In the image above, an American is depicted leisurely gallivanting through a Japanese landscape, while a local Japanese groom runs beside him to keep his horse refreshed. Just from the positioning with the American looming over the Japanese shows the powers at play in the picture; the Japanese man is shown to be subservient as caring for not even the American man but his horse. Additionally, he must exert a lot of effort to keep up by running alongside them, instead of being on another horse to keep pace. The fact that they are on a bridge suggests that they might be out for a longer ride, since they are traveling over a body of water to get somewhere and will eventually have to return. The beautiful, natural landscape almost seems marred by the blissful naivete of the foreigner and the smirk of the horse that would typically only be ridden by worthy samurai.
This image, interestingly enough, displays the false impressions the Japanese artists had of foreign countries. In this specific scene, the artist attempts to depict American life, though the architecture was actually based off of areas of India by mistake. Because one man saw a hot air balloon on the Japanese excursion to America, they appear multiple times in this print, as if that was an incessant recreation of everyday Americans. All the people in the image wear some form of red, white, and blue, demonstrating exaggerated patriotism, and the flag flying in the background only exacerbates this impression. No one seems to be doing any kind of work or anything other than leisurely activities, suggesting the Japanese's idea of Americans as wealthy, lazy, and having much free time.
I certainly agree that within the first image, we are being presented with an semi-obvious statement of American superiority, as the Japanese individual within the image is of lower class and is performing a demeaning task. I liked how you attempted to think through the image and made note that since the pair are traveling over a bridge (and therefore a body of water), they may be out on a longer than normal ride, perhaps evening traveling to another city/town/village.
ReplyDeleteWithin the second image, I too immediately noticed the overbearing tones of exaggerated American patriotism - within the clothing coloration and the prominent flag in the upper left corner of the image. Again, I liked how you put yourself into the perspective of the artist and explained their misinterpretation of everyday american lifestyle as a result of minimal exposure and a lack of accessible information. For instance, a globetrotter visiting Japan for only a short period of time may have falsely depicted that the Japanese travel exclusively on rickshaws.