Public Properties is a historical account of how museums in Japan and its empire contributed to the reimagining of state and society during Japan's imperial era, from 1868 until 1945.
In the late nineteenth century, Japan's new Meiji government established museums to showcase a national aesthetic heritage. Inspired by Western museums and expositions, these institutions were introduced by government officials hoping to spur industrialization and self-disciplined public behavior, and to cultivate an "imperial public" loyal to the emperor. Japan's network of museums expanded along with its colonies. By the mid-1930s, the Japanese museum system had established or absorbed institutions in Taiwan, Korea, Sakhalin, and Manchuria. Not surprising, colonial subjects' views of Japanese imperialism differed from those promulgated by the Japanese state. Meanwhile, in Japan, philanthropic and commercial museums were expanding, revising, and even questioning the state-sanctioned aesthetic canon. Public Properties describes how museums in Japan and its empire contributed to the reimagining of state and society during the imperial era, despite vigorous disagreements about what was to be displayed, how, and by whom it was to be seen.
"By skillfully juxtaposing her analysis of government and private exhibition spaces, the author offers bold and compelling explanations for how artistic objects were used to create new publics that helped form collective identification with Japan's imperial state in the early twentieth century. No reader will fail to be edified by this thoughtful and instructive study." - Journal of Japanese Studies
" . . . this book could easily be used as an exciting portal for introducing students to diverse aspects of modern Japanese history and its clever theoretical framework will undoubtedly serve Japan scholars well." - H-Empire, H-Net Reviews
"[A]n important contribution to the emerging scholarship on museums as public properties in Japan during the Imperial period and is one for those interested in Japanese history, art history and museum studies." - Asian Affairs
"“Aso’s study is an intriguing, and refreshingly straightforward, examination of the shaping of the Japanese public…. This is a remarkably accessible text highlighting a set of ideas with implications and lessons that reach far beyond the case study’s time and place and straight into the musings of museum studies today, complete with reproductions of historical photographs, documentation and other ephemera that add a welcome visual touchstone to Aso’s detailed accounts.”" - JQ Magazine
"[Public Properties is] of interest to Japan and East Asia scholars as well as museum studies specialists.... [The] book is a welcome addition to one of the most vibrant recent areas of scholarly attention, the place of aesthetics in the creation of modern Japanese nationalism." - American Historical Review
"“Aso has provided an excellent, and much-needed, history of exhibition spaces and practices in twentieth-century imperial Japan. This study fills an important gap in English-language museum studies scholarship and will be useful reading for scholars of Japanese history, twentieth-century visual culture, and colonial studies.”" - Asian Ethnology