Architectural Modernity in the Planning of Japanese Overseas Exhibitions in the West and the Colonized Korea

So far, the Japanese exhibitions in the colonized Korea, especially the Joseon Industrial Exhibition of 1915, haven't been studied sufficiently; they have been understood mainly as political propaganda to legitimize the Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula; many scholars have agreed that Japan highlighted material developments in Korea under the benevolent guidance of Japan by displaying strong visual contrasts between the modern and the traditional. So, they only acknowledge colonial modernity; this perspective regards Western forms as the sole expression of architectural modernity, not only in the exhibition but also in the colonial space and time. However, to be on a par with the West, Japan started to develop a series of historical narratives in searching for its historical origins in Asia, and it also carried out archaeological investigations in the Korean peninsula around the early 1900s. I argue that the developed historical narratives with traditional Korean artworks and architecture (i.e. the shared historical origins between Japan and Korea) influence the architectural conditions of the 1915 exhibition. And, the status of traditional Korean architecture in the Japanese exhibition expresses architectural modernity in terms of showing historical progress.