Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T03:56:13.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Japanese Reverse Compasses: Grounding Cognition in History and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2018

Yulia Frumer
Yulia Frumer*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University Email address: yfrumer@jhu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Argument

An unusual compass, on which east and west are reversed, provides insight into the dynamics guiding our understanding of artifacts. By examining how such compasses were used in Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868), the benefits they brought, and how users knew how to read them, this article uncovers the cognitive factors that shape our interaction with technology. Building on the methodological approach of the distributed cognition theory, the article claims that reverse compasses allowed the user to conserve cognitive effort, which was particularly advantageous to Tokugawa-period mariners. Moreover, the article shows that even non-professional Tokugawa Japanese had a relatively easy time reading reverse compasses due to similarity between the compasses’ orientation and Tokugawa timekeeping practices. Building on the bodily and cognitive habits they had developed through the practices of keeping time, users could identify and interpret cultural cues embedded in the structure of reverse compasses.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 155 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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

Adams, George. [1790]1803. Geometrical and Graphical Essays, Containing a General Description of the Mathematical Instruments Used in Geometry, Civil and Military Surveying, Levelling, and Perspective; With Many New Practical Problems. London: Printed by W. Glendinning and sold by W. and S. Jones.Google Scholar
Alder, Ken, 2002. The Measure of All Things. New York and London: Free Press.Google Scholar
Baird, Davis. 2004. Thing Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instruments. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bedini, Silvio. 2001. With Compass and Chain: Early American Surveyors and Their Instruments. Frederick MD: Professional Surveyors Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Bikei, 美啓. [1841]1929–31. Nihon funaji saikenki 日本船路細見記 [Detailed look into the sea routes of Japan]. Reprinted in vol. 6 of Kaiji shiryō sōsho海事史料叢書 [Collection of maritime sources], edited by Shōichi, Sumita. Tokyo: Ganshōdō Shoten.Google Scholar
Clark, Andy. 2008. Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Philip. 1987. “The Mismeasure of Land: Land Surveying in the Tokugawa Period.” In Monumenta Nipponica 42 (2):115–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Harry M. 1974. “The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks.” Science Studies 4 (2):165–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Harry M. 2001. “What Is Tacit Knowledge?” In The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, edited by Schatzki, Theodore R., et al., 107–119. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Daston, Lorraine. 2000. Biographies of Scientific Objects. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Daston, Lorraine. 2004. Things that Talk: Object Lessons from Art and Science. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Daston, Lorraine. 2008. “On Scientific Observation.” Isis 99 (1):97–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Endō, Takanori 遠藤高璟. 1849. Kenjō onjiki yurai narabini yōhō no oboe 献上之御時規由来並用法之覚 [Memoir of the presented clock and its use]. Gakushiin Archive.Google Scholar
Frumer, Yulia. 2018. Making Time: Astronomical Time Measurement in Tokugawa Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Golovnin, Vasili Mikhailovich. 1894. Zapiski flota kapitana Golovnina. [Notes of the Navy captain Golovnin]. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Hattori, Yoshitaka 服部義高. 1810. Kaisen anjō roku 廻船安乗録 [Record of safe seafaring]. Waseda University Kotenseki Sogo Database of Chinese and Japanese Classics.Google Scholar
Hellyer, Robert. 2009. Defining Engagement: Japan and Global Contexts, 1640–1868. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Hosoi, Kōtaku 細井広沢. 1717. Hiden chiiki zuhō taizen 秘伝地域図法大全 [Complete and illustrated private instructions about land surveying]. National Diet Library.Google Scholar
Hutchins, Edwin. 1995. Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hutchins, Edwin. 2005. “Material Anchors for Conceptual Blends.” Journal of Pragmatics 37 (10):1555–1577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchins, Edwin L., Hollan, James D., and Norman, Donald A.. 1985. “Direct Manipulation Interfaces.” Human-Computer Interaction 1 (4):311–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishiguro, Nobuyoshi 石黒信由. 1833. Tokai hyōteki 渡海標的 [Sailing towards the goal], 天保四. Gakushiin Archive.Google Scholar
Kaichū hidokei 懐中日時計 [Pocket Sundial]. 1820. Tōhoku University Wasan Collection.Google Scholar
