"Human Zoo" (3/3)
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Zoo_(English_translation)
October 19, 2025 edition
Excerpts and translations:
【Japanese Human Exhibitions】
The accuracy of this section has been questioned. Please help improve the article by pointing to reliable sources. See the notes for discussion. (May 2009)
Like Europe, Japan has a history of selling deformed bodies in freak shows. However, because the purpose of these shows was not academic but to satisfy simple curiosity, they cannot be included in the human exhibitions referred to in this section. Exhibits showcasing everyday life emerged in modern times.
Japan's exhibitions at international expositions initially began as a way to present its own exoticism and Japonism to Western audiences.
At its first participation in the Paris Exposition in 1867, in addition to exhibiting traditional crafts and fine art, three Yanagibashi geisha, accompanied by Shimizu Usaburo, participated in a space called the Japanese Teahouse, and proved just as popular as the crafts.
These exhibits were well-received at numerous expositions, and the popularity of geisha girls in particular can be seen in the popularity of Kawakami Otojiro and Kawakami Sadayakko, who performed privately at a theater near the Paris World's Fair (1900).
Exhibits of humans influenced by social Darwinism and evolutionism were necessary, including the Academic Anthropology Hall built for the 1903 Osaka National Industrial Exposition and the Ainu Village at the St. Louis World's Fair the following year.
Gotō Shinpei, civil administrator of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, wanted to demonstrate the results of his aboriginal control policies, saying, "We want to show both domestic and foreigners the true nature of the entertainment and cultural industries and promote the development of all areas within our jurisdiction," and organized 15 exhibits ranging from agriculture and horticulture to the customs of Taiwan's aboriginal people and the Han Chinese. A tea ceremony hosted by a girl with bound feet also attracted a great deal of attention at the exposition.
The Academic Anthropology Museum, planned by Shogoro Tsuboi [23] of the University of Tokyo, who was deeply impressed by the human life exhibit he visited while studying abroad at the 1889 Paris World's Fair, was designed to bring together people of different races close to the mainland and demonstrate their customs, tools, and lifestyles. The museum featured 21 men and women—five Ainu from Hokkaido, four Taiwanese aborigines, two from the Ryukyus, two from Korea, three from China, three from India, one from Guaia, and one from Bulgaria—who would gather together in designated areas modeled after the addresses of their respective countries and display their daily routines. This was intended to mimic the human exhibitions held in Europe and the United States.
However, the Qing Dynasty protested through diplomatic channels before the exhibition opened, and Korea also protested immediately after the opening, resulting in the cancellation of the exhibits of these two ethnic groups. During the exhibition, Okinawans also raised objections in newspapers and elsewhere about their people being exhibited alongside Ainu and aborigines. [23] This incident, later known as the Anthropological Pavilion Incident, illustrates that even at that time in Asia, the display of human beings was perceived as a display of sophistication and barbarism.
The display of Ainu materials at international expositions can be traced back to the 1873 Vienna World's Fair. Geologist Lyman, who theorized that the Ainu were of Caucasian ancestry, had proposed the participation of Ainu people at the 1876 Philadelphia World's Fair. However, this did not materialize until the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
In November 1903, McGehee, head of the anthropology department at the St. Louis Exposition, requested the Japanese Embassy in Washington to cooperate in the Ainu exhibit, along with a detailed plan, as part of the official specifications. The selection process was carried out with the cooperation of University of Chicago anthropology professor Frederick Starr and Ainu researcher John Batchelor. Nine Ainu traveled to the United States with passports listing them as commoners from Hokkaido. They received a daily salary of one yen and the proceeds of sales of folk crafts during their seven-month stay. Some of them are believed to have been illiterate. Although the Ainu were selected as a less culturally advanced ethnic group, they were highly praised by visitors for their religious devotion, diligence, and courtesy.[4] The Ainu also participated in the "Antropological Day" of the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. Although Japan, China, East Indies, and Ceylon, all of which were considered civilized by Western society, were scheduled to participate, these people did not actually participate.[24]
In 1910, at the Japan-British Exhibition in London, living quarters were built for the Ainu and the Taiwanese aboriginal Paiwan people.[25] A live-in human exhibit was also held in the entertainment zone.[Note 3] This exhibit was not intended as an anthropological display or to justify colonial rule, as was the case in official pavilions, but rather as a sideshow. According to contemporary documents ("Exposition Bureau Report"), it was not planned by the Japanese government itself, but rather as the brainchild of a British syndicate commissioned by the Japanese government to direct it. The Daily News reported on the exhibit, stating, "The Ainu are the most polite race in the world," but "Taiwanese and Ainu should not be confused. Taiwanese natives are not polite." The aforementioned anthropologist Frederick Starr also called for the "ethnic salvage of the Caucasian Ainu." The selection process also included fluent Japanese speakers, and unlike the St. Louis exhibition, the Ainu were issued passports bearing "blank" rather than "commoner" status, suggesting discriminatory views. The six-month event attracted numerous visitors, and local residents recalled that participants were so well off that, combined with their fees and tips, they would not have had to work for a year after returning home.[26] The Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shinpo newspaper criticized the Japanese rural landscapes that were created at the same time as being inappropriate and unjust.
