Contribution of Japanese printed drawings of aquatic animals brought to Europe by Holland Merchants in the 18th and 19th centuries for biological development

• Autores: Yuko Takigawa
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 308-312
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • During Japan’s isolation from the west, Linnaeus established the scientific classification using binominal nomenclature, which was promptly accepted as a universal system by Western scientists. Therefore, concerning fish, except for some specimens and materials brought back to Europe by voyage naturalists, there were only a few Japanese ichthyological resources available in Europe. Those materials included drawings called “Poisson du Japan” associated with Isaac Titsingh, and a book titled Umi no sachi (Boon of the seas), which were brought to Holland by the Dutch East India Company, the sole western trader with Japan. They are now stored in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

    Umi no sachi is a haiku anthology book of wood engravings in colour, published in 1762, Edo Period, Japan. It mainly contains illustrations of fish and marine invertebrates, in and around Japan, whose characteristics are described to some extent with accuracy. Admitting to the limitation of the illustrations, which often lack accuracy in the number of the fin rays or spines, European biologists in the early 19th century did however utilize the book as a reliable source material for their scientific works. Cuvier and Valenciennes often cited it as “the Japanese printed copy” in their work, Histoire Naturelle des Poissons (1828-1849). Moreover, in the plates for Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des Céphalopodes Acétabulifères (1834-1848), Férussac and d'Orbigny exactly copied and reproduced the drawings of squids and octopuses from the book.

    Based on my research on Umi no sachi in the Bibliothèque Centrale du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, I would like to evaluate its academic value in the progress of science. The role of the book is also reviewed as media, which contributed to the biological classification in the 19th century by providing ideas and description of aquatic animals living in the unknown country.