2019 Volume 28 Issue 3 Pages 217-236
There may be several levels or patterns in employing ‘history' in the various practices relevant to geosciences. This article examines some cases experienced in modernizing Japan, especially in the period of the 1860s‒1920s, in the geoscientific fields and science teaching. In the early stage, geologists made use of natural history or regional geography with illustrations produced in the Edo Period in their geological surveys. Furthermore, seismologists employed historical documents to compile the history of earthquakes in Japan. These were practical usages of ‘history'. The second stage saw the introduction of scientific biographies and utilization of ‘classics' by scientists. Bunjiro Koto (1856‒1935), the first Japanese professor of geology in the University of Tokyo, took up biographies of Western geologists in the magazine Chigaku Zasshi he edited in the 20s (1889‒1896) of the Meiji Era. This was a typical pedagogical usage of the history of the science to popularize it. Hantaro Nagaoka (1865‒1950) used the classics in an interesting way; when young, his reading of Chinese classics was what inspired his career as a physicist. In the third stage, we can recognize the emergence of making science history, but under limited conditions. The cosmophysicist of Kyoto University Shinzo Shinjo (1873‒1938), used the history of astronomy in an introductory work on cosmic evolution (1916), while a geographer-geologist from the same university, Takuji Ogawa (1870‒1941) interpreted the history of geology to create his theory of the earth (1929). These theorists were aware of the importance of historical authority for establishing the new trends of their disciplines in Japan. Moreover, using Chinese materials, Shinjo and Ogawa narrated the history of astronomy and geography, respectively, of ancient China. Thus, we can trace the steps by which scientists utilized histories to gain information from indigenous knowledge in the fields and introduce Western teachings in the classrooms. In this process, they also tried to construct the history of nature. More importantly, in this procedure, they even came to study the genuine history to inspect traditional science and technology, although the society for the historical study of science was not yet established.
