Mr. Corburn – AP World History
KIPP King Collegiate High School
Lesson Aims
Focus Aim: How did Japanese artwork from
the Meiji era depict Japanese selfstrengthening and a Japanese attempt to
avoid Western control by becoming
Westernized?
In order to be prepared to answer this aim we
will also have to answer: What historical
factors influenced changes and continuities
during the Meiji Era?
MIT: Visualizing Cultures
Visual materials in this presentation are
taken from the following website:
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/index.html
• Looking back the the 17th century…
•An era of great peace under Tokugawa Bakufu
•Era of seclusion
•ERA OF SECLUSION
•Foreigners expelled from Japan – no contact
allowed with foreigners, no travelers abroad
•THEN… In 1853 Mathew Perry leads a group of
U.S. naval boats into Tokyo Bay and demand that
Japan open up for diplomatic and economic
relationships. DIPLOMATIC AND COMMERCIAL
RELATIONS
• U.S. naval ships steam into Edo Bay
•Japanese refer to them as kurofune (black
ships)
•Why?
…
• The Shogun complies with U.S. demands and
“Unequal Treaty” is signed (Treaty of Kanagawa)
•Pause and compare to the situation in China
“REVERE THE EMPEROR, EXPEL
THE BARBARIANS”
•This became the rallying cry for upset daimyo
and samurai
•They were concerned that Japan would
become controlled by foreign powers
Samurai of the Chosyu clan, led rebellion against the shogun to
give power over to the emperor
• Refers to restoring the emperor to power and
also the whole period of Japanese
industrialization and modernization in the late
19th century
•Goals of prosperity and strength: “rich country,
strong army” (equal to Western powers)
•Preserve own culture and society – NOT to
become westernized!
•Focused on learning western technology
Pause and Think: HOW DOES THE CLOTHING OF THE MEIJ I
EMPEROR COMPARE WITH THAT OF PREVIOUS ASIAN EMPERORS?
Meiji Reforms
• Travelers Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901)
and Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909) travels to
U.S., Europe
– Argues for adoption of western legal
proceedings, technology
• Meiji government removes privileges for
daimyo, samurai
– Hired army replaces samurai mercenaries
– Samurai rebellion crushed by national army
17
Constitutional GovernmentEnlightened???
• 1889 constitution created
• Slowly…: only 5 % of male population
allowed to vote in 1890 election
• Economic reforms to promote rapid
industrialization
• Dramatic improvement in literacy rates
• Government holdings sold to private
investors: zaibatsu, financial cliques
develop
21
Japan Through Artwork
• Today we will see art from the era of the
Meiji Restoration. We will see examples
of artwork:
– Asserting Japan’s Power Over Others
• Sino-Japanese War
• Russo-Japanese War
– Asserting Japanese Self-Strengthening
• Westernizing/Industrializing
Socratic Artwork Discussion:
Meiji Art
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•
•
•
4 Guiding Questions:
What do you see?
What makes you say that?
How did the Japanese view themselves
during the Meiji era?
• How did Western powers view the
Japanese during the Meiji era?
Background Information
•
The Predictable Pose of the Hero
Although prints of the Sino-Japanese War tried to depict actual battles
the "Hero" almost always struck a familiar pose—like a traditional actor
playing a warrior. Officers in Western-style uniforms heldswords - their
posture was serious, their discipline obvious, their will unshakable.
Background Information
•
The Compassionate Hero: Captain Higuchi
One of the most celebrated Japanese heroes of the Sino-Japanese
War was Captain Higuchi, who reportedly rescued a Chinese infant in a
crucial battle. As the story was told, Captain Higuchi heard the
abandoned child crying on the battlefield, scooped him up in his left
arm, and led his forces to victory flourishing his sword with his right
arm. After the battle, Higuchi returned the child to his parents.
Captain Higuchi became a symbol of the bravery and compassion of
the Japanese forces. At a deeper symbolic level, he exemplified the
whole notion of a righteous war against China. The implication was that
the child had been left in peril by its own irresponsible parents and
caretakers.
Background Information
• The War at Sea
Many of the great battles of the Sino-Japanese War took place at
sea, providing woodblock artists with an opportunity to depict a
totally unprecedented subject: modern naval warfare. A mere four
decades after Commodore Perry’s steam-powered gunboats had
forced Japan to abandon its policy of seclusion, “modern” Japan
was deploying warships on an equal level with any in the world.
In artist’s renderings, the white Japanese warships usually were
pummeling the darker, blacker Chinese ships.
Many naval prints also include tiny Chinese sailors tumbling, almost
like rag-dolls, into the unforgiving sea
Background Information
• As in all war propaganda, many RussoJapanese War prints depict Japanese
routing and slaughtering the Russian foe.
The Japanese
through the European perspective
Background Information
The War in English Eyes
European artists often ridiculed peoples of different races and
colors, portraying themselves as the more symbolized.
What was new on the scene where racial and cultural
stereotyping was concerned in 1894 and 1895 was the sudden
emergence of the “little Japanese” as powerful in Western
eyes—and, on the other hand, the Japanese themselves joining
in the game of stereotyping Asians where China, at least, was
concerned.
Modernization and
Industrialization
Background Information
• Transportation and communications were vital to the
development of a modern economy, and by the 1870s
Japan had made dramatic strides in this direction by
early introduction of steamships, railways, and a
telegraph system.
As the following prints reveal, such “prosperity” took
place in a setting of increasing Westernization in
architecture, clothing, and the like.
Final Writing
• In a document-based essay paragraph
answer today’s aim:
– How did Japanese artwork from the Meiji era
depict Japanese self-strengthening and a
Japanese attempt to avoid Western control by
becoming Westernized?