Globetrotters' Japan: Places, Foreigners on the Tourist Circuit in Meiji Japan

GLOBETROTTERS

1. TWO takeaways from the article.

Seeing as travelling took an immense amount of time, it seems logical to think that those travelling are almost always wealthy enough to not only spend a large amount of money to pay for the trips but also miss work. That said, most people visiting Japan and touring it were wealthy westerners, likely steeped in western etiquette and stereotypically condescending, easily entertained by these 'simple' people and customs. Keeping in mind the audience being pandered to, it makes a lot of sense they would invest in Beato's photo albums and why Beato would include what he did in them.

These globetrotters who visited Japan often times constructed their souvenir photo albums according to their own tastes and experiences. That said, they could re-create stories and personalize their experience of Japan to share with others. In this way, many different views of Japan could be created from the stock photos, and so stories other than those initially intended could be told using a different arrangement of photos than what was originally taken. This could be for better or for worse as photos can be taken out of context completely and then tell their own original tale separate from the other photos in the initial series.


2. ONE image analysis, & why a foreigner may want to purchase the image.

I feel that this is an image many other people would choose because I definitely find it appealing to look at. It features almost everything: Japanese people in Japan, nature, spiritual aspects, art, and wildlife. This photo really drives home the connection between nature and the Japanese people living in harmony with it. However, while on the surface it just seems like a beautiful photograph, there are also some negative connotations for depicting the Japanese so "at one" with nature. Presenting animals in a public setting, especially a religious one that is supposed to be sacred, it seems like it promotes the idea that the Japanese are primitive, savage, or barbaric. Could you imagine a horse or pig in a place of worship--how would an image like this be received by a westerner?