The Meiji period was the source of many anxieties about the modernity brought in from overseas. However, this also meant reaping the benefits of the modern life. Ukiyo-e prints were used in the Edo...Show moreThe Meiji period was the source of many anxieties about the modernity brought in from overseas. However, this also meant reaping the benefits of the modern life. Ukiyo-e prints were used in the Edo period to entertain people like modern social media and in the early Meiji period, this continued. Meiji Ukiyo-e prints showing trains, carriages, modern buildings, and schools were used to show the Japanese people around the country what positive things modernity could accomplish. These prints manufactured a positive form of modernity that had a soothing effect on people who had feelings of anxiety about the country opening up, foreigners coming in, and the political and cultural systems changing. The government could censor ukiyo-e prints and thus might even have a say in the changing topics to introduce modern things like trains and Western-style buildings. Publishers and the government's influence on the prints' topics could have made a manufactured positive modernity. Also, prints showed scenes that were either beautified scenes of reality or made up by artists to help manufacture a positive image of the Meiji period. Meiji ukiyo-e prints had the effect of creating a positive notion of reality not only for the image of Japan as a great nation to the foreign powers but also as a way to show the capabilities of Japan’s modernization skills to the nationals living in the Meiji era Japan.Show less
Because of the low price and availability to all social classes, sugoroku 双六 boardgames were a perfect way to illustrate the contemporary way of thinking of the people in the Edo and Meiji period....Show moreBecause of the low price and availability to all social classes, sugoroku 双六 boardgames were a perfect way to illustrate the contemporary way of thinking of the people in the Edo and Meiji period. In sugoroku games published at the end of the Edo period (1603-1868) and the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912), the themes that were most important to the people of Japan are clearly visible. When looking closely at these games, the change between which parts the emphasis was on can be seen. At first glance these changes might not be as prominent, but when looking at the cultural memory of the people of Japan, it is clear this has also affected in what way the sugoroku games have been produced.Show less
