The National Library’s exhibition “Melodrama in Meiji Japan” curated by Dr. Gary Hickey offers a modest insight into the theatrical world of Japanese literature during Japan’s Meiji Restoration. The exhibition draws from the Library’s substantial collection of kuchi-e (illustrated frontispieces) amassed by University of NSW Professor Richard Clough, which were slowly donated to the Library from 2011 up until his death in 2014. The collection allegedly forms “one of the most significant collections of this genre in the world and the largest focused collection of Japanese art in Australia.”[1] The Clough Collection was selected for exhibition under the National Library’s ethos of promoting research into the library’s international collections. Supported by the Japan Foundation, this unparalleled collection of a kuchi-e was displayed from the 24th of May to the 27th of August in the National Library’s exhibition gallery next to the permanent Treasures Gallery, filling the space with a highly focused yet somewhat dated insight into Japanese history and culture. The exhibition featured over twenty artists and a range of subjects that were believed to illustrate the historical significance of the kuchi-e print to Japanese culture while focusing on the theme of “romance” and “melodrama” inherent to the literature. However, this attempt to contain the scope of the collection, and thus the scope of kuchi-e art, undermines the exhibition’s mission statement, which invited the viewer to “step into the world of Meiji Japan (1868-1912) through a selection of stunning Japanese woodblock illustrations.”[2] The works selected are representations of ukiyo; the Japanese “floating world” of woodblock prints that depict the day to day rituals of a rising Japanese middleclass from the confines of Edo’s pleasure district. Ukiyo is a Buddhist term that describes the impermanence of human life and idealises a world free from responsibility. In this “floating world”, the women are homogenised geishas, simulations of divine beauty and grace, while the men are demons or samurai warriors underneath a socially imposed costume of the western gentleman. Dripping in the male gaze, the female characters represented in the literature became ambassadors to the exhibition’s diplomatic cause constructed around their form, and though these representations are historically accurate in terms of the way that Japanese women were viewed in the 19th century through a western post-colonial lens, one can’t help but feel slightly uncomfortable with the way the collection is framed to a postmodern public, where the lines of nationhood become increasingly blurred due to globalisation, and the demand for a post-structuralist attitude towards art history is increasingly relevant. Melodrama is well understood as a significant theme of the kuchi-e throughout the exhibition, however the greater implications of the collection in terms of Japan’s cultural history seemed to have been glossed over with a distasteful euro-centrism that diminishes the stories behind the objects.
The novels and literary magazines of the late 1890s to the 1920s in Japan included frontispiece images called kuchi-e. These prints were intended to depict the narrative of the publications, and were allegedly aimed at women, incorporating themes of love, war and Japanese life during the period. As with most Japanese art, the kuchi-e prints were refined and beautiful, drawing from the example of fine-art court painters of previous eras and the life of pleasure houses during the preceding Edo Period. The subjects were usually beautiful women or heroes of folktales passed down from generation to generation. For the purpose of the exhibition, these melodramatic tales provided “…a contemporary frame of reference for the topics treated in the stories, while the styles of depiction reflected changes in the Japanese way of life.”, and inform the viewers interpretation of the culture of the time.
Most kuchi-e measured about 22 by 30 cm and were either bound into the book or folded into three sections for the reader to unfold and view. The prints have also been cut out of the publications over the years, as they became items for collectors in their own right. Dr. Richard Clough, who was a professor of architecture at the University of New South Wales, and an avid book collector, donated his collection of Japanese literature and kuchi-e to the National Library upon his death in 2014. Clough began collecting books as a young academic in England and continued to collect upon his return to Australia, focusing on architectural, botanical and historical prints and publications from around the world, making his collection an important asset to the National Library of Australia’s role as a public institution which is mandated by the National Library Act in 1960:“… to make library material in the national collection available to such persons and institutions, and in such manner and subject to such conditions, as the Council determines with a view to the most advantageous use of that collection in the national interest;”[3]
The Clough Collection is a comprehensive collection of kuchi-e with 430 pieces that portray multiple and varied subjects explored in Japanese Meiji Literature. The breadth of the collection meant that its display would be ideal in promoting Japanese Culture in Australia in conjunction with the Japanese embassy and the Japan Foundation, however the execution of the exhibition showcased the inefficiencies of public institutions that are politically required to re-frame culturally significant objects to fit a nominally Australian perspective. The National Library of Australia accepts proposals for the use of its Temporary Exhibition space on the specification that the exhibition “enrich understanding of what it is to be Australian through exhibitions, publications and community programs; enhance access to the collections and services of the library; attract new audiences to the library and where resources permit, be supported by an appropriate range of public programs; Promote research and interpretation of the Library’s collections; enhance public awareness of the collecting and access roles of libraries generally; and provide, where possible, opportunities for audiences to access significant works and Exhibitions from other institutions both nationally and internationally.”[4] The task then befalls curators such as Gary Hickey to create a culturally significant exhibition confined to a strict, nationalistic interpretation of the collection. This problem rears its head in the language that is used in the Melodrama in Meiji Japan to impose the significance of Australia-aligned western influence on Japan’s centuries-old woodblock printing technique, on the rights of Japanese women, and on the Japanese literature itself. Though Western influence is an important aspect of the cultural developments during the Meiji Revolution, the lack of information on the history of this period presented in the exhibit reflects either an ignorance on the part of the researcher or an inherent euro-centric blindness that replaces the Japanese perspective with that of the a Western perspective. The exhibition states, “The [Meiji] publishing industry adopted new mechanical methods of reproducing text and images from the West” and that “the literary presentation of these subject marked the development of a modern literature influenced by the West.” However these statements seem to negate the existence of these kinds of publications two hundred years before the Meiji Restoration. In the Art of the Japanese print, Frederick Harris draws on the example of Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-94) to explain the importance of illustrated books to Japan before armed Western intervention.
