Bunmei Kaika : Political Landscape in Early Modern and Modern Japan / Monique A. D'Almeida.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

D'Almeida, Monique A., author, curator.

Contributor:

Thurber, T. Barton, writer of introduction, etc.

Vassar College. Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, host institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Color prints, Japanese--Edo period, 1600-1868.

Color prints, Japanese.

Color prints, Japanese--Meiji period, 1868-1912.

Political art--Japan--Edo period, 1600-1868.

Political art.

Political art--Japan--Meiji period, 1868-1912.

Wood-engraving--19th century--Political aspects--Japan.

Wood-engraving.

Wood-engraving--20th century--Political aspects--Japan.

Japan--Political aspects--Edo period, 1600-1868.

Japan.

Japan--Religious aspects--Edo period, 1600-1868.

Japan--Political aspects--Meiji period, 1868-1912.

Tōkaidō (Japan)--History.

Tōkaidō (Japan).

Genre:

exhibition catalogs.

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

131 pages : color illustrations ; 29 cm

Distribution:

Seattle, WA : University of Washington Press

Place of Publication:

Poughkeepsiw, NY : The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, 2026.

Summary:

A fascinating and accessible introduction to political prints from Edo- and Meiji-period Japan. Organized thematically, this catalog explores the connection between government and landscape imagery from the late Edo period (1615–1868) to the Meiji period (1868–1912). The motto bunmei kaika, meaning 'civilization and enlightenment,' was used during the latter period to celebrate Western ideas and industrialization as marks of a cultured society. Woodblock prints made throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century reveal how both the Tokugawa shogunate and subsequent Meiji government influenced Japanese social order through propaganda, censorship, and Westernization. Featuring works largely drawn from Vassar College’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center alongside select loans, the publication includes such celebrated artists as Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kunisada, Yoshitoshi, and Kiyochika. Bunmei Kaika illuminates a thriving print culture whose clever navigation of government regulations and prohibitions, playful and daring rendering of current events, and feeding of public interest cultivated the national imagination of a modernizing Japan.

Contents:

Foreword

Aknowledgments

Political Landscape in Edo- and Meiji-Period Japanese Prints

On the Road: Tōkaidō and Beyond

Plates

Philosophy, Religion, and Politics: Urban Planning in Edo

Changing Landscapes: Foreign Affairs at the Conclusion of the Edo Period

Religion and Nationalism: Meiji and the Imperial Family's Image

A City Transformed: Tokyo

Sensō-e and the Concept of News: Colonization, Propaganda, and Censorship

Exhibition Checklist

Further Reading.

Notes:

Published in conjunction with the exhibition 'Bunmei Kaika: Poliical Landscape in Early Modern and Modern Japan', curated by Monique A. D'Almeida, on view at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, February 14-June 7, 2016.

ISBN:

0962772038

9780962772030

OCLC:

1553690698