| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The theme of the present research is on "technical knowledge and its representation." Based on the two year research on the theme, I have primarily made the two following accomplishment: one is an investigation on a specific case, and the other is theoretical survey of recent researches on the topic. As a case study, I have examined the metallurgical investigation of Kuniichi TAWARA on the Japanese sword and multi-disciplinary analysis by his collaborators on it. I have paid an attention to such problems as how traditional technique of sword making was expressed in traditional books on the sword making, and how the technique was examined by modern science. I have paid particular attention to the qualitative concept "nie" and "nioi" were explained by the terms of modern science. Secondly, I have surveyed recent scholarly publications on technical knowledge and its representation, and consequently have published a paper, "picture, number, word, action: how techniques are represented and communicated." Technical knowledge contains the kind of knowledge which cannot be expressed by words or numbers, but technicians have to communicate such a knowledge in a certain situation like apprentice training. I have surveyed in this paper recent works by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists. In-situ indication is certainly crucial, but various visual representations - picture, sketch, graph, models, etc. - also played important roles in present and historical technical practice.
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