eprintid: 36910 rev_number: 13 eprint_status: archive userid: 9140 dir: disk0/00/03/69/10 datestamp: 2025-07-21 11:46:01 lastmod: 2025-07-21 11:46:31 status_changed: 2025-07-21 11:46:01 type: doctoralThesis metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Chen, Ping-Heng title: Fotografía Japonesa in Guatemala: Transcultural Visuality and the Migrant Biography of Yasu Kōhei subjects: ddc-300 subjects: ddc-770 divisions: i-100700 adv_faculty: af-10 keywords: transcultural studies, Japanese migration to Central America, photography and religion, photographic archive cterms_swd: Guatemala cterms_swd: Japan cterms_swd: Fotografie cterms_swd: Migration cterms_swd: Biografie cterms_swd: Archiv cterms_swd: Sozialanthropologie abstract: Yasu Kōhei (1846-1917), or Juan José de Jesús Yas, was one of the earliest Japanese migrants to Latin America. Initially aspiring to pursue higher education in Mexico, Yasu ultimately established his life in Guatemala, where he became a studio photographer and a devout Catholic. Since his photographic works and personal writings resurfaced from family storage in the late 1970s, Yasu has emerged as a celebrated pioneer of Guatemalan photography and a symbol of the historical and diplomatic connections between Japan and Central America. While his migrant biography has been employed to promote cultural, economic, and social exchange across the Pacific, a focus on his accomplishments obscures the prejudices encountered by early East Asian migrants in the Americas. This dissertation uses the concept of transcultural visuality to elucidate the multifaceted layers of power, meaning, and agency that shaped Yasu's journeys and photographic endeavors. It further examines contemporary interpretations of his life and œuvre through archiving and exhibiting practices that connect disparate global sites. The first two parts of this dissertation describe Yasu Kōhei’s Japanese upbringing, trans-oceanic journeys, and photography within their historical contexts. The chapters of the third part consider how institutions and curatorial efforts have highlighted aspects of Yasu’s biography and photographic legacy that illustrate particular historiographic narratives. The individual chapters follow Yasu's life and the biography of the objects he left behind in chronological order, exploring sites of transcultural convergence and analyzing distinct textual and visual materials to illuminate tensions between cultural imaginaries and senses of belonging. date: 2025 id_scheme: DOI id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00036910 own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-369109 date_accepted: 2023-12-04 advisor: HASH(0x55bde9ac12c8) language: eng bibsort: CHENPINGHEFOTOGRAFIA20250718 full_text_status: public place_of_pub: Heidelberg citation: Chen, Ping-Heng (2025) Fotografía Japonesa in Guatemala: Transcultural Visuality and the Migrant Biography of Yasu Kōhei. [Dissertation] document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/36910/1/Chen-Fotografia_Japonesa_in_Guatemala.pdf