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History of Chemistry in Japan in the 19th Century Abstract by Dr. Yona SIDERER, International Research Center for Japanese Studies – Nichibunken, Kyoto, October 27, 2009
Many specific topics in the history of chemistry in Japan were studied, mainly by Japanese scholars, but also by non-Japanese scholars. Nevertheless, there is no thorough book in English about this fascinating topic. The following titles summarize a concise list of topics, to be presented in a lecture (or a course).
1. Kume Kunitake, the historian who traveled and compiled the accounts of the Iwakura Tomomi mission to America and Europe in 1871-1873 wrote a lot about chemistry related topics in the West, and lamented its status in Japan. Descriptions of chemistry studies development in Japan before and after the mission will be presented:
2. Rangaku Studies 1820 - 1850 – Udagawa Yoan and his contemporaries struggle to translate books on chemistry published in Dutch; their efforts to create chemical elements’ names in Japanese; Japanese efforts to appropriate Western scientific thinking while overcoming barriers of religions to the Western perception of nature.
3. Fukuzawa Yukichi: telling in his autobiography about chemical experiments by him and other students in Ogata Koan’s School in Osaka, 1855-1856.
4.Oyatoi Gaikokujin – Hired Foreigners; Foreign teachers of chemistry:
4.1 Early teachers: Dr. Koenraad Wolter Gratama – (Nagasaki, Osaka, Edo: 1869-1874); Dr. William Elliot Griffis ( Fukui, Edo, 1870-1871); Dr. Gottfried Wagener (Nagasaki, Kyoto, Tokyo 1868 – 1892), Dr. David Penhallow – (Sapporo, 1877-?).
4.2 Starting Chemistry Departments at the University of Tokyo: Robert William Atkinson (Tokyo, early 1870s). Edward Divers, (Tokyo 1873 – 1886), Edward Dyer, (Toranomon, 1873 – 1885?).
5. Ryugakusei – Japanese students studying chemistry abroad and their positions and occupations after returning to Japan. Sakurai Joji – Introduction of Physical Chemistry.
6. Establishing Chemistry Departments in the Imperial Universities (1886 and on).
7.ndustrialization – Starting chemistry industry – Shibusawa Eiichi. Junichiro Tanizaki contemplating: What if original chemistry and physics were created in Japan, in “In Praise of Shadows”, 1933, (陰翳礼餐 いんえいらいさん).
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