Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:37:17.004Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Japanese exploration of Central Asia: The Ōtani expeditions and their British connections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Imre Galambos*
Affiliation:
IDP, British Library
Kitsudō Kōichi*
Affiliation:
Ryūkoku University, Japan1

Abstract

The Archives of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) include a small lot of material relating to the three expeditions to western China organized and financed by Count Ōtani Kozui (1902–14), with the aim of exploring Buddhist sites. Ōtani also recognized the significance of promoting their results outside of Japan and integrating them into the international academic community, primarily Britain. Since his collection was later dispersed, the material in the RGS Archives provides valuable information on the expeditions and clarifies the context for some of the discoveries. In addition, it evidences traces of the interaction between Japanese and British scholarly circles, as an example of the complex international network of scholarship on Central Asia in the early part of the twentieth century. It also shows the efforts invested by the Japanese side in trying to have their results acknowledged as being equal to those of Western explorers.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bongard-Levin, Grigorij M., Lardinois, Roland and Vigasin, Aleksej A. (eds). 2002. Correspondances Orientalistes entre Paris et Saint-Pétersbourg (1887–1935). (Mémoires de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 26.) Paris: Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Diffusion de Bocard.Google Scholar
Fujimoto Kōjō 藤本光城, . 1968. Ningen Ōtani Kōzui 人間大谷光瑞. Ōsaka: Teibi shobō.Google Scholar
Galambos, Imre. 2008a. “An English participant in the Japanese exploration of Central Asia: the role of A. O. Hobbs (1892–1911) in the third Otani expedition”, in Popova, Irina (ed.), Russian Expeditions to Central Asia at the Turn of the 20th Century. St Petersburg: Slavia, 188202.Google Scholar
Galambos, Imre. 2008b. “The third Ōtani expedition at Dunhuang: acquisition of the Japanese collection of Dunhuang manuscripts”, Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 3, 2935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galambos, Imre. 2008c. “Otani Kozui's 1910 visit to London”, Heisei 19 nendo kotenseki dejitaru ākaibu kenkyū sentā kenkyū seika hōkokusho 平成 19 年度古典籍デジタルアーカイブ 研究センター研究成果報告書. Kyōto: Ryūkoku University, 174–87 (Also available online at: http://idp.bl.uk/downloads/otani_london.pdf (accessed 14 January 2011).Google Scholar
Galambos, Imre. 2010. “Japanese ‘spies’ along the Silk Road: British suspicions regarding the second Otani expedition (1908–09)”, Japanese Religions 35, 3361.Google Scholar
Hopkirk, Peter. 1980. Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar
Itō Toshio 伊藤敏雄, . 2002. “Ri Haku monjo shōkō: Shutsudochi to shosha nendai wo chūshin ni” 李柏文書小考―出土地と書写年代を中心に, in Noguchi Tetsurō sensei koki kinen ronshū kankō iinkai 野口鐵郎先生古稀記念論集刊行委員会, (ed.), Chūka sekai no rekishiteki tenkai 中華世界の歴史的展開. Tōkyō: Iwanami shoin.Google Scholar
