Dr. Derek Massarella

Dr. Massarella was editor of the Transactions for six years from 1985 and addressed the Society on more than one occasion in the past (see the Index in Vol.16). He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and received his early education there and also at the International School in Hamburg. After receiving his B.A. with Honours in History from the University of Exeter in 1972, he went once more to Germany for a year at the University of Mainz, with a DAAD scholarship. In 1978 he received his D. Phil. from the University of York, with a thesis on "The Politics of the Army, 1647-1660". He came to Japan in the same year to take up a lectureship at Yamaguchi University, and in 1981 he transferred to Chuo University, where he has been a professor since 1988. His magisterial work, A World Elsewhere: Europe's Encounter with Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries was published by Yale University Press in 1990. He is also co-author with Beatrice Bodart-Bailey of The Furthest Goal: Engelbert Kaempfer's Encounter with Tokugawa Japan (Folkestone, The Japan Library, 1995). In November of 2005 he gave the Princess Chichibu Memorial Lecture to the Japan-British Society, speaking on "William Adams/Miura Anjin: Man/Myth".

Lectures available: 2006-01