“…Hishikawa Moronobu turned out hundreds of prints for illustrated books ( e-hon ), many of which were later unbound and sold as individual pictures. For this reason, it is impossible to separate the illustrated book in Japanese woodblock printing from single-sheet pictures. The only major difference is the purpose of the art form. Thus, the subject matter of a book became the main determining factor in the artist’s approach to the pictures he created.”[5]
This objective analysis of a single ukiyo-e artist illuminates more about the culture of woodblock printing in Japan than Melodrama in Meji Japan was able to communicate. The blame for this, however, cannot be wholly placed on the curator, as much of his research on the acquisition of Japanese art in Australia identifies this same “cultural cringe”, remarking in Cultural Divide, Japanese Art in Australia that “ the appointment of curators to oversee the Asian art collection who do not have expertise in Asian cultural traditions but whose background is in contemporary art indicates a belief that "the 'globalisation' of culture over the last century and even before has imposed a Western aesthetic on most Asia.”[6] It must be assumed then that the limitations of the National Library’s exhibition policies may have influenced the restrictive Western slant on the exhibition as they attempt to emphasize the Clough kuchi-e collection’s importance to Australia, rather than to Japan. It seems then that the exhibition fell victim to a greater philosophical conundrum relating to national incentives and policies on display foreign art.
The themes and motifs of the “Melodrama in Meiji Japan” unfold like origami in a small, dimly-lit exhibition space next to the quieter part of the Library, unveiling meagre aspects of Japanese culture and the Meiji Restoration through the motifs of the kuchi-e. Each room consists of a theme that serves more as a heading to a thesis, rather than the themes of the art and literature portraying the history and customs of early-modern Japan. The first room focuses on explaining the concept of Kuchi-e, while displaying non-descript, female-orientated prints alongside a small window space of traditional Japanese woodblock printing tools that illustrate the origins of the kuchi-e style. The ensuing chambers concentrate on how the literature is illustrated and why; the artists and their subjects, with particular emphasis placed on stories of contemporary life, the seasons, festivals and of course beautiful women. When the viewer reaches the end of the exhibition, they are greeted with an “epilogue” of two modern incarnations of the kuchi-e dating from 1920, concluding the exhibition with little reflection on how contemporary Japanese art has evolved since the art historical movement of kuchi-e in Japan. The epilogue indicates that by 1910, the kuchi-e had “almost ceased to exist”, having been replaced with printing methods such as lithography and a “trend towards naturalism in Japanese literature […] by artists working in a Western style over the idealised imagery associated with woodblock printed kuchi-e” ending the art-form’s relevance at a certain point in history, however the influence of this style of art in Japan can still be seen in Japan’s over-run Manga and Animation industries that draw heavily from the ancient idealised cartoonish and painterly style of woodblock printing, with story arcs drawn from the Edo-Meiji period.
The exhibition then invites families to engage with a small cultural interactive area set up by the Japan Foundation for educational purposes: A small corner of the exhibition for children to learn the fundamentals of Japanese culture through books reflecting the Japanese way of life.
On the whole, there is not much in the way of ambience exploring this exhibit. The brown walls absorb what little natural light there is inside the small exhibition space and artificial overhead lighting creates an glare on the glass cases that house the full publications that were unable to be framed. The brown colour of the walls seems to compliment the tones in much of the artworks however it drowns out the bright painterly colours that denote the world of ukiyo-e, whereas a paler colour such as white or a pastel pink could have easily made the exhibition feel less claustrophobic.
