Ctr for Japanese Studies Seminar on Gannenmono & the Tokugawa-Meiji Transition

November 16, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room), 1890 East-West Rd.

Dr. Mark McNally, Professor of History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is giving a presentation entitled, "From the 'Illegal Travelers' to the 'People of the Founding Year:' The Gannenmono and the Tokugawa-Meiji Transition" as part of the Center for Japanese Studies Seminar Series.

Description of the talk --

In June of 1868, a group of about 150 Japanese migrant workers arrived in Honolulu. This group is known today as the Gannenmono, meaning, “the people of the founding year [of Meiji].” However, this name wrongly leads people to associate them exclusively with the Meiji period. In fact, they were recruited in the waning months of the Tokugawa period, and so exploring the ways in which they reflected that era helps to deepen our understanding of them historiographically. At the same time, the Gannenmono were actually not the first Japanese people to arrive in Hawaii, as casta-ways and stowaways had been finding their way to Hawaii for decades prior to 1868. The earliest meaning of the term, Gannenmono, actually included both the group of about 150 arrivals in 1868 and those who were already living in Hawaii. The most prominent example of this was Ishii Sentarō, one of the Gannenmono who arrived before 1868.


Event Sponsor
Center for Japanese Studies and Dept. of History, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-2665, http://www.hawaii.edu/cjs

Share by email