Basic Information

Academic Degree

• 25 Mar. 2019

  京都大学博士（人間・環境学）
• 26 Mar. 2012

  京都大学修士（人間・環境学）

Research History

• From Sep. 2025, To Present

  Harvard Unversity, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Associate
• From Jun. 2023, To Present

  Kyoto University, The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research / Graduate School of Letters, Associate Professor
• From Jun. 2023, To May 2025

  Harvard University, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Associate
• From Jun. 2022, To May 2023

  Harvard University, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Research Associate
• From Jun. 2022, To May 2023

  Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Fine Arts, 専門研究員
• From Apr. 2019, To May 2022

  Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Fine Arts, 日本学術振興会特別研究員（PD）
• From Apr. 2013, To Mar. 2015

  Central Institute for Art History, Munich, Fellow
• From Apr. 2012, To Mar. 2015

  Kyoto University, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, 日本学術振興会特別研究員（DC1）

ID,URL

• J-Global ID

  202301009566170553

• Researcher number

  50869526

researchmap URL

• https://researchmap.jp/ayanakama

Research

Research Interests

• Art and Theory of Love
• Art of the Virgin Mary
• Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs
• Representation of Women
• Global Art History
• Courtly Culture of Knights and Noblewomen
• Art and Literature
• Art and Science (Visual and Optical Theory)
• Medieval Revival

Research Areas

• Humanities & social sciences, History - General
• Humanities & social sciences, Religious studies
• Humanities & social sciences, Art history
• Humanities & social sciences, Aesthetics and art studies

Presentations

• Liebe und Glaube in der mittelalterlichen Kunst des Bamberger Doms

  Aya Nakama

  Workshop at the Central Institute of Art History, Munich, 17 Dec. 2025, Invited

  
• The Intersection of Art and Science: Perspectives from the History of Images (in Japanese)

  Aya Nakama

  Interdisciplinary Forum vol.0: What Emerges When We Collaborate Across Disciplinary Boundaries?, 14 Nov. 2025

  
• Art and Nuremberg in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

  Aya Nakama

  Dürer and Nuremberg, 11 Nov. 2025

  
• The Veneration of the Virgin Mary and Her Femininity in Image Creation

  Aya Nakama

  The Forces of Art: Joint Art History Workshop Hamburg, Berlin and Kyoto 2025, 02 Oct. 2025, Invited

  
• Arabic Optics and Representations of the Sacred in the Works of Jan van Eyck (c. 1395-1441)

  Aya Nakama

  Harvard University, The Medieval Academy of America at 100, ‟Transcultural Entanglements in Medieval Art and Material Culture”, 20 Mar. 2025

  
• he Illustrations of the Commentary on the Song of Songs (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Bibl. 22, fol. 4v, 5r): Mary as virgo inter virgines and the Bride

  Aya Nakama

  Research Presentation at 2024 Kajima Foundation for the Arts Award Ceremony, 14 May 2024, Invited

  
• History of Art for Human Creativity and Imagination: Representation of the Virgin Mary in the Bridal Mysticism

  Aya Nakama

  Kyoto University Hakubi Seminar, 19 Dec. 2023, Invited

  
• Revisiting the Iconography of the Van Eyck Brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece —An Analysis of the Virgin Mary and the Landscape of Paradise—

  Aya Nakama

  The Japan Art History Society, Western Division Meeting, 20 Sep. 2025

  
• The Materiality of Gaze and Optical Theory: Visualizingo Miracles in Gothic Art

  Aya Nakama

  Workshop Program Hamburg – Kyoto: Resource Scarcity and Art – Metal, Wood and Other Materials in European Art, 15 Feb. 2024, Invited

  
• Holy Bride, Holy Groom: The Bamberg Cathedral Sculptures and Bridal Mysticism

  Aya Nakama

  Harvard University, Department of History of Art and Architecture, 18 Apr. 2023, Invited

  
• History of Art and Human Imagination: Focusing on Western Medieval Christian Art

  Aya Nakama

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The 203th Boston Japanese Researchers Forum, 17 Dec. 2022, Invited

  
• The Bamberg Rider: Representation of the Sacred Ruler

  Aya Nakama

  The Japan Art History Society, Eastern Division Meeting, 26 Sep. 2020

  
• Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera and the Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs: The Flower Symbolism and the Gaze of Love’s Arrow

  Aya Nakama

  University of Bologna, Hasekura League Symposium "Images, Philosophy, Communication", 12 Nov. 2019, Invited

