The Recurring ‘Discovery’ of Hokkaido and the Ainu : Three Decades of Nineteenth-Century British Travelogues
Hennessey, John LU
(2023)
In Nineteenth-Century Contexts
45(3).
p.253-270
- Abstract
- With the full-scale colonization of Hokkaido, home to the indigenous Ainu people, by the Japanese Meiji government (1868-1912), unprecedented ethnographic opportunities emerged for Western scientists and adventure-seekers. Literally dozens of such individuals “discovered” information about the Ainu and their homeland during this period, introducing European and American audiences to the subject through a variety of publications. Taken individually, these texts most often present the Ainu as living isolated from “modern civilization” until visited by the author, but their sheer number suggests that the reality was different. This article analyses and compares three British travelogues on Hokkaido and the Ainu that were published at about... (More)
- With the full-scale colonization of Hokkaido, home to the indigenous Ainu people, by the Japanese Meiji government (1868-1912), unprecedented ethnographic opportunities emerged for Western scientists and adventure-seekers. Literally dozens of such individuals “discovered” information about the Ainu and their homeland during this period, introducing European and American audiences to the subject through a variety of publications. Taken individually, these texts most often present the Ainu as living isolated from “modern civilization” until visited by the author, but their sheer number suggests that the reality was different. This article analyses and compares three British travelogues on Hokkaido and the Ainu that were published at about one-decade intervals in the latter half of the nineteenth century in order to understand the actual conditions of their authors’ journeys and strategies for selling their work. All three texts creatively combine disparate genres and tropes, such as adventure, humor and scientific observation. Most significantly, as time progressed, these accounts tended to exoticize and denigrate the Ainu more and more, reflecting shifts in attitudes towards indigenous peoples during this time as well as the authors’ attempts to sell Hokkaido travelogues in an increasingly saturated market. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4e44d0fb-a0fd-497f-98c4-c54258058a44
- author
- Hennessey, John
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-04-19
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Travel Writing, Henry Savage Landor, Thomas Blakiston, Isabella Bird, Tourism, Hokkaido, Ainu
- in
- Nineteenth-Century Contexts
- volume
- 45
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 18 pages
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85153518242
- ISSN
- 0890-5495
- DOI
- 10.1080/08905495.2023.2200129
- project
- Anomalous Aryans? Western Scientific Racism and the Ainu as a “Lost White Race,” 1868-1941
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 4e44d0fb-a0fd-497f-98c4-c54258058a44
- date added to LUP
- 2022-08-29 08:35:42
- date last changed
- 2024-06-21 03:10:12
@article{4e44d0fb-a0fd-497f-98c4-c54258058a44,
abstract = {{With the full-scale colonization of Hokkaido, home to the indigenous Ainu people, by the Japanese Meiji government (1868-1912), unprecedented ethnographic opportunities emerged for Western scientists and adventure-seekers. Literally dozens of such individuals “discovered” information about the Ainu and their homeland during this period, introducing European and American audiences to the subject through a variety of publications. Taken individually, these texts most often present the Ainu as living isolated from “modern civilization” until visited by the author, but their sheer number suggests that the reality was different. This article analyses and compares three British travelogues on Hokkaido and the Ainu that were published at about one-decade intervals in the latter half of the nineteenth century in order to understand the actual conditions of their authors’ journeys and strategies for selling their work. All three texts creatively combine disparate genres and tropes, such as adventure, humor and scientific observation. Most significantly, as time progressed, these accounts tended to exoticize and denigrate the Ainu more and more, reflecting shifts in attitudes towards indigenous peoples during this time as well as the authors’ attempts to sell Hokkaido travelogues in an increasingly saturated market.}},
author = {{Hennessey, John}},
issn = {{0890-5495}},
keywords = {{Travel Writing; Henry Savage Landor; Thomas Blakiston; Isabella Bird; Tourism; Hokkaido; Ainu}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{253--270}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{Nineteenth-Century Contexts}},
title = {{The Recurring ‘Discovery’ of Hokkaido and the Ainu : Three Decades of Nineteenth-Century British Travelogues}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08905495.2023.2200129}},
doi = {{10.1080/08905495.2023.2200129}},
volume = {{45}},
year = {{2023}},
}