Nambanesque Behavior

Kawakami Sumio grew up in Yokohama, one of Japan’s major port cities. The diversity of cultures in the port city may have inspired Kawakami’s lifelong theme—the encounter between Japanese and Europeans. In 1917, he traveled throughout North America for a year doing various jobs, including working in a salmon cannery in Alaska. After he returned to Japan, he started to create woodcuts related to foreign subjects. This print depicts a Westerner and a Japanese courtesan reclining on a Western-style brass bed, each smoking a tobacco pipe, with Japanese tobacco set at their side. The Japanese term namban (or nanban), referenced in the work’s title, literally translates to “Southern barbarian.” It was first applied to Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century and came to refer to all Europeans or Westerners. - Chi-Lynn Lin, "Echoing Overseas" label text, Fall 2022