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 Date
Monday, June 29th, at 6.30 p.m.
Venue
The auditorium of the Royal Swedish Embassy.
1-10-3-100 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032.
Members have already received a notice that asked those wishing to attend to register by the end of May. If any of those who have registered find that they cannot attend after all, it would be appreciated if they could let us know, so that we can give others a chance.
Topic
Flowers for the Shogun: Carl Peter Thunberg and the Arrival of Western Medicine in Japan, 1775-6.
About Our Speaker
Prof. Screech was born in Birmingham, UK, and received his B.A. (Hons.) in Oriental Studies (Japanese) at Oxford, before completing his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1991. He also studied at the universities of Geneva and Gakushuin. He has taught the history of Japanese art at SOAS, University of London, since 1991, and in 2006 was elected to a chair in the History of Art. He is concurrently Permanent Visiting Professor at Tama Art University, Tokyo. His most recent publication is Edo Art and the Exchange of Persons (University of Tokyo Press, 2007).
Abstract
The Swedish doctor and botanist Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) spent some eighteen months in Japan in 1775-76 as physician to the Dutch East India Company. He may have been the most highly educated Westerner to visit the shogunal realm in the entire Edo Period. On his return, his researches into Japanese botany made him famous in Europe, and he became successor to the great Linnaeus at Uppsala University, near Stockholm. But Thunberg also forged significant friendships in Nagasaki and Edo, which left a long legacy.
This talk will introduce the career of Thunberg, but will concentrate on the little-known story of his encounters with Japanese intellectuals - and rakes - and his role in the history of Japanese science and scientific illustration.
Coming Meetings
There will be no meetings during July and August.
Wednesday, September 30th (please note the day): H.E. the Mexican ambassador, Mr. Miguel Ruiz-Cabañas Izquierdo, will speak on the arrival of Don Rodrigo de Vivero in Japan 400 years ago to the day. A Supplement to the Transactions about Vivero written by Dr. Michael Cooper will be launched on that occasion.
Monday, October 26th, Dr. Charles De Wolf on "Through the Looking-Glass of Language: Glimpses of Genji on a Rainy Night".
Monday, November 16th: Young Scholars' Programme.
Monday, December 7th, Mr. Jason James, Director of the British Council, on Edmund Blunden (tentative theme).
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