Japan and Ancient Greece

Explores the manifold ways in which Japan has engaged with ancient Greek culture from the Meiji restoration to the present.

Ancient Greek culture has permeated all aspects of Japanese public and cultural life since the Meiji restoration. This groundbreaking book explores the relationship between two seemingly distant cultures, thereby providing a formidable model for thinking about the wider problem of Classical reception and cultural appropriation.Japan and ancient Greece. Placed side by side, these two concepts give the impression of something very strange, a sort of chimera - half Apollo, half samurai; half Venus, half geisha - set on a ground that is at once white and blue like the Cyclades, dark green and vermillion like Shintō shrines. How could two countries so distant from each other be joined together to form a coherent image, to give birth to a meaningful concept? In this groundbreaking study - translated into English for the first time - Michael Lucken analyses the manifold ways in which Japan has adopted and engaged with ancient Greece in the period from the Meiji restoration to the present. This invaluable and timely volume not only demonstrates that the influence of ancient Greece has permeated all aspects of Japanese public and cultural life, but ultimately illustrates that the reception of Classics is a global phenomenon.