ABSTRACT
In 1873, the geographer Johannes Justus Rein was sent to Japan on commission from the Prussian Ministry of Commerce to investigate trade and traditional Japanese arts and crafts for two years. After meticulously documenting his wide-ranging observations, he presented the results of his journey in his two-volume Länderkunde “Japan: Travels and Researches.” However, based on the practice turn in the Social Studies of Science, it is not the final outcome of research which is to be examined, but the factors influencing the production of knowledge in the epistemological transformation process on the expedition. This approach sheds light on geographical research practices including interaction with indigenous intermediaries and encourages the examination of archival sources such as travel diaries. But whereas those practices have previously been presented as being consistent and mostly invariant over the course of an expedition, this chapter argues that the scientist's way of researching alters over time as he encounters local knowledge cultures. Japan, which had been isolated for centuries, and especially its local scholarship, underwent a rapid transition at that time. Using the example of Rein's journey through this country, the transformation of practices over time will be illustrated, thus highlighting the processuality and spatiality of knowledge production and science.
