Yasuko Fukuyama is professor at the Department of Global Studies, Ryukoku University, Kyoto. She currently serves as the Director of the Ryukoku Museum. Fukuyama specialises in the history of South Asian art with a special focus on the Ajanta caves. Her interests range from depictions of Buddhist narratives in art and literature, patronage of sacred Buddhist sites during the downfall of Buddhism, and the relationship between the cultural heritage in India and the Japanese in the early twentieth century. Fukuyama is currently working on two JSPS projects: Buddhist Faith and the State Governance in Thailand after the Acceptance of Theravada Buddhism and A Synthetic Study of the “Asianized Buddhist Art.”
For more than two decades, Fukuyama has been working on studies of Ajanta paintings. Her publications include a monograph entitled Studies on the Later Ajanta Paintings [in Japanese] (Chuokoron Bijutsu Shuppan 2014). Her articles include “Japanese encounters with Ajanta,” in Culture as Power, ed. Madhu Bhalla (Routledge, 2021) and “Aspects of the Authenticity and Orthodoxy of the Sacred Site Bodh Gaya: Focusing on the Bodhi Tree, Mahabodhi Temple, and Buddhap?da,” Journal of World Buddhist Cultures, 8 (2025).