Award Ceremony “10th Professor Josef Kreiner Hosei University Award
for International Japanese Studies”

Date/Time: March 10th, 2025, 17:00-18:30 (JST) / 9:00-10:30（CET) [Online via Zoom]

■Award Winner　　　 Fynn Holm (University of Tübingen)
■Moderator 　 　 　　 Yasuko Yokoyama（Hosei University）
■Opening Remarks　　　 Kei Takata（Hosei University）
■Congratulatory Address　　Josef Kreiner（Hosei University）

On March 10th, 2025, the Hosei University Research Center for International Japanese Studies (HIJAS) hosted an award ceremony for the “10th Professor Josef Kreiner Hosei University Award for International Japanese Studies.” The award has been created to publicly celebrate Professor Josef Kreiner in his remarkable academic efforts to promote Japanese studies and to encourage Japanese studies scholars residing outside of Japan. After careful consideration, our selection committee has chosen Dr. Fynn Holm from the University of Tübingen in Germany for his book The Gods of the Sea: Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-2019 (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The award ceremony was held online, with Yasuko Yokoyama, director of HIJAS, serving as the chair. In the opening remark of the event, Takata stated that the book is a powerful work depicting the 400-year history of the whale culture in Japan based on the perspective that whales, not humans, dominated the marine ecosystem until the 19th century. As the book focuses on the Tohoku (Northeast) region, where whale finishing has long been absent, it relativizes the image of Japan’s whaling culture, which has been the subject of criticism from abroad for a long time. Similarly, in his congratulatory address, Professor Kreiner mentioned that Mr. Holm’s research differs significantly from previous humanistic studies of whales in that he explored not the culture of whaling but the relationship between whales and people in a historical and anthropological manner. He praised the book as an outstanding work that tackled an important question for ethnology, namely, how the people of Japan have perceived things coming from beyond the sea. He also gave warm encouragement, stating that research may become even more interesting if referring to the work of Japanese folklore scholars such as Nobuo Origuchi. Following the award ceremony, Mr. Holm gave us a lecture on the cultural history of whales in the Tohoku region based on the award-winning book. It was an impressive lecture that concisely explains its history from the relationship between whales and humans in Tohoku by comparing it to western Japan, the reasons for the absence of whale fishing in Tohoku, the tradition of worshipping whales (Kujira Shinko), the adoption of Norwegian whaling technology in Japan, and the anti-whaling movement due to the rise of whale finishing, and so on.

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, written by French historian Fernand Braudel, is now considered a classic of transnational history. Mr. Holm’s work can be seen as an update of the methodology of the Annales School by introducing a recent neo-materialistic perspective that emphasizes nature and non-humans. We were very pleased to see the development of a new transnational approach through the case of Japan as a maritime nation.

We will continue to welcome the application of outstanding works on Japan from across the world.

Kei Takata (Hosei University)

Dr. Fynn Holm Award Winner
Yasuko Yokoyama (Director of HIJAS)	Kei Takata (Full-Time Reseacher of HIJAS)	KREINER Josef (Visiting Researcher of HIJAS)

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