Japan on the Silk Road

Selçuk Esenbel is (emerita) Professor of Japanese and Asian History at the History Department of Bogazici University as well as the founding Director and current Academic Coordinator of the Asian Studies Center. She is also a Professor of History at 29 May University in Istanbul. She has received the Special Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Georg Forster award for research. Esenbel is an honorary member of the Turkish Academy of Science (tüba), Trustee of the Toynbee Prize Foundation, and Fulbright Senior Scholar. Esenbel has published in the American Historical Review, Bulletin of SOAS, Japan Review. Her most recent publication in English is Japan, Turkey, and the World of Islam, (Brill Global Oriental, 2011).

"Japan on the Silk Road can be viewed as trail-blazing in the English-language literature as it brings together historiographic accounts from Western, Eurasian and Japanese authors as well as different intellectual disciplines, ranging from political history to translation studies. (...) All chapters introduce under-researched archival materials, many located in Japan, including primary and secondary sources in Japanese, German, Turkish and other languages, with a particular focus on the literary aspect of cultural exchange: literature (including travel writing), linguistics and philology. At the same time, the work succeeds in being integrative without becoming excessively eclectic and constitutes a culturally andlinguistically nuanced inquiry. Moreover, given the sheer scope of the rare sources examined, the book’s unquestioned merit is in unearthing these abundant overlooked treasures and using them as the basis for a detailed synthesis." - Nikolay Murashkin, in: Europe-Asia Studies, 71:2, 334-336

• Acknowledgements viiList of Illustrations viiiContributors (By Order of Chapter) xIntroduction - Selçuk Esenbel1 Japan and the Great Game - Ian Nish2 Western and Central Asia in the Eyes of the Japanese Radical Right - Christopher W.A. Szpilman3 Fukushima Yasumasa’s Travels in Central Asia and Siberia: Silk Road Romanticism, Military Reconnaissance, or Modern Exploration? - Sven Saaler4 Fukushima Yasumasa and Utsunomiya Tarō on the Edge of the Silk Road: Pan-Asian Visions and the Network of Military Intelligence from theOttoman and Qajar Realms into Central Asia - Selçuk Esenbel5 Mongolia as a Base for Central Asia and the Silk Road - Li Narangoa6 Abdurreshid Ibrahim and Japanese Approaches to Central Asia - Komatsu Hisao7 Exploring Asia, Reforming Japan: Ōtani Kōzui and Itō Chūta - Brij Tankha8 Ōtani Kozui and His Vision of Asia: From Villa Nirakusō to “The Rise of Asia” Project - Erdal Küçükyalçın9 The Effects of the Russo-Japanese War on Turkic Nations: Japan and Japanese in Folk Songs, Elegies, and Poems - A. Merthan Dündar10 Some Notes on the Japanese Records and Information on the “Turks” - Katayama Akio11 Tracing Origins Along the Silk Road: Japanese Architect Itō Chūta’s Travel in the Ottoman Lands -Miyuki Aoki Girardelli12 The Beginning of Turkish Philology and Linguistics in Japan - Klaus Röhrborn13 Appendix to the “The Beginning of Turkish Philology and Linguistics in Japan” - Mehmet Ölmez14 F. Beato beyond Empires: Flaneur, Photo Reporter, Merchant - Banu Kaygusuz15 Translation Practices on the Silk Road and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke’s “Toshishun” - Oğuz Baykara16 Transforming an Ancient Myth into a Popular Medieval Tale - Masako SatōIndex 365