Evolution Of The Perceptions On Japan And Spain Between 1868-1914

The Western East and the Oriental West. The Evolution of the Perceptions on Japan and Spain Between 1868 and 1914. (provisional title)

In 1868 Japan the Meiji revolution reached its peak with the abolition of the old shogunate and the deposition of the Tokugawa dynasty that had been governing since the 17th century. The figure of the Shogun was replaced by the emperor. In September of the same year Spain suffered a revolution that, like in the case of Japan, meant the (temporal)end of the old ruling dynasty of the bourbons and a brand new system of government, shaped in the constitution of 1869. Although the revolutions were indeed different, a general view makes obvious some similarities: The aim of both processes was to overthrow the ruling dynasty and to modernize/westernise the country. In the case of Spain this aim was more ideological than practical, closely related to democracy, and in Japan more focused on material development. In any case the outcome of both processes couldn’t have been more different, while Japan succeed in his goal and had become an imperial and industrial power by the end of the

In the national level, like Florentino Rodao argues in his short article “Japonizar España”1, the Spanish, who like the rest of Europe had an exotic and somewhat barbaric image of Japan, changed their view to the extent of proposing a “japonisation” of Spain as the only solution to modernise the country. On an international level, at the same time that, like the Spanish, the international community recognised Japan as an industrial and imperial power and a westernised country, Spain suffered the opposite process, becoming a main tourist destination for the romantic travellers seeking adventures in old, obscure and mysterious places, travellers that regarded Spain as a medieval and oriental