講演　英国における明治時代の日本研究と書物交流 : 日本文学の本格的紹介（翻訳）の前段階として

Japanese books have played a constitutive role in the development of Japanese studies overseas. Early Japanese books, which were collected in Japan during Meiji period, and Japanese books which were exported from Japan, have supported the development of Japanese studies. On the other hand, the interest in Japanese art, which was derived from the Western craze of Japonisme, played a large part in the development of Japanese studies abroad, perhaps most notably in Britain during the Meiji period. The interest in Japanese art was one of the main reasons for the study of the Japanese language and the development of Japanese studies in Britain during this period. Japanese studies in the Britain reached maturity with the first good translations of the Japanese literary classics into English. We can recognize Arthur Waley\u27s translation of the Tale of Genji (1925-1933) as one of the key achievements of the newly mature Japanese studies in Britain.Waley\u27s translation was a pinnacle of Japanese studies in Britain. However, it was built on earlier achievements in Japanese studies. One of the preconditions for the development of the subject was the British Museum (now the British Library and the British Museum). Waley himself had worked in the British Museum. His superior at the museum was Laurence Binyon, a poet and important scholar of Japanese and Oriental arts. Another scholar attached to the British Museum was Arthur Morrison, a friend of Binyon. A famous novelist, Morrison was also a serious scholar of Japanese art, and a major contributor to the Japanese art collections at the British Museum. Morrison, whose novels were renowned for their realistic depictions of poverty of the East End of London, built up perhaps the largest private Japanese art collection in Europe, and published a serous research book on Japanese art, and, despite never visiting Japan, managed to master the language.We can consider three stages in the historical progression of the study of Japan in Britain: Kokugaku (National Learning), Japanology, and Japanese studies. Pioneers of Japanology, such as Ernest Satow, George William Aston, Basil Hall Chamberlain, visited Japan during the last days of the Edo period and the early days of the Meiji period. Their work in Japan, which included the collection of Japanese books (primarily pre-modern Japanese books), broke fresh ground for Japanese studies in the West. Notably, while visiting Japan, these British Japanologists also learned from native Japanese scholars of Kokugaku (National Learning). The progression of Japanese studies in Britain, which was then primarily focused on the study of Japanese art, was aided by, and ran in parallel to, the work of British scholars in Japan. The Japanese books, which Satow, Aston and others collected, were subsequently transferred to Britain, mainly ending up in either Cambridge University Library or the British Library. These books became the core collections for Japanese studies in Britain after World War II.In studying the book trade between Japan and Britain, we can examine the number of Japanese books exported and their monetary value using the historical records for foreign trade statistics. Given that very few people in the West could understand Japanese, it surprising how many Japanese books were exported from Japan. It is likely that most of these Japanese books exported to the West were pre-modern works which were probably bought for their illustrations. The demand for Japanese illustrations was high, especially during the fashion for Japonisme. Nonetheless, some of these books may have been used by the few Western scholars who could indeed read Japanese. The exportation of Japanese books to the West was therefore greatly influenced by the interest in Japanese art. This is corroborated by the statistics in book trades by those of art works or curios trades for the period.My talk will be framed by the geographical areas of Japan and Britain, and the chronological timescale of the Meiji period. I will examine three topics during my talk, which I argue form the precursory stage to the mature development of Japanese studies in Britain (perhaps marked by the translation of the Tale of Genji by Arthur Waley, 1925-1933). These are: the development of Japanese studies in Britain and Japan during the Meiji period; the trade in books between Japan and Britain; and the influence of the study of Japanese art, in particular Arthur Morrison’s studies of Japanese art