Blowing Up a Double Portrait in Black and White: The Concept of Asia in the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi and Okakura Tenshin

Questioning the East/West Binary in Meiji Intellectual History

A good story always needs two opponents or two principles in conflict. Japan's course in Asia during the Meiji era (1868–1912) is often seen as a conflict between Westernization-cum-imperialism (Japan devours Asia in concert with the Western powers) and a utopian Asianism (Japan unites Asia against the Western powers). Indeed, Japan's ascent to empire until 1905 was decisively shaped by the experience of Western imperial policy. Japan's drive to great-power status was (at least initially) informed by the desire to gain equality and protect its independence vis-à-vis the Western powers. The ruling elite of Japan sought to expedite the process through reforms that selectively emulated various Western models, including Western imperialist policy. As European international relations entered a phase of colonial expansion and imperialist rivalries in the 1880s, it was taken for granted by virtually everyone in Japan that Japan should do likewise.¹ The text most often associated with the "aggressive" Western-oriented policy is "Datsua ron" ("On Leaving Asia Behind," 1885) by Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901).² Fukuzawa's short text has gained such notoriety that it stands to represent Westernization, as such, and even the policy of the whole Meiji period.³ Its content is generally summed up by the phrase "leave Asia, join Europe" (datsua nyūō), although Fukuzawa himself never used the addition "join Europe."⁴ Asianism, however, is often presented as the counter-narrative to (imperialist) Westernization. It describes a certain "mood" among Asian-minded individuals or groups, characterized by a common solidarity for Asian countries, especially China and Korea.⁵ The quote most often invoked in this context is "Asia is one," which comes from the opening line of The Ideals of the East with Special References to the Art of Japan (1903) by Okakura Tenshin (1862–1913).⁶

The now familiar double portrait of Fukuzawa and Okakura as representatives of Westernization and Asianism,⁷ respectively, thus helps to illustrate the "familiar dichotomy of East versus West, Westernization versus Asianism," the "contrastive scheme of Asia and Europe" that is said to govern foreign policy in the Meiji period.⁸

This article questions the familiarity of the East/West dichotomy in general, and especially for Fukuzawa and Okakura. Was it really the binary scheme of Asia/Europe that governed Meiji foreign policy? Do Fukuzawa and Okakura really serve to illustrate these two poles? There are reasons to doubt the applicability of this scheme for Meiji intellectual history, mostly because it is too familiar. We are prone to forget that the subject that speaks through this scheme is European. Of this fact, Meiji intellectuals writing on politics were well aware, and they did not like its consequences for Japan. They were familiar with the Asia/Europe split, but embraced it only with significant modifications.

Today it is well known that, simultaneous with European expansion in Asia in the age of high imperialism, the concept of Asia also became subjugated to the defining power of Europe and was made the exact opposite of what Europe felt itself to be.⁹ The imbalance of power between East and West exacerbated the opposition between Asia and Europe already inherent in Enlightenment thinking. Asia became the embodiment of every negative quality conceivable, of irrationality, cruelty, wickedness, and—most of all—weakness.¹⁰ The process of projecting an imbalance of power onto the image of the subordinate (as a result and means of domination) is the one we now call "Orientalism."¹¹

Japanese intellectuals in the Meiji era were painfully aware of Europe's Orientalist view of Asia and of their view of Japan as part of Asia. An example of how this Orientalist image was reflected in the Japanese press can be seen in an article by Hinohara Shōzō (1853–1904) titled "Nihon wa Tōyō-koku taru bekarazu" ("Japan Must Not Be an Oriental Country"), published in November 1884.¹² Hinohara, a former disciple of Fukuzawa Yukichi, reported from...