In Memoriam: MATSUMOTO Akirō (松本耿郎), 1944-2026

Our colleague and teacher, Prof. Matsumoto Akirō, passed away on January 6, 2026, at 82 years of age.

Prof. Matsumoto graduated from Waseda University in East Asian history in 1966, received his Master’s degree, also from Waseda, in philosophy in 1972, and thereafter studied at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, Iran. He taught at International University of Japan and at St. Thomas (Eichi) University and held visiting professorships at Durham University (UK) and the University of Virginia (USA). He originally specialized in Islamic theology, working in Persian and Arabic texts under the mentorship of Prof. IZUTSU Toshihiko (井筒 俊彦) in Japan and Prof. Sayed Jalaluddin Ashtiani at Ferdowsi. His research included the mystical thought of Ibn ‘Arabi, Ibn Sina, Jami, Rumi, and Mulla Sadra and the 20th century Twelver Shi’ism of Ayatollah Khomeini. He also published numerous translations of Persian philosophical works into Japanese.

In the 2000s, based on Arabic and Persian historical materials brought back from China by his wife MATSUMOTO Masumi (松本ますみ), he started to research the philosophical interpretations of Islamic thought in China, using texts in Arabic, Persian, and Chinese, especially by Liu Zhi, Ma Dexin, and Ma Lianyuan. Prof. Matsumoto wrote mainly in Japanese, so his scholarship has not been widely known in Western academic circles, which prefer articles in English. In 2004, Prof. Matsumoto became the first Japanese scholar to receive Iran’s “World Book of the Year” award. Indeed, his research is very well known in both Iran and China, where he presented numerous papers, in English, on Chinese Islam at international symposiums on “civilizational dialogue.” Their profound philosophical content has drawn wide attention among Hui scholars. Unfortunately, due to constraints on philosophical research in Chinese academia, few (if any) scholars there have reached Prof. Matsumoto’s breadth or depth in analysis of Islamic thought in China.

Prof. Matsumoto’s books include, among many others:

A Comprehensive Study of the Thought and Institutions of Contemporary Twelver Shi’ism: Focus on the Study of Primary Sources (1991) 現代12イマーム・シーア派の思想・制度の総合的研究 ー原典研究を中心として The Political Theology of Islam (1993) イスラーム政治神学 Persian Treatises on “The Unity of Existence” (2002) ペルシャ存在一性論集 An Introduction to Ma Dexin’s Philosophy (2014) 馬徳新哲学研究序説 (This collection includes five articles in English.)

A partial list of Prof. Matsumoto’s writings may be found here.

We send our heartfelt condolences to our colleague Matsumoto Masumi and mourn the loss of a great scholar and teacher.

[Thanks to Jonathan Lipman]