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The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens Within the Heart
Timon Screech, 1996
Book description
The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens within the Heart is the first full-length study to consider the introduction of Western technology into Japan in the eighteenth century, when, it has been assumed, that country continued to isolate itself from external influence. Timon Screech demonstrates that exposure to such Western equipment as lenses, mirrors, and glass had a profound impact on Japanese notions regarding the faculty of sight. The enormity of this paradigm shift was moreover, felt less in the area of Japanese scientific inquiry than in art and popular culture, where these devices were often depicted and used metaphorically, as commentary on prevailing social norms. Based on archival sources here published for the first time in any language, this study also sheds new light on Japanese art and its relation to the West; the relationship of science to art and popular culture; and the autonomy and/or internationalization of Japanese culture.
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