Overview

In the late nineteenth century, Japan's new Meiji government established museums to showcase a national aesthetic heritage. Inspired by Western museums and expositions, these institutions were introduced by government officials hoping to spur industrialization and self-disciplined public behavior, and to cultivate an ""imperial public"" loyal to the emperor. Japan's network of museums expanded along with its colonies. By the mid-1930s, the Japanese museum system had established or absorbed institutions in Taiwan, Korea, Sakhalin, and Manchuria. Not surprising, colonial subjects' views of Japanese imperialism differed from those promulgated by the Japanese state. Meanwhile, in Japan, philanthropic and commercial museums were expanding, revising, and even questioning the state-sanctioned aesthetic canon. Public Properties describes how museums in Japan and its empire contributed to the reimagining of state and society during the imperial era, despite vigorous disagreements about what was to be displayed, how, and by whom it was to be seen.

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9780822354130

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Reviews

Public Properties will be an important book in Japanese history and intersecting fields including colonial studies, public culture, art history, and museum studies. Noriko Aso shows how integral a modern museum culture was to the formation of an 'imperial public' in Japan during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. She provides original perspectives on questions of collective identity and political culture during the imperial era and sheds new light on key issues in the field of modern Japanese history. --Leslie Pincus, author of Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan: Kuku Shuzo and the Rise of National Aesthetics

Public Properties demonstrates that Japan's development of museums reflected its growth into a modern nation-state. Yet the book is more than a history of the museum in modern Japan. Noriko Aso offers a comprehensive account of how public and private institutions came together in the formation of national and imperial ideals, pointing out how museums in Japan's colonies were conceived to take advantage of local conditions while emphasizing the larger mission of empire. - Stefan Tanaka, author of New Times in Modern Japan Public Properties will be an important book in Japanese history and intersecting fields including colonial studies, public culture, art history, and museum studies. Noriko Aso shows how integral a modern museum culture was to the formation of an 'imperial public' in Japan during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. She provides original perspectives on questions of collective identity and political culture during the imperial era and sheds new light on key issues in the field of modern Japanese history. - Leslie Pincus, author of Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan: Kuku Shuzo and the Rise of National Aesthetics

Author Information

Noriko Aso is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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