Japanophilia : becoming the other

Even before the dissolution of Shogunate and the Meiji Reforms around 1868, which opened Japan to the world, Japan has been of considerable cultural influence on the English-speaking world. This remote country in East Asia has for a long time been a foil to the Western view of the world in the 19th century, with its isolated culture that willingly refused "superior" western culture and religion and was perceived as developing in a unique condition of complete isolation. With its opening Japan aimed to embrace modernity and distance itself from its tradition, but its efforts attracted various artists, such as van Gogh and Monet, who admired the traditional Japanese art and incorporated it into their works. At the same time, foreign scholars invited by the government to industrialise Japan and teach the young elite, started to see Japanese art and culture as superior to the European. They not only regarded Japan as their new homeland but also strove to become Japanese themselves. Today Japanese culture is again gaining popularity, this time the interest being centred around animation and popular culture. This current wave of Japanophilia shares many similarities with the 19th century one. Current fans of all that is Japanese also frequently strive to attain Japanese identity and also interact with the fantasy of an "eastern Other" in complex ways. This paper will discuss the comparison of these waves and how this relates to historical and cultural issues surrounding the relationship between the Anglophone and Japanese cultures.