abstract:

This article examines five separate but interrelated cases concerning scientific instruments in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Japan. Instruments like telescopes and clocks were not typically traded goods on the early modern Japanese market, but their use and production show us the inventive activities carried out in later Edo Japan. The first two cases highlight academic activities in Osaka, where scholars, in collaboration with craftsmen, made and used instruments in order to study Western natural sciences. Their activities were possible thanks to wealthy merchants, who promoted the active circulation of things and information. The three other cases are ingenious craftsmen who demonstrate the importance of their contact with academic intellectuals for making and elaborating optical and mechanical instruments. An analysis of their career paths reveals to what extent the goals and outcomes of their inventive activities were constrained and promoted by their social and occupational standing in the feudal society.

摘要：

本文考察了 18 和 19 世纪日本有关科学仪器的五个独立但相互关联的案例。望远镜和钟表等仪器在近代日本市场上通常不是交易商品，但它们的使用和生产向我们展示了日本江户后期进行的创造性活动。前两个案例突出了大阪的学术活动，在那里，学者与工匠合作制造和使用仪器以研究西方自然科学。他们的活动之所以成为可能，要归功于富商，他们促进了事物和信息的活跃流通。其他三个案例是巧妙的工匠，他们展示了与学术知识分子接触对制造和制作光学和机械仪器的重要性。