[RARE PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL ON TAIWANESE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE].

[台湾勤務日本人警察官手帳. Taiwan kinmu Nihonjin keisatsukan techo].
[Japanese Police Officer's Journal - Interactions with Taiwanese Indigenous People].

[Taiwan]. Meiji 36 -37 [ 1903-1904]. Stock ID #215967

Pocket book with hand-written journal records in graphite, 10.5 x 7 cms, [117] pages, chop in red on one leaf (and remains of one on a separate leaf); original cloth cover (a little faded and worn), debossed on the front board, text leaves a little age-toned with some mild staining, marbled endpapers torn (with loss to the rear pastedown), but in remarkably good condition.

A very rare and highly unusual example of a notebook kept by a Japanese policeman (junsa) in colonial Taiwan in the early twentieth century. Taiwan was under Japanese control from 1895, and the compiler of these notes, Officer Morimoto Denjiro worked in the colony in 1903 - 4. On the upper cover of the notebook debossed characters name the southern Taiwanese region of 蕃薯藔廳 (Fanshuliao District), home to Rukai and Paiwan indigenous people. Morimoto's name is written on the first page and dated 24 December of Meiji 36 (1903).

The entries span the period from December 1903 to 25 May 1904. Most entries appear to be Morimoto's day-to-day notes taken during and after his interactions with the indigenous people in the area. Officer Morimoto's time in the colony marks the period when the Japanese authorities were exerting increasingly tight control over the indigenous population. His handwritten memos indicate some of the issues central to the relationship between indigenous people and the Japanese colonisers during this period, including the burning of forests (indigenous slash and burn practices sometimes clashed with the systems imposed by the colonisers) and unauthorised killing of pigs and other livestock. A unique and valuable resource for research on the history of colonial Taiwan.

This notebook merits deeper scholarly analysis in light of Japanese-Taiwanese relations in these early years of Japanese colonial power and would benefit from an examination of historical nomenclature, specifically names of people and places.

When referring to this item please quote stockid 215967.

Price: $3,250.00 AU

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