A Study of the Formation of African Images in Japan

日本与非洲关系的历史可以追溯到十六世纪。根据葡萄牙的资料，一些非洲人在16世纪40年代末被带到日本。但明治维新后，日本与非洲的关系才开始密切起来，本研究试图通过广泛查阅有关非洲的资料，追溯日本与非洲的关系，考察明治时期日本对非洲和非洲人的态度。非常重视非洲书目的汇编，因为在1868年至1912年期间，没有专门针对非洲从政治到青少年文学的书籍，文章和政府文件的完整书目作品。材料基本上是按时间顺序排列的。从参考书目中可以清楚地看出，中日甲午战争后，非洲相关著作的出版量明显增加。这种变化不仅表现在数量上，而且表现在质量上。战前，几乎所有的作品都是英法小说和非洲故事的翻译，但战后，非洲变成了殖民统治的研究对象。令人惊讶的是，明治日本出版的与非洲有关的书籍、期刊、杂志和期刊的数量远远超过预期。在这两年的研究中，我所做的在许多方面只是一个开始，因为在文献方面还有很多工作要做，正如非洲-日本关系史的许多方面需要更仔细的审查和研究一样。

The history of relations between Japan and Africa dates back to the sixteenth century. According to Portuguese sources, some Africans were brought to Japan in the late 1540s. But it was after the Meiji Restoration that Japan's relations with Africa bacame close.This research was an attempt to trace these relations by means of an extensive review of materials on Africa and to examine Japanese attitudes towards Africa and African people in the Meiji period. Much emphasis was placed on a compilation of an African bibliography, since there had been no full length bibliographical works devoted specifically to books, articles and govenmental papers concerning Africa from politics to juvenile literature during the period, 1868 to 1912. The material is basically arranged chronologically. No references are made to sizes of works, but the full title of items is given.It can be clearly pointed out from the bibliography that the publication of African-related works increased markedly after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. The change was observed not only in quantity but also in quality. Before the war, almost all the works were the translation of English and French novels and stories laid in Africa, but after the war, Africa turned out an object of studies in colonial administration. It was quite surprising that the number of books, joumals, magazines, and periodicals relating to Africa published in Meiji Japan was much more than anticipated. What I have done in this two-year research is in many ways only a beginning, for much remains to be done bibliographically, just as many aspects of the history of Afro-Japanese relations need much closer scrutiny and study.