GENEROUS DONATION OF A LIBRARY OF REFERENCE BOOKS

The Department of East Asian Art at the University of Zurich is very happy to announce the generous donation of a library of reference books on the arts and culture of Japan and neighboring countries. The books were donated by María José Román Navarro, a specialist on Japanese ceramics, especially that of the Bizen kilns, of which she is a specialist.

Professor Román Navarro started her studies at the universities of Vienna and Heidelberg and continued her research at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan. She received her PhD from Heidelberg in 2002 on a pioneering study of the Bizen kiln.

She worked at the Spencer Art Museum in Lawrence, Kansas as a curator and conjunctly as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas, and became an Associate Professor for Japanese art at the Center of East Asian Studies (Centro de Estudios de Asia Oriental) of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

She has undergone numerous research stays in Japan, including at International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, and has visited numerous kiln excavations in Japan.

Her book on Bizen ceramics, The Rise of Bizen Ceramics in the Momoyama Period, 1573-1615 was published in 2008 by Reimer Publishers.

The donation of over 370 reference works will enrich the section on Japanese ceramics at the University of Zurich. The books and pamphlets cover the areas of Japanese ceramics, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Yi-Dynasty Korean ceramics, and others in the cultures and arts of East Asia.

Professor Román Navarro recently decided to leave the mundane world and has now become a Buddhist nun. Accordingly she donated her books and her other worldly belongings to others, including our institution. She has  entered monastic life in Nepal and is undergoing daily training in the Buddhist precepts. We at the University of Zurich offer her our warm thanks and our best wishes on her future quest.