Old and New Japonisme: The Tokugawa Legacy and Modern European Images of Japan

Abstract

Individuals and societies are as much influenced and motivated by perceptions of reality as by reality itself, indeed possibly more so. It is in that sense that the images which one society holds in relation to another are highly significant in terms of an understanding of the relationship between the two. Japanese officials tend to stress that problems which exist between Japan and Europe are due to ‘misunderstandings’—and indeed the fact that Endymion Wilkinson's book on Europe and Japan (‘Misunderstanding’) has proved such a best-seller in its Japanese version, GOKAI, indicates that it struck a sensitive chord among the Japanese public. In other words, the image, it is alleged, is out of focus with reality. Presumably an aspiration, and an entirely legitimate one, in the mounting of the Great Japan exhibition was to redress and improve Japan's image in the West, namely by stressing the cultural legacy with the intention of diverting attention from the more powerful industrial dimension.

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