The "Japanese Entertainment" at the Japan-British Exhibition was a key part of the plan, given the need to attract visitors and raise funds for operation. Initially, the British side recommended that the planning and operation of the exhibition be handled by Japanese personnel, but the Japanese government decided that Japanese people were unsuitable for planning projects aimed at attracting European visitors, and entrusted the work entirely to a British "syndicate." The policy for entrusting the work was that "anything that damages the dignity of Japan will not be tolerated," and, after considering the wishes of the commissioning exhibition organizers, eight "entertainment" items, including "the living conditions of Taiwanese aborigines," were approved, according to a later "Exposition Secretariat Report."
Hasegawa Nyozekan, a special reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, criticized this "sideshow" in his reportage of the exposition, writing, "The fact that so many Westerners were peeking into the huts as if they were at a zoo or something is somewhat of a humanitarian issue. Westerners are unaware of this, and Japanese people would never be interested in such an entertainment."[27] Nyozekan's criticism was directed at the "Exposition Company," a local company that had taken over from the British "syndicate" that had been fully commissioned by the Japanese government. The exposition continued, but there is no mention in the "Japan-British Exhibition Secretariat Administrative Report" of any subsequent changes to the display methods.[28]
Human exhibits continued throughout Japan, and at the 1912 Colonization Exposition in Ueno, Tokyo, a total of 18 people, both men and women, representing various ethnic groups, including the Orok, Gilyak, Sakhalin Ainu, Hokkaido Ainu, Taiwanese natives, and Taiwanese aborigines, built and lived in their own traditional homes during the event. At the 1914 Taisho Exposition in Tokyo, as at previous expositions, a South Seas Pavilion was built, showcasing not only Ainu and Taiwanese people, but also Bengali, Kulin, Malay, Javanese, and Sakai people from the South Sea Islands and Southeast Asia. According to a pamphlet distributed by the exposition organizers, these people were described as cannibals and exhibited alongside crocodiles, giant snakes, and elephants.[Note 5][29]
The Aboriginal Culture Pavilion at the Taiwan Industrial Exposition. 1916
At the 1916 Taiwan Industrial Exhibition, the official pavilion's Aboriginal Culture Hall featured traditional dwellings (called "aboriginal houses") of the Tsou and Atayal peoples, along with lifelike dolls and models. Private citizens also built Filipino farmhouses and housed Filipinos to demonstrate their daily lives. Furthermore, at the 1935 Taiwan Exposition, an Atayal aboriginal house was erected within the venue, where men and women slept and demonstrated their daily lives.
Although Japanese folklore exhibits are not referenced in the analytical concept of "human zoos," Toshiya Yoshimi, in "The Politics of Expositions,"[30] claims that the two ethnographic exhibits by Alberto Geoffrey de Saint-Hilaire, curator of the Jardin d'Acclimatation mentioned above, showcasing Nubians and Inuit, were called "human zoos," and that Japan introduced them at the Domestic Industrial Exposition and the Japan-British Exhibition.
In April 2009, the first episode of NHK's program "NHK Special Series 'JAPAN Debut'" described the Paiwan people as a "human zoo" when describing them at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition. This sparked protests and led to a lawsuit from the Paiwan people for defamation. On November 28, 2013, the Tokyo High Court ruled that NHK had committed defamation and ethnic discrimination, stating that "the term was not in use at the time" and that "NHK had jumped on a term popularized by a few scholars, and despite its unconfirmed reputation, repeatedly mentioned it in the program without considering its racist implications, thereby insulting the Paiwan people who attended the Japan-British Exhibition with ambition and pride." The court ordered NHK to pay damages, but the plaintiffs lost the case on appeal.
→For more information, see "NHK Special Series 'JAPAN Debut'"
[The relationship between humans and animals as seen in the folklore of various ethnic groups]
Omitted
