Exporting Japanese Aesthetics brings together historical and contemporary case studies addressing the evolution of international impacts and influences of Japanese culture and aesthetics. The volume draws on a variety of examples from a multidisciplinary team of scholars exploring transnational, regional and global contexts. Studies include the impact of traditional Japanese theatre and art through to the global popularity of contemporary anime and manga. The Japanese Government, commentators and some industry stakeholders have hoisted the banner of “Cool Japan” in response, and seek to further promote such cultural exports for both business and “soft power” ends.. By (re)mapping meanings of selected Japanese cultural forms, this volume offers an in-depth examination of how various aspects of Japanese aesthetics have evolved as exportable commodities, the motivations behind this diffusion, and the extent to which the process of diffusion has been the result of strategic planning.

Each presentation presents a case study that explores perspectives that situate Japanese aesthetics within a wide-ranging field of inquiry including fashion and architecture. The importance of interrogating the export of Japanese aesthetics is validated at the highest levels of government, which formed the Office of Cool Japan in 2010, and which perhaps originated in the 19th Century at governmentally endorsed cultural “courts” at world’s fairs. Increased international consumption of contemporary Japanese culture provides a much needed boost to Japan’s weakening economy.

The case studies are timely and topical. As host of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2025 Osaka Expo, “Cool Japan” will be under special scrutiny.

An evolution of the perceptions of Japanese culture in the West: Unknown, mysterious, exotic and cool

Tets Kimura (Flinders University)

In order to theorise the evolution of overall Japanese aesthetics as a central argument of this project, attention, firstly, is paid to the chronological development of how the perception of Japanese culture in the West has evolved over the last 700 years. Although Japan has always belonged to the camp of East Asian civilisations, its existence was “unknown” in the West before Marco Polo. Even after European arrival mainly by missionaries and merchants into Japan, the distance between Japan and Europe as well as the sakoku seclusion policy made Japan inaccessible for centuries.

Thus, Japan largely remained little known and “mysterious” until the 19th century. The next step of evolution occurred in line with Meiji Modernity, when the Western influences restructured Japan’s social, political and cultural systems, as this was also the time when Japanese art and consumable items started to be exported to the West, known as Japonism. Westerners were attracted to the newly arrived Japanese beauty as it was different and “exotic”. The final stage of evolution took place towards the end of the 20th century. Contemporary Japanese culture such as video games, anime and manga became adopted, adapted and normalised in the West. Today, Western children grow up with “cool” Japan characters with the likes of Super Mario and Pikachu. After centuries of evolution, Japan has now finally evolved from “unknown” to “mysterious”, to “exotic”, and to “cool”.

An Afterimage of Exoticism: The discourse of Rei Kawakubo’s early collections in Paris

Hissako Anjo (Hannan University)

Since the Meiji era, Japanese people have had a great admiration for Paris, the European fashion centre. Following the Second World War, Japanese fashion designers introduced their collections there.

For example, in 1960, Nobuo Nakamura presented his kimono collection in Paris. Although he designed Western clothes in Japan, he decided to show his kimono collection to secure his chance. In 1970, Kenzō Takada showed his first collection and quickly became known for his colourful fabrics and floral prints, being described as “Ukiyo-e” in ELLE French fashion magazine. In 1982, ten Japanese fashion designers including Rei Kawakubo were highlights during Paris Fashion Week. Kawakubo’s avant-garde approach―for example, her iconic black sweater pierced with holes―divided critics and had a reputation for being very distinct from Kenzō. On the other hand, her works were often understood as a representation of the traditional Japanese aesthetics such as wabi and sabi.

In 1997, Kawakubo further established herself with evolutionary designs of pads placed on the abdomen, the hips and the back . However, even after that, her designs were still thought to be influenced by Japanese traditions. In my observation, both Westerners and Japanese critiques were contributing in building the exotic Japanese image of Kawakubo’s designs. I will, thus, argue that an afterimage of exoticism continued to appear in the discourse on Japanese fashion designers in Paris.

Japanese architecture as branding abroad

Christopher Pokarier (Waseda University),
Erez Golani Solomon (Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design)

In January 2019 Arata Isozaki became the seventh Japanese architect chosen as Laureate for the prestigious Pritzker Prize, founded in 1979, and the fourth this decade. That a sixth of all recipients have been Japanese, and the stature of other laureates, testifies to the esteem and influence of Japanese architecture abroad. It also mirrors its increasingly international practice: leading Japanese architectural firms frequently do more projects abroad than in Japan. Yet Japanese architecture, contemporary or legacy, attracted little attention from state actors who have sought to ‘brand Japan’ through the creative industries over the last two decades. This is despite a history of over a century of state usage of architecture as a cultural diplomacy resource.

This paper maps the issues entailed in the ambivalent relationship between Japanese architects and the state, and between notions of ‘Japanese architecture’, prevailing both at home and abroad, and the self-branding of the individual architect.

The dichotomy between Japanese architectural influence - ideational and aesthetic - and architectural practice abroad is not merely historical. Contemporary Japanese architects not only build abroad but also engage in profile-raising conceptual projects, as did some of their Avant-garde postwar predecessors, and some struggle still with ‘Japan-ness’.

Finally, the paper draws some conclusions on political economy and ideational factors that may explain why state actors were not more proactive in attempting to harness architects to the much-criticised ‘Cool Japan’ policy agenda over the last decade.