Leopards for Sale! Salamanders for Sale!: Animal Trade and Empire Building in Meiji Japan

• In Event: 156. Animals and Empires: Negotiating Nonhuman Actors and Imperialism in Northeast Asia

Abstract

The birth of modern zoos and natural history museums led to increased demand for northeast Asian fauna, both dead and alive, as objects of entertainment and research. Initially the interest came from Europe, and then the United States. By the second decade of Meiji, the Japanese had joined the club. Institutions had at least three animal procurement sources: (1) amateur naturalist cum commercial exporters, such as the famed Alan Owston, who founded the Yokohama Menagerie Co. in 1895; (2) scholars in Japan, including those originating from Europe and the US, such as Franz Hilgendorf at the Imperial University; and (3) Japanese specimen companies, such as Yoneyama Yonekichi’s Dōbutsu Hyōhonsha, which targeted both domestic and foreign markets. These groups, and the individuals therein, each had their reasons to work as middlemen. Yet, they frequently collaborated with one another to procure their commodities. The industry required expert zoological knowledge, as well as the funds to oftentimes preserve, and transport the animals. The specialists worked in a transnational marketplace, where animals moved relatively freely in and out of the regions. They also had to navigate micro-localities that housed the animals and exercised agency as part of this trade. Whether for Korean leopards, Taiwanese Mikado pheasants, or Japanese giant salamanders, turn of the century animal markets created a playing field in which aspiring colonial powers in northeast Asia competed for hegemony. This paper argues that the process helped to establish national and colonial boundaries, but not solely on the imperialists’ terms.

Author

• Lisa Yoshikawa, Hobart & William Smith Colleges