De Maatschappij der Blinden: Achttiende-eeuwse verhandelingen in Europa over de maatschappelijke positie van visueel beperkten in de Japanse samenleving

Christian Rijnberg

doi:10.5117/DAE2023.006.RIJN

ISSN: 2589-4617
E-ISSN: 2667-2081

De Maatschappij der Blinden

Achttiende-eeuwse verhandelingen in Europa over de maatschappelijke positie van visueel beperkten in de Japanse samenleving
By Christian Rijnberg¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Gemeente Enschede
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Source: De Achttiende Eeuw, Volume 55, Issue 2023, Sep 2023, p. 97 - 118
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/DAE2023.006.RIJN
Language: Dutch
- Published online: 01 Sep 2023

Abstract

The publication of the ethnographic studies of Engelbert Kaempfer and Pierre de Charlevoix on the Japanese tōdōza, or ‘society of the blind’, allowed a large European readership to become familiar with the self-sufficient and prominent social position of blind persons in the Japanese empire. The spread of knowledge about the tōdōza enabled Europeans to compare the relatively favorable positioning of blind people in Japanese society with the dependent existence of their visually impaired fellow humans. Knowledge of the status of the tōdōza in Japan confirmed and reinforced the burgeoning ideas of French philosophers, philanthropists, and educators in particular about the social potential of the visually impaired and the possibilities for blind education. Eighteenth-century treatises on the Japanese ‘society of the blind’ would prove an inspiration for the development of the first European institutions for the blind, recognized by scholars in both Europe and North America.

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2024-12-21

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