  
• Die Bamberger Domskulpturen des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts: Ihr Bildprogramm und das Hohelied der Brautmystik

  Aya Nakama

  Colloquium at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Institute of Art History), 04 Feb. 2016, Invited

  
• Gothic Art and Optical Theories: Visualizing Miracle in Vision and Space

  Aya Nakama

  The 19th International Congress of Aesthetics, 24 Jul. 2013

  
• Visualizing optical theory and theological argument: image, materiality and the emotional effect of German gothic sculpture in the thirteenth century

  Aya Nakama

  University of Manchester, The 24tth International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, 22 Jul. 2013

  

Books and Other Publications

• Aspects of problems in Western at history, Volume 22

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, A Reflection on the Gaze in 13th-century German Gothic Sculpture: From the Perspective of the Visuality of the ‘Arrow of Love’ and the Devotional Images

  Department of Western Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2025

  
• Journal of the Kyoto Society for Art History, Volume 6 2025

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, Gothic Art and the Visualization of Miracles: The Materiality of Images in the Visual Model and the Bridal Mysticism

  Kyoto Society for Art History, 2025

  
• The 40th Kajima Foundation for the Arts Annual Report

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, he Illustrations of the Commentary on the Song of Songs (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Bibl. 22, fol. 4v, 5r): Mary as virgo inter virgines and the Bride

  Kajima Foundation for the Arts, 2023

  
• Images, Philosophy and Communication (Hasekura League Intercultural Studies Editions no. 4)

  Aya Nakama, Sandro Botticelli's Primavera and the Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs: The Flower Symbolism and the Gaze of Love's Arrow

  Mimesis International, Milan, 2021

  
• ART-DoK, Nr. 2020-6807.

  Aya Nakama, Single work, Zur Femininität der Repräsentation von Blumen: Brautmystik des Hoheliedes und Modernität

  ART-Dok Publikationsplattform Kunst- und Bildwissenschaften, 2020

  
• The Osaka Nichinichi Newpaper September 2018

  Aya Nakama, Others, Art Now in Kansai: 12 Review of “The Pushkin Museum: Traveling French Landscape Paintings” (The National Museum of Art, Osaka)

  Shinnihonkaishinbunsha, Sep. 2018

  
• Human and Environmental Forum, No. 36

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, Receiving the Kyoto University Tachibana Award for Outstanding Female Researchers, Honorable Mention, Student Category: “The Bamberg Cathedral Sculptures and the Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs”

  Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Feb. 2018

  
• Diaphanes : Art and Philosophy, Vol. 5

  Aya Nakama, Tradition of the Song of Songs and the Image Program of Cathedral Sculptures (written in Japanese)

  Atsushi Okada Laboratory Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, 2018

  
• Aesthetics, No.20

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, The Sculpture of the Fürstenportal of Bamberg Cathedral: The Eschatological Salvation of Brides in Mystical Marriage

  The Japan Society for Aesthetics, 2018

  
• Catalog of the 2012 Special Exhibition “Uffizi Virtual Museum”

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, Sandro Botticelli's Primavera

  The Kyoto University Museum, 2013

  
• An Anthropology of Landscape: On Representations of Nature, Cities and Memories

  Aya Nakama, Contributor, Floral Symbolism and Femininity: The Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs and Modernity

  Sangensha, 2020

  
• The Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs and the Bamberg Cathedral Sculpture (written in Japanese)

  Aya Nakama, Single work

  Sangensha, Mar. 2022

  

Awards

• 14 May 2024

  第３１回鹿島美術財団賞（西洋美術部門）
• 03 Mar. 2017

  京都大学たちばな賞優秀女性研究者奨励賞

External funds: Kakenhi

• Art historical research on the Bridal Mysticism of the Song of Songs

  Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists

  Basic Section 01060:History of arts-related

  Kyoto University;Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

  仲間 絢

  From 01 Apr. 2021, To 31 Mar. 2026, Granted

  グローバル中世;キリスト教美術;聖母マリア;女性性;雅歌;花嫁神秘主義;光学理論;花嫁;美術史;イメージ;中世回帰

  https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-21K12880/

Education

Teaching subject(s)

• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Aesthetics and Art History (Special Lectures)

  5731, Spring, Faculty of Letters, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Aesthetics and Art History (Special Lectures)

  5731, Fall, Faculty of Letters, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Aesthetics and Art History (Special Lectures)

  5731, Fall, Graduate School of Letters, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Aesthetics and Art History (Special Lectures)

  5731, Spring, Graduate School of Letters, 2