TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran honors Japanese scholar Ryuichi Sugiyama for studies on Imam Reza (AS). Iran has honored Japanese scholar Ryuichi Sugiyama for his comprehensive studies on the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Imam of the Shia.
He received the Razavi Scholar Award from the Iranian cultural attache in Tokyo, Hossein Divsalar, Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) announced on Monday.
Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance gives the honor to an international scholar with outstanding research about Imam Reza (AS) during the Imam Reza (AS) International Festival, whose 19th edition is currently underway in the country.
The festival is organized every year with contributions from the Imam Reza (AS) International Foundation for Culture and Arts, and Astan-e Quds Razavi.
“Japanese Iranologists, Islam experts and Iranian experts on Japanese studies have played a key role in the development of a mutual understanding between the great nations of Iran and Japan, therefore it is our duty to appreciate them,” Divsalar said after handing over the award to Sugiyama at his office.
Sugiyama, a junior researcher of the Organization for Islamic Area Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, also said, “It’s a great honor for me to receive this award from Iran, in particular, from the Imam Reza (AS) International Foundation for Culture and Arts.”
“I will do my best more than before to do research on Imam Reza (AS), Mashhad and Astan-e Qods Razavi,” he added.
As a frequent visitor to Iran, Sugiyama said that he spent most of his time from 2004 to 2006 at the Astan-e Qods Razavi Museum and Library in Mashhad doing research on the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS).
He called the library and museum a treasure trove, and expressed his thanks to the staff for their help and support.
“The Mausoleum of Imam Reza under the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Administration and Activities of the Twelver Shiite Imamate Mausoleum in Iran” is one of Sugiyama’s articles published by Waseda University.
“This paper aims to examine the current state of the Imam Reza mausoleum, which exists as the only Twelver Shiite Imamate mausoleum in Iran, primarily by examining official press releases and publications related to this site,” he wrote in an introduction to the article.
Another of his articles is “The Mausoleum of Imam Reza during the Afsharid Period: A Consideration of its Organization and Administration in the 18th Century Based on the Tumar-e Alishahi (Scroll of Ali Shah)”.
