Museos y palacios: la utilización de la Antigüedad clásica en la construcción nacional japonesa a través de la arquitectura oficial de la era Meiji en la obra de Katayama Tōkuma

Abstract

The Meiji era (1868-1912) brought a series of unprecedented changes to Japan. Beset by external and internal conflicts, the archipelago's new government carried out reforms at all levels to achieve the Westernization of the country. Architecture is precisely one of the fields that will change the most throughout this era. Those responsible for training the first generation of architects in Japan in the Western style were foreign specialists, who conveyed to their students the idea of the superiority of Greece and Rome, civilized cultures of which Europe is heir and to which Japan should look. It is from the transmission of this knowledge that the discussion of Antiquity will form part of the Japanese nation-building process, which began in the Meiji era. For the new government, the inclusion of the classical world in architecture was vital to the nation's modernization process, as it demonstrated Japan's maturity as a nation. Among these early Japanese architects, figures such as Katayama Tōkuma (1854-1917) stand out. His work was closely linked to the classical world, as he used its visual codes on more than one occasion to underpin imperial and national authority. He does this by connecting official buildings such as museums and palaces aesthetically with Classical Antiquity, reinforcing the legitimacy of the nation in the eyes of Westerners who see Greece and Rome as the cradle of Western civilization.