Prof. Claire-Akiko Brisset

Claire-Akiko Brisset is Full Professor in Japanese Cultural History at the University of Geneva, and received her Ph.D. in Japanese Studies in 2000 from Paris Diderot University. She is the author of À la croisée du texte et de l’image : paysages cryptiques et poèmes cachés (ashide) dans le Japon classique et médiéval (Collège de France, 2009). This pathbreaking book examines Japanese cryptographic expression from classical to medieval period. For the very first time in a European language, this study aims at establishing hermeneutic and intersemiotic patterns through an extensive overview of the pictorial and calligraphic corpus. She is also co-editor of numerous books dealing with Japanese epic, writing history and culture, visual culture, and co-translator of major Japanese classical texts (Shaka no honji, Mumyôshô, Shuhanron emaki, Kaidôki, etc.), as well as contemporary Japanese scientific literature (Tsuji Nobuo, etc.). Her current book projects deals 1) with the discourses on writing and painting in classical Japan through the analysis of narratives (like the Kokon chomon-jû collection), and 2) with Kobayashi Masaki’s cinema.