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Paper short abstract

This paper discusses how fossil specimens from the Indian subcontinent became objects of scientific investigation for Japanese palaeontologists and were incorporated into institutional imaginaries and political projects during the Japanese imperial period.

Paper long abstract

This paper uses animal fossils to discuss Japanese scientific interest in the geology and fauna of the Indian subcontinent and consider how such research was connected to investigations of extinct prehistoric fauna in the Japanese archipelago. Japanese interest in the fauna of the Indian subcontinent was mediated, in a first instance, by the specific circumstances of British imperialism in South Asia. The discovery and subsequent study, from the early nineteenth century onwards, of sizeable collections of mammalian fossils in the Outer Himalayas rendered the fossil record of the Indian subcontinent relevant to scientific investigations on prehistoric fauna in Japan. South Asian fossils became important for purposes of comparison and correlation, especially after fossil remains of prehistoric elephants were discovered in the Japanese archipelago from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Himalayan fossils circulated globally, often as casts sold by British, German and French dealers who tapped into trans-imperial networks to ply their trade in natural history specimens.

Some of these fossils ended up in the collection of The Tohoku University Museum. Purchased shortly after the establishment of the Department of Geology in 1911, these specimens were incorporated into new institutional and political imaginaries. Notably, they became objects of scientific investigation for palaeontologist Matsumoto Hikoshichirō (松本彦七郎, 1887-1975), one of several Japanese scientists who made significant contributions to the study of fossil elephants. Matsumoto’s research was located at the intersections of two empires: the British and the Japanese. He included the South Asian specimens into a broader study of fossil mammals from Sichuan, collected by geologist Sakawa Eijirō (佐川栄次郎, 1873-1941) and presented to the Zoological Institute of the Tokyo Imperial University. In the charged geopolitical climate of WWII, the fossils also became a tool for some of Matsumoto’s palaeontologist colleagues to criticize British imperialism in Asia.