In the first pdf, Otsuki Gentaku was a Japanese scholar, who studied Dutch; at thirteen he studied medicine, the language, with Dutch physicians. He was a prominent scholar, as evidenced by A Clarification of Misunderstandings in The Stories About the Dutch in 1797 (written by a disciple), and influenced rangaku scholars. Although Japan traded with the Dutch for years, not everyone knows of them to any extent, and stereotypes and rumors have formed throughout Japan. China and Japan believe that human beings will evidently be going to heaven throughout the world. People from Holland are aging fast and mentally being forced to withstand the fact that they will need to succumb to life out on sea; those who travel the sea to come to Japan looking older than they actually are. This might be due to rough weather, running into other travelers, illnesses on board, short on food; having to learn how to survive with limited resources and an unpredictable sea, as they experience life on the sea. It is completely different from anything else. People living in Holland are like people in Japan, varying human life-spans; anyone can die at any second. People from Holland are from a different place (as they appear taller with different eyes) and have different eye shapes compared to people from Japan and therefore were seen as animals. I think that because foreigners looked so different from the Japanese and Chinese people, they were confused and scared of what other people were out there and started to make assumptions and stories as to why they appeared differently. The foreigners (europeans) also have different skin tones, but evidently everyone is the same because in the end every single person is unique in their own way (even people from different places in Japan). This passage is saying that people from different places have slight variations in appearance, but in the end everyone is created and works the same. Japan came to the conclusion that people from different “homelands” just are slightly nonidentical compared to them. Everyone has heels, so everyone is technically the same because that is the base of how humans are mobile; Hollanders are not animals, but were suspected at this time in Japan. The Dutch fermented grape wines are imported from various places; Sake or “using” is a type of Japanese grape wine. Holland has grape wine, araki, chinda, and biiro(grain wine, which you eat after food. And Dutch-made glass wine cups are koppu and containers are flasks. The Portuguese influenced name, biidoro, is an ancient name for them (holland it is garasu). It is also expected that the people from Holland eat foods just like Japan; people living inland are gifted with animals “ from heaven”, but do not eat seafood, as they are not surrounded fully by water like Japan. Hollanders are stereotyped with always smoking tobacco pipes and blowing it all out. I think that this might appear overly excessive/harsh and out of the ordinary compared to how the Japanese smoke. The Japanese used the word “violent poisons” to describe smoking tabaco, which dismisses their cultural practices and disregards the fact that not everything has to be like how the Japanese do things. In Japan there are not a lot of drastic skin tone differences, so they are racist towards black people who travel there and see them as “monkeys”. This is honestly childish at this point, they are outwardly derogatory and offensive. If they assume that all humans go to heaven, die at some point, and have the same mobility as any other human (i.e. the heels, regarding walking). This whole passage is sad and disrespectful; the “black-boys”, who are poor people from India and servants for the Dutch are described in a dehumanizing and racist nature. This feels like the Japanese do not even see them as human beings and this is incredibly stereotypical and I think that this just teaches that you need to recognize and respect diverse cultural practices and identities of everyone. I understand that the Japanese have all of these misunderstandings of foreigners, but that doesn’t take away how wrong it is for being outright racist and disrespectful.
In the second pdf, it talks about the book, “Discussing Western Painting” by Shiba Kokan in 1799. It mostly expresses his admiration for Western painting techniques and criticizes the traditional Japanese and Chinese methods for their lack of realism; he believes that Western paintings are more valuable than written descriptions, as they provide accurate and detailed information. He also thinks that the Japanese do not appreciate and that they are “extremely foolish.”, which I think is being a little excessive. I believe that everyone should respect other cultures/art styles and people’s artwork, but no one needs to go to such an extreme where they need to change their whole view on art and what they like and enjoy. There are so many different realms of art, this guy needs to chill; if he really loves Western art, then great, but stop complaining about how Japan should feel the same way that he does. I don’t know, but according to Sir George Sansom, Kokan represents a significant restlessness among educated Japanese of his time who were impressed by the material and scientific aspects of Western culture. Kokan and other people in Japan are feeling restlessness and/or dissatisfaction with traditional Japanese culture, which is kind of sad (it’s ok to want to change the art style, but this is feeling very dramaticized; this is a completely different time and a change in an art style would be very drastic, so I guess I can see why he is being so pushy about it, but just let artists do what they want to do). The author admires the Western painting techniques and really critiques the traditional Japanese and Chinese methods, which indicates a kind of impatience with Japan for not appreciating Western painting’s like he does. This is so petty; not everyone needs to condone how you think and feel about different art. He doesn’t realize that anyone can have their own opinions and personal artistic value with their own art styles. Some educated people in Japan were attracted to western culture and the material and scientific aspects of it, and weirdly criticized their own culture for being stagnant and outdated. I feel like you don’t need to be so critical with art, I think that art styles can change all the time and there’s no need to diss other styles that you peticularly don’t have an interest in at the time. There is definitely tension here between traditional Japanese culture and the new ideas and practices introduced by the West, but generally, this was interesting to see the different perspectives of Western culture in Japan during the late 18th century, during the late Tokugawa period. Pasted below is a painting by Shiba Kōkan, which is beautiful and definitely referenced and inspired by the realistic soft Western style of art. I think that as an artist, it is impressive that he was able to branch out and find inspiration from other cultures and incorporate it into his artwork, but Japan as a whole does not need to follow through with his specific ideals on how the common traditional Japanese art at this time should change. I think that it was good that he changed his art style and found a medium and aesthetic that he liked, and this easily on its own could have been an example and incentive for others to find different references and ways of expressing styles of art. (i.e. he didn’t need to expect all of Japan to accept and change their art, just because he didn’t find the traditional Japanese art style interesting to him)
Western Style Painting by Shiba Kōkan Mimegurinokei
Ōtsuki Gentaku. “Misunderstandings about the Dutch.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2: 1600 to 2000, Part One: 1600 to 1868, compiled by Wm. Th. de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, 302-309. Introduction to Asian Civilizations. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001.
Shiba Kōkan. “Discussing Western Painting.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2: 1600 to 2000, Part One: 1600 to 1868, compiled by Wm. Th. de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, 310-313. Introduction to Asian Civilizations. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001.
