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Introduction
The people in the crowd elbowed each other as each spectator tried to gain a better position, craning their necks to see the man who had become the overnight sensation of the Human Pavilion (Jinruikan)--the first anthropological display at an exposition in Japan that featured living humans. The undisputed star of the Human Pavilion, according to reporters who had visited the building in its opening days, was an Ainu man named Fushine KÅzÅ.1The Human Pavilion was a two-story wooden building located outside of the exposition grounds in the entertainment section of the 1903 Fifth Domestic Industrial Exposition in Osaka. This exposition was larger than any of the previous four domestic expositions that preceded it, in terms of exposition space, number of exhibitors, and the 4,351,000 estimated visitors it attracted (Yoshimi 1992, 127). For many in the crowd, this was the first time that they had seen an Ainu person in the flesh.
The Human Pavilion was located alongside the zoo and the Mystery Building (Fushigikan), which featured Carmencella, an American actress whose performance was enhanced by an electric light show. After paying the ten sen fee to enter the Human Pavilion, Japanese people saw people from exotic locales, such as Africa, Java, India, the Ottoman empire, and the Malay peninsula. Although some have dismissed the Human Pavilion as not being part of the exposition due to its location, in fact, references to the building were included in the official documents detailing the exposition and in the exposition song (Nakamura 1903, 45).2
The Human Pavilion also included people who had recently become Japanese subjects: Okinawans, Ainu, and Taiwanese--those of Han ethnicity and Taiwanese Aborigines. The organizer, anthropologist Tsuboi ShÅgorÅ, pronounced that his goal was to showcase the various races of the world.3Many observers, however, pointed out that no Japanese or Westerners were on display (Nihon, May 4, 1903; Ryukyu shinpÅ, April 7, 1903). The display featured only those people deemed barbaric and primitive, and thus Japanese and Westerners were exempt.
This first human display has been situated by Yoshimi Shun'ya (1992, 212-13) as born out of the longer Western tradition of imperial powers displaying colonized peoples in...