Japanese Modernization Driven by Aspiration to Emulate Western Ideas and Institutions
The clock strikes 2pm at a local art museum in the well-off Tokyo neighbrohood of Shirokanedai, and the floors seem to fill with more and more people. The museum's eclectic collection of a permanent exhibition on the history of art deco in Japan and a special exhibition on French children's books is drawing what seem to be a highly varied but equally enthusiastic audience. College students carefully reading the descriptions bump shoulders with housewives snapping photos and middle-aged men in suits. From the looks of the crowds, it just does not look like a weekday afternoon in any way.
The significance of the exhibitions perhaps provide some clues as to why some people, like those middle-aged men in suits, are willing to spend some time browsing through, using up precious hours of vacation that are surely not easy to come by for any Japanese corporate warrior. To put directly, the collection of the museum, in various ways, display just how Japan modernized at the turn of the 20th century, often by evoking the need to learn not just the technology of the Europeans, but their attitudes toward aesthetics and education, in order to become a modern country and people.
The building that houses the museum provides the first clue. Built in French Art Deco in the early 1920s, what was then known as the Asaka Palace belonged to known other than Prince Asaka, a brother of the country's modernizing Emperor Meiji. As part of his imperial education, Prince Asaka studied abroad in Paris, where he took in not only military knowledge but also appreciation for French architecture. Attending the Art Deco Exposition held in Paris convinced him to bring European-style appreciation of fine architecture to his homeland still dominated by wooden traditional housing.
The project proved to e more than just imperial vanity. It was first and foremost an exercise in knowledge transfer. French designers and architects hired by Asaka in Paris are brought physically to Tokyo to work together with architects, some of whom already Western-trained, working for the Japanese Ministry of Interior. The passing of knowledge, like some many others of the time, provided Japan with the necessary domestic human resources to both independently build up its economy in various ways, and simultaneously train a new crop of specialists in every field.
In other words, building the Asaka Palace, like so many projects of the time, was part of a much grander nation-building project undertaken by the imperial household. The central government's spearheading of nation-building found popular support partly through the perceived glamor of European elite life. For the Japanese aristocracy and intellectual elite, to live like the Europeans was considered a noteworthy goal, one unattainable unless the country can digest the advanced technologies of the West. The cutting-edge modern designs of Art Deco was one example of such.
Such aspiration of living like the Europeans, in some ways, represents a continuity of the elites at the turn of the 20th century and modern-day Japanese general public. The continued veneration and admiration of European culture of then is reflected now in the massive crowds thronging the museum on a Monday afternoon. As the audience members pay respects to the exhibitions themselves, they see themselves as aspiring consumers of Western culture, in ways that can continue to provide Japan with an intellectually sophisticated population capable of digesting the most modern ideas of the West.
The enthusiasm for French children books on exhibit can be interpreted as such aspirations. Ultimately, those children's books are not merely about how the French created stories and pictures, but about a cutting edge concept that children deserve their own genre of literature, tasked with providing them the needed moral lessons to become functioning members of society. Even in today's world, such progressive ideas of educating children in a dedicated method of socialization is still not universal. For the common people to see such an idea as artistic display is intellectually stimulating to say the least.
As much as foreigners continue to see the Japanese as a culturally idiosyncratic and even isolationist people, the Japanese experience of modernization is ultimately an exercise in continued emulation of Western ideas and institutions. The drive for the emulation is a still-strong aspiration to become at least more intellectually Western, with a sometimes top-down thinking that label European values as modern and progressive. Without such perception, it is difficult to expect Art Deco and French children's books, with little physical presence in modern-day Japan, getting such big audience on a weekday.
The significance of the exhibitions perhaps provide some clues as to why some people, like those middle-aged men in suits, are willing to spend some time browsing through, using up precious hours of vacation that are surely not easy to come by for any Japanese corporate warrior. To put directly, the collection of the museum, in various ways, display just how Japan modernized at the turn of the 20th century, often by evoking the need to learn not just the technology of the Europeans, but their attitudes toward aesthetics and education, in order to become a modern country and people.
The building that houses the museum provides the first clue. Built in French Art Deco in the early 1920s, what was then known as the Asaka Palace belonged to known other than Prince Asaka, a brother of the country's modernizing Emperor Meiji. As part of his imperial education, Prince Asaka studied abroad in Paris, where he took in not only military knowledge but also appreciation for French architecture. Attending the Art Deco Exposition held in Paris convinced him to bring European-style appreciation of fine architecture to his homeland still dominated by wooden traditional housing.
The project proved to e more than just imperial vanity. It was first and foremost an exercise in knowledge transfer. French designers and architects hired by Asaka in Paris are brought physically to Tokyo to work together with architects, some of whom already Western-trained, working for the Japanese Ministry of Interior. The passing of knowledge, like some many others of the time, provided Japan with the necessary domestic human resources to both independently build up its economy in various ways, and simultaneously train a new crop of specialists in every field.
In other words, building the Asaka Palace, like so many projects of the time, was part of a much grander nation-building project undertaken by the imperial household. The central government's spearheading of nation-building found popular support partly through the perceived glamor of European elite life. For the Japanese aristocracy and intellectual elite, to live like the Europeans was considered a noteworthy goal, one unattainable unless the country can digest the advanced technologies of the West. The cutting-edge modern designs of Art Deco was one example of such.
Such aspiration of living like the Europeans, in some ways, represents a continuity of the elites at the turn of the 20th century and modern-day Japanese general public. The continued veneration and admiration of European culture of then is reflected now in the massive crowds thronging the museum on a Monday afternoon. As the audience members pay respects to the exhibitions themselves, they see themselves as aspiring consumers of Western culture, in ways that can continue to provide Japan with an intellectually sophisticated population capable of digesting the most modern ideas of the West.
The enthusiasm for French children books on exhibit can be interpreted as such aspirations. Ultimately, those children's books are not merely about how the French created stories and pictures, but about a cutting edge concept that children deserve their own genre of literature, tasked with providing them the needed moral lessons to become functioning members of society. Even in today's world, such progressive ideas of educating children in a dedicated method of socialization is still not universal. For the common people to see such an idea as artistic display is intellectually stimulating to say the least.
As much as foreigners continue to see the Japanese as a culturally idiosyncratic and even isolationist people, the Japanese experience of modernization is ultimately an exercise in continued emulation of Western ideas and institutions. The drive for the emulation is a still-strong aspiration to become at least more intellectually Western, with a sometimes top-down thinking that label European values as modern and progressive. Without such perception, it is difficult to expect Art Deco and French children's books, with little physical presence in modern-day Japan, getting such big audience on a weekday.
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