Mr. Corburn – AP World History

KIPP King Collegiate High School

Lesson Aims

Focus Aim: How did Japanese artwork from the Meiji era depict Japanese self-strengthening 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?

17

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

21

Constitutional Government-Enlightened???

• 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

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

• 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.

• 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 Russo-Japanese War prints depict Japanese routing and slaughtering the Russian foe.

Background Information

The Japanese through the European perspective

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.

Background Information

Modernization and Industrialization

• 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.

Background Information

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?