Details of the Researcher

PHOTO

Koichi Morimoto
Section
Institute for Excellence in Higher Education
Job title
President-Appointed Extraordinary Professor
Degree

  • 文学修士（東北大学）

Research History 8

  • 2022/04 - Present
    Tohoku University　Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences Tohoku University

  • 2003/06 - 2022/03
    東北大学文学研究科 教授

  • 2000/04 - 2003/05
    東北大学文学研究科 助教授

  • 1996/10 - 2000/03
    東北大学文学部 助教授

  • 1988/04 - 1996/09
    横浜国立大学教育学部 助教授

  • 1989/08 - 1990/05
    University of Duesseldorf

  • 1986/04 - 1988/03
    横浜国立大学教育学部 講師

  • 1985/04 - 1986/03
    東北大学文学部附属日本文化研究施設 助手

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Education 2

  • Tohoku University　Graduate School, Division of Letters　German Study

    - 1985/03

  • Tohoku University　Faculty of Literature　department of philosophy

    - 1980/03

Committee Memberships 4

  • 東北ドイツ文学会　事務局委員，編集委員

    1996/10 - Present

  • 東北ドイツ文学会（日本独文学会東北支部）　学会長（東北支部長）

    2008/04 - 2014/03

  • 日本独文学会　2003年秋期研究発表会実行副委員長

    2003/10 -

  • 日本記号学会　第15回大会実行委員

    1995/05 -

Professional Memberships 3

  • ナラティヴ・メディア研究会

  • 東北ドイツ文学会

  • Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics

Research Interests 5

  • metaphor

  • communication

  • narrative of fiction

  • thoughts on language

  • theory of literature

Research Areas 3

  • Humanities & social sciences / Literature - General /

  • Humanities & social sciences / Literature - European /

  • Humanities & social sciences / Philosophy and ethics /

Papers 43

  1. Reading Story-Manga

    MORIMOTO Koichi

    The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime, ed. by Jaqueline Berndt, Cambridge University Press　111-120　2024/10

  2. 水俣病を想起する

    森本浩一

    東北大学教養教育院叢書 大学と教養　(7)　113-134　2024/03

  3. Tempo and perspective figure -- Akiko Higashimura's narrative

    Koichi Morimoto

    Eureka　49　(4)　202-208　2017/02

  4. Temporality of narrative experience

    Koichi Morimoto

    Narrative Media Study　(5)　15-47　2016/03

  5. Reality of Mimesis

    Koichi Morimoto

    The Annual Reports of the Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University　(65)　117-144　2016/03

  6. How do we experience the "character" in the narrative? -- A closs-media study

    Koichi Morimoto

    Narrative Media Study　(4)　55-85　2013/03

  7. Fiction as metarepresentation

    Koichi Morimoto

    Absence in the Literature　239-251　2011/11

  8. Image and narrative -- about the works of T.Groensteen

    Koichi Morimoto

    Narrative Media Study　(2)　127-140　2010/08

    Publisher:

    ISSN： 2185-534X

  9. A comparative study of narrative cognition in fictional genres

    Koichi MORIMOTO

    Narrative Media Forum Activity Report April 2008 - March 2009　121-145　2009/03/30

  10. What appears through expression Invited

    Koichi MORIMOTO

    コミック研究のフレーム再考のために――研究方法の多様化と今後の展望――（ナラティヴ・メディア研究会第１回ワークショップ報告書，編集代表者：森田直子）　2008/03

  11. "The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns" and the theories of language of 17th. century Invited

    Koichi MORIMOTO

    「新旧論争」に顧みる進歩史観の意義と限界，並びにそれに代わり得る歴史モデルの研究 （科学研究費研究成果報告書，課題番号：18320007）　2008/03

  12. Aspects of "criticism" --- How can one speak about literature? Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    When the art begins and ends (Tohoku University Press)　2007/03

