Summary:

Olavi K. Fält, Impact of centre-periphery relations on Western images of Japan in 1853–1904. Finland and Sweden as examples

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the centre-periphery relationship on the universal Western image of Japan in 1853–1904 – from the opening up of Japan to the Russo-Japanese War – by using the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden as examples in answering the questions: What were the images of Japan like? Were there differences in the images? Why were the images that which they were? Did any changes take place in the images? How were the images possibly used? In my analysis of the period’s printed material concerning Japan, I employ not only historical image research – which is based on cognitive psychology – but also the theoretical model of thermodynamics and a new network theory, which I have applied to historical research, as well as a centre-periphery perspective.

In all, it can be said that the images of Japan in both Finland and Sweden during the period under study were quite similar, i.e. in that sense both countries were part of the broader Western image network. The clearest change in the image occurred in the 1890s, when as a result of the Sino-Japanese War the image also took on features of the image of an enemy. The various emphases of the image – exoticism, admiration of amenability to Western culture and the politicised image of the enemy – reinforced the West’s identity by emphasising the West’s position of central hegemony in the world, i.e. they brought additional resources to Western culture to uphold the position of central hegemony at the level of mental images. From the standpoint of entropy, it was a question of even subconsciously seeking to affix particular attention on issues that reinforced the West’s own identity. As peripheral parts of the Western image network, Finland and Sweden were influenced by both the leading Western press and significant translated descriptions. The only notable exceptions were Baeckström and Nordenskiöld, of whom Nordenskiöld, in particular, brought contrary ingredients also to the universal European image. One particular exception was the early negative conceptualisation of the image of Japan in Finland at the end of the 1850s, although indeed this no longer happened thereafter.