Why Is Edward W. Said’s Orientalism not a Japonism?

Résumé 0

The idea of an East created by the West is not limited to the immediate environment of Europe. What can be gained from European knowledge of Japan? Wondering about this near absence of the Far East—and limiting our analysis to Japan in its regional configuration—does not seek to deny any validity to Said’s ideas about other “Easts,” but instead aims to show how a detour via Asia can deepen these ideas. Japonism seems to be part of oriental studies, with an imperialistic goal, to the extent that orientalism and Western othering are related to Eurocentrism. However, this orientalism has not reached Japan, as the country has produced its own specific orientalism. The Japanese were not defined by an orientalism from outside. On the contrary, they controlled and created the way in which the West saw Japan themselves. Despite this, the Saidian hypotheses about orientalism are highly relevant for understanding cultural exchanges between Europe, North America and the Far East, whereas Japan finds that it must redefine its own position, which is subject to Western orientalism, whilst also orientalizing the countries of the Near East, in accordance with its own imperialistic history.