Melinda Takeuchi

Melinda Takeuchi is an American academic, author, and Japanologist, currently serving as a professor in both the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Art History at Stanford University. Born and raised in rural Malibu, Southern California, she pursued her education at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), earning a B.A. in Asian Studies in 1966 and an M.A. with honors in the History of Art in 1972. She spent an academic year as a Research Fellow at Waseda University in Tokyo during 1975–1976, before obtaining her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of Michigan in 1979.

Takeuchi's career spans over three decades, culminating in her achieving tenure at Stanford University. Beyond academia, she balances her life by breeding Friesian horses on a ranch in Northern California. A renowned scholar, Takeuchi has authored numerous works, including books and exhibition catalogues, such as "Visions of a Wanderer: the True View Paintings of Ike Taiga" (1979) and "Worlds Seen and Imagined: Japanese Screens from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts" (1995). Her contributions to the field have been recognized with awards, including the Association for Asian Studies' John Whitney Hall Book Prize in 1995.