Abstract
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the concept of"the East" as a
geopolitical abstraction was.a recurrent theme in discussions of national identity in Japan.
"The East" (J. TOy6 •1• • ), originally used by the Chinese to designate the Yellow Sea
off China's east coast, came to mean in the modem Japanese context Asia or the nonWestem world in general. As a geopolitical abstraction, it also became identified in
Japan with nationalism. Several factors produced this phenomenon: the desire to anchor
the nation to an enduring cultural entity, the tendency to subsume nation-building in the
struggle, to assert parity with the West, and the convergence of Japanese nationalist
interests with imperialist aspirations in Asia. 3 All these factors Can be observed in the
scholarship on art.