Masato Takenouchi

Dr. Takenouchi completed his Ph.D. in Japanese history at the University of Tokyo. During his studies, he worked as a full-time archivist and researcher for the Iida City Institute of Historical Research in Nagano Prefecture. In 2013, he returned to his alma mater as a research associate for the Department of Japanese History in the Faculty of Letters. Most recently, he taught Japanese history and document analysis at Rikkyō University and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. His own research focuses broadly on the social and cultural history of early modern Japan and specifically on urban society, rural communities, religious institutions, and the social status system. 

Throughout his career. Dr. Takenouchi has worked directly with individuals, community organizations, and student groups on how to handle, read, and analyze kuzushiji and other documents. He has a plethora of experience teaching both Japanese and foreign students how to read documents that were originally written in various forms of pre-modem Japanese languages (kanbun, bungo, sorobun) as well as in kuzushiji and how to properly transcribe those works into modem Japanese. 

At Yale, Dr. Takenouchi devotes half of his time working with the university’s pre-modern Japanese special collections through teaching kuzushiji reading courses, providing research and reference consultations, and engaging in outreach activities.  In this coming fall semester, he will co-teach “Japanese Reference Works and Documents” (History 880) with Professor Daniel Botsman. At the Library, Dr. Takenouchi assists in improving discovery and preservation of Japanese documents at Yale and working with scholars and students to aid them in their research about premodern Japanese history.