THE LENS WITHIN THE HEART
The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan
By TIMON SCREECH
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002. 320 pages, $26 (paperback)

reviewed by Elizabeth Semmelhack

During the Edo period (1603-1868), Japan was home to a remarkably complex, rich, and intriguing popular culture. Japanese prints and Kabuki theater were born from this culture of "play," and although the West has long had a fascination with things Japanese, in-depth investigations into this enigmatic world have been surprisingly scarce. In particular, Western writings that address Edo-period visual culture have been limited in their intellectual depth. Timon Screech's book The Lens within the Heart: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan is anything but limited.

Rather than presenting a redundant review of the famous landscapes, Kabuki actors, and "floating world" beauties featured in well-known Japanese prints, Screech gazes beyond the surface of these images to examine the significance of various details depicted in them, ranging from vantage points to accessories. Specifically, he investigates how certain "scientific" Western goods such as lenses, mirrors, clocks, and perspectival images were embraced in eighteenth-century Japan and what meanings they were given through depiction. While this approach is revelatory in and of itself, the underlying premise of the book, that Western exotica was readily available in Japan, confronts some commonly held notions concerning the isolationist policies of the shogunate. Screech's discussion of how exotica was imported (or smuggled) into Japan via Dutch traders, the only Westerners allowed commerce with Japan during the Edo period, and how it was both physically and psychologically incorporated into popular culture clearly refutes the notion of a Japan utterly isolated from the rest of the world.

While Screech would have broken new scholarly ground by simply enumerating the different types of objects and ideas imported into Japan, he probes more deeply and attempts to ascertain the various meanings constructed in Japan for this occidental exotica. Through the introduction of specific historic individuals, he traces the flow of information and objects from Dutch traders in Deshima, the artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki to which they were confined, to Edo, the seat of shogunal power. The personalities he introduces not only allow for specific connections to be made, but also allow for an exploration into the different levels of engagement individuals had with European things. For some individuals, like the artist Shiba Kokan (1741- 1818), the study of Dutch things was a serious academic undertaking and fell under the term rangaku, or Dutch learning. For others, such as Santo Kyoden (1761-1816), the best-selling author and tobacco-shop owner, the interest was more playful. This lighter, more manipulated, incorporation of foreignness was termed ran, and in many ways it is the influence of ran that makes for more interesting study.

By looking at the more popular expressions of Japanese occidentalism, Screech demonstrates how nuances of Edo-period popular culture can be brought into focus. It is here that Screech suggests some interesting connections. For example, he proposes that the importation of mirrors may have been the impetus behind the subsequent fashion in Japanese prints for mica as a background material in okubi-e (literally big-head pictures) or that the Dutch interest in the collection and preserving of specimens within glass containers was reinterpreted as a fashion trend among the demimonde, who took to carrying (or having their servants carry) glass fishbowls complete with live "specimen" fish. He goes further and explores how the inner workings of a clock were used to promote official policies that encouraged social stasis and how the magic lantern was seen to offer proof of Taoist truths. His discussion of how lenses were used as metaphoric vehicles for enabling the true nature of people to be exposed is of particular interest.

There is something familiar about ran, and one is reminded of contemporary Western trends for Asian exotica such as the fashion for "zen" in the marketing of everything from spa treatments to interior design. Just as a study of the current use of "zen" would reveal a great deal about our own society, Screech's careful scrutiny of the role played by, or, more accurately, constructed for, Western "scientific" gadgets in Edo-period Japan is revelatory. Screech's book, although dense, is an extremely ambitious, thoughtful work and is worth the effort for anyone interested in the complexities of the period. The combination of scholarly depth and readable prose gives a sense of the lived life in eighteenth-century Japan. It is an utterly commendable book.