Science and Technology in the Transformation of the World (UNU, 1982, 496 p.): Session V: From intellectual dependence to creativity: Science and technology in the history of modern Japan: imitation or endogenous creativity?: Tetsuro Nakaoka: Notes

Science and Technology in the Transformation of the World (UNU, 1982, 496 p.)

Session V: From intellectual dependence to creativity

Science and technology in the history of modern Japan: imitation or endogenous creativity?

Tetsuro Nakaoka

		(introduction...)
		Notes

Notes

1. Research papers of the Institute of International Relations of Sophia University, Japan, Series A-22, 1974.

2. Ibid., P. 7.

3. For instance, Lynn White, Medieval Technology and Social Change, 1962; Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 4, part 2, 1965.

4. The original record includes detailed descriptions about the raw materials used, melting and casting processes, and the final products. This is a very brief summarization here.

5. This was the greatest technical difficulty in this attempt. The metallurgical reason for this has been explained recently by Shoji Okumura, Koban Kiito Watetsu [Gold coins, silk, and iron in the Edo Period].

6. Shoji Okumura has suggested that maybe this improvement was owing to the importation of western pig iron through Nagasaki. But criticizing this opinion Professor Shuji Ohashi has explained the existence of the pre-treating process and its meaning. Here I choose Professor Ohashi's opinion.

7. Shuji Ohashi, Bakumatsu-Meiji Seitetsu Shi [A history of iron metallurgy in the late Edo and Meiji periods], 1975, pp. 44-48.

8. It must be noticed that this date was just after the Opium War, which gave some Japanese full recognition of the dreadful military power of the West, while most Japanese were still in a dream of isolated peace. Situated at the western end of Japan and nearest to Nagasaki, which was Japan's only window to the West during the Edo Period, the Saga clan was always well-informed about the international situation. Therefore, it reacted immediately to this external menace.

9. Ohashi, op. cit., p. 213.

10. Ibid., p. 17.

11. The most original study of the early history of the modern Japan iron industry since this date is: Hiroto Saigusa and Ken-ichi lida, Nippon Kindai Seitetsu Gijutsu Hattatsu-shi [A history of modern Japanese iron-manufacturing technology], 1957.

12. Masaski Kobayashi, Yawata Seitetsu-Sho [The Yawata Iron Works], 1977, p. 182.

13. Tetsu Hiroshige, Kagaku no Shakai-shi [A social history of science in Japan], 1917, p. 100.

14. Ibid., pp. 107-128.