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Oriental Taste in Imperial Japan

The Exhibition and Sale of Asian Art and Artifacts by Japanese Department Stores from the 1920s through the Early 1940s

Bibliographic Data

ID3630314
AuthorsYounjung Oh (0000-0002-9523-2626, Youngdong University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume78
Issue1
Pages45-74
Publication date2019-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0021911818002498
OpenAlexW2921117526
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

From the 1920s to the early 1940s, Japanese department stores provided Japanese urban middle-class households with art and artifacts from China, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The department stores not merely sold art and artifacts from Japan's Asian neighbors but also promoted the cultural confidence to appreciate and collect them. At the same time, aspiring middle-class customers satisfied their desire to emulate the historical elite's taste for Chinese and other Asian objects by shopping at the department stores. The aesthetic consumption of Asian art and artifacts formulated a privileged position for Japan in the imperial order and presented the new middle class with the cultural capital vital to the negotiation of its social status. This article examines the ways in which department stores marketed "tōyō shumi" (Oriental taste), which played a significant role in the formation of identity for both the imperial state and the new middle class in 1920s and 1930s Japan

Advertising · Archaeology · Art history · Business · China · Cultural capital · Elite · Exhibition · Middle class · Negotiation · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Taste · Asian Culture and Media Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology

  • Global trends and hotspots in Asian Art research from 1997 to 2023

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    Open Access•Younjung Oh•Modern Asian Studies•2023

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    Christine M E Guth, Christine Guth•Art, tea, and industry•1993

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Citations per year0.67
Citation span2023 - 2025 (3)
Highly citedNo

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