Meiji balls

[marran]

The Meiji "balls" to which Alan refers  took place in the mid-1880s at the
illustrious Rokumeikan "hall" where, as Georges Bigot put it in one of his
satirical caricatures of the Tokyo bureaucrats, "The elite of the Japanese
world, with ravishing costumes . . . are seen everywhere."  (Bigot's image
of a dancing couple is reproduced in Julia Meech-Pekarik's The World of the
Meiji Print.)  There should also be a number of extant woodblock prints
with couples whirling about the Rokumeikan floor.  The dancing, the
education in western social etiquette, etc. of the Rokumeikan culture was,
as Alan surmised, a passing fad, but one that was not without some
felicitous effects.  
c. marran
 
>although this has nothing to do with Suo's opening to his movie, but it
>is likely that many Tokyoites were unaware that in the early part of the
>Meiji, or at least the early part of the modernization process (and
>pre-military "era")...that the once kimono'd samurai couples attended
>"balls" held in the then-modern Imperial Hotel (as I'm sure other places
>in "Victorian Japan") where the couples probably "attempted" to learn
>the latest ballroom craze from Europe and the U.S.  At least it made for
>some interesting photographs.
>
>I'm not sure who dances with who, but I guess that the "younger" daimyos
>and their women were probably quick to pick up on new fads...as you
>would expect...I don't know if there are any 'Meiji-jidai pop culture'
>scholars around, but....
>
>Alan