The Utility of Picture Postcards：Another Cultural Content That Establishes the Image of the “Other” in Modern Japan

Abstract

From the viewpoint of the prevalence of modern art to the masses, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies has been collecting postcards of art exhibitions such as the Ministry of Education Art Exhibition (1907~1918), the Imperial Art Exhibition (1919~1936), and the New Ministry of Education Art Exhibition (1937~1944) for many years and has studied its role in the development process of popular culture. As a part of our efforts visualizing our research and giving back to society, we are currently creating a database of about 25,000 postcards in our collection and disclosing them to the public.</br>In this report, with introducing the database of our picture postcards from the Japanese Modern Art Exhibition, I deal with the theme “The Utility of Picture Postcards：Another Cultural Content That Establishes the Image of the ‘Other’ in Modern Japan.” On this theme, I explain how picture postcards represented the gaichi(外地) and mainland of China in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods, and what influence they had on the public’s recognition of the outside world. In addition to these, I re-find the value of picture postcards as a cultural resource, which has not been adequately studied.