近代大和地方のコレクション収集活動から見た「日本文化」形成過程の研究

This research project reconstructed the scale and content of a collection that was created by Mizuki Yotaro (1865-1938), an educator who lived in Nara Prefecture and engaged in collection activities spanning thirty years beginning in the 1890's. His wide ranging collection centered on items from the Yamato region (present day Nara prefecture) and included roof tiles and sutras from ancient temples; medieval and early modern documents, books, and manuscript copy collections; early modern published books and single sheet items, paintings, maps and calendars; and letters of famous cultural figures. The scale of the collection inspired and enabled us to conduct interdisciplinary research across the fields of national history, archaeology, architecture, national literature, art history, geography, and social linguistics. About sixty percent of the collection is held in the National History Museum, but because the remainder is divided among various public and private collections, it has hitherto been impossible to accurately assess the full character of Mizuki's collection. Thus the main goal and achievement of this research project was to “reconstruct" the original collection by locating and researching the various present holdings. We also made a complete catalog of the portion of the Mizuki collection held at the National History Museum, and published this to enable scholars to make full use of this collection in the future. Additionally, we held regular research seminars on the collection, and made research visits to sites of particular relevance so as to understand the process of the creation of the original collection and to clarify the research possibilities inherent in it. Mizuki began his collection at a time when Nara Prefecture (the Yamato region) began receiving concerted attention as the site of origin of the Yamato Court and the Japanese state, a tendency that became especially strong following the Russo-Japanese War. We identified Mizuki's especial focus on the history and art of ancient Yamato, the medieval history of Yamato region temples, and the activities of Yamato region literati of the early modern period. We identified the Mizuki collection to have an important place in this activity tying the Yamato region to narratives of “national origins" and “traditional national culture." Under the influence of post-modern linguistic theories, there has been a recent growth in debate over the formation of national consciousness and the process of the production of a national history for Japan. Our interdisciplinary research project on the Mizuki collection has suggested some textually based methodologies for the humanities and social sciences to address these broader questions of the production of national consciousness and history. We have collected our research into a volume to be published by Shibunkaku Publishers next year.