A pair of eight-fold screens entitled "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" represents a colorful world map with the figures of peoples of the world on one screen.
The painting is punctuated by numerous city markers, with the largest indicating the city
of Rome. On the other screen, twenty-eight cities of the world and Christian and Muslim
kings in ceremonial attire on horseback are depicted. This pair of screens was probably
produced in the early seventeenth century. It was most likely painted by Jesuit-trained
Japanese painters who had learned western themes and painting techniques: perspective
and chiaroscuro. Until the sixteenth century, Japanese experience with and knowledge of the world was limited to its neighbouring lands, such as China, Korea, and India. Beyond the realm
of Japan lay worlds formed through fascination and the imagination. In 1543, however,
this changed with the appearance of the Portuguese, who journeyed to Japan in the pursuit
of new lands to develop trade and to spread Christianity. The Portuguese and their
culture had a strong impact on Japanese thoughts and activities, including the creation of
many screens with European motifs and new views of the world at large. This pair of
screens was drawn upon Dutch prototype made by Petrus Kaerius (1571-1646) in 1609.
In my thesis I will examine how "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens
performed a two-fold function. I will first examine how the screens marked Jesuit
propagation of Christianity in Japan, and second I will examine how the screens
articulated what might be called an emergent sense of Japanese collective identity. By
this I do not mean identity based on nationalism, which emerged in Japan only in the
nineteenth century. Rather, I mean an increasing awareness of the Self in relation to
Other, and not only in relation to those outside the geographic confines of Japan but also
within. What I intend to explore is how definitions of geography and culture in world
map screens, and specifically "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens, prompted
viewers to acknowledge a more distinctive Self.
The end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries was a
transitional moment for both the Jesuits and Portugal. Religiously, the Jesuits were in
conflict with the Japanese government and, as well their authority was undermined by
Mendicants from the Philippines. These conflicts were compounded further by the spread
of Protestantism in Europe. Similarly, after a short prosperous trade in Asia, rising
economic and political power of the Netherlands and England gradually pushed
Portuguese trade out of Asia.
By comparing "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens with "In-and-Around-
Kyoto" screens, I argued that the Jesuit's hidden agenda of glorifying Christendom and
God's order on earth emerged. Moreover, by comparing this pair with "Four-Continent-and-
Forty-Eight-People" screens, I detect the emergence of sense of a Japanese Self, that
was forged in relation to the Europeans. Although the screens give the impression of the
orderly and peaceful world, they mask the unstable situation which the Jesuits and
Portugal were experiencing at the time.
In the end, I propose that "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens transformed
and reworked the Dutch prototype from a geographical mode to one that is highly
decorative. Rather than articulating a Japanese view of the world, the screens maintained
the notion of a powerful Catholic world.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10620 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Gotō, Tomoko |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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