Visions from the East: The Beginnings of International Relations as Told by Two Japanese Paintings, 1500-1800

Chronicles of European exploration, upon which narratives from the ‘Age of Discovery’ are based, dominate literature and scholarly discourse on the beginnings of international relations. Left untold in the version of... [ view full abstract ]

Chronicles of European exploration, upon which narratives from the ‘Age of Discovery’ are based, dominate literature and scholarly discourse on the beginnings of international relations. Left untold in the version of history is the perspective of the ‘discovered' – those who did not seek interaction abroad, yet were nonetheless confronted with foreigners. This omission can be attributed to the longstanding notion that the experiences of other civilizations, deemed barbaric in their lack of scientific and linguistic capacity, did not carry the same importance as the those of the ‘intellectual’ European. 

During my studies at the University of Oxford, I explored the reception of Europeans in Japan during the early years of interaction. At the center of this inquiry were two Japanese paintings, which I used as a platform to compare the extent to which Europe and Japan took one another seriously as a political and cultural entity. My research found that Japan – a dominant economy and home to its own robust intellectual and spiritual philosophies – upheld strict codes of etiquette which European explorers had to abide by in order to be granted access to trade. Not only does this shed a light on a different world order, but also brings into question the root of European exceptionalism and challenges Orientalist tendencies to essentialize the East as a lesser entity. My research spanned the disciplines of art history, East Asian studies, and international relations, and I received the CMRS Spring 2017 Best Research Essay award for my work.