-called Western Regions (above all on Kucha and Dunhuang) during the 5th to 7th centuries through the iconographical analysis of the wall paintings, with references on the research results of various neighboring fields, such as the Archaeology, Buddhist Studies, History, and Conservation Science.
I worked as a researcher at the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin from 2010 to 2016, and submitted my PhD dissertation on the mural fragments of Kizil Cave 207 (Malerhöhle) mainly housed in the Berlin collection to the Freie Universität Berlin in 2014.
I had various opportunities to work in an interdisciplinary research environment both in Japan and abroad, and have experienced the fascination and advantages of an active interaction and exchanges among researchers with various disciplines and perspectives as their background. I hope that this research group is able to provide a open platform which can foster researchers with interests on various topic of the Silk Road Buddhist Studies, and facilitate their networking and active interaction.
◆出版物（代表的なもの）◆
・Habata, Hiromi & Hiyama, Satomi (eds.), Variety of Jātaka and Avadāna Transmission: Proceedings of the International Symposium held on the 27th and 28th of November 2023 at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies. New Delhi: DEV Publisher, 2025.
・Vignato, Giuseppe & Hiyama, Satomi, with Appendices by Kieffer-Pülz, Petra & Taniguchi, Yoko, 2022, Traces of the Sarvāstivādins in the Buddhist Monasteries of Kucha. New Delhi: DEV Publishers & Distributors, Leipzig Kucha Studies 3.
・魏正中・桧山智美『龟兹早期寺院中的说一切有部遗迹探真』上海古籍出版社、2024年.
・Satomi Hiyama, "Overlapping Heavens in the Wall Paintings of Mogao Cave 285 at Dunhuang: An Art-Historical Study of the Syncretistic Images on Its West Wall and Ceiling," in Eric Huntington & Bill M. Mak (eds.), Overlapping Cosmologies in Asia: Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Approaches, Leiden: Brill, 2022, pp. 257-280.
And many others (See Researchmap)
Erika Forte, Ph.D. (Indian and East-Asian Art)
Erika Forte, Ph.D. (Indian and East-Asian Art)
Professor, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
◆Research Interests◆
Research interests focus on cultural flows and the dynamics of Buddhist visual communication across Asia during the first millennium CE, with particular attention to intercultural connections between the Tarim Basin oases—especially Khotan—and neighboring regions, including the Himalayas, China, and the Indian subcontinent.
◆Main Publications◆
・"Xuanzang's Visit to Khotan and the Domoko Toprukton Monastery," in Xuanzang Sanzang Connecting Central Asia and Japan, eds. Kensuke Chikamoto and Etsuko Kageyama, Rinsen Book Co. (2023)
・"'KhotaneseThemes' in Dunhuang: Visual and Ideological Transfer in the 9th-11th Centuries." In Buddhism in Central Asia II. Practices and Rituals, Visual and Material Transfers, Y. Kasai and H. Sørensen (Eds), Leiden and Boston: Brill. (2022)
・"Images of Patronage in Khotan." In Buddhism in Central Asia I: Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage, C. Meinert and H. Sørensen (Eds), Leiden: Brill. (2020)
・Editor: Ancient Central Asian networks: Rethinking the interplay of religions, art and politics across the Tarim basin (5th–10th c.) Special Issue of BuddhistRoad Papers Vol. 6.2. Bochum. https://doi.org/10.13154/rub.br.115.100. https://omp.ub.rub.de/index.php/BuddhistRoad/catalog/category/Transfer (2019)
・"The Wall Paintings of the First Monastery at Domoko, Khotan: A New Depiction of Vaisravana?" in Central Asia I: Gandhara to East and West Turkestan, eds. Akira Miyaji, Michiko Hida, and Seitetsu Itakura, Asian Art Essays, Chuo Koron Bijutsu Shuppan. (2017)
For more information, please visit: https://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/members/forte-erika.html