  13. Reality of Perception --- Heidegger's Philosophy of Art in "The Will to Power as Art"

    Koichi Morimoto

    The Annual Reports of the Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University　(56)　107-131　2007/03

    Publisher:

    ISSN： 1346-7182

  14. 「芸術＝反終焉論」の射程――芸術終焉論の現代的意味を考えるために Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    芸術終焉論の持つ歴史的な文脈と現代的な意味についての研究 （科学研究費研究成果報告書，課題番号：16202001）　2006/03

  15. 虚構の認知的効果および社会的機能に関する研究

    Koichi Morimoto

    虚構の認知的効果および社会的機能に関する研究（科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書：16520198）　2006/03

  16. Man as ekstasis, Art as ecstacy --- correlation of ontology and art theory in Heidegger's philosophy Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    Logic of cultural plurality --- toward the the new cultural science (Tohoku University Press)　2005/05

  17. Metaphor and communication

    Koichi Morimoto

    Annual Report of the Philosophical Society of Tohoku　(19)　61-68　2003/04

  18. To know language and to communicate by language Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    Horizon of the Knowledge --- Multi-literacy and applied ethics in the university (Tohoku University Press)　2003/03

  19. "Writing" and "reading" --- toward the study of the literary act? Peer-reviewed

    Koichi Morimoto

    Bulletin of the Tohoku Society of German Study　(46)　77-92　2002/12

    Publisher:

    ISSN： 0287-7813

  20. Metaphor and fiction Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    Introduction to the philosophy of language (Sekai Shiso Sha Publishing Co.)　2002/08

  21. 文学的虚構の基本性質に関する研究

    Koichi Morimoto

    文学的虚構の基本性質に関する研究（科学研究費補助金研究成果報告書：12610568）　2002/03

  22. Ad hoc concept, something non-propositional, and weak implicature - What should be elucidated by the theory of metaphor?

    Koichi Morimoto

    The Annual Reports of the Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University　(51)　258-288　2002/03

  23. Affordance and Mimesis

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　27　(6)　222-235　1999/05

    Publisher:

  24. Basic features of fictive discourse

    Koichi Morimoto

    The Annual Reports of the Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University　(47)　327-348　1998/03

  25. Communication and poetic language --- from the viewpoint of Relevance Theory Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    Kaleidoscope --- in honor of the retirement of Professor Shiro Nakamura (department of German Study, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University)　1995/02

  26. Truth as skill --- Philosophy of "understanding" in the early Heidegger and Davidson

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of the Yokohama National University: The Humanities, section I　(40)　98-116　1994/10

  27. From the beautiful nature to the creating hand --- about the aesthetic and poetological conceptualization in the 18th. century

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of the Yokohama National University: The Humanities, section II　(40)　98-116　1993/10

  28. What is the genre?

    Koichi Morimoto

    Reports of the Research Institute for Japanese Culture Tohoku University　(29)　93-111　1993/03

  29. Problems of "language" in the study of literature --- in considering the dichotomy of "symbol and allegory" (2)

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of the Yokohama National University: The Humanities, section II　(38)　169-188　1991/10

  30. "Writing" and "written"

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　19　(2)　120-130　1991/02

  31. Problems of "language" in the study of literature --- in considering the dichotomy of "symbol and allegory" (1)

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of the Yokohama National University: The Humanities, section II　(36)　37-52　1989/10

  32. Skill to understand the other --- About "communication" again

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　17　(3)　130-142　1989/03

  33. Consequences of holism --- Quine and Davidson

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　16　(8)　154-173　1988/07

  34. Voice of animals --- Kafka's motif of "communication"

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　15　(14)　121-135　1987/12

  35. Metaphor and communication --- in the philosophy of Derrida and Davidson

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　15　(6)　90-104　1987/05

    Publisher:

  36. Discourse of love

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　15　(1)　86-93　1987/01

  37. Hermeneutics of "Individualitat" by Manfred Frank

    Koichi Morimoto

    Journal of Contemporary Philosophy　14　(11)　116-129　1986/10

    Publisher:

