Saturday, January 5, 2019
Stevens C Prefunction (Hilton Chicago)
Controversial, ambiguous, mysterious – these constitute perhaps the most frequently used terms to describe the Mito domain and school which flourished during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) in Japan. This phenomenon stems from the curious intertwinement of the privileged position of Mito (being closely related to the shogun, the de facto ruler of the realm) and the obscure political stance of the local literati who maintained a relatively loyalist approach to the imperial court. Despite the obvious anomalies of the situation, the Mito thought has not become the center of scholarly attention which resulted in the longstanding assumption that the late Mito scholars had contributed to the turbulent changes of the political scene in mid-19th century Japan by promoting the “sonnō jōi” (“revere the emperor, expel the barbarian”) concept, leading to their association with xenophobia.
My research focuses on the study of the role and significance of Confucianism(s) in Japan in the early modern period which constitutes a complex problem in the history of intellectual exchange, particularly regarding the reasons of its transmission from China and its impact on Japanese identity formation. The Tokugawa era, representing an excellent basis for the exploration of this manifold phenomenon, marks the compilation of the Dai Nihonshi (The History of Great Japan), the monumental history writing project of the Mito school. The creation of the source provides an excellent basis to observe the shifting characteristics of early modern Japanese history writing, using a combination of digital and more “traditional” methods.
An effective way to examine the ideological operations of the Mito school is through the juxtaposition of the compilation of their major accomplishment, the Dai Nihonshi, the only Japanese work based on the example of Chinese dynastic histories and the sole team project of the sort in early modern Japan, and the human drama that accompanied the 250 years of the compilation process.
The poster represents a snapshot of a larger project which discusses the turbulent shifts in the ideological dynamics of the compiler team and their environment by focusing on their operations from three angles, rarely associated with historiography (diplomacy, sociology, and spirituality), to introduce a surreal story from an unlikely region, outside the major intellectual centers of the time.
The poster includes two major parts: in a narrow sense, it showcases the example of Fujita Yūkoku, one of the leaders of the team in the late 18th century, whose own account, the Shūshi shimatsu (The Story of the Compilation from Beginning to End) explains how the image and thoughts of his predecessors were used for his own benefit to justify his intentions of altering the ideological direction of the project through the changing meaning of loyalty and his own interpretation of "truth". The poster then situates Fujita’s figure, as a linchpin between the contradictory nature of a more Sinocentric Confucian approach and a relatively inward-looking ideological stance, in the broader context of the compilation process by using the visualization of a network analysis based on the data of 150 compilers and their contemporaries.
My research focuses on the study of the role and significance of Confucianism(s) in Japan in the early modern period which constitutes a complex problem in the history of intellectual exchange, particularly regarding the reasons of its transmission from China and its impact on Japanese identity formation. The Tokugawa era, representing an excellent basis for the exploration of this manifold phenomenon, marks the compilation of the Dai Nihonshi (The History of Great Japan), the monumental history writing project of the Mito school. The creation of the source provides an excellent basis to observe the shifting characteristics of early modern Japanese history writing, using a combination of digital and more “traditional” methods.
An effective way to examine the ideological operations of the Mito school is through the juxtaposition of the compilation of their major accomplishment, the Dai Nihonshi, the only Japanese work based on the example of Chinese dynastic histories and the sole team project of the sort in early modern Japan, and the human drama that accompanied the 250 years of the compilation process.
The poster represents a snapshot of a larger project which discusses the turbulent shifts in the ideological dynamics of the compiler team and their environment by focusing on their operations from three angles, rarely associated with historiography (diplomacy, sociology, and spirituality), to introduce a surreal story from an unlikely region, outside the major intellectual centers of the time.
The poster includes two major parts: in a narrow sense, it showcases the example of Fujita Yūkoku, one of the leaders of the team in the late 18th century, whose own account, the Shūshi shimatsu (The Story of the Compilation from Beginning to End) explains how the image and thoughts of his predecessors were used for his own benefit to justify his intentions of altering the ideological direction of the project through the changing meaning of loyalty and his own interpretation of "truth". The poster then situates Fujita’s figure, as a linchpin between the contradictory nature of a more Sinocentric Confucian approach and a relatively inward-looking ideological stance, in the broader context of the compilation process by using the visualization of a network analysis based on the data of 150 compilers and their contemporaries.