Intertechnology, ca. 1800: Science and Morals in Japan between Woodblock and Copperplate

This talk examines the meanings attached to the use of copperplate and woodblock illustrations in scientific and moral treatises in Japan ca. 1800, with a focus on the work of the artisan and scientific popularizer Shiba Kōkan (1747-1818). Based on the study of entries on etching and engraving in Dutch encyclopedias, Kōkan became one of the earliest artisans in Japan to produce copperplate prints. At the same, he began migrating practices from the world of copperplate prints into woodblock printing, in ways that revealed distinctions between how medium-specific techniques might apply to the task of communicating scientific knowledge, versus generating moral understanding. In this talk, Hsiung will first outline a concept of intertechnology separate from such terms as “intermediality,” in order to argue that technological infrastructures of production particular to copperplate came to be expressed in Kōkan’s woodblock prints. He will then demonstrate how the global circulation of printing techniques transformed understandings of genre.