Curators of China knowledge: Morokoshi meishō zue and Osaka-Kyoto cultural networks in late Tokugawa Japan

Abstract

This paper provides an in-depth study of Morokoshi meishō zue, the only substantial Japanese illustrated book on the cultural geography of contemporaneous Qing China (1644 – 1911) produced during the Edo period (1603 – 1868). By analysing its appropriations of valuable and recent Chinese publications, insertion of Osaka-Kyoto identities, and production networks, this paper situates the book in the late Tokugawa context of social control and deviance. Examining the cultural connections surrounding the book’s production and consumption, this paper also proposes a revaluation of the art-historical cliché of the Japanese literati and reveals the social and political significances of their promotion of Chinese art and culture in early modern Japan.