Keiko Mitani Japanese expert in Croatian Glagolitic literature passed away in 2022 - CROWN

Author of Croatian – Japanese dictionary and of a Japanese manual for learning Croatian

Professor Keiko Mitani (Tokyo, Japan), with Professors Andrei Sobolev (left, Russia), Draženko Samdardžić (curator of the Biograd Museum), Academician Josip Bratulić,
Božo Došen, prof., and Professor Giorgio Ziffer (right, Italy), in front of the crane, a sign of friendship between the cities of Hiroshima and Biograd. Dr. Keiko Mitani is
president of the Japan-Croatia Friendship Society in Tokyo. The monument contains the following haiku:

NA KRILIMA LJUBAVI (On the wings of love)
DONESI MIR (bring peace)
GRADU HIROŠIMI (to the city of Hiroshima)
BIOGRAD NA MORU (Biograd on the Sea)

Summary. Keiko Mitani, professor at the University of Tokyo, one of greatest Slavists in Japan, passed away in January 25, 2022. She earned her PhD at the University of Zagreb, under supervision of Professor Stjepan Damjanović (of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts). She was president of the Japan-Croatian Friendship Society in Tokyo. In 2017, she participated at the international conference “The Phenomenon of the Glagolitic Script”, organized in the cities of Biograd and Zadar on Croatian coast. She also wrote a manual in Japanese for learning Croatian, as well as a Croatian-Japanese dictionary.
Dr. Keiko Mitani was the chairperson of the Planning and Editorial Committee of “The Japan Society of the Study of Slavic Languages and Literatures.”

Participants of the International Conference at the Holy Mass held in the city of Biograd, as well as representatives of the

University of Zadar (the oldest Croatian university, founded in 1396) and of the Matrix Croatica Zadar.

Dr. Keiko Mitani is in the first row on the right.

Božo Došen, prof., at the pulpit of the church of Sv. Stošija in Biograd

Solemn opening of the Conference in the city of Biograd. Source www.biogradnamoru.hr. The conference was held at the Hotel Adria in the city of Biograd.

Dr. Keiko Mitani is in the second row on the right.

The Biograd Museum is in possession of numerous interesting artefacts, dating from Ancient times as well.

Dr. Keiko Mitani is the second from the right.

From left: Academician Anica Nazor, Dr. Keiko Mitani, Dr. Anica Vlašić-Anić, Draženko Samardžić, prof., Dr. Ivan Botica,
Academician Josip Bratulić and F. Jozo Milanović

On the left Dr. Ana Kovačević, Dr. Marija-Ana Duerrigl, and Dr. Keiko Mitani.

Dr. Keiko Mitani, Tokyo, reporting about her results on the study of old Croatian Glagolitic manuscripts at the

International conference in Biograd and Zadar on the phenomenon of Glagolitic Script in May 12-13th, 2017.

KEIKO MITANI, Filozofski fakultet, Tokio, Japan: Hrvatskoglagoljski prijepisi apokrifne priče Legenda o dvanaest petaka: tekstualne osobine i povezanost s drugim slavenskim prijepisima

Draženko Samardžić, prof., delivering a lecture at the main hall of the University of Zadar.
The session has been presided by Dr. Anica Vlašić-Anić, Academician Anica Nazor and Dr. Keiko Mitani (University of Tokyo).

Dr. Keiko Mitani at the table on the right

Breathtaking view from the main hall of the University of Zadar to the island of Ugljan. One has a feeling of being on a huge stone vessel.

Exhibition of selected legal documents (mostly church records) and books, written in the Glagolitic Script,
kept within the Permanent Exhibition of Church Art in the city of Zadar.

Dr. Keiko Mitani on the right, just in front of dr. fra Izak Špralja, and behind dr. Grozdana Franov Živković,

who described the exhibited very interesting Croatian Glagolitic documents and books.

One of the Zadar streets bears the name of Šimun Kožičić Zadranin (nicknamed Benja),
who was a bishop and owner of the glagolitic printing house in the city of Rijeka, which was active in the period of 1530-1531.

Benedictine Abbey of Sv. Krševan (St. Crysogonus) is one of the most important cultural monuments of the city of Zadar.
Between 9th and 12th centuries, Croatia used to have as many as 120 benedictine abbeys, mostly along the Adriatic coast.

The Concert Hall of the city of Zadar, as described by Dr. Radomir Jurić, has been completely destroyed during
the Serbian aggresion on Croatia in the 1990s. It is a part of Rector’s Palace. Dr. Keiko Mitani is in the middle.

Dr. Keiko Mitani is a full professor at the Chair for Slavic Studies of the Philological Faculty of the Tokyo University.
She is the author of the following manual for learning Croatian language:

Keiko Mitani: Priručnik hrvatskoga jezika = Kuroachia do handobukku, Tokyo : Daigaku shorin, 1997. – 260 str. ; 24 cm

Photo by the courtesy of Yoko Nishii, Ise, Japan.
On the title page, a motive from the Upper Town of the city of Zagreb is shown.

Keiko Mitani is also the author of a grammar of Croatian language:

Keiko Mitani: Kuroachia go no Shikumi (Grammar of Croatan language). Here, “Shikumi” means Grammar, Mechanism, Structure, Construction… etc.

Keiko Mitani: Kuroachia go no Shikumi (Grammar of Croatan language).

Photo by the courtesy of Yoko Nishii, Ise, Japan.

Professor Keiko Mitani wrote a very interesting article (in Croatian) about language characteristics of Moravian Croats:
Posuđivanje u jezičnom dodiru i struktura jezika. Razmatranje na temelju podataka iz govora moravskih Hrvata

She defended her PhD in 1988 at the University of Zagreb, under supervision of Professor Stjepan Damjanovic, of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

We mention her article, published in a Croatian scientific journal:

Keiko Mitani: UZ-prefixation and dependent future in Croatian ([PDF]), RASPRAVE, Časopis Instituta za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, 43/2 (2017.), str. 423-441.

Keiko Mitani: The Slavonic languages / The Primary Guide
On the title page, a part of the cellar of Diocletian’s Palace in the city of Split, Croatia, is shown.
Many thanks to Yoko Nishii for this photo.