TheBansho Shirabesho (蕃書調所), or"Institute for the Study of Barbarian Books," was the Japanese institute charged with the translation and study of foreign books and publications in thelate Edo Period.
The institute was founded in 1856 that catered to the samurai youth.[1] It emerged out of the previous translation bureau calledYogakusho, which also previously replaced theBanshowagegoyo.[2] The launch of the new institute was a reaction to the unimpeded arrival of the American warships in 1853 under the command of AdmiralMatthew C. Perry.[1] The foreigners also brought with them gifts, which baffled and unsettled the Tokugawa regime as they exposed the inferior state of the Japanese coastal defense.[1]
Bansho Shirabesho functioned as a sort of bureau of theTokugawa Shogunate and considered a politically charged institution that emerged from the perceived imposition of foreignness on Japanese body politic.[3] The establishment of Bansho Shirabesho as an independent institution was also partly attributed to the removal of the translation of sensitive military and political secrets from the Bureau of Astronomy.[4] The activities and norms of the institution intersected with the translation initiatives of employed translators.[4]
The school eventually became the main institution of Western learning sponsored by the shogunate.[4] It attracted some of the most outstanding scholars studying Dutch scientific works and documents, who also later studied English, French, German, and Russian texts.[4]
It was renamedYōsho shirabesho (洋書調所) (institute for the study of Western books) in 1862, andKaiseijo [ja] (開成所) in 1863. After theBoshin War, it was again renamed and became theKaisei gakkō [ja] (開成学校), which was managed under theGovernment of Meiji Japan. As theKaisei gakkō, the institute became one of the predecessor organizations which merged to formUniversity of Tokyo.[5]
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