Vernissage: Omoshirogara — Japans Weg in die Moderne

Omoshirogara — Japan’s Path to Modernity — explores the singular moment of Japanese modernization, and runs from January 21 till April 17, 2016.

Here we take a cue from illustrations and patterns on kimonos designed and worn during the turbulent period between 1900 and 1940. On the one hand, the kimonos show day-to-day life in a Japan pervaded by Western technology (with images of airplanes, iron bridges, skyscrapers and telegraph, for example). Yet they also propagandize the imperialist ambitions of the Empire of Japan, which – since its victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 – encountered the West as an equal partner, and sought to establish itself as a world power through territorial acquisitions in China, Korea, and in the wider Pacific region. A careful look at these spectacular, rarely shown kimonos reveals how established Japanese patterns of perception and design were intertwined with elements of Western life (baseball, Mickey Mouse, the Berlin City Palace, the coronation of George VI). This interdependence is something altogether different from what is commonly called “Westernization.” The drama that plays out on these kimonos is that of the aesthetic incorporation of the West – on Japanese terms.

In addition to the kimonos, starting January 2016 we will also be showing the historical model for the Yamashiro Maru (mountain fortress), a 2500-ton passenger and cargo ship. Commissioned by the Japanese and built in England in 1884, the Yamashiro Maru can be seen as emblematic of the Meiji Restoration. Over the course of its turbulent history, the Yamashiro Maru transported thousands of Japanese migrants to Hawaii, was converted into a torpedo mothership during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), facilitated travels between Korea, Taiwan and Vladivostok, and finally served as a hospital ship in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05).

The exhibition Omoshirogara—Japan’s Path to Modernity is inspired by and developed in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Hans B. Thomsen (University of Zurich, East Asian Art History) and his students Sara Gianera, M.A.,Leonie Thalmann, M.A., Fabienne Pfister, B.A., Anna-Barbara Neumann, B.A., Anjuli Ramdenee, B.A., and Alina Martimyanova, M.A. The kimonos were kindly lent by Galerie Ruf Beckenried (Switzerland). The Yamashiro Maru is the subject of a University of Zurich research project led by Prof. Dr. Martin Dusinberre (Chair of Global History).