| This dissertation analyzes the information media of 1860s Yokohama in order to bring new understanding to Japan's encounter with Western imperialism. Using travel literature, woodblock prints, satirical journals, and newspapers, I demonstrate that traditional views of Yokohama---as a racially polarized imperial outpost, or as the epicenter of Japan's modernization---are simplistic and misleading. My study argues, first, that considering nineteenth century Japanese newspapers strictly from the perspective of institutional development---as has most often been the case to this point---misses the crucial connections between and among them: the newspapers of Yokohama's English-language press, for example, were as much engaged in intra-Western (and intra-national) squabbling as they were in gathering and reporting news. In addition, media sources that have not fit neatly into the modernization paradigm have also been obscured by press historians---in the 1860s, Yokohama boasted several woodblock-printed Japanese-language papers owned by foreign interests, and one primary goal of this study is to demonstrate how these underutilized sources problematize the "East vs. West" imperial encounter. Finally, my study of native travel guides reveals that "exotic" Yokohama often meant something very traditional to contemporary Japanese. The foreign presence---which one might expect to have been the primary draw for domestic tourists---was alternately ignored, criticized, or co-opted into an traditional framework: Yokohama's natural scenery and lavish prostitution quarter revealed a destination sought out despite the presence of Western traders, not because of them. In sum, this study reveals that within bakumatsu Yokohama there were several interdependent histories rather than any single history, and overlapping domains of cultural sovereignty rather than a rigid dichotomy between Japan and the West. |
