Nachahmung oder Mimikry? Visualisierungen japanischer Identität während des Ersten Sino-Japanischen Krieges

Friese, Klaus J. (November 2023): Nachahmung oder Mimikry? Visualisierungen japanischer Identität während des Ersten Sino-Japanischen Krieges. In: Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung (BJOAF). Bd. 46. Iudicum. S. 185-214

Abstract

During the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) images depicting scenes from this war were highly popular in Japan and also exported to the West. In these images Japanese soldiers and diplomats were nearly always shown in heroic and masculine poses and became seemingly indistinguishable from Westerners, while their Chinese counterparts were ridiculed, feminized and portrayed as unmodern. Frequently these representations are misinterpreted as expressions of a Japanese desire to adopt an identity following the Western model. This article argues that these images should rather be understood as mimicry or even camouflage: In order to be accepted by the US and European powers many Japanese intellectuals felt the need to resemble the West at least on the surface. This camouflage was supposed to create the space needed to develop a distinct national identity modelled on Japanese historical precedents like the samurai traditions but also incorporating East-Asian or Chinese ideals which were perceived by many Japanese of the time as universal. A close look at popular art objects such as woodblock prints but also motives on textiles created during the Sino-Japanese War reveals many traces of this strategic mimicry as part of the formation of a national identity.

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Keywords: Erster Sino-Japanischer Krieg; japanische Holzdrucke; japansiche Nationalidentität; Mimikry
• Fakultät: Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde > Ethnologie ; Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Asienstudien > Japanologie
• Themengebiete: 700 Künste und Unterhaltung > 700 Künste ; 700 Künste und Unterhaltung > 760 Grafik ; 900 Geschichte und Geografie > 950 Geschichte Asiens
• ISSN: 0170-0006
• Sprache: Deutsch