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MAEDA Toru, Ph.D. (Professor) [KUID]

Personal History

Born in 1972. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Kanazawa University in 1994. Withdrew from the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University, in 2001 after completing the required coursework. Awarded a Ph.D. in Literature from Kobe University in 2022. Has served as a curator at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History since 2001.

Area of expertise

Medieval Japanese History

I have been researching the manorial system of the early Middle Ages, but in recent years I have become increasingly interested in the development of shugo (provincial governor) rule in the late Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the Akamatsu clan of Harima. Although my primary field is documentary history, as part of my duties as a museum curator, I also take an interest in “material” sources such as paintings and sculptures.

Major Publications and Papers

• *“Early Medieval Local Communities: The Ōguni-shō Estate in Ise Province, a Tōji Domain, and Its Surroundings” (in *Medieval Villages and Local Communities: The Shōen System and the Logic of Localism*, edited by the Society for the Study of Shōen and Village History, Koshi Shoin, 2016)
• *The Local Nobility and the Akamatsu Clan in Late Medieval Harima* (Seibundō Shuppan, 2021)
• *The Akamatsu Clan in the Medieval Period* (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan History and Culture Library, 2025)