{"id":22733,"date":"2014-12-18T11:03:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T16:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=22733"},"modified":"2014-12-18T11:03:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T16:03:55","slug":"yokohama-and-japanese-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/12\/18\/yokohama-and-japanese-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Yokohama and Japanese History"},"content":{"rendered":"I went to Yokohama for the first time last weekend to catch a play. The professor of my\u00a0Japanese theatrical history course has a number of friends in the Greater Tokyo Area\u2019s theatre scene. He somehow negotiated free admission for the entire class to playwright Toshiki Okada\u2019s \u201cSuper Premium Soft W Vanilla Rich\u201d (\u30b9\u30fc\u30d1\u30fc\u30d7\u30ec\u30df\u30a2\u30e0\u30bd\u30d5\u30c8W\u30d0\u30cb\u30e9\u30ea\u30c3\u30c1) at The Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT).\r\n\r\n
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\u201cSuper Premium Soft W Vanilla Rich\u201d [source<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u00a0\u201cSuper Premium Soft W Vanilla Rich\u201d features a five-person cast and one set: the inside of a convenience store. Each character represents a popular attitude towards Japan\u2019s business world. Together, the characters present a sort of critique of contemporary Japanese consumerism.\r\n\r\nAfterwards, we chatted with Okada, and headed out to explore Yokohama. A short walk led us to Yokohama\u2019s historic port - I\u2019ll briefly explain its importance. In the seventeenth century, Japan\u2019s Tokugawa Shogunate responded\u00a0to the threat of European imperialism by introducing\u00a0a number of sakoku<\/em>, or \u2019closed country,\u2019 edicts. In this way, the Shogunate prohibited interaction with all European countries, other than that with Dutch traders around Nagasaki. The degree to which these edicts succeeded in eliminating foreign influence is debatable, but I won\u2019t get into this topic here. The sakoku<\/em> edicts lasted until 1854, when American Commodore Matthew Perry forcefully opened Japan to Euro-American trade at Yokohama\u2019s port. The liberalization of Japan\u2019s trade encouraged the pivotal Meiji Restoration (1868), after which Japan began its rapid industrialization. It was fascinating to see Yokohama\u2019s port in person after reading about its historical significance in my first and second-year history courses at U of T.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s a representation of Perry\u2019s arrival:\r\n\r\n
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\"Landing at Yokohama\" by William Heine, 1855 [source<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Here\u2019s the port as it was when I visited it:\r\n\r\n
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In a way, Yokohama\u2019s skyline represents Perry\u2019s legacy; it is a symbol of nineteenth and twentieth century Euro-America\u2019s industrial and aesthetic influences on Japan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nReaders interested in learning more about Japan\u2019s nineteenth and twentieth century history should check out Andrew Gordon\u2019s A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to <\/em>Present (2003) for an introduction.\r\n\r\nAfter spending\u00a0a few minutes taking in the port, we strolled through Yokohama\u2019s Chinatown. The sweet and savoury\u00a0aromas of Mantou and Xiaolongbao met in its\u00a0narrow, vendor-lined alleys. We indulged in some Sichuan-style cooking.\r\n\r\n
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The entrance to Yokohama's Chinatown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n
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Mapo Tofu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWe ended the day by taking another walk through Chinatown and catching the train back to Tokyo.\r\n\r\n
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One of Chinatown's iconic buildings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nI\u2019ll begin my travels through western Japan next week. Blogging will be on pause during winter break, so I'll share my travel stories in the new year. In the meantime, have a great break, everyone!\r\n\r\n