Jaffe, Richard M. 2006. “Buddhist material culture, ‘Indianism’, and the construction of Pan-Asian Buddhism in prewar Japan”, Material Religion 21/3, 266–93.Google Scholar
Kagawa Mokushiki 香川默識, . 1915. Saiiki kōko zufu 西域考古図譜, vols 1–2. Tōkyō: Kokkasha.Google Scholar
Katayama Akio 片山章雄, . 1988. “Ri Haku monjo no shutsudochi” 李柏文書の出土地. Chūgoku kodai no hō to shakai 中国古代の法と社会. Tōkyō: Kyūkoshoin, 161–77.Google Scholar
Katayama Akio 片山章雄, . 2001. “Ōtani Kōzui no Ōshū ryūgaku” 大谷光瑞の欧州留学. Tōkai daigaku kiyō (Bungakubu) 76, 175–94.Google Scholar
Katayama Akio 片山章雄, . 2004. Yo tamatama Eikoku Rondon ni ari: Ōa ōkan Nishi Honganji ryūgakusei 予會ゝ英國倫敦に在り : 欧亜往還西本願寺留学生. Beppū: Ōtani Kinenkan.Google Scholar
Katayama Akio 片山章雄, . 2007. “Ōtani tankentai dainiji taiin Tachibana Zuichō no Saiiki nandō tōsa” 大谷探検隊第二次隊員橘瑞超の西域南道踏査, in Nicchū kyōdō Niya iseki gakujutsu chōsa hōkokusho 日中共同尼雅遺跡学術調査報告書, vol. 3. Kyōto, 223–33.Google Scholar
Katayama Akio 片山章雄, . 2008. “Tachibana Zuichō no Rōran kinpen no tōsa to kankei suru kiroku: Bunbutsu (1)” 橘瑞超の楼蘭近辺の踏査と関係する記録・文物(1). Tōkai shigaku 東海史学 42, 4153.Google Scholar
Meng Fanren 孟凡人, . 1990. Loulan xinshi 楼蘭新史. Beijing: Guangming ribao chubanshe.Google Scholar
Mori Shikazō 森鹿三, . 1959. “Ri Haku monjo no shutsudochi” 李柏文書の出土地. Ryūkoku shitan 龍谷史壇 45, 922.Google Scholar
Oda Yoshihisa 小田義久, . 2000a. “Tokutomi Sōhō kinenkan zō Ri Jigei kokushin no shashin no tsuite” 徳富蘇峰記念館蔵李慈藝告身の寫眞について. Ryūkoku daigaku ronshū 龍谷大学論集 456, 122–41.Google Scholar
Oda Yoshihisa 小田義久, . 2000b. “Tōdai kokushin no ichi kōsa” 唐代告身の一考察. Tōyō shien 東洋史苑 56, 127.Google Scholar
Ōgi Akira 大木彰, Kitsudō Kōichi 橘堂晃一 and Yoshida Yutaka 吉田豊, . 2008. “Ōtani tankentai shūshū ‘Saigonji zō shiryō’ ni tsuite” 大谷探検隊収集「西厳寺蔵橘資料」について. Tōyō shien 東洋史苑 70–71, 5979.Google Scholar
Ross, E. Denison. 1943. Both Ends of the Candle: The Autobiography of Sir E. Denison Ross. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Seki Rokō 関露香, . 1913. Indo tanken: Honpa Honganji hōshu Ōtani Kōzui haku 印度探検 : 本派本願寺法主大谷光瑞伯. Tōkyō: Hakubunkan.Google Scholar
Shirasu Jōshin 白須浄眞, . 2002. Ōtani tankentai to sono jidai 大谷探検隊とその時代. Tōkyō: Bensei.Google Scholar
Stein, M. Aurel. 1921. Serindia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sugimoto Hisahide 杉森久英, . 1975. Ōtani Kōzui 大谷光瑞. Tōkyō: Chūō kōronsha.Google Scholar
Tachibana Zuichō 橘瑞超, . 1989. Chūa tanken 中亜探検. Tōkyō: Chūō kōronsha. Postscript by Kaneko Tamio 金子民雄. First edition: Tōkyō: Hakubunkan, 1912.Google Scholar
Tachibana Zuichō 橘瑞超, . 2001. Shimei ki 使命記. Nagoya, private publication.Google Scholar
Tsumoto Yō 津本陽, . 1999. Ōtani Kōzui no shōgai 大谷光瑞の生涯. Tōkyō: Kadogawa shoten.Google Scholar
Uehara Yoshitarō 上原芳太郎, (ed.) 1937. Shin Saiiki ki 新西域記, vols 1–2. Tōkyō: Yūkōsha.Google Scholar
Wang, Helen. 2002. Sir Aurel Stein in The Times. London: Saffron Books.Google Scholar
Yu Taishan 余太山, . 1995. “I. Tulufan chutu wenshu suojian ‘Yuanhe’, ‘Jianping’ nianhao; II. Guanyu Li Bo wenshu” I. 吐魯番出土文書所見“禾”、“建平”年號; II. 關於“李柏文書”. Xiyu yanjiu 西域研究 1, 7786.Google Scholar