Browse Exhibits (34 total)
Contextualizing Nakae Chōmin's "A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government"
This project endeavors to, one, discover the key figures represented by Nakae Chōmin in his work "A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government", and two, develop an analysis of Nakae Chōmin's motivations, whether they were political or possibly purely intellectual, in writing and releasing the work. Released around 1887, "A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government" enraptures much of the tensions present during a crucial shift of political thought during the 1870s and 1880s in Meiji Japan. The book offers two opposing ideas of thought espoused by the Gentleman from the West and the Champion of the East, while the Master offers a rational and intellectual critique.
The two pages of the exhibit serve as two crucial parts of the project. The page on Saigō Takamori represents a brief biography of a historical figure that, perhaps, served as the inspiration for the Champion of the East. The second page begins the process of analyzing the motivations of Nakae Chōmin. Finally, the nature of this project does not lend itself easily to non-literary primary sources. Thus, for this assignment, the items chosen are pictures of two of the key figures.
Art of the State: How Classical Music was Brought to Japan
Meiji Japan presents an extremely interesting case in the spread of Western art music: surprisingly, it was not initially thought of as a cultural institution at all. Instead, the adoption of Western music was strictly a practical matter, its scope limited to its first martial, then pedagogical utility.
Despite these humble beginnings, Western music in Japan quickly flourished. Irish composer John William Fenton and German composer Franz Eckert were key figures in the rapidly evolving military use of Western music, the latter particularly notable for bringing about the primacy of German classical music to the Western music culture of Japan. Meanwhile, Isawa Shūji and the American Luther Whiting Mason were instrumental in formalizing a national system of music education, modeled after the Boston public school system.
The course these men charted for Japan that eventually led to a far fuller embrace of Western art music on its own merits, as well as an important syncretic process that united traditional Japanese musical ideas and forms with Western influences.
Japan and America: From Confucianism To Christianity
My exhibit mostly highlights that of my final topic: understanding the comparison and relationship between Confucianism and Christianity in Japan and America. Primarily through reference to Peter Duus's The Japanese Discovery of America, I draw parallels between the respective teachings by uses of written accounts. The perspectives of Japanese and American people upon their initial interactions give insight into similarities and differences in worldviews and cultures. It important to understand and give historical context to Japanese perspective as to how these teachings influenced Japanese culture, and then from there, I specifically shed light on the Iwakura Mission. As this exhibit is a window into my final: I aim to show how Japanese people viewed Christianity, how Americans viewed Confucianism, and how these two analyses give insight to the overall development of each country. I think this assessment is important as it is fundamental to the progressing Westernization of Japan.
The Advancing Giants: Japanese Art and Propaganda of the Russo-Japanese War
The goal of my research project is to study Japanese depictions of the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905 and their effects in promoting Meiji ideals and serving as social propaganda for the Japanese people. In particular, I want to examine media such as postcards and wood block prints that entered mass circulation during the time of the war and were often in the public eye, and their resulting impact on Japanese society. In the first page, I look at the extended panoramic postcard series “The Battle of the Japan Sea” by Saitō Shōshū which elaborately depicts an engagement between Russian and Japanese forces in an effort to describe the appeal of postcard propaganda. In the second page, I analyze Kobayashi Kiyochika’s wood print showing the Russian Tsar Nicholas II being plagued by a nightmare of the Russian defeat in order to better determine the Japanese contempt towards their opponents in helping to reinforce their own sense of superiority.
A Modern Marriage?: The Story of Jo and Yae Niijima
Yamamoto Yaeko, also known as Yae Neesima or Yae Niijima, is one of the most fascinating, unconventional figures of the Meiji period. Niijima was born in the Aizu domain in 1845 into the family of a prominent gunnery expert. According to legends, Yae Niijima dressed in her brother’s clothing and fought as a samurai in the battle to defend Aizu castle against the imperial troops. Her role as a female, gun-wielding samurai has become popular history, including most recently a series on Japanese TV. While she is best remembered in modern day Japan for her groundbreaking role as a female samurai, I would argue that her unconventional marriage and stance of female education is equally significant. After the Meiji Restoration, Yae Niijima went to live with her brother in Kyoto, where she learned English and converted to Christianity. She was extremely well-educated and secured a teaching position at a secondary school for girls. Through her brother, she met and then married Protestant missionary, Joseph Hardy Neesima, or Jo Niijima, with whom she shared a happy and extremely modern, Western relationship. Yae Niijima went on to be an advocate of education for women and supported her husband in the founding on Doshisha University. (K. Fujisawa, Nagoya Women's Studies Research Group, Japan: 2010)
Shinsengumi: Losers Then and Winners Now?
During the process of Meiji Restoration, many figures arose and engaged in the creation of a new country and the advance of a modern civilization. Destiny favored and history chosen certain side as “winners” and demolished the other side as “losers”. Among those losers, Shinseigumi, a special police force organized by the Bakufu, stood out as the most well known “losers” who fought for Shogunate all the way until Hakodate. However, since 1950s, their stories had been adapted into various novels, stage dramas, movies, TV dramas, video games, et cetera. Members of the Shinseigumi also earned extremely high popularity (if not to the level of personality cult) and are viewed as “heroes” in pop culture.
