Dialectical Intercultural Studies On Images Of The Self And The Other In Okakura Tenshin’s English Works

Okakura Tenshin（1862-1913）represents Japanese intellectuals as a culturally sensitive soul faced with tough choices during the Meiji Restoration Era in the late 19^th century:Whether it was better to support the Tokugawa Shogunate’s traditional way of ego nourishment and self-resurrection,or to follow the trend of Fukuzawa Yukichi’s“leaving Asia and entering Europe”policy,or else to seek a different path in between.Such controversies are made all the more ardent with Okakura’s unique background,rendering a creative absorption of different cultures through his English writings of:The Awakening of Japan,The Ideals of the East,The Awakening of the East,and The Book of Tea.With an exotic and artistic touch,deep concern for the nation’s destiny and negation of Western centrality buttressed by the narrative relegating the East as the inferior and backward,these English works have gained wide attention from the western world.Most importantly,these works were precisely composed when the dialogue between different cultures started to become frequent,intense and sustained when Japan was undergoing unprecedented social changes.Okakura’s eagerness to deconstruct and reconstruct the images of Asia depicted by the West proves that he has both tried to preach and practice his ideal of equal stands between the East and the West.They have also revealed his pursuit of eliminating cultural prejudice and enhancing intercultural dialogue and inclusiveness.Moreover,such topics as image-construction of the heterogeneous,the retaining of tradition in modernity,and the integration of the particularistic and the universalistic are highlighted in the books,making them valuable sources for intercultural research.However,most previous studies on images were focused primarily on the linear dichotomy of either the Self or the Other,leaving the mutual depictions and conversions of the Self and the Other from varied perspectives largely unexplored.Furthermore,Okakura’s English diction has not yet attracted due attention as part of the intercultural research corpora.As such,the author seeks to probe into the space left by the macro historical perspective and micro literary narration.Drawing on an interplay between imagology and theories in cultural studies,the dissertation intends to expound on the multi-faceted images in Okakura’s works and depart the fixed,ahistorical and neutral relations between the Self and the Other.Intercultural dialectics,in particular,serves as an epistemological tool to shed light on Okakura’s inner struggles and the contradictions inherent in his writings,which lead to further inquiry into a constellation of different factors shaping image-construction processes.The author endeavors to answer the following three questions:1.What are the relationships or tensions between the images of the Self and the Other in Okakura’s writings,and for what reasons?2.What factors could impact on Okakura’s image-construction processes,and how do they influence each other?3.In which ways has Okakura’s identity affected his creation of images,and how are they specifically manifested in his literary expressions?The dissertation first concludes that the relationship between the image of Self and the Other is both oppositional and relational;they may be mutually constitutive given changes in certain social and cultural circumstances.This could be seen in the 19^th century when the West was in need of an inferior Asia as the counterpart to reaffirm the superiority of western modernity.As Japan rose in military power and gained increasing attention from the rest of the world after the Russo-Japanese War,it also found it necessary to have its“frame of reference”.Moreover,to rid himself from a sense of marginality,Okakura reified a particular“Western”gaze upon the rest of Asia when he highlighted Japan as the cultural reservoir of Asian culture,creating a bleak picture of China and India going downhill.This invariably leads to the inherent inconsistency in Okakura’s thoughts,especially with regard to his notion of Asia is one.Although Okakura’s primary motif was to interrogate the West’s othering of Asia,he was complicit with the West by othering the neighboring Asian countries to assume the role of Japan as the leader of Asia.Using a dialectical approach in the analysis of the varied paradoxes lays bare the human texture of Okakura and his many tough choices.The second conclusion is that images in Okakura’s writings are rarely ahistorical or apolitical,and their construction is not merely governed by empirical objectivity such as time and distance,but also circumscribed by a constellation of more implicit factors.These factors primarily encompass shifts in power-dynamics in response to the changing cultural and political landscape of Japan vis-à-vis the West,Okakura’s multidimensional identity,and the infiltration of nationalistic sentiment.It is important to note that the author does not claim that these factors are exhaustive or deterministic.Lastly,hybridity,fluidity and ambivalence featuring Okakura’s identity have left their corresponding marks in his dictions.In addition,his mastery of English,creative absorption of different cultural classics and the use of various rhetorical devices imbued his writings with both esthetic charm and historical depth.It could be said that Okakura’s works being well-received in the West is by no means accidental.It is hoped that the close reading of Okakura’s literary expressions would provide implications for the promotion of intercultural appreciation.