Courses

This seminar will address visual media as a manifestation of the colonial relationship between Imperial Japan and its colonies between the 1870s and 1945. The class will begin with an examination of the newly established Meiji government’s annexation of Okinawa and Hokkaidō and will then consider Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria. How did the colonial regime use visual media to promote it imperialist project? To what degree did colonial subjects adopt colonial visual modes of discourse? To what degree was it possible within that discourse for colonial subjects to resist or subvert Japanese domination? The seminar will analyze institutions such as museums and international expositions, tourism, and the folk craft movement.