The theme of “melodrama” throughout the exhibition seems to rest on a selection with a focus on the feminine form. Though women are not overtly melodramatic even as representations of the Japanese floating world, the implied melodrama of the subjects of the kuchi-e seems to insist that the artworks were guided by a kind of feminine inclination for the dramatic. The women are portrayed as jealous lovers, naïve virgins, goddesses and subservient wives, which is typical of any art portraying women during that time period. It is then through these women that the viewer is meant to understand the Meiji period in Japan. Kuchi-e are said to have been literary magazines and novels aimed at women who purportedly through “western influence”, had been afforded a better education and could now read.
The art of the kuchi-e print is derived from traditional Japanese woodblock printing, a technique that dates back to the 8th century. [7] This technique for printing has been used for centuries in Japan and China to duplicate Buddhist texts which pre-date the western movable type[8], yet the exhibition cites western influence and industrialisation as a main cause for the increase in popularity of these kinds of stories. However this interpretation negates Japan’s long cultural history of embracing and developing new technologies and literary theory before trade with the West was opened up. From the outset, the exhibition explains that kuchi-e artists produced kuchi-e for two different types of Meiji literature: Historical stories (jidaimono), in which both author and illustrator could explore subjects that were censored before the Meiji period and stories of contemporary life (gendaimono) that would explored cultural trends and customs where human emotions were emphasised over action, as in Noh or Kabuki theatre.
One wonders why then Hickey chose to focus on women in this exhibition in the hopes of giving an insight into the Meiji Restoration. Though they may reflect or typify the genre, beautiful women were not the only subjects of Japanese literature. The depiction of women in melodrama reframes the characterisation of women in these prints as a result of “European influence”, which liberated subjugated women from being bought and sold in edo pleasure district by imposing a western emphasis on education. However in Japan, the pleasure houses would remain a cultural tradition well in to the 20th century.
The exhibition cites “unequal treatment of Japan on the world stage and the resultant weakening of its identity” as the inspiration for most of the historical tales of Japan’s glorious samurai past and that “by stressing the human qualities on display in these stories, they were able to assuage the uncertainty many Japanese were feeling during this time of dramatic change.” Though this is by far a more interesting theme, not much more is said on the matter. However this reference to the historical jidaimono negates once more the notion that the Kuchi-e were solely aimed at women and not the public at large. Perhaps the decision to focus on the feminine aspect of the prints was thus a limitation of Clough’s private collection. If this were the case an expansion of the exhibition to include prints such as the Yoshitoshi’s “Picture of the Country of New Holland South Wales” from the National Gallery of Australia could have taken some of the pressure off the Library’s need for its exhibits to enrich understanding of “what it is to be Australian” by displaying a Japanese print depicting Australia during the time.
The female archetypes explored in the collection illuminate aspects of Japanese culture at large such is Buddhist and Shinto influences, specific traditions and festivals and a Confucian emphasis on the family structure and the responsibilities of men and women during the Meiji period, which had in fact begun to embrace European sensibilities, though not without uproarious objection from certain factions of society, which also is not touched on in the exhibition
Women in Meiji literature were often portrayed as goddesses or prophets such as Takeuchi Keishu’s Bodhisattva Marici who was worshipped as a goddess of wealth and prosperity.[9] This Buddhist influence mixes with the concept of ukiyo-e in a commodification and deification of the female body that is inescapable in most artistic representations of the feminine.
Opening of the Mountain (Yamabiraki) 1910 Ogata Gekko(1859-1920) , National Library of Australia
The kuchi-e women were overwhelmingly depicted wearing Kimonos, with traditional Kanzashi[10] hairstyles, their facial features indiscernible under white face paint. Based on the framing of the exhibition, these women were more important than the subject matter of the literature, as in “the beginning of the mountain-climbing season” by Ogata Gekko. The story describes a mountain festival, denoting Japanese belief that mountains are sacred places only to be entered for worship. The chosen subject of the print, however, does not demonstrate a Japanese landscape like the prints of Hokusai, instead it portrays a woman dropping a jewel into an incense holder, which could be ritualistic, however not necessarily pictorially relevant. This image adds credence to the emphasis on women in Japanese literature and kuchi-e.
