June 4, 2019
This special exhibition focuses on the relationship between Japan and East Asia during the Meiji period. It spotlights the changes that occurred during those years at central and local government institutions—particularly those involved with diplomatic affairs—and at specialized educational institutions of all types, and also the work done to create and maintain the transportation, telecommunication, and manufacturing infrastructure at the time. The exhibition does this in order to explore the question of what kind of relations Japan built with the Western powers and its closest neighbors in Asia. Three of the thematic sections—”Map-Based Search,” “Look at Regular Sea Routes,” and “Look at Undersea Cables”—allow you to use a map to explore such matters as the distributions of diplomatic establishments abroad, lighthouses, and mines, and the state of work that was being done to establish regular sea routes and lay undersea communication cables. Through this map, you can search for materials related to the map listings at hand.