Paper short abstract:

My transcultural project investigates historically- and culturally- specific ideas of 'the real' in representational practices in the process of picturing, mapping and transmitting knowledge in early modern Europe and Edo Japan, as well as their interactions in the eighteenth century.

Paper long abstract:

My transcultural and cross-disciplinary project investigates the transfer of knowledge through the movement of visual objects from early modern Europe to Edo Japan (1603-1868). Using approaches drawn from the anthropology of art and science--in particular the work of Bruno Latour--I examine the ways in which a new type of knowledge called rangaku (蘭学: Dutch/Western studies) was produced, circulated and consumed in eighteenth-century Japan. In discussing a close relationship between image- and knowledge-making, the thesis investigates shifting functions, values and meanings of the idea of 'the real' in representational practices in connection with increasing interest in, and demand for, empirical knowledge of nature and the body in European and Japanese contexts. My thesis focuses on the important role of non-human actors, such as images contained in the volumes of descriptive and observational sciences produced in Western Europe which were the primary vector of knowledge transfer in eighteenth-century Japan.

While previous scholars have emphasized the profound impact of the images found in imported scientific books on the Japanese mind, little attention has been directed towards questions pertaining to the ways in which pictorial representations were conceived as 'realistic' or 'precise' in a particular local context. The primary aim of the thesis is thus to illuminate relatively under-explored issues, such as historically- and culturally-specific ideas of 'the real' or 'precision' in image- and knowledge-making practices, through a close analysis of different ways in which the images functioned as an epistemic tool in particular sociocultural and intellectual settings. By exploring the question of what was 'the real' or 'precision' of Western art and science that Japanese intellectuals encountered through case studies in the fields of natural history, medicine and the visual arts in eighteenth-century Japan, I reexamine the aspect of Western realism which is often taken for granted in previous scholarship in the field. The thesis sheds light on the empirical aspects of eighteenth-century Japanese visual culture and the material aspects of knowledge production and consumption practices in the process of their encounter with European art and knowledge.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper we intend to discuss architectural and urban regulations edited by the Maeda clan over their retainers in Kanazawa. We will study historical documents containing rules about the size and situation of their residential lands, and the restrictions of materials and forms in their houses.

Paper long abstract:

During the Edo period, everyday life of the bushi class was mainly regulated by the Buke shohatto, which was edited by the shogun from 1615. In provincial cities, local lords were able to edit their own rules like in Kanazawa where the Maeda government issued laws and rules in the early 17th century in order to control their rear vassals. In this paper, we would like to discuss the rules in regard to the architectural and urban matters. In early-modern Japanese castle-towns, controlling space was an important matter for the local administration since warriors' lands covered between 50% and 70% of the cities. Such regulations are well known in the case of the capital Edo, especially by the work of the scholar William Coaldrake, but little is yet known about those of the provinces. The work of James McClain about Kanazawa provides an important source of historical information about the development of the city in the 17th century, but architectural and urban regulations of the retainers are not fully discussed.

In this paper, we would like to study historical documents mentioning the rules of attribution of residential lands according to status and salary and mentioning the architectural regulations for the construction of houses. Since housing reflects the social status of its inhabitant, such rules were to be respected in order to preserve the social hierarchy dictated by the neo-Confucian philosophy. However, it is also well known that some regulations were not systematically respected (Coaldrake). This is the reason why we also intend to compare historical documents with Edo period houses remaining in Kanazawa today to see whether the regulations were strictly observed.

Selective bibliography :

COALDRAKE William, « Edo Architecture and Tokugawa Law », Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 36, n˚ 3, 1981, p. 235 284.

MCCLAIN James L., Kanazawa, a Seventeenth-Century Japanese Castle Town, New Haven et London, Yale University Press, 1982, 205 p.

HEKI Ken 日置謙 (éd.), Kaga-han osadame-gaki 加賀藩御定書 (Laws of the Kaga domain), Kanazawa, Kanazawa bunka kyōkai 金沢文化協会, 1936, 802 p.