Das Fremde verstehen

Abstract

The library of the Joseph Schedel (1856-1943) a pharmacist, born in Bamberg, who lived for 13 years in Yokohama gives a good insight in the way how Europeans learned more about an exotic country, which was opened for foreigners just some decades before. In contrast to other regions of the world, colonialised by europeans in the 19th century, Europeans were confronted with a long and rich tradition of pictorial representation of landscapes and places. Together with new techniques like photography a coevolution of a pictorial tradition can be traced. The old trails to Edo like the Tokaido or the Nakasendo and lists oft he most beautiful landscapes of Japan are examples for this phenomenon. An important second part of a visualisation of the country for foreigners are represented by maps and atlases. One very famous but relatively unknown example is the Atlas von Japan, drawn by the Cartographer Bruno Hassenstein and published by the famous map publisher Justus Perthes in Gotha in 1887. Both tools, photographies and maps are infuential parts in forming of an iconoscape which means a visual representation of Japan not only for foreigners. In analysing the tradition and representation of landscapes, places and whole regions it is quite clear that only a short list of small sections are quoted as typical for Japan.