Tatsuo Nakami
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Japanese Researchers’ Search for Ch’ing-Manchu Sources in the Early Twentieth Century

35^th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 1992

In Japan, studies on East Asian History were started since the early twentieth century at modern academic universities or institutions. The Japanese pioneers of East Asian History attempted to investigate historical sources related to Ch’ing and the Manchus in China at the time of 1900s. Ichimura Sanjiro was a first and only foreign scholar to research archival sources at Great Treasury of the Cabinet within the Forbidden City. Naitou Torajiro found important historical sources on the early Manchus and the Manchu-Mongol sutras. in Mukden. Shiratori Kurakichi was successful in establishing an institution with special collections on the Manchu-Korean history. In this paper, I following these pioneers’ access to historical sources, would like to trace developing process of Ch’ing and Manchu historical studies in Japan.