Carmen Blacker, a British scholar on Japanese culture, died Monday, her birthday, in a Cambridge nursing home, the University of Cambridge said Monday. She was 85.
A lecturer on Japanese studies at the University of Cambridge between 1958 and 1991, Blacker spent her academic career studying Japanese religion and folklore.
Her most notable publication was "The Catalpa Bow: A Study in Shamanistic Practices in Japan," published in 1975.
When Blacker was studying at Keio University in Tokyo, she researched the life and writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi, founder of Keio University and one of the outstanding scholars of the Meiji Restoration.
Blacker received the Minakata Kumagusu Prize in 1997.