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Photographs included in the original manuscript have t>een reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMT IRON AND SILK; PROGRESS AND IDEOLOGY IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF JAPAN, 1850-1895 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By David Gillman Wittner, M A ***** The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Professor James R Bartholomew, Adviser Approved by Professor Philip C Brown n Professor John F. Guilmartin Adviser Professor Christopher A Reed Department of History UMI Number 9971662 Copyright 2000 by Wittner, David Gillman All rights reserved. UMI UMI Microform9971662 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and teaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and team ing Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann A itor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This dissertation is an examination of the ways in which nineteenth century ideologizing about “civilization” and “enlightenment” influenced the process of technological choice in Meiji Japan. Through case studies of the iron and silk industries, 1 argue that the Meiji government’s guiding principle was not simply economic development or providing a technical model for private industry as is commonly claimed. Rather, the regime’s choice of technique was based on a technological artifact s ability to represent Western “civilization” in Japan. Based on experiences in Europe and the United States, Meiji officials and intellectuals constructed a progress ideology of materials which identified cast iron and brick, for example, as the proper materials from which to build a “civilized” nation. Wooden machines like wooden buildings were seen as traditional and therefore unsuitable for raising Japan’s “level of civilization” within a global context dominated by Britain and France. Presiding over this global structure was a hierarchy of nations based on permanence, precision, and the mastery of the natural environment. Through a technology based re-periodization of the early- through mid-Meiji years, approximately 1868 to 1895,1 demonstrate that Meiji officials’ technological choices were firmly situated within perceptions of authority, modernity, and their varying political agendas. When the new Meiji government was anything but assured of its position vis-à-vis the former domains and foreign powers, technological artifacts were used as instruments of political legitimization. As these same officials became more secure of their political authority, they began to adopt a more moderate posture, moving from a seemingly unquestioned acceptance of Western technological artifacts as the symbols of a new Japan, toward greater selectivity in reconstructing the nation’s politico-cultural identity. By late Meiji, the former icons of Western civilization had been transformed into the symbols of Japanese industrial and military might. Ill To my parents, who never lost faith, and my wife, whose dedication and support insured that I wouldn’t either IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the course of researching and writing this dissertation I have become the beneficiary of much sound advice and support. I wish to thank my adviser, James R. Bartholomew, whose intellectual support and fnendship over the years has profoundly influenced my work. I would also like to thank Professor Philip C. Brown for his counsel and support over the years, as well as Professors John F. Guilmartin, Christopher A. Reed, and Mansel Blackford, all of The Ohio State University, for their insights and comments along the way. Always present but often unseen are those who make our time in the libraries and archives that much easier and productive. It is with this in mind that I would especially like to thank Professor Maureen Donovan, Japanese Studies Librarian at The Ohio State University has for all of her help over the years. In addition, I am grateful to Professors Okamoto Koichi, Waseda University, Morris F. Low, University of Queensland, and Sabine Früstück, University of Califomia-Santa Barbara, for their patience, encouragement, and friendship. While in Japan, I incurred the debt of many outstanding scholars who made my research that much more fruitful. I am deeply indebted to Professor Kudo Akira, University of Tokyo, for his invaluable advice and support throughout my time at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science, and for arranging my sponsorship at the Institute. I am grateful to Professors Sashinami Akiko and Suzuki Jun, University of Tokyo, for their guidance and counsel. My time at the Institute of Social Science was greatly facilitated by the many dedicated staff members, as well as the Institute’s librarians, to whom I express my gratitude. I would also like to thank the library staff at the University of Tokyo’s Faculties of Economics and Law for their assistance, and Ms Fujii Sachiko of the Meiji Shinbun Zasshi Bunko for her suggestions and help. During my first and subsequent research trips, Ms Murahashi Katsuko of the Keidanren, Ms. Koide Izumi, International House of Japan, and Ms. Harada Noriko, National Science and Technology Museum, Tokyo, were instrumental in helping me locate materials held in various museum collections. I greatly benefitted from meetings with the curatorial staff at the Gumma Prefecture Museum of Technology in Takasaki, and the Kamaishi Iron and Steel History Museum, in Kamaishi City. I have profited fi'om and enjoyed my interaction with members of the Japan Association of Mining and Metallurgy Research, in particular Murata Sunao, Hatakeyama Jiro, and Onozaki Satoshi; as well as my many dear fiends who comprise the Tokyo Bluegrass Farm. Throughout my stay in Japan, Professor Jonathan Lewis, Tokyo Denki University, and his wife, Maho, made my trip all the more enjoyable. I greatly appreciate their fnendship and wish to thank them for all their help. Because of their constant support and patience, good friends often never receive the thanks they are due. It is with this in mind that I thank Christopher Gerteis, University of Iowa, and Jason Karlin, University o f Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for their advice VI and fnendship as we poured through endless ideas and cups of coffee while in Tokyo. Most of all, I thank my wife, Hsin Hsin, for her patience over the years. She has endured much in the course of this project and her spirit has never flagged. Without her encouragement and support, the experience of writing this dissertation would have been significantly more difiScult and far less enjoyable. This research has been supported by the generous funding of the Fulbright Foundation and the Japan-United States Education Commission, The Japan-America Society of Chicago who supported my first research trip to Japan in 1997, and The Ohio State University’s Graduate Summer Research Fellowship program. vn VITA March 20, 1960 ..........................................Bom, New Haven, Connecticut 1990 ............................................................ B.G.S. University of Connecticut 1992-1993 ..................................................FALCON Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 1993-199 4 ..................................................FLAS Fellow, Department o f History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1994-199 6 .................................................Graduate Research Associate, National Foreign Language Resource Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1997-199 8 ..................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1998-199 9 .................................................Visiting Research Fellow, The University of Tokyo, Institute of Social Science, Tokyo, Japan 1999-200 0 .................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS 1. “‘Chilling Before The Blast’; A Comparative Case Study in Technology Transfer in the American and Japanese Iron Industries” Kinzokii Kazan Kenkyû, no 78 (May, 2000) 12-23. 2. “Yôkô izen no reikyaku gyoko: Amerika to Nihon no