Japan's early parliaments, 1890-1905
Japan's early parliaments, 1890-1905
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日本早期议会，1890 年至 1905 年
DOI：
10.2307/2943668
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发表时间：
1996
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Philip L. R. Mitchell
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Steven J. Ericson;J. Fraser;R. Mason;Philip L. R. Mitchell
contemporary European and American building styles and engineering were introduced into Japan and how they merged, often in quite idiosyncratic ways, with existing forms. She wants to see Western-style architecture as it developed in the context of Meiji life. Her research in Japanese and English sources is thorough. The many quotes from primary materials are impressive. They help the reader feel what it was like to actually live and move about in these buildings, many of which have long since been transformed into museum pieces. Finally, Finn's comparisons between Victorian England and "Victorian" Japan is intriguing: both Queen Victoria and the Meiji Emperor presided over eras of unprecedented progress in wealth and power. Architecture and feats of engineering reflected the upbeat mood. Finn's book proceeds chronologically, beginning with Western sites, mainly treaty-port houses, built before 1868. The narrative then (chapters 1-5) focuses on early Meiji attempts to introduce European and American architecture: government projects, railroads and railroad stations, Western-style buildings in Hokkaido, and residences and churches in the foreign settlements. Sites associated with the "flowering of late Meiji" are next (chapters 6-12): palaces, public buildings, schools, museums, factories, bridges, canals, banks, hotels, and mansions. The final chapter, "Last Rites and Last Buildings," offers interesting details on the Meiji Emperor's funeral and on the construction of Tokyo Station—the last great Meiji building. An appendix maps the principal works of architecture and engineering detailed in the book; prefecture by prefecture, the reader is invited to visit Japan's Victorian sites firsthand. One of the most interesting themes of the book is the development of a hybrid style of architecture which is both Japanese and Western, but neither purely one nor the other. In the 1890s, Ito Chuta and other architects began to experiment with traditional Japanese forms and developed the Japan Revival Style. These "pseudoJapanese" buildings (examples include the Nara Prefectural Products Hall modeled on the Byodo-in) contrast neatly with Western-style extravaganzas such as Katayama Tokuma's French-inspired Akasaka Palace (1908), which was built with Japanese materials (binoki wood for rafters, native copper for roofing, Ibaraki granite for sheathing, Kyoto silk, and thirteen million local bricks) and decorated with Japanese motifs. The most elaborate room in the palace, the Hall of the Rising Sun, features a painting, by a French artist, of dark-haired Amaterasu driving her chariot of four horses across the ceiling. These Meiji buildings, "Western" and "Japanese" alike, demonstrate a basic tension between the demands of Westernization and national identity which confronted Japanese society in the late nineteenth century and which continues even today to invigorate cultural creativity. The author has little concern with theory; Finn is more like an experienced tour guide with wonderful stories to tell. Students of Meiji Japan, from undergraduates to established professionals, will find these stories a pleasure to read; but they will also gain valuable insights into the complex relationship between architecture and cultural change.
