Monsoon Project II

The Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, is pleased to announce the launch of a new research program: Monsoon Project II.

Duration: April 2022-March 2026

The Purpose of the Research

Monsoon Project II offers a unique platform for historical inquiry of the archives of European establishments which expanded their activities over maritime Asia in the early modern period, including the Portuguese State of India (Estado da Índia), the Society of Jesuits (Sosietatis Iesu), the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC), and the East India Company (EIC), among others. As such, this project builds on Monsoon Project (2019-2022).

Scholars become more and more convinced that these European records form a treasure-trove of detailed information on the history of multi-layered interactions between Europe and countries surrounding the Indian Ocean and the China Seas. However, there remains a lack of an overall framework to compare and analyze the features of particular archives. This lack causes serious fragmentation and oversimplification of our understanding of such a shared past. Monsoon Project II undertakes an interdisciplinary and innovative approach to this much-neglected inter-archival aspect of global encounters.

In order to address this challenge, Monsoon Project II creates a valuable opportunity for scholars in different disciplines and language experts to work together to translate the historical European sources below.

1) Dutch journal of Isaac Titsingh during his ambassadorship (1794-1795) of the VOC to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Qianlong Emperor’s accession to the throne. For translation, the project uses Frank Lequin’s Isaac Titsingh in China (1794-1796): het onuitgegeven Jounaal van zijn Ambassade naar Peking (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2005)

French journal of Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes, a Sinologist who accompanied Titsingh, formerly published as Voyages a Peking, Manille, et l’’Isle de France, faits dans l’intervalle des années 1784 a 1801, 3 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1808).

Members:
Norifumi Daito (HI)
Fuyuko Matsukata (HI)
Yuki Morita
Joji Nozawa
Koji Ono
Faustine Peyceré
Isabel Tanaka-van Daalen

2) Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum, 6 vols. Vols. 1-2, edited by J.E. Heeres; Vols. 3-6, edited by F.W. Stapel (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1907-55). This corpus contains more than 1,200 Dutch-language treaties the VOC concluded with Asian rulers. Its compilation facilitated the process of the formation of Dutch colonial studies in the first half of the 20th century.

Members:
Norifumi Daito (HI)
Fuyuko Matsukata (HI)
Kure Katsutoshi
Aki Tomita

3) Décadas da Ásia by Diogo de Couto, a widely known but still underresearched example of Portuguese writing on the history of Portuguese India. The book covers the period from the 1520s to the 1610s.

Members:
Mihoko Oka (HI)
Hiroyuki Mashita
Akinori Nakasuna
Joji Nozawa