THE MEIJI RESTORATION AND IMPORT OF FOREIGN GEOLOGISTS, LATE 19th CENTURY JAPAN

Prior to the Meiji Restoration (1868), Americans Raphael Pumpelly (1837–1923) and William Phipps Blake (1826–1910) geologically mapped southern Hokkaido, evaluated mineral resources and advised on mining techniques, at the invitation of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Their year-long mission was terminated due to the hostility of many Japanese towards foreigners. The new Meiji government sought and welcomed foreign specialists in many disciplines to further modernization of Japan. Geological investigations were made by Americans Benjamin Smith Lyman (1835–1920) and Henry Smith Munroe (1850–1933) in Hokkaido, resulting in a regional stratigraphy and the first geological map of the island. Lyman maintained ties with his Japanese assistants throughout his life. Englishman John Milne (1850–1913), considered the father of Japanese seismology, undertook seismic and fault studies throughout Japan, invented a revolutionary new seismograph and founded the Seismological Society of Japan. Heinrich Edmund Naumann (1854–1927) helped found the Tokyo Imperial University geology department and the Geological Survey of Japan in 1878 and produced a geological map of the Japanese archipelago. These men spent a combined total of some fifty years in Japan and were instrumental in educating a first generation of Japanese geologists.