The Seinan War and Brocade Prints : The Development of Media Narrative and Publishing in the Meiji 10s

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  • 西南戦争と錦絵 : 報道言説の展開と明治一〇年代の出版界
  • セイナン センソウ ト ニシキエ : ホウドウ ゲンセツ ノ テンカイ ト メイジ イチ〇ネンダイ ノ シュッパンカイ

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Abstract

The print artists' power of imagination has been credited for the success of a series of brocade prints on the theme of the Seinan War (1877). Through a comparative study of those prints and the newspaper coverage of the War, this paper offers a new perspective on how the media fed the print artists' imagination, and what kind of result was achieved. Furthermore, it provides an analysis of how the popularity of the Seinan War brocade prints impacted the publishing world. It is important to note that the war reportage in the newspapers was essential to the creative imagination of the brocade print artists, who did not witness the war themselves. It is also noteworthy that the artists depicted the scenes of the Seinan War by drawing parallels with traditional war tales of the past. The characters, for example, were presented as having traditional virtues such as loyalty, filial piety and chastity. In the same period a variety of one-hundred-poem collections, "hyakunin isshu" (one hundred people; one tanka poem per person) gained popularity. The personalities of the Seinan War became the topics of this popular literary genre, and the success of those collections supported the publishing industry during the second decade of the Meiji Period-an era that has been called "the dark age of literature." The Seinan War had a spectrum of impact on the literary and artistic scenes. It is useful to study the ramifications of the War to obtain a fuller picture of the art and literature of the time.

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