Nobuko Horikawa, PhD

Nobuko Horikawa CV (PDF)

Biography

Nobuko was raised in Japan. She came to America to study at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a BA in History and Philosophy of Science. She continued her studies at the University of Cincinatti, where she completed an MA in Philosophy. She then enrolled in the Japanese program at Portland State University, where she attained an MA in Japanese Language and Literature. Nobuko culminated her studies by completing a Ph.D. in Classical Japanese Literature at the University of Washington.

Nobuko has taught numerous courses on Japanese language, from beginning to advanced and even classical Japanese. She also has designed and taught content courses on Japanese literature and culture.

Nobuko's scholarly interests include women’s literature in early modern Japan, Zen Buddhist literature, Sinitic [classical Chinese] prose and poetry in Japan (kanshibun 漢詩文), the study and assimilation of Chinese literature by Japanese writers, and Japanese language pedagogy. In her Ph.D. dissertation, Nobuko translated the Sinitic poems composed by Taisei Shōan 大成聖安 (1668-1712), a Japanese imperial princess who became a Zen nun, and analyzed the interplay of class, gender, religion, Japanese literature, and Chinese literature in Taisei's poetry.

In her free time, Nobuko is a practitioner of tea ceremony (sadō 茶道).