Japón Visto Por Unamuno By Fernando Blanco Cendón

Other critiques
Aside from those two dominating views against Japan, there were other more marginal arguments against the admiration and emulation of Japan. This was the case defended by Unamuno, famous Spanish writer and philosopher, who at the time was closer to the regenerationism and socialism, even though later he would support Franco’s regime believing it to be some sort of authoritarian regenerationist. The views Unamuno had of Japan have been briefly studied in a conference paper titled Japón visto por Unamuno by Fernando Blanco Cendón. Acording to Blanco Cendón, Unamuno saw Japan as a counterexample of his own individualistic and subjective philosophy. His reasons for disliking the Japanese were the idea of Japan collectivist and
Both discourses parted from a very similar premise: that religion or race were inherently linked to modern civilization. The different answers given by the discourses were also very similar in nature. In the same way that some racial discourses explained the Japanese success by saying that the Japanese were a recessive race that was simply good at copying knowledge, the Catholic discourses defended that Japan was superficially emulating Christianity and argued that they were incapable of more because of their faith. In the alternative and more positive responses too, some resemblances can be found. One of those is the need to portray Japan as a country closer to whiteness or Christianity and separated from other Asian countries. The racial discourses attempted to separate Japan from Asia and tried to link it to more developed regions like northern Europe, while the religious discourses defended that the Japanese were closer than ever to evangelization. Another common element that can be seen across the anti-Japanization discourses was the use of particularities as a proof of the falsehood of the Japanese civilization. This was a technique used by almost every article written about Japan. Denouncing the way woman were treated in Japan, for example, was used by Clavanara to denounce the falsehood of the Japanese civilization. ‘the situation of the Japanese woman is a symptom that denounces a disastrous moral state, a society that carries within the mortal germ of vice and injustice’ he wrote. Another of the most common example was the criticism of Jiu-Jitsu as a barbaric practice. This practice was used by Unamuno to criticize the Japanese , but also by many other newspapers and publishers. El Guadalete, a monarchic and conservative newspaper, reported on a particularly nasty Jiu-Jitsu match, and related this ‘brave savagery’ to the Japanese civilization . These similarities