Notes on the birth of modern historiography in Meiji’s Japan

Abstract

This paper gives an overview on the Japanese historical sciences’ formation and development process during the process of opening to the West, in the Meiji Era. Approaching institutional history of places where history was written and 19th-century Japanese historiographical movements, this work aims to reflect on specific processes of the Japanese experience, like Fukuzawa Yukichi’s “history of civilization”, the division into National (Kokushi), Eastern (Tōyōshi) and Western Histories (Seiyōshi) etc. This research analyses primary sources and secondary literatures, specially the works of Nagahara Keiji, Tanaka Akira and Miyachi Masato. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the originality of Japanese interpretation of Western methods during the 1800’s and the self-criticism present among Japanese historians in relation to the ideologies of the country since before its opening to the West.