Katsuragawa, Kuniakira 桂川国瑞. 1794. Hokusa bunryaku 北槎聞略 [Abbreviated account of the drifting to the north]. National Diet Library.Google Scholar
Kazui, Tashiro. 1982. “Foreign Relations during the Edo Period: Sakoku Reexamined.” Journal of Japanese Studies 8 (2):283–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornicki, Peter F. 1988. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Leybourne, William. 1674. The Compleat Surveyor, Containing the Whole Art of Surveying of Land, by Plain Table, Circumferentor, Theodolite, Peractor, and Other Instruments: With Divers Kinds Of Measurations, and Matters Pertinent to a Work of This Nature. The Whole Treatise Being Comprised in VII books: An Account of the Particulars in Each of them Contained, Is Given in the Preface to the Reader. London: Printed by E. Flesher for George Sawbridge.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Michael S. “Reading a Machine.” http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/h398/readmach/modelt.html, last accessed August 10, 2017.Google Scholar
Mao Tokiharu, 万尾時春. 1722. Kikubuntōshū; 規矩分等集 [Collected materials on land surveying (lit. compasses, rulers, divisions, etc.)]. Tōhoku University Kanō Archive.Google Scholar
Matsuzaki, Toshio. 1979. Edo Jidai no Sokuryōjustu [Surveying in the Edo period]. Tokyo: Sōgō Kagaku Shuppan.Google Scholar
Murai Masahiro, 村井昌弘. [1733]1978. Ryōchi shinan 量地指南 [Introduction to land surveying]. Reprinted in vol. 10 of Edo kagaku kotenseki sōshū. Tokyo: Kōwa Shuppan.Google Scholar
Nagakubo, Sekisui 長久保 赤水. 1791. Dainihon kokugun yochi rotei zenzu 大日本国郡輿地路程全図 [The maps of greater Japan]. Waseda University Kotenseki Sogo Database of Japanese and Chinese Classics.Google Scholar
Namba, Matsutarō. 1966. “Wajishaku [Japanese compasses].” Kaijishi Kenkyū Journal of the History of Maritime 7:30–57.Google Scholar
Norman, Donald. 1988. The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Norman, Donald. 1992. Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Norman, Donald. 1993. Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Okumura, Masunobu 奥村増貤. 1838. Keiigi yōhō no setsu 経緯儀用法図説 [Explanation of the use of theodolites]. Gakushiin Archive.Google Scholar
Okumura, Masunobu 奥村増貤. 1839. Kaisen takara bukuro 廻船宝富久呂 [The treasure chest of sailing]. Tohoku University Wasan Collection.Google Scholar
Ōtani, Ryōkichi. 1932. Tadataka Inō;. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar
Pickering, Andrew. 1995. The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polanyi, Michael. [1958]2015. Personal Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Screech, Timon. 2002. The Lens Within the Heart: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery In Later Edo Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Shimada, Dōkan 島田道桓. 1725. Kiku genpō chōken bengi 規矩元法町見辨疑 [Useful treatise on basic rules of land surveying of the cities]. Tōhoku University, Kanō Archive.Google Scholar
Sivin, Nathan. 1990. “Science and Medicine in Chinese History.” In Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization, edited by Ropp, Paul S., 164–96. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Henry D. II. 2016. “Picturing Maps: The “Rare and Wonderous’ Bird's-Eye Views of Kuwagata Keisai.” In Cartographic Japan, edited by Wigen, Karen et al., 93–101. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Kazuyoshi, and Yoshikazu, Tanabe. 2009. “Edo shoki no hōi oyobi kakudo no gainen kara mita sokuryōjutsu no keisei nitsuite no ichikōsatsu [Investigation of formation of surveying from the point of view of early Edo concepts of directions and angles].” Bulletin of Natlional Museum of Science, Ser. E (32):41–49.Google Scholar
Toby, Ronald. 1984. State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torikai, Dōsai 鳥飼洞斎. 1770. Dainihon dōchū kōtei saikenki 大日本道中行程細見記 [Detailed record of the length of the roads of greater Japan]. Tōhoku University, Kanō Archive.Google Scholar
Turner, Stephen Park. 1994. The Social Theory of Practices: Tradition, Tacit Knowledge, and Presuppositions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Stephen Park. 2002. Brains/Practices/Relativism: Social Theory after Cognitive Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Stephen Park. 2013. Understanding the Tacit. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Uehara, Hisashi. 1977. Takahashi Kageyasu no kenkyū; [Study of Takahashi Kageyasu]. Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Wigen, Karen, et al. 2016. Cartographic Japan, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yonemoto, Marcia. 2003. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period, 1603–1868. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Yoshimura, Kaishū 吉村海州. [1800]1929–31. Hōkōshinkin kaisen yoshinki 方向針筋廻船用心記 [Outline of compass and useful things to remember in sailing]. Reprinted in vol. 6 of Kaiji shiryō sōsho 海事史料叢書 [Collection of maritime sources], edited by Shōichi, Sumida. Tokyo: Ganshōdō Shoten.Google Scholar