A leading Japanese scholar of Chinese history who was based in Kansai, Ôba Osamu (1927–2002) spent a highly productive career, holding appointments from 1953 onwards at Seishin Joshi Daigaku, Ryûkoku Daigaku and Osaka Daigaku. A Professor of Kansai Daigaku in 1965, he later served there as the head of the Faculty of Letters (Bungaku bu) and at one time as Director of the University Library. Outside Japan he held short-term appointments, or was invited to be a visiting scholar, at a number of centres of learning, including some in China (Liaoning, Shandong, Hong Kong and Beijing), the United States of America (Princeton), Belgium (Leuven) and the United Kingdom (Cambridge and London). He held the title of Guest Professor in the Archaeological Research Institute, Gansu, and at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.