Reports on Conferences and Publications by Year

March 31, 2015

Proceedings of the International Symposium
Siebold’s Vision of Japan ―As Seen in Japan-related Collections in the West―
Hosted by the National Institutes for the Humanities with Support from Ruhr University Bochum

Date of Publication: 31 March 2015

Editing: “International Collaborative Research on Japan-related Documents and Artifacts Overseas” Project Category A) “Study of the Siebold Family Collection and Other Materials Collected in Japan and Taken Overseas in the Nineteenth Century” National Museum of Japanese History

Publication: Inter-University Research Institute Corporation

This report records the contents of the Siebold’s Vision of Japan As Represented in Japan-related Collections in the West international symposium, co-organized by Ruhr University Bochum and the National Institutes for the Humanities, Japan, which was held on February 11–12, 2014 at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.

The National Institutes for the Humanities, centering on the National Museum for Japanese History, conducted the “Basic Research Survey on the Materials Collected in Japan in the Early Modern Era (19th Century), including the Materials Related to Philipp and Alexander von Siebold,” as one element of the International Collaborative Research on Japan-related Documents and Artifacts Overseas. This project focused on the 19th century elements of the many Japanrelated collections in Europe and North America, and conducted detailed surveys of materials that were clearly collected in that period, noting their provenance, in order to establish a group of materials as period benchmarks. The five-year project took as its model case the Siebold Collection in the Bavarian State Museum of Ethnology, Munich (renamed the Museum of Five Continents in September 2014). At present, the documents and literature related to Siebold father and son, scattered in various collections, and the Morse Collection in the USA, are the focal elements of a detailed survey of Japan-related materials outside of Japan. We are involved in gaining both an overall grasp of each of the collections, as well as creating a database and an illustrated catalogue of surveyed materials.

This symposium was held as an interim report on our studies, and centered on reports by 18 scholars from the project team and outside specialists, with a total of 20 participants from Japan and 41 participants from outside Japan. As summarized in the “Symposium Accomplishments and Future Tasks” section of this report, it was deeply meaningful to be able to share the detailed results of four years of surveys and research.

We received the generous cooperation of Ruhr University Bochum, one of the owners of Siebold-related materials and a focal point for research on Siebold, for the realization of this symposium. We hereby express our heartfelt appreciation to all those involved in this project.

 

March 2015
Kaori Hidaka, Principal Investigator
National Institutes for the Humanities / National Museum of Japanese History
Research Topic A) Study of the Siebold Family Collection
and Other Materials Collected in Japan and Taken Overseas
in the Nineteenth Century
International Collaborative Research on Japan-related Documents
and Artifacts Overseas, National Institutes for the Humanities


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