Reconsidering the Role of ’Employed Foreigners’ in the Joint Venture between Japan and Britain in Early Takashima Colliery: An analytical view into the World Heritage of ”Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution”
Abstract
‘Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution, Iron, Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal’ was recognized as World Heritage site by the UNESCO in May 2015. It had been chosen for having outstanding universal value, because it is a successful case of industrial revolution in a non- western country.
It cleared two of the criteria of the World Heritage standards, the first one concerning the communication of values and the second one concerning the aggregation of historical architecture in line with the rules of ICOMOS. But it did not clear the third criterion concerning the transmission of traditional culture like ‘Bushido’, the Japanese martial spirit. So this paper will question the actual and historical traditional culture which past the industrial revolution in the case of the Takashima Colliery which was jointly governed by foreign trading companies and the Saga Clan. Firstly it reflects the history of coal mining in Saga. Secondly it questions the cooperation between British engineers and Japanese craftsmen as their students, as well as the financial side and market factors in the joint venture of Glover Messer. & Saga Clan, Japan’s first joint enterprise. The revolutionary role of professional mining engineer Frederic Potter and his life at the Nagasaki foreign settlement will be finally examined partly using photographs. Considering the significance of early modern Dutch Studies and Western Learning at Saga Clan which laid the foundation of the industrial revolution at the Takashima Colliery will conclude this paper.
雑誌名
長崎外大論叢
雑誌名(英)
The Journal of Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies
初期高島炭坑の日英合弁会社とお雇い外国人の役割再論―世界遺産「明治日本の産業革命」の分析視角―
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