Imaging Disaster: Tokyo and the Visual Culture of Japan's Great Earthquake of 1923

Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes

by Gennifer Weisenfeld

Focusing on one landmark catastrophic event in the history of an emerging modern nation—the Great Kanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo and surrounding areas in 1923—this fascinating volume examines the history of the visual production of the disaster. The Kanto earthquake triggered cultural responses that ran the gamut from voyeuristic and macabre thrill to the romantic sublime, media spectacle to sacred space, mournful commemoration to emancipatory euphoria, and national solidarity to racist vigilantism and sociopolitical critique. Looking at photography, cinema, painting, postcards, sketching, urban planning, and even scientific visualizations, Weisenfeld demonstrates how visual culture has powerfully mediated the evolving historical understanding of this major national disaster, ultimately enfolding mourning and memory into modernization.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Art History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book both pictorially and historically, with a solid well-written analysis and description of the visual media used by artists and photographers to depict the scenarios and events that occurred in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. It is even more appreciated after my recent visit to the Great Kanto Earthquake Museum and Memorial Park in Tokyo, which I first learned about from this book. As a disaster responder, I have long been intrigued by the many historical and medical aspects of the accounts of both natural and man-made disasters, and this is a major contribution to the field. Both readable and fairly comprehensive, it certainly gives the reader an understanding of the serial events of the earthquake, and the descriptions and analyses of particularly the postcards and postcard culture, as well as the lithographic printmaking of that era, are truly fascinating. Although the greatest disaster in the history of civilization at the time that it occurred, the Great Kanto Earthquake has receded into the past as witnesses and survivors have aged and passed, and as the events of WW II exceeded the scale of this disaster, this volume contributes to the memory and history of the quadruple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, firestorm, and typhoon) that struck Tokyo on Sept. 1, 1923, and its many lessons. It is a valuable addition to my disaster library.

[Alassea Tinùviel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A multilayered survey of the visual representations of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The first 3-4 chapters provide interesting insights and set up the foundations of the book's polyhedric argument. Somewhere in the chapters 4-7 some arguments and points start to be picked up again, providing evidence for more aspects of the disaster and response, however, becoming rather historicizing in character; without providing further expansion of previous analyses. The final chapter reaches beyond, drawing comparisons to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but does not successfully tie all the arguments into a clear conclusion.

[Terra]

Pretty informative, lots of pictures so it let me pretend that I was reading faster