Japanese Professor Wins Afshar Foundation Award in Tokyo
In a ceremony, held on Saturday night in the residence of Iran’s ambassador to Japan, Kuroyanagi received Afshar Foundation’s commendation and award for his nearly 60-year efforts of acquainting the Japanese with Iranian culture and Persian literature in particular.
Professor Kuroyanagi has been also praised for his efforts in compiling several Persian-Japanese and Japanese-Persian dictionaries and translating prominent Persian works into Japanese including, Ferdousi’s Shahnameh, poetry of Khayyam, Nezami, Sa’di, and Hafez as well as authoring several books on Iran’s cultural heritage.
Speaking at the ceremony attended by a large number of Persian linguists and enthusiasts of Persian language and literature, professor Kuroyanagi expressed his cheerfulness and thanks for the award and stressed the importance of boosting and strengthening Tehran-Tokyo cultural ties.
He said that he will definitely continue his attempts to promote Persian language in his country.
Born on June 2, 1925, Professor Kuroyanagi has graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) in 1947 and Tehran University in 1958.
His latest precious work is the Comprehensive Persian-Japanese Dictionary which contains over 80,000 entries. This dictionary was published in 2002.
It should be noted that Afshar Foundation was established by the late Dr. Mahmoud Afshar. He was greatly interested in Persian language and the Iranians’ national unity. Dr. Afshar dedicated a portion of his property to the cultural and academic activities in the fields of Persian language and literature.
Dr. Nazir Ahmad Aligarh from India, Dr. Gholam-Hossein Youssefi from Iran, Dr. Amin Abdul-Majid Badavi from Egypt, Dr. seyyed Mohammad Dabir-Siyaqi from Iran, Dr. Zohoureddin from Pakistan, Dr. John Hunin from China, Kamaleddin Eini from Tajikistan, Dr. Manouchehr Sotoudeh from Iran, Abdol-Hossein Zarrincoub from Iran, Clifford Edmond Basurt from Britain, and Fereidoun Moshiri from Iran have been respectively winners of the foundation’s award since the Iranian calendar year of 1368 (1989).