Okinawan Studies: BLOG / News

Hawley and Sakamaki: The Founding of UHM Ryukyuan Studies

Treasures at UH Hamilton Library Colloquium Series presents

Hawley & Sakamaki: The Founding of UHM Ryukyuan Studies

The Library’s Asia Collection is home to world-renowned Sakamaki/Hawley Collection that contains over 5,000 items, the bulk of which being Ryūkyū and Okinawa source materials dating back to the 1400s to the 1960s, written in various European languages, Chinese, Japanese, and “Uchināguchi,” the Ryukyuan language. This collection became an integral part of the UHM library treasures thanks to Frank Hawley (1906-1961), an English journalist and an avid book collector with personal ties with Japan, and Dr. Shunzō Sakamaki (1906-1973), a professor of history at UHM and the “father of Ryukyuan Studies” at UHM.
This colloquium will explore afresh the genesis and the breadth of this collection to promote its use by our students and faculty as well as researchers beyond the UHM community. Sachiko Iwabuchi, Okinawa Studies Librarian, will showcase unique items from the collection. Moreover, Professor Manabu Yokoyama, the author of Shomotsu ni miserareta Eikoku-jin: Furanku Hōrē to Nihon bunka [= An Englishman’s enchantment with books: Frank Hawley and Japanese culture] (2003), will join us as an expert commentator, and share with us his professional insights into the significance of this collection. Professor Yokoyama is a research fellow at the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center for Japanese Culture, Research Institute for Letters and Sciences, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

• Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2018
• Time: 3 PM - 4:30 PM 
• Location: Hamilton Library, Room 401

Registration is not required. 

Questions? Please contact:

• Phone: 808-956-2311
• Email: sachiko.iwabuchi@hawaii.edu