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Paper short abstract

This study analyzes representations of the Other in late Edo Japan through castaway records. By examining interrogations, accounts, edited narratives, and scholarly texts, it explores how commoners and scholars shaped hierarchical views of non-Japanese peoples within diverse intellectual frameworks.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines representations of the “Other” in the late Edo period through an analysis of castaway records (hyōryūki 漂流記). During the Edo period (1603–1868), a substantial body of castaway accounts emerged, documenting the experiences of Japanese individuals who drifted to foreign lands. These narratives range from official interrogation records to richly illustrated texts edited by scholars associated with the Bakufu and circulated primarily in manuscript form.

This study explores how non-Japanese peoples were depicted in Edo-period castaway narratives and how Japanese intellectual traditions shaped images of the Other within a framework that combined Dutch Studies (Rangaku 蘭学), National Studies (Kokugaku 国学), and Zhu Xi–influenced Neo-Confucian thought (Shushigaku 朱子学). By examining firsthand interrogation records and self-authored reports by shipwrecked sailors, the paper seeks to clarify how commoners in the Edo period perceived foreign peoples and cultures.

Furthermore, through an analysis of works such as Hokusa bunryaku 北槎聞略 (Abridged Account of a Northern Raft, 1794), Funaosa nikki 船長日記 (A Captain’s Diary, 1822), and Aboku shinwa 亜墨新話 (New Stories about America, 1844), this study investigates the influence of contemporary geographic treatises (chishi 地誌)—including Zōho Ka-i tsūshō kō 増補華夷通商考 (Augmented Treatise on Sino–Foreign Trade, 1708) and Shin’u shōshiki 新宇小識 (Brief Notes on the New World, 1816)—as well as Sino-Japanese encyclopedias such as Kinmōzui 訓蒙図彙 (Illustrated Dictionary for Beginners, 1666) and Wakan sansai zue 和漢三才図会 (Illustrated Compendium of Japanese and Chinese Knowledge, 1712). These sources played a significant role in shaping and expanding images of the unknown and reveal how Edo-period scholars engaged with concepts of “civilization,” “indigeneity,” and “colony” that challenged the prevailing Sinocentric worldview.

By integrating the perspectives of both commoners and scholars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this study seeks to elucidate the intellectual framework through which a hierarchical system of values concerning the Other was produced in the late Edo period.