  38. Paul de Man reading "Marionettentheater" Peer-reviewed

    Koichi Morimoto

    Ningyo-Shibai (Marionettentheater)　(1)　81-88　1986/01

  39. Literature as automaton Peer-reviewed

    Koichi Morimoto

    Bulletin of the Tohoku Society of German Study　(29)　20-37　1985/12

  40. Deconstruction of "Der Bau" Peer-reviewed

    Koichi Morimoto

    Bulletin of the Tohoku Society of German Study　(73)　92-101　1984/10

  41. Reading the figures --- foregrounding of "language" in the works of Hofmannsthal, Rilke and Kafka Invited

    Koichi Morimoto

    Studies of German Literature --- in honor of the retirement of Professor Hiroshi Oguri (Toyo Shuppan Publishing Co.)　1984/01

  42. Dynamics of "Fremdheit" in the texts of Franz Kafka Peer-reviewed

    Koichi Morimoto

    Bulletin of the Tohoku Society of German Study　(26)　69-83　1982/12

  43. The problem of the intersubjectivity in the late philosophy of E.Hussserl Peer-reviewed

    Koichi Morimoto

    Ryudo　12　(7)　58-73　1980/07

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Misc. 10

  1. Kritik und literarische Erfahrung

    MORIMOTO Koichi

    Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fuer Germanistik in Tohoku　(61)　149-167　2021/03

  2. Rhetoric and general education Invited

    MORIMOTO Koichi

    (45)　3-5　2018/03

  3. irony, metaphor, Kafka, Davidson, humor, rhetoric

    Koichi Morimoto

    現代倫理学事典　2006/12

    Publisher: 弘文堂

  4. Don't abhor language!

    Koichi Morimoto

    フランス文学研究　2006/02

    Publisher: 東北大学フランス語フランス文学会

  5. Literary experience as action

    Koichi Morimoto

    ひろの　2005/10

    Publisher: 財団法人ドイツ語学文学振興会

  6. German, Reading the literature of the absurd

    Koichi Morimoto

    人文科学ハンドブック　2005/03

    Publisher: 東北大学出版会

  7. Introduction to the special issuie: comics and comics theory in the German-speaking area

    Koichi Morimoto

    Bulletin of the Tohoku Society of German Study　48　2005/02/10

    Publisher: Tohoku Society of German Study

  8. ecriture, creole, communication theory, difference/differance, reception aesthetics, generative grammar, deconstruction, post structuralism, post modern

    Koichi Morimoto

    現代思想フォーカス88　2001/01

    Publisher: 新書館

  9. Kafka "Der Verwandlung"

    Koichi Morimoto

    20世紀を震撼させた100冊　1998/09

    Publisher: 出窓社

  10. Existence and Multiculturalism

    Koichi Morimoto

    Semiotics of Multiculturalism (Semiotic Studies 16)　(16)　88-89　1996/03

    Publisher: Tokai University Press

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Books and Other Publications 8

  1. Ole Frahm: Weird Signs. Comics as Means of Parody

    Koichi Morimoto

    Bulletin of the Tohoku Society of German Study, No.48　2005/02/10

  2. Davidson --- Is there a "language" as such?

    Koichi Morimoto

    Japan Broadcast Publishing Co.　2004/05

  3. Heidegger and Cognitive Science

    Shunsuke Kadowaki, Yukihiro Nobuhara(editors, Koichi Morimoto(translator

    Sangyo-tosho Publishing Co.　2002/04

  4. Principl of Responsibility

    Hisatake Kato(editor of, Koichi Morimoto, ranslato

    Toshin-do　2000/06

  5. Hegel Handbook 2: Foreign Hegel Studies

    Hisatake Kato, Yutaka Zakota(editor, Koichi Morimoto(translator

    Hosei University Press　1997/03

  6. Cult

    Hugo Stamm(author, Sho Murai, Koichi MOrimoto, Yasuo Yamamoto, a, la

    Seido-sha　1996/04

  7. The Deconstructive Turn ---- essays in the rhetoric of philosophy

    Christopher Norris(author, Keiichi Noe, Koichi Morimoto, Tetsuo Arima(translators

