The human drama of surveying technology at the early Meiji period (Book review: Hideo Izumida, Meiji seifu sokuryo shicho Colin Alexander McVean (Colin Alexander McVean, Surveyor in Chief in Meiji Japan), Tokyo: Bungeisya co., ltd., 2022.)

Submitted by 恩田重直 on Sun, 08/21/2022 - 10:00
『マクヴェイン』

A book arrived from a forerunner in the study of Asian urban history. It was a biography of Colin Alexander McVean, a foreigner in the employ of the Meiji Government.

The author, Hideo Izumida, is one of the leaders in urban studies in Asia since the 1980s, including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, as shown in his book " Kaiiki Asia no kajingai: imin to shokumin niyoru toshi keisei (Chinatowns in Maritime Asia: urban formation through immigration and colonisation)". At the same time, he has also been actively engaged in research on British engineers in Asia and has published numerous articles on the subject. This book is the publication of some of the results of the latter.

 

 

This book, written from McVean's birthplace in Scotland, traces McVean's footsteps in Japan in chronological order and in great detail. The main part of the pages focus on McVean's stay in Japan from 1868 to 1876, detailing his experiences as a employed foreigner who initially came to Japan as an engineer for a lighthouse building project.

Based on the official documents of the Meiji Government, and supported by the letters and diaries of McVean, his family and related persons discovered by the author, the book traces the achievements of McVean, who later became the Chief Surveyor General of the Meiji Government. In particular, McVean's work in the Ministry of Home Affairs' surveying office was burned down in 1875 (p.244), and the records were also lost, so it can be said that he did a great deal to fill the void.

On the other hand, at times the quotations are redundant and the focus seems to have been blurred in some parts. Of course, there is no doubt that the letters and diaries that the author spent years of effort to unearth are valuable historical documents. While the author's strong passion for the historical documents he has unearthed can be clearly felt, I think he could have organised them a little better.

At any rate, this book is a breakthrough in the study of the Meiji Government's employed foreigners, but the lack of original texts for quotations from letters, diaries and other sources makes it difficult for later researchers to make use of them. However, the author's website, listed at the end of the book, provides a solution to such concerns.*1

It already contains an English translation of the book, and the original text of the letters and diaries quoted in the book can also be found there. In addition, many figures that could not have been included in this book due to space limitations are included, and errors and inaccuracies that were discovered after publication have been corrected. This is a great reference as one way of organising and publishing research in an age of digitalisation.

By the way, the reviewer has been following the author's research from time to time since starting urban research of Xiamen (Amoy). But I have been unable to find any connection between the author's urban research of Asia and the research of British engineers. Of course, it is not difficult to imagine that his research on British colonial cities would have led him to the National Archives United Kingdom, and that the archives there would have led him to research on British engineers.

However, it was not clear where his passion for studying British engineers came from. This is partly because the author's research was rarely discussed in which colonial city-building and British engineers were directly connected. Of course, two different thematic studies could be pursued at the same time. But the two subjects seemed to be related to each other, so I could not understand them. As in this book, studies of British engineers have exclusively referred to their involvement with Japan.*2

This time, I was surprised when I looked again at the author's profile, which I have seen many times before: 'After working for a construction company, joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) (teacher at Alor Star Technical School, Malaysia)' (see Appendix). Until now, the author had only considered his experience in Malaysia as a starting point for his research on Southeast Asian cities. Although, on closer examination, if McVean was a British engineer who visited Japan in the 19th century, the author was a Japanese engineer who visited Malaysia in the 20th century.

When I noticed this, I was strangely convinced. Come to think of it, there seems to be a consistent underlying theme in the author's research: how technology and culture are propagated. Clarifying the routes of propagation is fascinating. The reviewer is also interested in this, but it is not an easy task to clarify this. This is because when the subject matter is about 'things' created from human activities, it is necessary to clarify the society that surrounds human beings.

Certainly, McVean must have been forgotten in history, but from reading this book, it would be more accurate to say that he had been erased. The real appeal of this book lies not only in McVean's unknown achievements but also in the human drama surrounding the surveying techniques of the Meiji period as shown through McVean's life.
 

 

 

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