Conversely, the male subjects are characterised as highly evolved creatures that were strongly influenced by western culture, adopting European tailoring and hairstyles. Historically, Europeans were seen as a foreign threat to the Japanese way of life, while at the same time the adoption of European technology was embraced with great fervour by Japanese artists during this period. The truth of the matter is that these illustrious representations of men and women were merely “smart marketing”[11] designed to elevate the European way of life and soften the public view of European traders. This is exemplified in exhibitions display of Five Modern Chivalrous Men, which is a story that emphasises duty to family over the tradition samurai duty to a one’s own honour. In this work, the chivalrous man is no longer a depiction of a samurai warlord, rather a gentlemanly moustachioed paternal figure of a rising middle class who is bound by duty to his family and to the advancement of the Japanese nation.
The Clough Collection is a remarkably comprehensive collection of woodblock prints representing a genre of literary illustration in Japan at a key moment in its cultural history, and the Melodrama in Meiji Japan Exhibition of this collection does not necessarily do the artworks justice. Though there is some focus on Japanese-European relations during the Meiji restoration, there is very little in the way of its relevance to Australia as a nation, which is a stipulation of the Library’s use of its exhibition space. A wider interpretation of the subject matter that drew from external sources such as the National Gallery and did not rely on the feminine form to guide the viewer through the collection could have facilitated both the Library’s edict of a nationalistic interpretation of the collection, without falling short of the cultural significance of the objects to Japanese culture. However having to work within such a small space and drawing solely from a private collection, there are clear limits to the potential scope of this exhibit. These limitations, however, need not emphasise a Western interpretation over an Eastern interpretation of the subject matter. The selection of works do not effectively reflect this historically tumultuous period, as the theme of melodrama as portrayed through the female body undercuts the significance of the literature, reducing the kuchi-e art to a kind of soap opera. As the curator has previously found in his own research, there is a systemic flaw in the management of Asian art in public galleries and museums in Australia that allows for such narrow interpretations of our collections. This flaw regularly limits the potential reach of its viewership as a continued focus on western ideology does not promote a greater understanding of cultures other than that of Australia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HARRIS, Frederick. Ukiyo-e : The Art of the Japanese Print, Tuttle Publishing, 2012.
HICKEY, Gary. “Cultural Divide: Japanese Art in Australia (1868-2012).” Japan Review, no. 28, 2015, pp. 191–223. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43684121.
HICKEY, Gary. “Impressions of Japan” [online]. Art Monthly Australia, No. 236, Dec 2010 Feb 2011: 20-22. http://search.informit.com.au.virtual.anu.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=635608897173739;res=IELLCC ISSN: 1033-4025. [cited 10 Sep 17].
KUSAKA, Sumio, Ambassador of Japanat the Opening Reception of the Exhibition “Melodrama in Meiji Japan” http://www.au.emb-japan.go.jp/files/000260156.pdf 2017
KUSAKA, Sumio, Ambassador’s Message, Exhibition “Melodrama in Meiji Japan”) 30 May 2017 http://www.au.emb-japan.go.jp/files/000260479.pdf 2017
National Library of Australia, Online Catalogue, Richard Clough Kuchi-e Digitized Collection, 2017 http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=Clough+kuchie&type=title&limit%5B%5D=&submit=Find&limit%5B%5D=format%3APicture[cited 10 sep 17]
National Library of Australia, Melodrama in Meiji Japan, “A word from the curator, Gary Hickey”, https://www.nla.gov.au/meiji, May 2017 [cited 10 sep 17]
"Meiji Restoration". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2017. Web. 10 Sep. 2017 <https://www.britannica.com/event/Meiji-Restoration>.
Endnotes
[1] National Library of Australia, Melodrama in Meiji Japan, opening didactic panel, small exhibitions space, visted 1 Aug 2017
[2] Op cit., National Library of Australia, 2017
[3] National Library of Australia, Exhibitions policy, https://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions-policy, [cited 10 Sep 2017]
[4] National Library of Australia, Exhibitions policy, op.cit,
[5] Harris, Frederick. Ukiyo-e : The Art of the Japanese Print, Tuttle Publishing, 2012. 01:33:38. p 38
[6] Hickey, Gary, Cultural Divide, Japanese Art in Autralia, 1866-2012, Japan Review, No 28 (2015), p 220
[7] Harris, Frederick, Op. cit., 2012. p 21
[8] Harris, ibid, p. 36
[9] National Library of Australia, Melodrama in Meiji Japan, didactic panel attached to “Marici Bodhisatva” by Takeuchi Keishu, small exhibitions space, visted 1 Aug 2017
[10] Iratsume and Journals for Women in the Early Meiji Period
[11] National Library of Australia, Melodrama in Meiji Japan, didactic panel on the topic of kuchi-e subjects, small exhibitions space, visted 1 Aug 2017
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