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Flora Japonica: Linnaean Connections Between Britain and Japan During the Romantic Period

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British Romanticism in Asia

Part of the book series: Asia-Pacific and Literature in English ((APLE))

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Abstract

This article will elucidate the characteristics of several literary and pictorial responses in British Romanticism to Linnaean botany by contrasting them with contemporaneous responses in Japan, focusing on the visit to Japan of Carl Peter Thunberg (1743–1828). Thunberg’s Flora Japonica (1784) was published by Itō Keisuke (1803–1901) as Taisei Honzō Meiso (1829), first introducing the Linnaean system to Japan. It argues that the discrepancies in responses to Linnaean botany between Britain and Japan can be ascribed not only to cultural differences but also to diverging paradigms towards transcultural orientation. The comparison between two disparate cultures also indicates the tendency of Linnaeus’ ideas to become co-opted into the defence of existing political structures.

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  1. Tottori University, Tottori, Japan

    Ayako Wada

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  1. Ayako Wada
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Correspondence to Ayako Wada .

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  1. Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

    Alex Watson

  2. Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

    Laurence Williams

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Wada, A. (2019). Flora Japonica: Linnaean Connections Between Britain and Japan During the Romantic Period. In: Watson, A., Williams, L. (eds) British Romanticism in Asia. Asia-Pacific and Literature in English. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3001-8_3

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