Bansho shirabesho

• Other Names: 洋学所 (yôgakusho)
• Japanese: 蕃書調所 (Bansho shirabesho)

The Bansho Shirabesho (roughly, "Institute for Examination of Foreign Books") was an institute established by the Tokugawa shogunate for the study and teaching of Western Studies.

Originally established in 1855 as the Yôgakusho (roughly, "Western Studies Institute") on the former site of a firefighters' station in Ogawamachi, in the Kanda neighborhood of Edo, the institute was moved in 1855/12 to the former site of the residence of Nakaoku koshô Takemoto Masatsune, at Kudanzaka.

Scholars such as Koga Kin'ichirô and Mitsukuri Genpo were appointed to prominent positions in the school.

The institute was renamed the Bansho Shirabesho in 1856/2, and was relocated yet again, later that month, to a different site within the Kudanzaka-shita neighborhood. Mitsukuri Genpo and Sugita Seikei were among those appointed to serve as instructors there; Tokushima domain retainer Takahata Gorô (Michizumi), Kagoshima domain retainer Terashima Munenori, Hagi domain retainer Tôjô Eian, Okayama domain retainer Harada Keisaku, Sanda domain retainer Kawamoto Kômin, Sakura domain retainer Tezuka Ritsuzô, and Annaka domain retainer Tajima Junsuke were among those who served as assistant instructors.

That same year, all Western books in the shogunate's collections were relocated to the Bansho shirabesho to be kept there. The various daimyô houses were then ordered to submit lists of the Western books in their collections, along with copies of translations that had been produced. The shogunate also ordered that all newly-published Western books and translations had to pass through inspectors (or censors) at the Bansho shirabesho.

An explanatory plaque marking the former location of the institute stands today just outside Kudanshita subway station, near the Shôwakan museum/archives.

References

• Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 102, 110, 121, 156, 168, 172, 184.