Arnaldo Momigliano in Giappone

This article deals with a recent anthology of writings on ancient and modern historiography by Arnaldo Momigliano, edited and translated into Japanese by Akira Koba, Professor Emeritus of Roman Law at the University of Tokyo. The anthology constitutes one of the very few Japanese translations of Momigliano’s critical essays and offers the first organic attempt to present the figure and work of the Italian scholar to a wide audience of Japanese historians. The present article explores the cultural significance of this complex and unique cultural operation promoted by Koba in relation to the main trends in Japanese historiography on the Greek and Roman world and the lively debate on the future of Western classics in the Far East