In my final project, I’d like to investigate Shinsengumi’s main members' public images in post-Meiji period and current days to find out what cultural roots are backing up the transition from “losers” to “winners”, and what can we learn about the two societies through this shift.
Shifting Views of Sumo Wrestling: From Edo to the Meiji Era
Before the Meiji Restoration, sumo wrestling existed as a popular form of performance among all classes of people. However, following Commodore Perry’s expeditions and the Meiji Restoration, Western observers’ criticisms coupled with Japan’s embracement of all things Western catalyzed change upon the institution of sumo wrestling. In order to understand such changes, my project will cover how the cultural identity of sumo wrestling changed during the Meiji era in contrast to the Edo period. In particular, this project will explore how public perception of sumo wrestling transformed upon Western interaction during this period. Despite criticisms and changes of public perceptions, I will also examine how sumo wrestling survived during the Meiji era and evolved into a national sport. These questions will be addressed by prints, photographs, and other visual depictions of sumo wrestling and firsthand accounts of opinions of sumo wrestling by Westerners and Japanese during the Meiji era.
During the Edo period, sumo wrestling served as a localized spectacle among a varied audience—from an urban form of plebian entertainment for commoners, court entertainment for officials, and for religious rituals.[1] However, with Perry’s expeditions in 1853 and 1854, and the resulting signing of the Kanagawa Treaty in 1854, Japan began a period of political and cultural change. In the following decade, the Tokugawa shogunate was toppled over and replaced with an imperial restoration by Japan’s southern domains. Despite restoring an aspect of the past, the Meiji era Japan pursued a course of “civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika) based on the importation of Western civilization.[2] Such importation of Western thought led to a change of domestic attitude toward sumo wrestling—it was denounced as “uncivilized” and an anachronistic leftover of feudal Japan.[3]
[1] Tierney, Roderic Kenji. "Wrestling with Tradition: Sumo, National Identity and trans/national Popular Culture." Order No. 3082431, University of California, Berkeley, 2002. http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/304735932?accountid=11311.
[2] Miller, Ian. “Bunmei Kaika: Civilization and Enlightenment.” Cambridge. 27 Oct. 2014. Lecture.
[3] Lee, Khoon Choy,. Japan--between Myth and Reality. Singapore ; River Edge, N.J.: World Scientific, 1995.
The Peasant Class in Meiji Japan
Life for the samurai shifted drastically from the Tokugawa Era into the Meiji Restoration, but how were the commoners, like the peasant class, treated when the new government was ushered in? In class, Professor Miller mentioned that at the beginning of the Meiji Period, life for many outside of the major domains was not too different than before. Individuals still reported to their local governments and farming was still a major export market in the country. My paper seeks to explore the shift in Japanese culture for the peasants from the Tokugawa Era to the Meiji Restoration period. This paper will largely target the society outside of major contentious regions like Satsuma and Choshu, which experienced major riots throughout the restoration period. For regions outside of these contentious areas, how was life experienced? While not touched on within the primary sources, my paper will use the region of Kawasaki as a key area to focus on when examining the social and economic shifts from the Tokugawa period through the Meiji Restoration in regards to the peasant class. Unlike the powerful regions of Satsuma and Choshu, Kawasaki was within political proximity to Tokyo and did not experience as many of the institutional uprisings as the other regions. The book on Kawasaki, written by Neil Waters, will prove as a powerful resource to provide a thorough description of life as a peasant. My paper will highlight many of the social, economic, and political changes that the peasants dealt with during the end of the Tokugawa period and the Meiji restoration.[1]
[1] Waters, Neil L. Japan's Local Pragmatists: The Transition from Bakumatsu to Meiji in the Kawasaki Region. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard U, 1983. Print.
Bunmei Kaika: Japan’s Balance between Westernization and Traditional Values
My final project will center on the Bunmei Kaika ideal of civilization and enlightenment that characterized development, be it political, intellectual, social, or military, in the Meiji era. For the purposes of this exhibit I have examined two art pieces which show in different lights the Rokumeikan-style Westernization that dominated upper class life in the mid to late 1870s. The two pieces, by Chikanobu and Bigot respectively, present two different viewpoints on Japan's attempts at "civilization." Though my final project will likely ultimately focus more on the political integration of Western practices into Japanese life, the two pieces serve as a reminder that there were both strongly positive and strongly negative opinions, both within and outside of Japan's borders.
Consequences of Western Whaling in Tokugawa Japan
In the words of Herman Melville that reflected the sentiments of many whalers of the nineteenth century, “In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.” By the early nineteenth century, Western whalers had been spotted off the coast of Japan in pursuit of their prey, leading to an increasingly interactive (and usually unreported) relationship between Western and Japanese fishermen. While ideas and goods were exchanged when the Japanese met with these foreigners, in direct violation of the official laws of the nation, these conversations opened up an avenue through which much Western thought could finally break through to a nation that was only officially trading with China and Holland.
This final project will focus on the presence of Western whalers in Japanese waters in the nineteenth century, and how these informal meetings would eventually play a part in drastic political and legal results in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Referring to drawings and paintings, as well as textual evidence, I hope to produce an accurate portrayal of whaling at the time and explain why such an industry would lead Western powers into direct contact with Japan. Furthermore, after clarifying a number of important aspects of the whaling world, I can finish by commenting on the significance this cultural exchange had on Tokugawa Japan in its decline into the Meiji Era.