<研究論文>サンクト・ペテルブルグにおける岩倉使節団 : 『米欧回覧実記』における「育嬰院」の記述をめぐって
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概要
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The Iwakura Mission is the last and the greatest of the six government missions during the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji era. It was led by four great statesmen and revolutionaries of the Meiji Restoration, Iwakura Tomomi, the Ambassador; Okubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi and Ito Hirobumi, the Vice-Ambassadors. In addition to preparing conditions for the revision of the unequal treaties, they tried to study the Western countries in order to acquire a new state vision for reborn Japan. The official report of the whole journey-"Bei-O Kairan Jikki", written by Kume Kunitake-described, except political affairs, all the details of what the Mission had seen and experienced. From a cultural point of view, the most interesting descriptions are the non-economic ones, for the aim of their visits to industrial factories was only to learn how to make a rich nation. When they visited social or cultural facilities, they weren't ready to think about them. One of these experiences was their visit to the Foundling Home in St. Petersburg. At that time, the social tradition of setting up foundling homes had not yet taken root in Japan. It is a very interesting fact that during the time before the Iwakura Mission, some wrecked Japanese seamen visited Russian foundling homes. After returning to Japan, they were interrogated by the authorities, and the information about those facilities is found in the official reports. In this paper by mainly reading the description of Foundling Homes in "Bei-O Kairan Jikki" and referring to other materials, we study the cultural thinking on social welfare, especially social childcare, of the Iwakura Mission.