to yokohama - harvard universityfc84/archives/2005_spring_fc84...josiah conder (1852-1920) ......
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Conflicts with foreign powers
• The Richardson Incident, 1862 (Satsuma clan)
• Bombardment of Kagoshima, 1863 (Satsuma)
• Bombardment of Shimonoseki, 1864 (Choshu)
Meiji Restoration, 1868
Led by 4 anti-Tokugawa clans from SW
Each very anti-foreign, but strengthened by foreign influences
Restoration accomplished with little violence
From Edo to Tokyo
Edo remained capital
But with - - -New ruling elite (SW samurai)New Imperial institutions (from 1872)Western presence
Meiji goals
• Preserve the state• Systematic (and selective) westernization• Ideological intensification of nationalism• Standardization of national lifealso• Westernization as popular (non-state)
trend
Slogans of the Age
• Rich Country, Strong Army! Fukkoku Kyohei
• Eastern morality, Western technology!
• Civilization and EnlightenmentBunmei Kaika
Era of “Foreign Experts”• British railway engineers• British architects• German constitutional lawyers• French military advisors• American business people• Educators from all over
Josiah Conder (1852-1920) –
• leading British architect of Meiji-era Tokyo• Rokumeikan• Iwasaki villa
• many other major public buildings
Iwasaki Family
• Iwasaki Yataro – born a poor samurai in Kochi
• Founded NYK shipping lines• Which became basis for Mitsubishi• Iwasaki became governor of Tokyo and
confidante of Meiji Emperor
Zaibatsu
• The Iwasaki enterprises = Mitsubishi zaibatsu
• Typical pattern of Meiji entrepreneurship• Close ties to government and privatization
of government investments• Mitsui, Sumitomo, Shibusawa, Yasuda,
and many many more
Meiji Gyūnabe•Meiji period – introduction of beef eating
•One of the first “Western food booms”
•Gyūnabe – beef hot pot (sukiyaki) –became fashionable symbol of “Civilization and Enlightenment”
Meiji Gyūnabe“Anyone – warrior, farmer, craftsman, or merchant, young or old, male or female, clever or stupid, rich or poor – I repeat, anyone who does not eat beef is an unmitigated boor”
from Aguranabe (1871-72), by KanagakiRobun
Tsukiji Foreign Settlement
1872 – 1899 (til end of extraterritoriality)
Never very large population
Yokohama remained the major center of foreign presence until well into 20th century
Major political issue of extraterritoriality
Tsukiji foreign settlement
Western influence not dependent on numbers of foreigners at Tsukiji
Key institutions – hospitals, schools, universities founded in Tsukiji still remain important
Popular imagination of West regardless of numbers
The “real” last samurai
Saigo Takamori (1828-1877)–led samurai rebellion in Kyushu in 1876-77
Committed suicide when battle was lost
Posthumously pardoned in 1889
Meiji Westernization
• Technology• Government institutions• Military• Popular culture
– (beef bowls, haircuts, clothes, ball gowns, hot air balloons, squeaky shoes!)
New sense of subjectivity
Japanese vs. Western
(Japanese vs. Asian)
Imperial subjects
Abolition of class structures
From Edo to Tokyo – new sense of metropolitan possibility
Tropes of difference & distinctionEnduring aspect of Western hegemony in 19th
century
Difference/distinction/otherness – complex cultural phenomenon
Consumption as medium of expression
Distinctions
•Japan v. West v. “Orient”;
•Tokyo v. Japan;
•elite v. commoners
Boston’s Japan craze
•Charles Longfellow
•William Sturgis Bigelow
•Edward Sylvester Morse
•Ernest Fenolloso
•Okakura Tenshin (The Book of Tea)
The Great Wave, by Christopher Benfey (2003)
Okakura Tenshin• Okakura Tenshin (1863 - 1913)
• Born in Yokohama, started studying English at age 9
• Attended Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied with Ernest Fenollosa (from Boston)
• Worked closely with Fenollosa to catalogue and preserve Japanese art during the Meiji period
Okakura Tenshin
• Stressed the importance of preserving Japan’s artistic traditions
• Founded Tokyo National Museum of Art• 1890 founded Japan’s first art academy• 1904 came to Boston to head Oriental
division of MFA – good friend of Isabella Stuart Gardener, the grand patron of the arts of Boston
Okakura’s English language books
• The Ideals of the East (1903)• The Awakening of Japan (1904)• The Book of Tea (1906)
Wrote about the aesthetics of Japanese civilization to introduce them to the West, at the same time to urge his fellow Japanese to preserve their own cultural identity
The secretary of the Harvard class of 1871 wrote to William Sturgis Bigelow requesting some news, "or a story." Bigelow replied,
"Story? God bless you, I have none to tell, sir. Since '81 I have spent about seven years in Japan, when [sic] I saw a great many folks of high and low degree, got together some things of various sorts for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts...and learned a little about Eastern philosophy and religion. I have neither wife nor children, written no books, received no special honors and I belong only to the regular clubs and societies."
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