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Dai Nippon (Great Japan)

Dai Nippon (Great Japan)
Dai Nippon (Great Japan)
Dai Nippon (Great Japan) is a selection of prints from the Henry Dyer Collection.

Edinburgh City Libraries received two donations of the Henry Dyer Collection in 1945 and 1955, gifted by Marie Ferguson Dyer in honour of her father Henry Dyer. These donations together consisted of 50 loose sheets of Japanese woodblock prints, a number of bound woodblock printed volumes, scrolls and a collection of late 19th Century Japanese photographs attributed to Baron Von Stillfried. The remainder of the Dyer Collection was gifted to the Mitchell Library (Glasgow) and Glasgow Museums (Nitshill).

Henry Dyer was a Scottish engineer and an educational reformer who was hired by the Meiji (Enlightened Rule) government to become the founding Principal and the Professor of Engineering at the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobudaigakko) in Tokyo. Dyer was resident in Japan from 1873 to 1882 and on leaving Japan he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (Third Class) for his contribution to Japan's modernisation.

Dyer recognised the benefits of his own engineering education that had combined theory and practice, and appreciated how the hands-on experience he had gained in the Glasgow shipyards had allowed him to apply his technological training. In 1873, when designing the curriculum for the newly opened Kobudaigakko, this experience of Scottish education would provide the inspiration behind the innovative six-year 'sandwich course' structure Dyer was to establish. The creation of the Akabane Engineering Works, as an adjunct to the Kobudaigakko, aimed to provide students with a genuine workshop environment.

Dyer's tenure in Japan would last nine years, and after his return to Scotland in 1882 Dyer continued to provide a pro-Japanese lobby that facilitated the entry of Japanese students into Scottish Universities. In 1901, as a result of his campaigns, Japanese was accepted as a permitted language for entry to Glasgow University. Dyer became the unofficial liaison officer for all Japanese students, researchers and professionals temporarily resident in Glasgow. Dyer was a Life Governor of the Royal Technical College and the Chairman of the Glasgow School Board.

See more from the Dyer Collection: Kunisada's Tale of Genji exhibition and Views and Costumes of China & Japan by Baron Stillfried exhibition.