Bunha to Gijutsu no Kosaten: Kikaiseizu oyobi Seizukyoiku no Shinso no Kenkyu (Culture and technology at crossroads: Studies on mechanical drawing and drawing education) by Sadahiko Mori

Abstract

688 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Technological capability is not only important in the initial transfer process; it has to be present continuously. Knowledge, skill, and ability are required both to establish and to maintain a technology. In the Scandinavian case, the lack of domestic experience and formal training programs left many firms in the hands of foreign (and expensive) expertise for a very long time. As Rolv Petter Amdam tells us, sixty years after the first Norwegian glassworks had been erected, more than 60 percent of all skilled glassworkers in Norway were foreigners. In an anthology of this kind, repetitious passages and contradictory statements cannot be avoided. Thus, several authors refer to Samuel Owen’s complaints about the low quality of the Swedish work force, and opposing views about the importance of the Swedish state for the introduction of British iron production techniques can be found. What could be avoided, however, are badly structured and incom­ pletely argued contributions. In particular, the chapters by Rolf Adamson and Lennart Jorberg would have benefited from stronger editorial work. Despite this criticism, the book neatly summarizes our present knowledge of early technology transfer to Scandinavia. By focusing on one theme and illustrating it with reference to a large number of cases, some parts of the book should be able to find their way into the classroom, although they need to be complemented by studies of the social aspects of industrialization. In Bruland’s anthology—the con­ tributors being primarily economic historians—labor unrest, working and living conditions, and opposition from various social groups are mentioned only in passing. As a reader, one gets the skewed impres­ sion that industrial technology was welcomed by each and everyone in Scandinavia and that industrialization was a socially and culturally smooth process. Certainly, this was not the case. Mikael Hard Dr. HArd is associate professor of human technology at the Center for Interdiscipli­ nary Studies at Gothenburg University. His book, Machines Are Frozen Spirit: The Scientification of Refrigeration and Brewing in the 19th Century—a Weberian Interpretation (Frankfurt am Main, 1993), discusses the importance of science in the industrialization process. Bunha to Gijutsu no Kosaten: Kikaiseizu oyobi Seizukyoiku no Shinso no Kenkyu (Culture and technology at crossroads: Studies on mechan­ ical drawing and drawing education). By Sadahiko Mori. Tokyo: P&wa Sha, 1990. Pp. xvi + 325; illustrations, notes, appendix, bibli­ ography, index. ¥3,914.00 (paper). The title and theme of Sadahiko Mori’s book should attract many readers of Technology and Culture. The author, a specialist in mechan­ TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 689 ical drawing, approaches drawing as a form of the language and discusses its relationship to culture. The book is an ambitious one, invoking the ideas of such anthropologists and linguists as Whorf, Saussure, and Lévi-Strauss, and some episodes and stories cited are truly interesting. Yet in the end it is little more than a collection of essays and research notes. One of the author’s main arguments turns on the well-known observation that theJapanese attempt to imitate ideal models in order to learn techniques. In Japanese culture, manabu (learn) is linguisti­ cally and conceptually close to manebu (imitate). Imitation is, ofcourse, not a simple process and requires (and deserves) hard and concen­ trated effort. The neo-Kantian philosopher Eugen Herrigel, who came to Japan and learned the art ofJapanese archery, explored this meandering process until he finally mastered the art. Mechanical drawing was no exception, at least according to Mori’s interpretation. Although subject to increasing criticism abroad, the method of imitation in drawing education was, in Mori’s view, eminently suited to the mind-set of Japanese engineers. In evaluating the drawings of their students, Japanese engineering professors applauded detail, precision, and beauty; they disregarded the functional aspect of mechanical drawing and its use in industrial factories. In contrast, American engineers at the turn of the century insisted on the function of mechanical drawing and standardized the method so that workers at any factory could construct identical machines from copies of one and the same drawing. Japanese drawing engineers failed to introduce and assimilate such standardization, despite the exceptional efforts ofsome perceptive engineers. Japanese craftsmen, too, felt more comfortable...