Where Do Kaiiki-shi Studies Go?: A Critical Review for Exploring Its Potential

Kaiiki-shi studies is a field which positions “kaiiki” as a historical unit focusing on the sea, not only to criticize the conventional understanding of history but also to innovate new perspectives on it. This article reviews the historiography of kaiiki-shi studies, especially since 2016, with the aim of clarifying its potential and limits. What is obvious from that historiography is that while kaiiki-shi is establishing its position in historical studies in Japan, it has found itself placed within the conventional framework of historical understanding. In short, the requirement for kaiiki-shi studies is limited to providing the history of oceans in the framework of conventional historical understanding, and as far as that is concerned, kaiiki-shi studies has limited itself to its own field. In order to dissolve the current situation and enable this field to produce innovative new perspectives from which to understand history, this article re-examines the concept of the network, and proposes the potentials of the flow=network concept.