In the wooden display case of the Government-General Museum of Keijo, in modern-day Seoul, Korea, Hang-A Li (항아리, translated to ‘a porcelain pot’) reveals itself through the glass panes that protect it. One of the most commonly used porcelains in the Korean peninsula for decades is presented– isolated from its functions and original purpose – with a couple of nametags, alongside countless other ceramics from various times and places, forever taxidermised in time.

To understand the objective of putting the everyday object on display, especially in the context of Japanese imperialism, requires the unfolding of multiple layers of history. This specific type of Korean porcelain was often the target of objectification and fetishisation by Japanese art critics during the colonial period:

What is the typical shape of a Joseon [Joseon Dynasty, also called the ‘Yi Dynasty’, the dynasty of the Korean Empire before colonisation] Hang-A-Li? The pots are not round and stable, as in China. They are still tall and slender from the waist to the feet. Even if it is not, it has lost its stability by having the rim of the small heel removed at an angle. It is not a form that is meant to be placed on new ground; it is a form of shipbuilding. I think it is the pain and sorrow experienced by the Korean people that drives them in this direction. The loneliness is hidden. It is a heart that has no one to turn to, no friend to confide in. I wonder if this inner, silent, hidden beauty is the result of this. (Yanagi Muneyoshi 2013)

The author Yanagi Muneyoshi,[1] also known by his pseudonym Yanagi Soetsu, was one of the most passionate advocates of Korean art and architecture from mainland Japan during Japan’s colonisation of Korea. Yanagi’s description of white porcelain Hang-A-Li as a reflection of the Korean people’s sorrow and loneliness(‘[experienced] pain and sorrow’ and ‘a heart that has no one to turn to, no friend to confide in’) – using the term ‘beauty of sadness’ (hiai no bi, 悲哀の美) repeatedly in his writing – created a distance in order to abstract and ultimately other the reality of life in the Korean peninsula to an aesthetic level.[2] Yanagi’s gaze on Korean arts and crafts remained aesthetical throughout his writings, though he made attempts to vindicate the Koreans against the Japanese government.

By putting Hang-A-Li on display in the museum, Imperial Japan was able to construct a narrative that is substantiated by the physical presence of the museum, a modern typology introduced by Japan to the primitive land. By putting the everyday life of the Korean people on display and taxidermising it on the pedestal, Japan was able to established a power dynamic in which the narratives entailed by the Hang-A-Li reinforced the colonial propaganda and further disseminated it to visitors, who were then both the colonised and the coloniser. Hence, this dissertation is exploring Hang-A-Li as a device of narrative manipulation that leads to the establishment of colonial museums.

The display cases were located within the Government-General Museum of Keijo (Gyeongseong in Korean), located in modern-day Seoul, within the former Gyeongbokgung palace premises. The Keijo museum was adjacent to the central administrative institution, the Japanese Government-General building during the Japanese colonial period (1910 to 1945, see the timeline of events in Appendix 1). Built in a neoclassical style, the museum stood out amongst the traditional Korean palace buildings, reminding the colonised about their subaltern status.[3] It exhibited artifacts, paintings, prints, and – of course – Hang-A-Li from the thousand years of Korean history which visually appealed to Japanese officials and connoisseurs. Defining some of these as ancient and as the legacy of the bygone heyday of the Korean peninsula in the museum setting justified the Japanese colonial intervention in Korea. The display of these objects was often accompanied by narratives that downplayed the atrocities committed during the colonial period and during the retrieval of the artefacts now in the museum gallery. The selection of the exhibits entailed a multi-layered approach of refracted orientalism in the East, colonial power play, and the entangled histories of Japan and Korea.

By analysing Japan’s desire to display coloniality in its colonial museum architecture, this dissertation examines the ‘museum’ itself as a product of coloniality. Its further use in perpetuating Japan’s imperial agenda is a key to understanding imperial Japan itself. These two case studies of Japanese colonial museums in Keijo and Taihoku (modern-day Taipei, Taiwan) will reveal how the collections and displays of the museums utilised different strategies in relation to each colony. Furthermore, this dissertation’s narrative starts from the object in the museum and expands from Hang-A-Li to the display case, from the display case to the museum, from the museum to the Japanese imperialistic agenda to create a firm connection between Japanese fixation on Hang-A-Li, the establishment of colonial historiography, and the colonial museum adjusting the narrative within it.

This expansion continues into the spectacular museum complex plan in which all colonies and industries gather together in one place. The expansionism of Imperial Japan was expressed in the expansion of the physical museums in Japan’s colonies, as evidenced by the ‘total museum’ plan in Korea in the 1930s. Although this idea of a total museum was never realised, due to the end of the Second World War in 1945, the vision of the great spectacle lasted until the post-war period. Daitoa Museum, which was envisioned in mainland Japan, reflecting an aspiration for the expansion of Japan towards the Asian peninsula, reflects this continued expansionist narrative.

This research contributes to the discourse of postcolonial studies by providing a case study of the colonial relationships between eastern nations. The canon of postcolonial studies is still predominantly concerned with West–East dynamics: academics such as Said, Bhabha, Spivak, and Chakrabarty have led the field for decades, and their writings remain foundational. The imperial agenda of Japan and the country’s colonial relationship within the region remain a local concept, with most of the literature written in East Asian languages. Therefore, this research will contribute to the growing body of literature on Japanese colonial architecture and its representation in museums.

Positioned between the broad bodies of literature in Korean and Japanese and in UK academia, this research also analyses the nuanced interpretations and approaches of different languages and cultures, recognising the positional differences and developing an independent perspective. Previous articles on Japanese colonialism have demonstrated a clear inclination towards one general perception of Imperial Japan or another, depending on the language group in which it was written. Literature written in Japanese and/or by Japanese writers tends to advocate for the innocence of Imperial Japan’s interventions in its colonies; while the literature written in Korean has the tendency to take part in the rectification process of Korean postcolonial history, describing Japan’s version of history as distorted.