Korean J Med Hist.  2024 Dec;33(3):641-696. 10.13081/kjmh.2024.33.641.

Modern Medical and Hygiene Exhibitions of the Japanese Colonial Period

• SEO G

• KMID: 2564419
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.13081/kjmh.2024.33.641

Abstract

In Western society, the World’s Fair has emerged as a significant national festival, serving as a new capitalist ideological device. Countries that hosted the fair often exaggerated their achievements, and Japan, which was at the forefront of modernization, participated in the event by adopting a strategy of differentiation and specialization in response to this momentum. During this process, Japan embraced the Western perspective to cultivate a fair culture characterized by Japaneseization, from which hygiene exhibitions were derived. As part of its efforts to build a modern state, Japan organized hygiene exhibitions aimed at instilling the concept of hygiene among its population. These exhibitions promoted public awareness by presenting visual data about diseases and the human body, thereby fostering a sense of fear. This exhibition culture reflected Japan’s colonial governance techniques. Japan recognized that vibrant and engaging cultural events and exhibitions could captivate the public more effectively than any political framework. Consequently, a hygiene exhibition was held in colonial Korea that combined the themes of fairness and hygiene education. This study examines the history and distinctive activities associated with hosting sanitary exhibitions within the fair culture adopted by Japan during its modernization process. It explores how this cultural phenomenon established a connection with colonial Korea and analyzes the process of integrating fairness culture into Korean society. Additionally, this study investigates the details of the sanitary exhibition, which began in Korea around 1920 and gradually became a competitive event across the Korean Peninsula, touring smaller administrative districts centered around the main area. This examination is supported by contemporary newspapers published at the time.

Keyword

Exhibition culture; Modern hygiene exhibition; Public; Sensory media; Colonial Korean hygiene exhibition; 박람회 문화; 근대 위생전람회; 대중; 감각 미디어; 식민지 한국 위생전람회