Criticitarianism In Beef Eater By Kanagaki Robun

Martin Arhin

The Beefeater

Historical: Historical and cultural context surrounding the text. New Historicist: Literature and history as equals: history is a text subject to interpretation.

Kanagaki Robun’s “Beef Eater” serves to criticize the western ideals during the Meiji Restoration by portraying a satirical comic view of the new epidemic of beef eating that is infesting Japan. The short story responds to the growing relationship between Japan and the western world and the conflicts between modernization and traditional values. (how to say that I am looking at the historical implications of the story?)

For many years, Japan kept themselves distant from the western world and by the 1600s, foreigners had been excelled and Christianity was

During this time, the Tokugawa Shogunate, a period between 1853 and 1867, ruled the country while the emperor was a political figurehead. The shogun was placed at fault for the mistreatment and disgrace brought on by the West.

The Meiji Restoration was a political revolution during the Meiji Period (1868-1912) that resulted in the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and restored the control of Japan to the rule of Emperor Meiji, which means enlightened rule (cite). The end of the Tokugawa Shogunate terminated Japan’s isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku (cite) and resulted in a new era of reformist political, economic, ideological and technological development along with westernization

Having a pocket watch, holding an umbrella and wearing western designed underwear were symbols of modernization. The traditional Japanese umbrella, kasa, was designed out of Japanese paper but was hurriedly substituted for the new Western style umbrellas, komorigasa, which was made out of cloth (cite). The ‘foreign style’ refers to the new hairdressing trends that had swept Japan. The government had encouraged men to adopt the European style by unbounding their hair. People had to do away with the traditional topknots, cut their hair shorter and wear it in the newer, more civilized foreign style. The foreign style was wearing hair short. Shortly, topknots were such associated with barbarians. Originally, many men resisted, especially samurai, but the emperor adopted the European hair style and the police were instructed to cut the hair of any men who had long hair. This lead to a rapid implementation of Western Styles (cite). The Eau de Cologne Robun mentions in his short story means ‘water of cologne’ and originally originated from Cologne, Germany. It is mentioned only to emphasize the fad at the time. It appears that Robun is trying to say that beef-eaters are fake Japanese who are neglecting their traditions. They are very portentous people who are trying to brag about how wealthy and civilized they are by converting to the western ways of living. The fact that