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Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, I will analyze how global currents influenced the representations of national history and of narratives of "Great Men" in public space in Meiji Japan. In particular, I will look at the process of planning and building public statuary and memorials.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, I will analyze how global currents influenced the representations of national history and of narratives of "Great Men" in public space in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Japan.

Modern nations follow similar patterns when constructing national history and legitimizing the current political and social system, notwithstanding claims for uniqueness inherent in each and every version of nationhood. One ingredient of national narratives that most modern nations share are heroic stories of "Great Men." The importance of these stories has to be seen against the background of the "Great Man View of History," which forcefully emerged in the nineteenth century and was introduced to Japan in the 1870s. Its influx triggered the publication of numerous monumental biographies of "Great Men" (ijin-den) as well as the construction of hundreds of memorials—secular memorials, public sculpture, and shrines—dedicated to the ijin all over the country.

Although Japan has a long history of Buddhist bronze statuary, memorials dedicated to historical personalities were almost unknown before the Meiji era, in particular, public bronze statuary depicting historical figures. Between 1880 and 1940, however, more than 700 statues were set up throughout the empire, resulting in the development of a dense network of personalized sites of national history. I will demonstrate how international discourses affected the construction of these "realms of memory" and disentangle global, national, and regional factors that shaped discourses regarding the representation of national heroes in the public sphere.

While the focus of the presentation will be on the Meiji and the Taisho periods, I will demonstrate that the "Great Man View of History" remains highly influential in present-day Japan.