Tomoyasu IIYAMA

Tomoyasu IIYAMA is a Professor at Waseda University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences, specializing in premodern Chinese history with a focus on the Jin-Yuan period and Mongol rule in China. His research examines how local elites in North China maintained status through dynastic transitions using stone inscriptions and genealogical records.

Dr. IIYAMA earned his PhD in Literature from Waseda University, where he has been teaching since 2009. His field research across North China has documented hundreds of stone inscriptions that reveal patterns of social continuity and change during periods of foreign rule.

His research interests center on how ethnic identity, kinship organization, and political power intersected in premodern China. He investigates how local elites in North China navigated the transitions between Jurchen (Jin Dynasty), Mongol (Yuan Dynasty), and native Chinese (Ming Dynasty) rule, often maintaining status through strategic adaptation while preserving cultural identity. His work demonstrates how stone inscriptions serve as crucial historical sources for understanding social history beyond official dynastic narratives.

Dr. IIYAMA's publications reveal a consistent focus on how local societies in North China maintained continuity despite dramatic political changes. His work on genealogical steles shows how families preserved historical memory across dynastic boundaries, with particular attention to how ethnic identity was constructed and reconstructed over time. His recent research examines how late Qing families reclaimed Mongol ancestry as a strategy for social advancement.

• Waseda Research Award (High-Impact Publication), 2020

Dr. IIYAMA has supervised numerous graduate students through Waseda's Asian History Seminar and Oriental History Research Seminar programs. His research has been supported by multiple Japanese government grants, including several from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He has led extensive field research projects documenting stone inscriptions across North China, building comprehensive databases of epigraphic evidence.

He directs field research teams that survey and document historical stone inscriptions across North China, with particular focus on Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei provinces. These teams combine historical expertise with on-site documentation to preserve and analyze these crucial historical sources before they are lost to environmental damage or development.