1959 Volume 61 Pages 112-119
The Western architecture was first introduced into Japan immediately before the Meiji era in various processes. It can be said that one of these processes was the publication of books on Western architecture. In 1882 (15th of Meiji) the "Kenchikugaku" (Architecture) was published by the Education Ministry, as one of the volumes of the "Hyakkazensho". This was the first book on Western architecture entitled the "Kenchikugaku". This significant work, however, has not been made clear about the process of its appearance. Therefore, I first of all tried to make clear the presence of the "Hyakkazensho" and could find the following facts: a. The "Hyakkazensho", whose publication was planned in 1871 (4th of Meiji) at the Editorial Board of the Education Ministry by Rinsho Mizukuri, the chief of this board, was a series of books on the Western knowledges translated into Japanese by many scholars from the William & Robert Chambers's "Information for the People" the 1858 fourth edition. This series, boming out in order of the accomplishment of the translation, was classified by the subject. It took about ten years from 1873 to 1883 (6th to 16th of Meiji) to complete the work. Its first volume "Kyodosetsu" (Education), which was translated by R. Mizukuri himself, was published in September 1873. The "Architecture" was published a little before the completion of the whole work. b. Rinsho Mizukuri (1846〜1897) has been known as a scholar of French law in the Meiji era. But he held the highest position of the professorship of the national university in the early days of Meiji, mastered Dutch, English and French, and traveled Europe. He also was a co-editor of the "Eiwataiyaku-jiseo" (English Japanese Dictionary), the first one in Japan, in which the English "architecture" was translated into "kenchikugaku". He planned to introduce Western knowledge to Japan in direct form of translation of English books. c. There were many kinds of edition in this series and these was widely disseminated. In 1877 (10th year of Meiji) this began to be compiled in 20 volumes by the Education Ministry. After this edition, it was published in the same form by a publisher Yurindo. In 1883 Maruzen Co. published the work, too, translating directly from the 5th edition of the original English work. In it "Architecture" was translated into the Japanese "Zoka-ho" by Naokichi Tsuzuki under the editor Keisuke Otori. Through these researches on the "Hyakkazensho", it can be said that the Japanese equivalent "Kenchikugaku" was used from the beginning of this work (1871), not from 1882. But concerning this fact and others I will report in the next paper.