    Kokubun-sha Publishing Co.　1995/06

  8. Text and Interpretation

    Philippe Forget(editor of, the, original t, Koichi Morimoto, ranslato

    Sangyo-tosho Publishing Co.　1900/11

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Research Projects 9

  1. philosophy of language Competitive

    1980/04 - Present

  2. theory of literature Competitive

    1980/04 - Present

  3. Physiognomy as theoretical background of proto-comics

    MORITA NAOKO, MORIMOTO KOICHI

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2014/04/01 - 2017/03/31

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    Our research aims to examine the influence of the old science called “physiognomy” on the foundation of a new narrative medium of the 19th century in Europe, later called “comic strips”. First, we investigated how a Genevan writer Rodolphe Topffer (1799-1846), today considered as the father of the comic strip, made use of the concept of physiognomy to theorize his method of character drawing. The possibility of telling a story by drawing the same face hundreds of times was his great finding, but was also, we showed, a result of prevailing physiognomic interests in theoretical writings on painting, acting and rhetoric in the 17th and 18th centuries. We emphasized that the contradictory aspects of a facial expression, namely, the fact that a face can reveal or conceal the person’s inner life, were often explored in arts or in books of manners in the same period.

  4. Rodolphe Topffer's Narrative Devices and his Cross-media Writings

    MORITA NAOKO, MORIMOTO Koichi

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2011 - 2013

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    Our research aims to examine the invention of a new medium "histoires en estampes", today called "comics", by a 19th century Genevan writer Rodolphe Topffer as a crucial point in history of narrative media. He made use of new narrative devices based on the formal specificities of comics. His experiments in the new medium were profoundly inspired by his reflections on "mimesis" in different arts, from the most legitimate genres (as academic paintings) to the most popular and marginal (as caricatures). We also highlighted the fact that Topffer was one of the first to suggest the usefulness of visual character or hero, taken from well known stories but made autonomous, in relation to the growing consciousness of national identity and the development of reading culture of the period.

  5. A comparative study of the relation of narrative frame and character making in fictional genres

    MORIMOTO Koichi, MORITA Naoko

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2010 - 2012

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    This research is a new step in a series of theoretical studies of narrative fiction by the method of genre comparison. In this study it was hypothetically defined, that the cognitive processes of fictional character are determined by three basic elements: intuition of expression, comprehension of itinerary and revelation of existence. Under this hypothesis main narrative genres were comparatively analysed, focusing the issue, how the perceptual constraints caused by the media are compensated by narrator's depiction.

  6. A comparative study of narrative cognition in fictional genres

    MORIMOTO Koichi

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2006 - 2008

  7. Study of cognitive effects and social function of fiction

    MORIMOTO Koichi

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2004 - 2005

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    1.Cognitive effects of fiction : Fiction is the "decoupled" representation system, also a kind of metarepresentation, whose scope of truth value is restricted. In this study fiction's cognitive characteristics are examined, especially guided by the "scope syntax" hypothesis by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby. 2.Social function of fiction : Many parts of our consciousness about reality are constructed by public or social representations, such as learned knowledge and imformations based on the mass media or hearsay. They seem to consist of scope representations with various degree of certainty, including something fictitious, such as mythical religious assumptions or unreliable informations, of which it is hard for individuals to confirm the truth value. In this study it is examined, how such the fictitious is integrated to the ordinary cognitive process, and what their social function is. 3.Reality of fiction : As far as there exist relation and interaction between the real and the fictitious, the works of fiction themselves can be interpretively reappropriated to the real. But the reality of fiction is intrinsically experiened only on the very temporal process by individulas, when it is produced and consumed. Here begins a little to examine, how this part-process occurs.

