Miyasaka Satoru

A former President of Ferris University (Ferisu jogakuin daigaku) and currently Emeritus Professor at the same institution, Professor Miyasaka is one of the foremost authorities on Akutagawa. He is the founder and President of the International Society for Akutagawa Ryūnosuke Studies. He is also the President of the Nihon kirisutokyō bungakkai.

Professor Miyasaka received his B.A. from Waseda University and completed his doctoral work at Jōchi University. He has written extensively on topics related to Christianity and Japanese literature as well as the literary production of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Endō Shūsaku. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of London and most recently at several institutions in China. He has lectured across Asia, North America, and Europe.

His publications include Sakuhinron Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (Sōbunsha, 1990); Akutagawa Ryūnosuke zenshū sōsakuin (Iwanami Shoten, 1993); Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: hito to sakuhin (Kanrin Shobō, 1998); Akutagawa Ryūnosuke sakuhinron shūsei (Kanrin Shobō, 1999); Akutagawa Ryūnosuke to kirishitan mono (Kanrin Shobō, 2014); and contributions to the 24 volume collection Akutagawa Ryūnosuke zenshū (Iwanami Shoten, 1996).

Tsuboi Hideto

A professor of Japanese literature at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Dr. Tsuboi Hideto received his M. A. and Ph.D. in Japanese Literature from Nagoya University.

His publications include Koe no Shukusai: Nihon Kindaishi to Sensō (Fest of Voices: Modern Japanese Poetry and War), University of Nagoya Press, 1997; Kankaku no Kindai: Koe, Karada, Hyōshō (Modernity of the Sensibilities: Voice, Body and Representation), University of Nagoya Press, 2006; and Sei ga kataru: 20 Seiki Nihon Bungaku no Sei to Shintai (Sexuality Speaks: Sex/Gender and Body in the Literature in Twentieth-Century Japan), University of Nagoya Press, 2012.

Eiji Sekine

Eiji Sekine is an associate professor of Japanese at Purdue University and a visiting professor of Comparative Literature at Josai International University. He is a cofounder of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies and currently serves as Secretary/Editor.

Professor Sekine received his B.A. in French Literature from the University of Tokyo, his M.A. in French Linguistics from the University of Paris III, and completed his Ph.D. in Japanese Literature at Indiana University. He has written extensively on the issue of the other in modern Japanese literature.

He is the author of Tasha no shōkyo: Yoshiyuki Junnosuke to kindai bungaku (Erasing the other: Yoshiyuki Junnosuke and modern literature), Keisōshobō, 1993; and editor/author of Uta no hibiki, monogatari no yokubō (Echo of poems, desire for narrative), Shinwasha, 1996.  Sekine’s publications in English and Japanese include essays on a variety of modern and premodern works by authors such as Ihara Saikaku, Tamenaga Shunsui, Edogawa Rampo, Nakahara Chūya, Yasuoka Shōtarō, Abe Akia, and many others.