Article: News sheet exhibition depicts early Japanese encounters wi

Weekend Beat/PICTURE SHOW: News sheet exhibition depicts early
Japanese encounters with the West
By MANABU HARA, Senior Staff Writer
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What is kawaraban? Literally a roof-tile print, it was, says the
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, ``a commercial news sheet of the Edo
Period (1603-1867). It is thought that the name kawaraban derives
from the fact that engraved roofing tiles were once used as printing
plates; early on, however, the tiles were replaced by woodblocks.''

In other words, kawaraban was a prototype of today's newspaper that
flourished in Edo (Tokyo). No wonder then that many kawaraban
depicted with surprise and fear Commodore Matthew Perry's kurofune
(black ships), which appeared off Uraga, near Yokohama, in 1853.

Records of Japanese being startled by modern Western civilization
are now on display at the Japan Newspaper Museum in Yokohama. The
exhibition, which lasts until Sept. 26, includes ukiyo-e pictures of
the modern Western ships that approached Japan at the end of the Edo
Period and American and British picture papers reporting on
expeditions to Japan. The articles are owned by private collectors
belonging to a group called the Yokohama Kurofune Kenkyukai
(Yokohama black-ship study group).

Perry entered Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) to break open the door that
Japan had long closed to the outside world. Strongly pressured by
the U.S. naval commander, the Tokugawa government reluctantly
concluded in 1854 what it called the ``Kanagawa treaty,'' opening
the door for the United States. The exhibition commemorates the
150th anniversary of the Kanagawa treaty.

Kawaraban was one of the few means for average Japanese to learn
what was going on in their society. The illustrations in the news
sheets, depicted by anonymous but imaginative artists, show how
average Japanese perceived Western civilization.

The exhibition is divided into six parts reflecting different
historical stages, including the first appearance of the U.S. fleet,
the subsequent opening of the port of Yokohama and the development
of the city under the influence of Western culture. The exhibition
is basically intended to convey how kawaraban and ukiyo-e recounted
the arrival of Western civilization.

Many kawaraban illustrations depict Westerners as tengu (a long-
nosed goblin), a fantasy creature that Japanese thought had
supernatural power. The pictures of tengu show that what most struck
Japanese were Westerners' big noses. They give the impression that
Japanese found Westerners frightening or mysterious. One Western
naval officer is shown with a traditional Chinese sword, which seems
to indicate that information about foreigners was jumbled.

A kawaraban that evokes laughs shows a group of kneeling Westerners,
including Perry, bowing before a large Japanese, who is depicted as
the hero of a renowned drama called ``Kokusen ya Kassen'' (The
Battles of Coxing). The picture seems to be saying that when
confronting unwelcome matters, people are apt to believe things of
advantage to themselves, a tendency that continues to this day.

Two English-language newspapers on exhibit are Gleason's Pictorial,
published in the United States, and the Illustrated London News. The
American newspaper predicts a coming war between a daimyo and a
combined Western fleet, saying: ``recent intelligence from Japan
looks like an approaching renewal of hostilities with one of the
Daimyos or half-independent Princes of that country who are
nominally vassals of the Tycoon.''

Japanese today do not depict Westerners as tengu. But could it be
they have the same kind of feeling toward the West that their
ancestors did? After seeing these prized artifacts from the end of
the Edo Period, viewers may leave the exhibition pondering that
thought.(IHT/Asahi: September 11,2004) (09/11)