Short bio

Stefan Köck studied Japanese History, Ancient History and Indology at the Ruhr-University Bochum, at Waseda University, and at Tōkyō University. From 2006 to 2016 he worked as a research assistant at the Japanese History Section of the Ruhr-University Bochum, where he supervised the Siebold Archive and participated in the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe". At the same time he was a member of the editorial board of the Bochum Yearbook of East Asian Studies (BJOAF). He was an editor of the series Veröffentlichungen des Ostasieninstituts der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (VOAI) from 2009 to 2013. Since 2015, Köck has been working on the project "Reconstruction of the Holdings of the Former Japan Institute Berlin (1926–1945)", funded by the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO), which aims to reconstruct the library holdings of the former Japan Institute Berlin.

His research interests include questions of religion and society in Japan's Middle Ages and early modern period. He has studied topics related to the field of esoteric Buddhism and the interactions between Buddhism and autochthonous beliefs. In addition, he has dealt with the history of Japanology during the so-called "Third Reich". Köck joined the IKGA in November 2016 as a research fellow and is working within the framework of the project "Hanryō shintō: Regional Shintō reforms in early modern Japan".

Monograph

Stefan Köck, 2009
Das Juhō-yōjin-shū [Sammlung von der Wachsamkeit beim Empfangen buddhistischer Lehren] des Mönches Shinjō als Apologie der Shingon-Schule gegenüber konkurrierenden Lehren in der Provinz Echizen um 1270. (The Juhō-yōjin-shū [Collection on Vigilance when Receiving Buddhist Teachings] of the Monk Shinjō Understood as Apologia against Competing Teachings in the Province of Echizen around 1270). Dissertation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Electronic publication, full text available at: https://hss-opus.ub.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/opus4/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/2227/file/diss.pdf​​​​​​​.

Edited volumes

Stefan Köck, Brigitte Pickl-Kolaczia, and Bernhard Scheid, eds., 2021
Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan. London et al.: Bloomsbury.

Matthias Bley, Nikolas Jaspert, Stefan Köck, ed., 2015
Discources of Purity in Transcultural Perspective. Dynamics in the History of Religions 7. Leiden: Brill.