Abstract
This chapter examines the development of Dunhuang studies inJapan in the 1910s to the 1930s, focusing on the activities at KyotoImperial University. It was a time when Kyo ̄dai was building up its Oriental Studies program (to ̄yo ̄gaku), and much of the research on Dunhuang conducted there represented the direction of the program. Among the field’s champions were professors Naito ̄Konan,Kano Naoki, Kuwabara Jitsuzo ̄, Haneda To ̄ru, and Hamada Ko ̄saku,
whose specializations ranged from history, to literature, to art andarchaeology, to cultural studies. The research findings that resulted from their individual and joint efforts are too numerous to give full representation to here, but one common link that stands out is their inclination towards multidisciplinary and multicultural scholarship. Besides answering the particular demands of Dunhuang studies, the subjects of inquiry and the formulations of problem within this approach betrayed an ideological position that was nationalistic. As the following pages seek to show, it entailed a rejection of eurocentrism and, more significantly, of sinocentrism