An emphasis on ‘scientific’ scholarship garnered attention in Japanese art history during the 1930s. The present study delineates the significance of this academic trend by examining its sociocultural background, and the public and private institutions involved in the process. It ultimately clarifies the ways in which Japanese scholars of the modern era attempted to situate art historical research within the ‘disinterested’ realm of the human sciences, through the rational systemisation of artefacts, historical accuracy, and empiricism. Indeed, this became a turning-point in the development of art history in Japan, marking a pivot away from dilettantish and antiquarian approaches to art appreciation. This paper contributes to the ongoing historiographical reassessment of Japanese art history during the first half of the twentieth century. It analyses not only the interdisciplinary approaches of the period, but also the Neo-Kantian scientific perspective that was brought to bear on Japanese art history. It demonstrates, finally, how thoroughly this ‘scientific’ orientation was incorporated into the academic discipline of Japanese art history, contrary to nationalist rhetoric of the time.