Photography and the Emergence of New Historic Sites in Meiji Japan
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Registering the Real: Photography and the Emergence of New Historic Sites in Meiji Japan Gyewon Kim Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal October 2010 A dissertation submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Copyright 2009 by Kim, Gyewon All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT English i French iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi LISTS OF ILLUSTRATIONS viii INTRODUCTION 1 The Two Loci: Photography and Space CHAPTER 1 45 Images Tracing Shadows: The Claims of Photography in Early Meiji Geo-Encyclopedias CHAPTER 2 105 Capturing the Vanishing: Photography and the Emergence of Architectural Topographies CHAPTER 3 162 The Past Is Coming Alive: The Discovery of Ancient Sites through Photography CHAPTER 4 205 Tracing the Emperor: Photography, the Imperial Progresses and the Reconstitution of Famous Places FIGURES 265 GLOSSARY 316 BIBLIOGRAPHY 322 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the way photography engaged in the emergence of new ‘historic sites (shiseki)’ during the early Meiji period (1868-1882). My contention is that photography, as a distinctive and integral medium of geographical image making, occasioned a new form of visibility of space imbued with national historicity and materiality. Particular attention is paid to the four distinct sites-as history: the ‘national space’ in the geo-encyclopedia, architectural topographies, ancient sites, and imperial famous places. Historic sites may be understood as the Japanese counterparts to what Pierre Nora called “les lieux de mémoire,” the system of topoi through which the modern nation recognizes itself through historical unity. Takashi Fujitani indicates that historic sites were constructed in Japan as part of the larger imperial culture through the process of the reorganization of public space for political rituals in the Meiji period. What distinguishes my approach from these studies is the emphasis on the agency of photography as a privileged medium in the geo-political investment of the modern nation. Photographic indexicality radically transformed the literary vision of ‘famous places (meisho),’ a set of places conceived and represented as names and toponyms, by undermining the inherent power of naming to produce the meanings traditionally associated with a place, while regrounding the conceptual understanding of place in a new order of temporality based on history. Such a photographic understanding separate from ‘meishoness,’ ironically, helped to reinforce meisho’s archaic association, especially with the old i imperial practice of viewing and naming places. This is precisely the context where photographic indexicality is to be restaged with its political register, operating within a constellation of discourses, powers and institutions that conspired to construct the modern and imperial nation-state in Japan. It is important to note that photography, albeit its central role in the emergence of historic sites, was penetrated by myriad layers of meaning and discourse, and therefore the universal notion of ‘photography’ was often inactive in the early Meiji period. Even in the documentation project initiated by the state agency, photography was conceived as a hybrid and polyvalent idea. It was in particular engulfed in the realistic tradition of shashin, which literally means “registering the real essence of the object” yet covers a variety of representational ideas from visual resemblance to ontological truth. Photography is a hybrid historic formation, crossing and dovetailing the different fields of rationality that emerged together in the earlier moment of the Meiji era. By setting up photography as a locus of multivalency, this dissertation aims to retrace and readdress the prevailing narratives of modernity in Japan as a singular and giant rupture from the West. Geo-historical framework of the nation- state was not formulated in one piece; nor was the conception of Meiji modernization a top-down, unidirectional, teleological process predetermined by the modern West. It instead emerged through complex and open-ended series of interactions among diverse media and ideas, just as the plural forms of ‘photographies’ were interlaced together in the discursive and material ground of historic sites. The Meiji national topography could only emerge out of these ii contingent and multiple encounters between landscape and the camera, either imported or indigenous. ABSTRACT Cette dissertation examine l’implication de la photographie dans l’émergence de nouveaux sites historiques (shiseki) à l’aube de la période Meiji (1868-1882). J’avance que la photographie, en tant que forme distincte et intégrale de création d’imagerie