Meiji Memorial Museum

For context, I am a native mainland Chinese in America.

Came here on a whim as it was along the subway path to Ginza. The building itself can be rather beautiful and the surrounding garden is a pleasant walk for anyone passing by.

Going in, I was under the impression that it would be a general historical museum and it was for the most part. The art covers the life of Emperor Meiji and in some ways, is also a depiction of the birth of modern Japan.

It's particularly interesting seeing the art change as European influences increase. There's a subtle transition from ukiyo-e to European realism, and I suppose this is partly due to Meiji's push for his cabinet to study in the West.

However, once you're around the 65% through the gallery, that's where things start to get iffy.

One thing I've noticed about Tokyo is that there's almost always translations in English, Chinese, and Korean since there's a massive number of Eastern Asian tourists. Not here, there's only Japanese and English, and I have to wonder if this is why.

Once we reach the 1910's and approach World War II, the art depicts battles and important moments leading up to the event and the translation might be off, but it's very much written in a propagandistic manner. The Russo-Japanese treaty and breaking of treaty, annexation of Taiwan and Korea, the Sino-Japanese war; the English translation for these events are extremely questionable. It was actually kind of a reminder that while Japan is friendly to foreign money, it is largely a nationalistic right-wing country.

The painting depicting the annexation of Korea and it's respective translation would probably piss off any Korean, no matter how open-minded they were.

While the art and history covered can be interesting and beautiful, it would be wise to take some of the exposition with a grain of salt.