[M-IS27] History X Earth and Planetary Science

[MIS27-04] Descriptions of natural phenomena in textbooks and people's perceptions

*Harufumi Tamazawa^1,2 (1.Kyoto City University of Arts, 2.Kyoto University)

By unraveling the records of the past, we can learn how people perceived natural phenomena, but there may be a gap in time between the state-of-the-art knowledge gained through specialized research in the natural sciences and the perception of the general public. However, there may be a gap between the state-of-the-art knowledge gained through specialized research in the natural sciences and the general public's perceptions over time. In the modern and post-modern periods, we can learn more about the perceptions of the time by studying the descriptions in textbooks and the extent of their dissemination. Particularly for phenomena that are unfamiliar to some people in some places, the latest knowledge is brought in from the outside, which changes how we are connected to the traditional perceptions. Although auroras are rarely seen in Japan, when they are observed on a large scale, various records may be available. On the other hand, the interpretation of these records varies from one recorder to another. In the Meiji era (1868-1912), descriptions of low-latitude auroras appeared in geography and geology textbooks, while in some books from the late Edo period (1603-1868) they were translated from European technical books. The Chinese word "red chi" was changed to "polar light" in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and written in katakana as "aurora," but the literal translation "northern light" was used in some books. In this paper, we will discuss the relationship between the phenomenon and the scientific understanding of the observed low-latitude aurora.