The Utility of Picture Postcards：Another Cultural Content That Establishes the Image of the “Other” in Modern Japan

JIANHUI, Liu

doi:2023.17.1.59

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 17(1); 2023 > Article

Special Issue

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2023;17(1): 59-77.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2023.17.1.59

The Utility of Picture Postcards：Another Cultural Content That Establishes the Image of the “Other” in Modern Japan

Liu JIANHUI

Professor, International Research Center for Japanese Studies

絵葉書の効用 ―― 近代日本の“他者”像を成立させるもう一つの文化コンテンツ

劉建輝

国際日本文化研究センター教授。専門は日中文化交渉史。

Correspondence Liu JIANHUI ,Email: uii25468@nifty.com

Published online: 30 December 2023.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

From the viewpoint of the prevalence of modern art to the masses, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies has been collecting postcards of art exhibitions such as the Ministry of Education Art Exhibition (1907~1918), the Imperial Art Exhibition (1919~1936), and the New Ministry of Education Art Exhibition (1937~1944) for many years and has studied its role in the development process of popular culture. As a part of our efforts visualizing our research and giving back to society, we are currently creating a database of about 25,000 postcards in our collection and disclosing them to the public.
In this report, with introducing the database of our picture postcards from the Japanese Modern Art Exhibition, I deal with the theme “The Utility of Picture Postcards：Another Cultural Content That Establishes the Image of the ‘Other’ in Modern Japan.” On this theme, I explain how picture postcards represented the gaichi(外地) and mainland of China in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods, and what influence they had on the public’s recognition of the outside world. In addition to these, I re-find the value of picture postcards as a cultural resource, which has not been adequately studied.

Keywords: Picture Postcard, Cultural Resources, Art exhibition, Database, Military Painter, Historical Awareness

キ―ワ―ド: 絵葉書, 文化資源, 美術展覧会, データベース, 従軍画家, 歴史認識