Alternative Channels of Knowledge Production, Transmission, and Circulation in Tokugawa Japan

Panel Convenor(s)

• BG

  Bettina Gramlich-Oka

  Sophia University, Japan

Panel Chair(s)

• BG

  Bettina Gramlich-Oka

  Sophia University, Japan

Presenter(s)

• MK

  Mijin Kim

  Ulsan University, Republic of Korea
• MW

  Margarita Winkel

  Leiden University, Netherlands
• FK

  Fumiko Kobayashi

  Hosei University, Japan
• MN

  Maki Nakai

  Meiji University, Japan
• BG

  Bettina Gramlich-Oka

  Sophia University, Japan

The panel considers alternative channels of knowledge production, transmission, and circulation during Japan’s Tokugawa period (1603–1867), a time period before education and the acquisition of knowledge became institutionalized or formally structured by the state or another governing body. The individual topics taken up by the panelists offer in particular insight into those channels that emphasize experimental investigation and evidential evaluation as part of the process of knowledge acquisition.

Previous studies have primarily focused on private and domain schools or individual scholars and the dissemination of their ideas. Yet, the presentations of this panel emphasize alternative circuits of diffusion and construction of knowledge—akin to “invisible colleges.” Fumiko Kobayashi, for instance, discusses loosely connected literary groups who constructed images of the kingdom of Ryūkyū. Mijin Kim and Margarita Winkel both focus on international exchange and dissemination of botanical and zoological applied knowledge. Maki Nakai explores the acquisition process of knowledge related to court customs through the records of a scholar’s trip to Kyoto. Since mid- to lower ranking men feature more prominently in the production of knowledge, Bettina Gramlich-Oka considers how rank and gender may have impacted the participation in these groups. 

Together, the panelists demonstrate that the production and dissemination of knowledge took on diverse forms, and that the transmission of knowledge was not restricted by spatial and temporal boundaries of Tokugawa Japan and instead extended to the neighboring countries and other continents across time.

 
Institutional panel by: Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture (Research Unit “Network Studies”)

Presentations:

• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Transmission of Plants and Botanical Knowledge from Joseon Korea to Tokugawa Japan
  

  Presenter: Mijin Kim – Ulsan University
• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Dissemination of Knowledge and Experience of Foreign Animals and Animal Life in Tokugawa Japan
  

  Presenter: Margarita Winkel – Leiden University
• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Orientalizing Ryukyu in Nineteenth-Century Japan
  

  Presenter: Fumiko Kobayashi – Hosei University
• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Crossways of Embodied Knowledge in the Nineteenth-Century Imperial Capital
  

  Presenter: Maki Nakai – Meiji University
• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Crossways of Knowledge in the Private Collection of a High-Ranking Woman in Nineteenth-Century Japan
  

  Presenter: Bettina Gramlich-Oka – Sophia University