Norihito Hayashi is Associate Professor of the History of Islamic Art and Architecture at the Faculty of International Studies, Ryukoku University, Kyoto. He studied Art and Architecture at the University of London, SOAS, (BA), (MA), and received his Ph.D. from Ryukoku University in 2012. Before joining Ryukoku in 2014, he was a research fellow at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, and a lecturer in the History of Asian Art at Kyoto University of the Arts.
His work focuses on visual and material culture of Medieval Islam, and much of his work has centred on the Islamic Book painting, especially on the Iconography of Animals and Mythical Creatures appeared in the Scientific and Narrative Books from the Medieval Period, and the Formation and Development of the Pictorial Tradition of Persian Book Painting.
His recent publications in Journals include Norihito Hayashi (2023), “The Giant ‘Uj and His Images in Islamic Book Painting,” Topos of Giants: Figures of Giants in Ancient Oriental, Jewish, Islamic, and European Cultures: 83-114 (in Japanese), and Norihito Hayashi (2020), “Some Observations on the Illustrations of Monsters: The Earliest Images of Monstrous Races appeared in the al-Qazwini’s Wonders of Creation,” Journal of the Research Institute for International Society and Culture, Ryukoku University (22):185-199.