géographique, introduit une nouvelle forme de visibilité de l’espace imbue d’historicité et matérialité. Une attention particulière est portée aux quatre ‘sites-histoires’ distincts issus de la réalité spatiale de leurs sites historiques : l’espace national au sein de la géo-encyclopédie, la topographie architecturale, les sites anciens et les sites impériaux célèbre. Les sites historiques peuvent être expliqués comme la contre-partie japonaise de ce que Pierre Nora décrit comme ‘les lieux de mémoires’, le système de topoi où la nation moderne peut se reconnaître au travers d’une unité historique. Takashi Fujitani mentionne que les sites historiques du Japon furent construits comme un fragment de la culture impériale et conçue par une réorganisation des espaces public servant à mettre en scène les rites politiques det la période Meiji. Mon étude se distingue par l’emphase de la photographie en tant que medium privilégié dans les investissements géopolitiques d’une nation moderne. L’indexicalité de la photographie occasionna une rupture radicale dans la vision littéraire de les sites célèbre (meisho), un groupe d’endroits conceptualisés et iii représentés comme des noms et toponymes, en sapant le pouvoir inhérent de nommer pour produire la signification traditionnellement associé à un endroit tout en regroupant la compréhension conceptuelle d’un endroit dans un nouvel ordre de temporalité basé sur l’histoire. Cette compréhension photographique distincte du meishoness, aida ironiquement à renforcer l’association archaïque du meisho, tout particulièrement avec la vielle pratique impériale de concevoir et nommer les endroits. Cet précisément le contexte où l’indexicalité photographique est redéfini avec ses aspects politiques, opérant au sein d’un regroupement de discours, pouvoirs et institutions de l’État-nation moderne. Une problématique se pose, du fait que la photographie elle-même est infiltrée par une myriade de couches d’interprétations en tant que média visuel et il s’ensuit que la notion universelle de photographie était couramment inexistante au début de la période Meiji. Même dans le projet de documentation initié par l’état, la photographie était conçue comme une idée hybride et polyvalente. Elle était particulièrement submergé dans la tradition réaliste shashin, se traduisant littéralement par “consigner l’essence authentique d’un objet” et englobant un large éventail de représentations, allant de visuels à ontologiques. La photographie est un formation historique hybridée, croisant et assemblant les différents champs de rationalités qui émergèrent à l’aube de l’ère Meiji. En situant la photographie comme point de plurivalence, cette dissertation vise retracer et ré-adresser le discours prévalant sur la modernité japonaise étant conçu comme une grande rupture singulière face à l’Occident. Le cadre géo- historique de l’État-nation ne fut pas conceptualisé en un morceau; ni fut une iv approche du haut dans la conception de la modernisation Meiji prédéterminé par l’Occident. Il émergea plutôt au travers d’une série d’interactions complexes non déterministes entre divers médias et idées, tout comme les multiples formes de photographies étaient entrelacés dans la fondation discursive et matérielle des sites historiques. La topographie nationale de Meiji pouvait uniquement émerger en dehors de ces rencontres multiples et contigües entre paysage et camera, soit importée ou soit indigène. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the outcome of my last couple of years of discussions and ruminations with others. Professor Hajime Nakatani deserves my gratitude first for his boundless support and patience throughout the whole process of my PhD trainings. He always attends to my rough and unorganized flow of consciousness, while providing proper sources and decisive ideas which break through every difficult moment I have faced throughout my academic career. I learned much from him – not only to think critically and prudently about history, but also to work with a sense of humor. With his supervision and help, this challenging dissertation was enjoyable as well. I have a profound debt of gratitude to Professor Thomas LaMarre for his tremendously insightful comments, vast amount of knowledge, and neat and elegant manner of articulation, which amazed and overwhelmed me many times. I will miss the simple yet beautiful ‘diagrams’ that he drew for our conversations. Most of all I learned from him how to enjoy playing with logic and politics, theory and history at once, and this allowed me to muse over my position in North American academia. Professor Jonathan Sterne was critically influential and supportive in laying out some of the most fundamental structures of my project. His teaching and mentoring gave me a source of joy and stimulation. Moreover, the discussions