Abstract
In this essay, Japanese artist Hikaru Fujii introduces his media installations works, which trace the history of the “gaze” at racialized Others present throughout Japanese art history, especially as Japan grappled with its own modernization as a nation-state. Hikaru Fujii incorporates his research into his own media works, specifically addressing the questions of how the “Japanese gaze” has shaped the visuality of others in Japanese paintings, world’s fairs, and art institutions, such as in the case of the 15th-century Nanban Folding Screens (Southern Barbarian Screens), which depicted Portuguese and people of African descent (most likely enslaved by Portuguese). He traces how the formation of Japaneseness has consistently required and depended on the categorization of others, particularly those colonized by the Japanese Empire (e.g. Koreans and Taiwanese) as well as those who have settled in contemporary Japan as refugees and immigrants. He calls for our renewed interests in the art to think about how the Japanese public as well as our own “gaze” may be destabilized by critically engaging with artworks.