which was still in place at the time of the opening of the country to the
Europeans (Barnes 1999: 28–9; Debaine-Francfort 1999: 14–16). In the nine-
teenth century, scholarship led to a renewed interest in the study of objects.
One of the epigraphers in the Chinese tradition was Chen Jieqi (1813–84),
whose research led him to compile several hundred rubbings of various
terminal roof tiles from the Warring States throughout the Han. He also
amassed a collection of antiquities (Debaine-Francfort 1999).
China’s perspective on antiquity was inXuential in both Korea and Japan. In
Korea during the kingdom of the Yi dynasty (1392–1910) the search for the
past was based on information gathered from inscriptions (Pai 1999: 360). In
Japan, Chinese inXuences were marked especially during the Nara (646–794
ce) period. During the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) frequent regular re-
search into the history of the country included the excavation of two tombs in
order to research a stone inscription (Barnes 1999: 28–9). Some authors have
seen this partly as a result of Western inXuence through trade contact, perhaps
by the transmission of European trends from Dutch traders, whose move-
ments in the country were conWned to an artiWcial island in the port of
Nagasaki (HoVman 1974), but others link it to internal developments within
the Japanese scholarly community (Winkel 1999). During this period, the
scholar Arai Hakuseki (1656–1725) criticized Japan’s ancient chronicles and
argued that there was little evidence for a mythical ‘Age of the Gods’. He
identiWed ancient stone arrowheads as belonging to an ancient people of
Manchuria who were described in Chinese records known in Japan as the
Shukushinjin. A later scholar was To Teikan (1731–98), who studied ancient
Japanese history and customs through antiquities and drew parallels between
ancient Korea and Japan. By the eighteenth century travel turned into a leisure
activity for the prosperous classes and the writing of travelogues became
popular. In some, archaeological remains were described, one of the more
relevant examples of this being that written by Sugae Masumi (1754–1829) in
hisMasumi Yuranki(Masumi’s travelogue), which included illustrations of
Jomon pottery. Masumi wrote an even more specialized short volume with
the titleShinko shukuyohin-rui no zu(Illustrations of old and new ceremonial
vessels). One of the other hobbies of the period, rock collecting, also led
scholars such as Kinouchi Sekitei (1724–1808) to archaeology. Several Japan-
ese scholars were also interested in numismatics. One of those was the lord of
the FukuchiyamaWef, Kutsuki Masatsuna (1750–1802), who published his
own collection of Japanese and Chinese coins in twelve volumes, as well as the
Wrst Japanese book on European coins (Cribbet al. 2004: 268–9). In Edo there
was even an association dedicated to ephemera, the Tankikai (the Oddity
Addicts Club) that met from 1824 to 1825 and discussed archaeological
artefacts (Bleed 1986; Ikawa-Smith 1982).
Latin America, China, and Japan 189