Encyclopedia of Western Art (Kōmō zatsuwa) - Morishima Chūryō

A woodblock print from the 1787 encyclopaedia Kōmō zatsuwa, illustrating the Japanese fascination with Western scientific instruments during the Edo period.

This woodblock print originates from Kōmō zatsuwa, or 'Miscellaneous Talk on the Red-Haired', a publication authored by Morishima Chūryō in 1787. The text serves as an early Japanese encyclopaedia focused on Western knowledge, specifically information gathered from Dutch traders at Dejima in Nagasaki. The term 'Red-Haired' was a common Japanese reference to the Dutch merchants who were the primary conduit for European science and technology during Japan's period of isolation.

The illustration depicts a scene of cultural and scientific exchange. On the left, a figure attends to another, while on the right, a man observes a mechanical device, likely an early scientific instrument or optical apparatus brought to Japan by the Dutch. The composition is typical of late eighteenth-century Japanese book illustration, utilising clean, black ink lines on paper. The figures are rendered with the characteristic stylisation of the period, focusing on clarity and narrative function rather than realistic perspective.

Morishima Chūryō was a significant figure in the Rangaku (Dutch Learning) movement. His work provided his contemporaries with a rare glimpse into European life, medicine, and technology. The print captures the curiosity surrounding foreign objects, reflecting the intellectual climate of the Edo period where scholars sought to understand the world beyond Japan's borders. The inclusion of text within the image area is a standard feature of Japanese woodblock books, where the written word and the visual image function as a unified whole to convey information. This print is a document of the early encounter between Japanese intellectual traditions and Western scientific inquiry, preserved through the medium of traditional woodblock printing.