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Journal Name: Japanese Studies: December 2004, Vol. 24, No. 3
ISSN: 1037-1397 (Paper), 1469-9338 (Online)
Articles:
Entanglements of ethnographic images: Torii Ryūzō's photographic record of Taiwan aborigines (1896-1900) (pp283 - 299)
Ka F. Wong (University of Hawaii)
Abstract:
The ethnographic photographs of Taiwan aborigines by the Meiji anthropologist Torii Ryūzō enhance our understanding not only of the native culture but also the colonial maker himself. Against the backdrop of Japan's colonization of Taiwan, this photographic record reveals the particular features of the aboriginal culture in which Torii was interested, the way he captured and portrayed his subjects, as well as possible motivations behind his work. More than just scientific evidence, these pictures are 'social artifacts' that expose as much about the historical, political, and personal agenda of their creator at the turn of the twentieth century as they do of Taiwan aboriginal vestiges.
Building a strong and healthy empire: the critical period of building colonial medicine in Taiwan (pp301 - 314)
Shiyung Liu (Institute of Taiwan History Academia Sinica)
Abstract:
This article focuses on fundamental events in the establishment of colonial medicine in Japanese Taiwan (1895-1945). It aims to analyze factors shaping the Japanese design of colonial medicine. Influenced by a new German-Japanese medical tradition, public health officials in colonial Taiwan such as Gotō Shinpei emphasized the distinctiveness of the tropical environment and the unhygienic behavior of the inhabitants of Taiwan. They sought to control epidemic disease through public health intervention and medical reform, improving the living environment for Japanese settlers and 'controlling' the unsanitary Taiwanese. This study underscores the importance of colonial factors beyond the increase of medical facilities and sanitary concepts that profoundly influenced the health of the colonial population in the early occupation period. It explores colonial medicine in the context of the westernization of Japanese medicine and of compromises necessitated by the colonial context.
First contact: the story of the Zadkia (pp315 - 321)
Michael Penn (The University of Kitakyushu)
Abstract:
This short paper examines a forgotten episode in the early 1870s when a steamship flying under the flag of the Bey of Tunis unexpectedly arrived in the port of Yokohama. This steamship, the Zadkia, immediately became involved in a legal dispute regarding the debts of its owner and the status of the ship itself as a vessel from a non-Treaty Power. The Zadkia story was significant in several respects. First, it revises our understanding of when and how Japan and the Islamic lands re-established contact in the modern period. Second, it throws additional light upon the history of the treaty revision movement in Japan. Finally, it represented a new phase for native Japanese journalism when a Japanese reporter attended a European-style trial for the first time. This paper is based upon newspaper reports as well as diplomatic correspondence between London, Tokyo, Yokohama, and Tunis.
National moral education: Abe Isō's views on education (pp323 - 333)
Masako Gavin (Bond University)
Abstract:
Abe Isō, one of the most eminent intellectuals of the Meiji era (1868-1912) and a professor at Tokyo Senmon Gakkō (the present Waseda University), believed in a liberal approach to education and opposed the trend towards state-oriented education and the egocentric approach that superseded it. His views are important to an understanding of educational issues during this pivotal period but have been largely ignored by those who have studied the legacies of his vast and diverse intellectual output. This paper studies his views on education, and in particular, his response to tokuiku (the national moral teaching).
Fence, flavor, and phantasm: Japanese musicians and the meanings of 'Japaneseness' (pp335 - 350)
Gordon Mathews (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Abstract:
This paper explores senses of 'Japaneseness' among Japanese musicians today by considering the words of 32 musicians--from koto and shakuhachi masters to jazz saxophonists, rock guitarists, and classical and electronic composers--in a provincial Japanese city. Their diverse senses of cultural identity are analyzed through three metaphors through which they express themselves: Japaneseness as a fence, walling off Japanese from change and foreignness, Japaneseness as a flavor to be enjoyed by anyone in the world who so chooses, and Japaneseness as a phantasm: Japaneseness obliterated, to be created anew if enough people can be convinced of the validity of such a recreation. This paper suggests that these metaphors may be useful in explicating cultural identity across a broad range of settings beyond music.
(This journal is available online at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/10371397.asp)
Posted with permission from the publisher.
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