니시키에[錦繪]를 통해서 본 근대천황상과 조선 멸시관의 형성

Abstract

This research reveals that the Japanese populace’s perception of aninferior Joseon had much to do with the national integration inspired bythe modern Emperor image through an analysis of the visual portrayalsof Joseon in Japanese mass media, such as Nishiki-e prints. The perception of Joseon in modern Japan was tightly interwovenwith three components: the expanding reproduction of framing theimage of Joseon with contempt, a sense of superiority in terms of thelevel of civilization, and an exclusive nationalism. The refashioning ofthe inferior Joseon, which adhered to traditional perceptions of Joseon,was greatly underpinned by Empress Jingū’s mythical “conquest of theThree Han states” and Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s “Korean conquest.” Asthese two imperial expansionist agendas were heavily propagated as theheroic “great achievement” of “imperial power” abroad, the promotion ofa sense of superiority in the level of civilization among the Japanesepopulace was in turn authorized by the modern Emperor image. Further, exclusive nationalism played the key role in consolidatingnational unity centering on the image of the modern Emperor in theseimperial agendas. These three components were plainly manifested through Nishiki-eprints, which were widely distributed in Japan from the late Edo period to the Russo-Japanese War. In this regard, Japan’s perceptions ofJoseon in the form of Nishiki-e prints had great impact upon theconsolidation of the exclusive nationalism of modern Japan and thenational integration with the modern Emperor image at its center.