Book launchThursday 1 December 2011
6:00pm – 7:00pm
Under Eagle Eyes: Lithographs, Drawings and Photographs from the Prussian Expedition to Japan, 1860-61
Drinks reception from 8:00pm
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Edited by Sebastian Dobson & Sven Saaler
With contributions by Nakai Akio, Peter Pantzer, Veit Hammer, Timon Screech, Sebastian Dobson & Sven Saaler
Published by Iudicium
In the roll call of Western nations that participated in the “re-opening” of Japan in the last years of the Shogunate, the Kingdom of Prussia has long been marginalised. The Prussian Expedition to Japan of 1860-61 still receives little scholarly attention outside Germany and Japan, and even among German and Japanese scholars investigation into Count Friedrich zu Eulenburg’s mission has focused almost entirely on the diplomatic negotiations which eventually led to the signing of a Prussian-Japanese treaty in Edo in 1861, an event currently being celebrated in its 150th anniversary year as the beginning of German-Japanese relations.
However, as contemporaries observed, this was no ordinary expedition. Eulenburg’s civilian staff consisted not only of four diplomats, but also of four scientists, two artists and one photographer, all of whom made use of an unexpected five-month stay in Edo to examine and record a country still little-known in Europe. This book seeks to reconstruct the scientific and artistic legacies of Eulenburg’s expedition, much of which either languished in obscurity or was even believed to have been lost. In particular, the iconography of the Prussian Expedition, consisting of photographs, lithographs and work in more traditional media, is presented here for the first time.
* The book was available on the day at the discounted price of £28.00.
About the contributors
Sebastian Dobson
Sebastian Dobson is an independent scholar of the history of photography based in Antwerp. His recent publications include contributions to Art and Artifice: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era (2004) and A Much Recorded War: The Russo-Japanese War in History and Imagery (2005), both published by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as entries in The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Oxford University Press, 2005) and Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography (Routledge, 2007). In 2008 he was awarded the annual prize for research excellence by the Japan Society of Arts and History of Photography (Nihon Shashin Geijutsu Gakkai).
Professor Timon Screech (Chair)
Professor Timon Screech is Professor of Japanese Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He received a BA in Oriental Studies (Japanese) from Oxford University and after completing his PhD in Art History at Harvard, joined SOAS in 1991, where he was elected to a Chair in 2006. He has also been Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago, and guest researcher at Gakushuin and Waseda Universities in Tokyo. Timon has published widely on many aspects of Edo period art and culture, and has written several books in both English and Japanese.