On February 10, the winners of the 38th Tetsuro Watsuji Cultural Award were announced, and Professor Yoshitaka Hibi of Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Humanities was selected as winner of the general category.
The award was presented for Professor Hibi’s monograph “Bookstores of the Japanese Empire: A Network of Knowledge Woven by Books” (Teikoku no shoten: Shomotsu ga anda kindai Nihon no chi no nettowāku) published by Iwanami Shoten. The monograph examines cultural structures generated by people, objects, and knowledge in prewar Imperial Japan, focusing especially on bookstores in the empire’s overseas territories and book distributors. The monograph was praised for establishing a novel axis of inquiry into world history.
The Tetsuro Watsuji Cultural Award was established by the city of Himeji with multiple aims: it seeks to celebrate Tetsuro Watsuji’s achievements and legacy, foster the development of researchers, and help disseminate knowledge to the general populace. The general category prize is awarded for an outstanding monograph in the humanities, commemorating Tetsuro Watsuji’s unique, interdisciplinary work that was aimed at a broad readership.
The award ceremony will be held on March 1, 2026, at the Himeji City Civic Centre Main Hall.
