As officials and leaders in the Japanese government traveled to the West in the Meiji period, they l
As officials and leaders in the Japanese government traveled to the West in the Meiji period, they looked to the lifestyle of the European dandy as a model of sophisticationand style. They cultivated a concern for fashion, accomplishment of manners, and superiority in taste as an expression of refinement and civility. This genteel form of masculinity reconciled with their belief in progress and civilization. Nevertheless, their attempts to master the corporeal signs and social conventions of European bourgeois society made them the targets of derision and caricature by those outside the government. These critics denounced the reception of Western culture as imitative and shallow, and argued that the Japanese experience of modernity was concerned only with appearance and form. They condemned Western decadence by linking it to the effeminacy of fashion, consumption, and materialism. Implicit in these criticisms was not only anxiety about the threat of feminization, but concerns that modem life in Japan lacked morality, spirit, and ideals because it had been imposed by the West. Howl of the Peoples Rights Party (1880) Differences in fashion are employed here to signify popular opposition towards the Westernized Meiji State (1868-1912). The use of the dog (ken) is a pun on the character for rights (ken) in the expression “people’s rights” (minken). High Collar Puck (1907) Caricatures lampooned high-collar gentlemen by depicting them with ex-aggerated high collars that prevented them from turning their heads or even looking down. Miyake Setsurei likened high-collar gentlemen to actors, geisha, and prostitutes for their superficial concern with fashion and appearance. One satirical work argued that “the following of fads is an indication of the superficiality of one’s character. Those who wear high collars are doing nothing more than admitting their own superficiality. Which Group Do You Belong To? 1908 In this illustration , two differing conceptions of masculinity are represented by the distinguishing appearance and aspirations of two students. The bankara student (The bankara man was an anti-consumer who rejected materiality and the lures of Western culture) (right) reflects "Oh Japanese Empire! Watch as I achieve unprecedented feats for you!” The high-collar student (left) pines, “Oh! My love! I love no one but you.” -- source link
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