Content area
Abstract
This dissertation is a history of hemotypology (blood-group studies or ketsuekigatagaku 血液型学) in Imperial Japan. It examines the efforts of both specialists and nonspecialists to produce and proliferate biomedical knowledge, analyzing how a culture centered on blood-group knowledge was created within the Japanese empire. The inquiry combines methodologies from the histories of science, technology, and medicine with a thematic focus on the social and cultural dimensions of imperialism. It offers new perspectives for understanding the development of biomedical knowledge within the sole non-Western empire to arise in modern times. While positioning Imperial Japan within global circuits of scientific knowledge, the study emphasizes the influence of local topographies of cultural and institutional authority in determining a distinctive research trajectory that differed from that found in other empires of the time. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of the epistemology of biomedical knowledge, exploring the implications of unproven scientific assertions beyond the traditional field of medicine.
