Session 9 Makeup - USC Pacific Asia Museum

[Andrew Frank]

I had an absolutely wonderful afternoon in Pasadena at the USC Pacific Asia Museum! Though small, I found the museum full of incredibly interesting pieces that surveyed a vast array of Asian countries (in both East Asia & otherwise). What I perhaps found most intriguing during my visit was seeing the work of Kusakabe Kimbei, a Japanese photographer popular in the late 1800s in the Honmachi district. What was fascinating about his photographs was how his work personified the clash between classic Japanese tradition & Western influence, as his photographs were created specifically for Americans/Westerners that visited Japan. As the placard next to the “(Geisha) Teaching Songs” photograph explained, the inauthenticity itself is what is perhaps most fascinating – the “geishas” themselves were simply recreations of traditional scenes that Western tourists wanted to see. It would be highly beneficial to pair these photographs with lessons for students about Western influence on Japanese culture and ask students to analyze how this art may symbolize a greater theme about U.S.-Japan relations over the history of the Asia’s development.