  8. Studies on the Historical Contexts of "The End of Art" and its Significance at the Present Day

    KURIHARA Takashi, KATO Hisatake, ZAKOTA Yutaka, ISAKA Seishi, MORIMOTO Kouichi, KIDO Atsushi

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)

    2004 - 2005

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    We held three study conferences, i)in Yamagata on August 21/22, 2004, ii)in Niigata on November 20/21, 2004, iii)also in Niigata on August 6/7, 2005 (last two were held as public conferences). They helped the investigators to have common understandings of our themes. Concerning study trips, Hisatake Kato and five investigators studied in New York from February 28 to March 7, 2005 ; Zakota, Kurihara and Kido under Pr.Klaus Dusing at Koln University from July 2 to 10, 2005 ; Kato and six investigators in Germany and Italy from August 27 to September 5, 2005. Jun Yamasaki had several meetings with Pr.Walter Jaeschke who came to Japan in October 2005. Pr.Jaeschke gave us some interesting suggestions and wrote a new article on the End of Art in our report. Takashi Kurihara studied contexts of the themes of the End of Art from the hermeneutical point of view, arguing that, in order to establish the philosophy of art that discussed art, art as its object already had to come to an end. He translated hermeneutical works of Friedrich Ast into Japanese. Hisatake Kato revealed an archetype of Hegel's Aesthetics, arguing that "the Absolute" of Hegel had been influenced by Spinoza's view of substance, and art was one of the spiritual forms of self-recognition of the Absolute. He also revealed that the Hegelian philosophy of history could not accept the authorization of the past. Yutaka Zakota studied under Pr.Klaus Dusing, a leading Hegelian scholar, and translated an unknown notebook of a student who attended Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics (1820/21) into Japanese. Seishi Isaka brought notice to the principles of "the darkness" and "the bad" on the paintings of C.D.Friedrich, painter of German Romanticism, and argued that art had to end before philosophy when the roll of painting was to express ideas or emotions. Atsushi Kido studied the Analytic of the Sublime in Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment and discussed the difference and identity between the Kantian critical sublime and the metaphysical sublime of German Idealism. Kouichi Morimoto examined the present-day significance of the End of Art or its Anti-End, arguing that the thesis of the End of Art means for us that the "discourses" which have supported the idea of art come to end.

  9. Study of the Basic Property of the Literary Fiction

    MORIMOTO Koichi

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2000 - 2001

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    This research is not oriented to stylistic features or social characteristics of literary fiction but to questioning what and how it occurs in essence, if a fiction is accepted as a fiction. Here this theme is discussed from three points of view: semantic, cognitivist, and ontological. With a literary fiction we assume first the discourse resulted from using language which does not mention to reality, and moreover the whole process of action to create and enjoy it Consequently, considerations to characteristics of language use itself are required as the philosophy of language have developed. However, there is no determinant feature in language itself, which sort out fiction from non-fiction. Such a difference corresponds to the attitude to the depicted characters and events in the course of decoding and interpreting the language. Also the maim issue of analysis is to elucidate the semantic features of "fictive stance" (Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen) during enjoying the fiction. But this leads us to inquire about the more general human cognitive competence through which we can have various derivative representations and assumptions from the "non-literal" information. Relevance Theory (Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson) give us a very explicative theoretical frame for this inquiry. Comparing with "metaphor", we can explain the cognitive processing of fictive utterance as a part of the general communicative mechanism of decoding and inference of explicature and implicature. Inquiry of a fiction is inevitably bound to the ontological problem. Both semantic and cognitive theory "presuppose" the prior discrimination between the fictive and the real But they don't explain what this difference is in nature. By referring to the ontology of Martin Heidegger and reinterpreting the category of "mimesis", we try a modest approach to this essential question.

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Other 1

  1. Association for the Narrative Media Study