John A. Tucker

Professor
Ph.D., Columbia University

Office: Brewster A-317

Phone: 252-328-1028

Spring 2022 Office Hours: History 3907 Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm via Email

John A. Tucker, Ph.D., is a professor of Japanese and East Asian history. Tucker’s research specialization is in Japanese Confucianism. He completed his A.B. in history at Davidson College (1977), and two master’s degrees at the University of Hawaii (Asian philosophy 1981 and Asian history 1983). He finished his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1990. Tucker has authored translation-studies of Itō Jinsai’s Gomō jigi, published by E. J. Brill (1998), and of Ogyū Sorai’s Bendō and Benmei, published by the Association for Asian Studies and the University of Hawaii Press (2006). He also edited a four-volume work, Critical Readings in Japanese Confucianism, published by E. J. Brill (2013). With Chun-chieh Huang (National Taiwan University), Tucker co-edited, Dao Companion to Japanese Confucian Philosophy (Springer, 2016). His most recent publication is The Forty-Seven Ronin: The Vendetta in History, published by Cambridge University Press (2018). He is currently working on a translation-study of Kumazawa Banzan’s Daigaku wakumon, to be published by Cambridge University Press. Tucker has published three picture books, John F. Kennedy’s North Carolina Campaign, and a pictorial history of his university entitled, East Carolina University. Along with Arthur Carlson and Brooke Tolar, he co-edited East Carolina Football. These are published by Arcadia Press. And, with Brooke Tolar and Chelsea Head, he co-edited The Art of Giving: Leo W. Jenkins’ Paintings.

Selected Publications:

Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks: The Bendō and Benmei. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press: 2006.

“Confucian Revisionists.” Co-authored with Wm. Theodore de Bary. In Sources of Japanese Tradition: 1600-2000 (Second Edition), volume 2, eds., Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005: 185-248. Sections attributed to John A. Tucker: “Yamaga Sokō and the Civilizing of the Samurai:” 186-204; “Itō Jinsai’s School of Ancient Meanings:” 205-217.

“The Way of the Warrior, II: The Debate over the Ako Vendetta.” Co-authored with Barry D. Steben. In Sources of Japanese Tradition: 1600-2000 (Second Edition), volume 2, eds. Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005: 437-480.

“From Nativism to Numerology: Yamaga Sokō’s Final Excursion into the Metaphysics of Change.” Philosophy East & West, 54/2 (April 2004): 194-217.

“Art, the Ethical Self, and Political Eremitism: Fujiwara Seika’s Essay on Landscape Painting.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy (March 2004: 31/1): 47-63.

“Animé and Historical Inversion in Miyazaki Hayao’s Princess Mononoke.” Japan Studies Review, 7 (2003): 65-102.

“A Translation-Study of the Kana shōri.” Sino-Japanese Studies, 15 (2003): 56-98.

“Japanese Views of Nature and the Environment.” In Nature Across Cultures: Non-Western Views of Nature and the Environment, ed. Helaine Selin. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Publishers, 2003: 161-83.

“Quiet-Sitting and Political Activism: The Thought and Practice of Satō Naokata.” The Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 29/1-2 (2002): 1-43.

“Tokugawa Intellectual History and Prewar Ideology: The Case of Inoue Tetsujirō, Yamaga Sokō, and the Forty-Seven Rōnin.” Sino-Japanese Studies, 14 (2002): 35-70.

“Yamaga Sokō’s Seikyō yōroku, Part Three.” Sino-Japanese Studies, 14 (2002): 71-80.

Courses Offered:

HIST 1030: World Civilizations to 1500
HIST 1031: World Civilizations Since 1500
HIST 3610: History of East Asia to 1600
HIST 3611: History of East Asia Since 1600
HIST 3615: History of Traditional Japan
HIST 3620: History of Modern Japan
HIST 3625: Field Study in Japanese Historical Culture
HIST 3626: Field Study in Japanese Historical Texts
HIST 3627: History of Japanese Buddhism
HIST 3629: History of Traditional China
HIST 3630: History of Modern China
HIST 5680: Diplomatic History of Modern Asia