Abstract
This paper examines what kind of roles journalism played on the foundation
of Modern “Art” at the Meiji era in Japan. It first looks at how arts were
reported by journalism when it had not yet been established as a system and
discusses the intimate relation between two. It then examines how the relation
gradually changed with the commencement of art exhibitions, focusing on the
newspaper coverage on the “Hakubakai” exhibitions. Finally, it looks at the
Bunten, the national art exhibition held by Ministry of Education, and discusses
how journalism shifted to overheated reports, naturally resulting to affect the
viewers.
