Dissertation Research, Lisa Onaga: Silkworm and the State--the art of selective breeding in Japan in the early twentieth century

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This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant uses historical research methods to trace how a model organism played an important role scientifically, economically, and culturally in East Asia. Funds will support travel to archives both in the U.S. and Japan and will permit the examination of one critical yet understudied aspect of Japanese experimental biology in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century: how the source of raw silk, the silkworm (Bombyx mori), emerged as a model organism in Japanese genetics. Japanese scientists began developing inbred pure lines for producing F1 (first filial) hybrid silkworms at the turn of the twentieth century. The development of the silkworm as both a model organism and a commercial entity allows for a unique study of the construction and use of scientific expertise in Japanese biology, as well as to understand how the silkworm could be made emblematic of Japan. The cultural and monetary value of this agricultural insect, which became a model object for research, raises questions about how biological research developed in Japan, and in particular, how inquiries about heredity were tested and applied not only to silkworms but to humans as well. The overarching objective of this project is to understand how locally-situated knowledge about sericulture reinforced a platform for political discussions of the human race in Japan. To explore why and how the silkworm came to be viewed as an object of scientific and racial knowledge in Japan, this project approaches the silkworm case from three angles: the development of scientific work on silkworm heredity and genetics; changes in the sericulture craft and silk industry; and changes in the pictorial representations of silkworms. The project will overall gauge how the silkworm research community developed its expertise and the extent to which it interacted with social policymakers and Japanese state interests about race and the eugenics to manage it. This dissertation project will make an intellectual impact by combining historical studies of agriculture, genetics, and race science in new ways, especially in the context of international trade and imperialism. The project will advance our understandings and knowledge of the history of Japanese bioscience, namely how silkworm science helped institutionalize genetics in imperial Japan. The focus on silkworm materiality will supplement historical and social studies of model organisms and scientific standardization in ways that will add to theoretical critiques of the relations between agriculture and racial thinking. The broader impact and implications of this study relate to the connections between science, race, and national selfhood, which is a recurring topic of social importance today. The study will provide a historical reference point for contemporary discussions about the racial implications of selective animal breeding as well as national support for research and the commercialization of life through agricultural biotechnology. The study on the history of the silkworm, a major Lepidopteran (moth and butterfly) model organism, will infuse discussions about genetically engineered plants containing Bt toxin, which targets members of the same family. This project will make important and timely contributions to political and technical debates over global business activities and changes in local cultural landscapes that place science and technology seemingly at odds with tradition. Preliminary work on this project has also begun promoting interaction between the fields of science studies and East Asian studies.