Abstract:
The late 1880s in the intellectual history of modern Japan epitomised the Meiji government’s effort to ‘civilise’ through Westernisation, driven by the social Darwinian vision of the survival of the fittest. During this period in America, ideas of civilisation theory informed by the very antithesis of the Meiji state’s understanding surfaced in life and work of the aspiring young naturalist-botanist Minakata Kumagusu. He imagined a “different kind of civilisation” as he re-examined the nature of social evolution in microbes by turning to Sino-Asian derived knowledge of his home region Kii, Japan. Buddhism, persecuted by the Meiji regime, most notably enabled his scientific enquiry, while honzōgaku (Chinese natural studies), Chinese historiography, and Confucianism facilitated the reasoning process.
What interconnected all of these was what the author argues as queer nature: the basis of truths whose ontological and experiential qualities resembled the microbe slime mould. Similar to this microbe that captured his imagination, the process of knowing with queer nature defied the ontological dichotomies and hierarchies fundamental to the social Darwinian theory of evolution. Experientially, it attracted the knower’s attention, induced their desire for intimacy with strange and curious others, and propelled greater intellectual enquiries. The paper thus demonstrates a queer theory of intellectual history rooted in modern Japan, whose intellectual lineage derived from Sino-Asia instead of the West.
Bio:
Eiko is a Research and Teaching Associate in History at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford, and the 2022 Landhaus Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Her work elucidates currently unknown intellectual paradigms that emerged in life and works of scientist-polymaths in modern Japan. These were paradigms where ‘humanistic’ knowledge of Asia impacted the articulation of ‘scientific truths’ amidst social, ecological, and political changes. She is currently working on a monograph entitled The Emergence of Queer Nature: Minakata Kumagusu and the Making of Microbial Paradigm, 1887-1912.