2014 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
| Project/Area Number |
14F04770
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
羽田 正 東京大学, 東洋文化研究所, 教授 (40183090)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
LEE Ju-Ling 東京大学, 東洋文化研究所, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-25 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | body / representation / lower class / nudity / Taiwan / Japanese colonialism / Ishiki Kaii Jorei |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This study discovered the important role of the lower class in (re)constructing the “civilized” Japan during the Meiji period. The body of the Japanese lower class was regulated and domesticated by the Japanese government according to the Western concept of civilization. Next, by comparing the Japanese body experience during the Meiji period to the later Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan, we discovered the following three phenomenons:
(1) the Japanese colonial gaze projected on its colonized people was an (un)conscious imitation of the Western gaze they suffered during the Meiji period. By doing so the Japanese colonizers placed themselves in the realm of “civilized” culture in relation to the “uncivilized” colonized people.
(2) the colonial authorities first regulated and domesticated the Japanese body in Taiwan before they “civilized” the body of Taiwanese people in order to establish and maintain their identity as “civilized” colonizer and justify their “civilizing mission” in the colony. This showed the mutual influence of the colonialism which affected and (re)constructed the identity of colonizer as well as the identity of its colonized subjects.
(3) The representation of the body of the lower class of the colonized people played an important role in constructing and maintaining the social hierarchy in the colonial society.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The progress of this research goes on good rhythm thanks to the comfortable working environment offered by the host Institute and the precious resources in the University of Tokyo and in different archives in Tokyo. A trip to Taiwan was also effected in February 2014 to collect resources on colonial Taiwan. We went to the National Taiwan Library which has the most complete collections of data, archives and books about the General-Government of Taiwan. We also used National Central Library and the Japanese studies center in the library of National Taiwan University. We were looking specifically for resources on the Ishiki Kaii ordinance published in Taiwan which regulated the representation of the body of Japanese in Taiwan and also news on journals about its applications and actual cases. The official journal published during the colonial period in Taiwan “Taiwan nichinichi shinpo” contained precious information and these above three libraries possess the digital version of Taiwan nichinichi shinpo produced by the company TBMC. This digitized version of Taiwan nichinichi shinpo can be browsed by its index and keywords and make more easily the access and the research of its content. This trip financed by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research; Kakenhi - of JSPS contributed enormously to this project and the current article we are writing on Japanese colonizer’s body experiences in Taiwan.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
From now on we shall include in our approach a study of Japanese rule in Korea and in the Kwantung Leased Territory in order to explore further the examination of the Japanese body within the empire. The Japanese authorities adopted regulations concerning the representation of the body in Korea as early as the late 1870s, in colonial Taiwan from 1895, in the Kwantung Leased Territory from 1905 and later in Manchukuo during the 1930-40s to domesticate the Japanese body. We shall examine the continuity and differences between the regulations in the mainland Japan and those in the areas mentioned above in order to reveal the role of the representation of the body in the formation of Japanese colonialism and in the transformation of Japanese colonizer’s identity in the encounter with other cultures.
During this new academic year, this research will deal with studies of the Kwantung Leased Territory and Manchukuo as well as the colonial Korea. The archives on the Kwantung Leased Territory and Manchukuo are preserved in different universities and libraries in mainly four countries: Japan, China, Taiwan and United States. The National Archives of Korea is the main archive on colonial Korea. In Japan, besides several archives and university libraries in Tokyo, Kyoto University preserves as well a good number of sources on Manchukuo. To be able to have access to these documents is essential to this study and we shall plan several research trips to obtain the resources and complete the comparing research with the case of colonial Taiwan.
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