![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Picture1-1-300x189.jpg\")
1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\nAyako Hotta-Lister has produced a comprehensive summary of the landmark event in her \u2018Gateway to the Island of the East\u2019<\/em>, however, this article is principally concerned with the exhibition\u2019s political objectives and outcomes for the Japanese Empire. By this time, world\u2019s fairs, expositions and exhibitions had become a familiar sight around the world. European and American cities began hosting them frequently from the middle of the 19th<\/sup> century. They became hubs for cultural exchange, global interaction and economic networking. Hotta-Lister has maintained that holding an exhibition \u2018became one of the obligatory tasks for a country that had already achieved world power status, as well as for those aspiring to do so\u2019.2<\/a><\/sup> In light of this, and indeed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed in 1902, there was seemingly much to be gained and little to be lost by a Japanese Exhibition in London.<\/p>\n Hotta-Lister\u2019s article is a valuable source in understanding the reasoning behind Japan\u2019s desire for an exhibition in 1910. Its objectives, largely instigated by Foreign Minister Komura Jutar\u014d and Katsura Tar\u014d, were \u2018principally commercial\u2019.3<\/a><\/sup> Primarily, the two men felt compelled to strengthen trade links, specifically increasing the number of Japanese exports which reached the British Isles.4<\/a><\/sup> Such an exhibition would act as a \u2018shop-window\u2019 for Japanese goods. Furthermore, another key objective was to obtain loans from London\u2019s big financiers. At a basic monetary level, the exhibition provided a platform to prove Japan\u2019s transition to modernity and convince creditors that Japan was a \u2018good bet\u2019. The opportunity to reinforce the newly formed alliance was also low hanging fruit which the organisers could also not refuse. It is interesting to note that the very name of the exhibition places \u2018Japan\u2019 before \u2018Britain\u2019, uncommon for this era of British pre-eminence, underlining that the event would take place with the two nations on equal footing.<\/p>\n Ultimately, how successful were the Japanese authorities in fulfilling their objectives in 1910? Firstly, from the point of view of the British, the event was far more popular with visitors than was expected. The attendance was \u2018far exceeding the attendance at the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908\u2026 one of London\u2019s most successful and popular exhibitions of the decade.\u20195<\/a><\/sup> Despite this, however, Hotta-Lister\u2019s article reveals that in relation to the Brussels International Exhibition, happening concurrently, the British attitude to the Japan-British event was somewhat \u2018lukewarm\u2019.6<\/a><\/sup> Moreover, there was a school of thought amongst the British in certain circles that the event and its exhibits were to an extent uncivilised and unsightly. However, the consensus appears to be that the \u2018indifference\u2019 or lack of interest in the exhibition was not widespread amongst the British public and indeed the spectacle was generally enjoyed.<\/p>\n From a Japanese perspective, however, the reactions to the exhibition\u2019s success appear to be more mixed. Whilst Japanese authorities felt it was a top priority to portray an affluent, modern and prosperous image to their British allies, there were many that felt this had not been captured in the exhibits. One such case was the feeling that the village-space that had been constructed was more akin to a poor, rural community than the urban centres which were becoming the centre for modernisation and transformation. The postcard below captures not only the architecture that reveals this, but also the attire and practices of the Japanese participants themselves. This is especially problematic when one considers Timothy Mitchell\u2019s argument that visitors were \u2018participant observers\u2019 and active in the scene themselves.7<\/a><\/sup> As such, they would have felt they were \u2018there\u2019 in Japan, however the Japan that was depicted was not the modern one they intended to portray.<\/p>\n In collaboration with the sense the \u2018wrong\u2019 Japan was represented, there also seems to have been a sense in the Japanese newspapers of the time that \u2018exoticism\u2019 and \u2018orientalist\u2019 imagery had been played up to. Whilst a fundamental aim of the exhibition was to correct misconceptions of Japanese culture and traditions, entertainments such as the Sumo wrestlers, in \u2018authentic near-naked splendour\u2019, were seen by many as \u2018novelty\u2019 and certain visitors found it offensive and as further evidence of Japan\u2019s \u2018backwardness\u2019.9<\/a><\/sup> Japanese commentators found this aspect of the exhibition self-demeaning, rather than image-enhancing.<\/p>\n In conclusion, exhibitions such as the Japan-British of 1910 are clear platforms for the demonstrating of success, modernising and cultural affluence. Whilst the exhibition was widely attended, generated attention and stimulated economic collaboration between the two nations, the general feeling among Japanese stakeholders was that it fell short in creating \u2018soft power\u2019 and promoting Japan\u2019s image. It was successful in being educational about Japan\u2019s culture, norms and practices, but appears to have lacked clarity when expressing Japan\u2019s transformation into a world-leading political entity. A missed opportunity? Perhaps. One only has to compare such an exhibition to an extravagant event like Dubai\u2019s Expo 2020 to realise that Japan could perhaps have done more to concentrate its efforts on displaying its status as a big player on the geopolitical stage.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n An unwitting visitor to White City, London in 1910 might have received a shock as they turned the corner of Commonwealth Avenue to find themselves faced by flowering rows of cherry blossoms, glistening water fountains, Japanese shrines and half-naked sumo wrestlers approaching their personal space at disturbingly breakneck speed. However, providing they had not been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Picture2-300x193.jpg\")
8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n