Event

“Philadelphia, America, and ‘the West’ in Meiji Japan”

Jordan Sand, Professor of Japanese History and Culture, Georgetown University

Philadelphia and Meiji Japan Symposium Keynote Lecture

Reception to follow

What did Japanese who visited Philadelphia for the exposition of 1876 think of what they saw? This was the high period of “Civilization and Enlightenment” in Japan, commonly thought of as a time when Japanese adulated everything Western. So we might expect that they were awed and sought to imitate the United States. But the place of America and the West generally in the Meiji cultural universe was more complex than this. Focusing on architecture and public spectacle, this lecture will examine the perceptions and manipulations of Western-ness in Meiji elite and popular culture.

This event is brought to you by the Penn Forum on Japan, through the generous sponsorship of the Japan Foundation Institutional Project Support (IPS) Small Grant Program, the Meiji Jingu Intercultural Research Institute (Tokyo), the Penn School of Arts and Sciences, the Penn Center for East Asian Studies, the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, and the Penn Department of History.