Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Freya Terryn
(KU Leuven)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Béatrice Jaluzot
(Lyon Institute for East Asian Studies)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Intellectual History and Philosophy
- Location:
- Lokaal 0.3
- Sessions:
- Sunday 20 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to revisit Tomii Masa’akira’s role at a crucial time in the modernization of Japan: his contribution to legislative reform in Japan, the exceptional character of his study abroad, and his potential contribution to the appreciation of Japanese art and culture in 19th-century France.
Long Abstract:
The Meiji Civil Code (1898) was one of the first legal codes drafted by citizens of non-Western societies based on Western legal thought. As a result, Hozumi Nobushige (1855-1926), Ume Kenjirō (1860-1910), and Tomii Masa’akira (1858-1935), all of whom served as members of the drafting committee, have been regarded as the most important jurists of the Meiji period (1868-1912). Yet, unlike Hozumi and Ume, who are the subject of extensive studies, little is known about Tomii—even his biographical facts—due to a lack of sources.
This panel originates in the discovery of unpublished material on Tomii’s formative years in France from 1877 to 1883. During this period, Tomii resided in Lyon and Aix-en-Provence to study law with the financial support of Émile Guimet (1936-1918)—a Lyonnais industrialist, businessman, and fervent art collector who travelled to Japan in 1876 and 1877. The unpublished material, comprising of for example private correspondence between Guimet and Tomii, contains previously unknown information about his time abroad in France and reveals that Tomii, a leading scholar of law in the Meiji period, was deeply involved in the formation of Guimet’s collection of Oriental art. Tomii was ‘a bridge between Western and Japanese law’ and at the same time ‘a bridge between Western and Japanese art.’
This panel offers a comprehensive analysis of Tomii’s contributions and ideas, mainly focusing on his important role in both fields of law and art. By connecting both fields that dominated his formative years abroad, this panel offers a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the dynamics of the process of drafting the Meiji Civil Code. This panel first discusses his contributions to the process of legal reform in Meiji Japan. It then interprets Tomii’s study in Lyon in the broad framework of other Japanese students studying French law with the support of the Japanese government. Finally, it analyzes previously unused archival sources about Tomii’s work for Guimet and considers whether his work can be interpreted to have contributed to the appreciation of Japanese art and culture in 19th-century France.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Sunday 20 August, 2023, -Hiroshi Ono (Kobe University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents the process of legislative reform in Japan in the late 19th century, modeled on the laws of Western countries. It clarifies the historical role played by Tomii Masa’akira, one of the authors of the Meiji Civil Code.
Paper long abstract:
In today’s academic discourse it is accepted that legal thought originated from Western countries. This discourse became prominent in the second half of the 20th century and was mainly triggered by research on the colonization of Asia and Africa by Western countries. Already from the second half of the 19th century legislative reforms by some non-Western countries such as Turkey, Japan, Siam and China took place. These countries’ legal reforms originated in European instructors instructing legal thought and evolved into the autonomous compilation of legal codes without involvement of foreign instructors. This was the first step in the transformation of Western legal thought into global legal thought.
Under the new government established in 1868, Japan chose to reform its legal system. Beginning at the end of the 1860s, the government learned the contents of laws and regulations in Western countries with the aid of non-lawyers who had learned foreign languages. Through their translation work, the government was able to learn the contours of Western legal thought and create legal terms in Chinese characters necessary to domesticate Western law. Other key players were foreign legal advisers invited by the government. Their contributions enabled the government to finally complete the first legal codes based on Western law in the early 1880s. However, with the emergence of Japanese lawyers in the 1880s, the window of opportunity for foreign lawyers to control the path of legal development in modernizing Japan, decreased. The Meiji Civil Code (1898) was the first legal code drafted by only Japanese and, as a result, Western law became Japanese law.
This paper offers insight into the process of legislative reform in Japan over nearly 30 years and argues that this process has important implications for the history of law in the world (not in Japan). Moreover, this paper clarifies the historical position of the main character of this panel, Tomii Masa’akira, one of the authors of the Meiji Civil Code, and also imparts knowledge necessary for a deeper understanding of later papers in this panel.
Akihiko Tsujimura (Kobe Gakuin University)
Paper short abstract:
Tomii Masa’akira was able to study at the Faculty of Law in Lyon thanks to the financial aid of Émile Guimet. Considering this private support, this paper juxtaposes Tomii’s study abroad with that of government-supported students, such as Ume Kenjirō, as well as considers its implications.
Paper long abstract:
France was one of the main sources of Japan’s legal transplant when law was being westernized during the Meiji period (1868-1912). Soon after the first judicial court was founded at Tokyo in 1871, education on French law began and the government invited Gustave Émile Boissonade (1825-1910) to teach it at the School of Law attached to the Ministry of Justice. To further the judicial system, some of his students were sent to Paris to obtain a bachelor’s degree with financial aid provided by the Japanese government.
Next to Paris, the government also supported top graduates from this school to earn a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Law in Lyon. Such an example is Ume Kenjirō (1860-1910), who was sent there in 1886 and obtained his degree in 1889. His thesis dealt with the contract of compromise which covered Roman Law, ancient and present French Law, and even Boissonade’s Japanese Civil Code Draft. Because of his achievements, he was immediately appointed as professor at Tokyo Imperial University.
Tomii Masa’akira (1858-1935), in contrast, does not fit in the picture painted above. His application to the School of Law had been denied in 1876, and, yet, he obtained his doctoral degree from the Faculty of Law in Lyon in 1882. It was not the Japanese government but Émile Guimet (1936-1918) who supported him. Tomii joined Guimet to Lyon in 1877 to aid him with the establishment of a museum of oriental arts. Still eager to start his studies on law, Tomii earned a bachelor’s degree in 1880 and his doctoral degree only two years later. Unlike Ume, Tomii’s future career in Japan was unsure, but he was nevertheless appointed as professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. As result, Ume and Tomii, despite their different paths, became colleagues and later co-wrote the Meiji Civil Code.
This paper considers the different path taken by Tomii and interprets his study abroad in the broader framework of students from the School of Law in Tokyo who received government support and were sent to Paris and, like Ume, to Lyon.
Freya Terryn (KU Leuven)
Paper short abstract:
This paper introduces previously unused archival materials relating to Tomii Masa'akira's work for Émile Guimet and considers whether they can be interpreted to have contributed to the appreciation of Japanese art and culture in 19th-century France.
Paper long abstract:
When Tomii Masa'akira (1858-1935) settled in Lyon in 1877, he started working for Émile Guimet (1936-1918), a Lyonnais industrialist, businessman, and fervent art collector who travelled around Japan in 1876 and 1877. Having amassed a sizeable collection of ceramics and religious artworks and artefacts from Japan and China, Guimet established a museum in Lyon in 1879 dedicated to the religions of the Far East, Egypt, Rome, and Greece.
This paper uses hitherto unused archival sources to shed light on the kind of work that Tomii conducted for Émile Guimet and analyses how these activities can be interpreted to have contributed to the appreciation of Japanese culture and art in 19th-century France. Archival sources reveal that Tomii catalogued Guimet's works, aided in the organization of academic conferences, and wrote, translated, and presented papers on Japanese culture, art, and religion. Particular attention will be paid to Tomii's notes on Japanese art history and his assessment of the painter and woodblock print artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889).