Japanese Literature and Culture

This paper examines the profiles of three contemporary Japanese female writers: Sagisawa Megumu 鷺沢萌, Tawada Yōko 多和田葉子 and Higashimura Akiko 東村アキコ. The objective is to demonstrate how the writers in question explore the interdependence between fiction and autobiography by crossing the boundaries of language, gender expression and literary genre. Sagisawa Megumu creates cross-gender narratives by writing from the perspective of a male protagonist and produces a powerful account on her experiences as a Korean living in postwar Japan. Tawada Yōko represents the milieu of translingual writers as she writes both in Japanese and German. In her seminal work Exophony: A Journey Beyond One's Mother Tongue, she explores the notion of cultural identity and suggests how various forms (mis)communications become a hallmark for postmodern self-narratives. The works of manga artist, Higashimura Akiko exemplify "visualized autobiography". The fusion of text and image constitutes a sharp break with the conventional representations of the "self" and allows Higashimura to address her works to global community of readers. To read the texts by Sagisawa, Tawada and Higashimura through the lens of autofictional writing is to reconsider the question of authorship and, what remains relevant in discussing any form of life-writing narrative, the mode of self-reading. The point of departure is the analysis of Japanese literary form, known as I-novel (in original: shishōsetsu 私小説) in order to highlight how the genre corresponds with principles of autofictional writing (as defined by Doubrovsky, Lejeune, Colonna, Gasparini) and whether this comparative and cross-cultural perspective is methodologically relevant. I treat Sagisawa, Tawada and Higashimura as case study to investigate self-referentiality in contemporary Japanese fiction. I propose to identify their writing as (re)invention of autofiction and stress the ambiguities inscribed within first person narratives in Japan. As concluding remarks, I intend to reconsider the applicability of the idea une double lecture simultanée that enables me to focus on Japanese reader's expectation towards life-writing narratives.

Da Murata Sayaka, il ritratto di una donna al di là dell'empatia-Paola Scrolavezza, 09.09.2018 Narrativa giapponese. «Consideriamo la novità una buona notizia, la precarietà un valore, l'instabilità un imperativo, l'ibridezza una fonte di ricchezza», scrive Jacques Attali in Trattato del labirinto (Spirali, 2003). Precarietà e incertezza, sono ormai parole chiave della condizione umana, in ogni parte del globo, ma soprattutto-ci ricorda Zygmut Bauman-in quella più sviluppata e ricca del pianeta, di cui il Giappone è indiscutibilmente parte, e dove il cambiamento nella logica del lavoro, progressivamente radicatosi nell'arco dei due decenni perduti dallo scoppio della bolla economica dei primi anni Novanta al post-Fukushima, si è ormai insidiato in ogni forma di relazionalità quotidiana. Le statistiche raccontano che oggi un terzo dei giapponesi vive solo, e termini quali Neet (not in education, employment, or training) e hikikomori (ritiro sociale) indicano fenomeni giovanili diffusi. Muen shakai, società senza rapporti reciproci, è il nuovo slogan lanciato dai media per definire la dilagante precarietà sociale, e proprio l'assenza di relazioni è il nucleo attorno al quale si sviluppa La ragazza del convenience store di Murata Sayaka (traduzione di Gianluca Coci, e/o, pp. 176, euro 15,00) un caso letterario, con oltre seicentomila copie vendute in Giappone e un premio prestigioso come l'Akutagawa conquistato nel 2016. In uno stile che riesce a essere lucido e al tempo stesso straniante senza perdere una freschezza a tratti quasi naïf, racconta le giornate di Keiko Furukura, trentasei anni, single, un lavoro part-time in uno dei tanti konbini (convenience store) che punteggiano l'area metropolitana di Tokyo. Completamente priva di empatia, sia nei confronti degli estranei che dei famigliari, Keiko osserva il comportamento umano come un mistero impenetrabile, e le relazioni sono un gioco di cui non riesce ad afferrare le regole, al quale non riesce a partecipare se non imitando mosse ed espressioni che mantengono tuttavia intatta la loro opacità. Incerta nel rapporto con la sorella, con le amiche di lei, con il nipotino in arrivo, Kekiko si sforza di apparire normale mettendo a nudo con crudele precisione l'ipocrisia di norme e strutture sociali ormai stantie, e vuote. Solo in «quella scatola di vetro trasparente, quella specie di acquario freddo e asettico» che è lo Smile Mart, vicino alla anonima stazione di Nisshokucho, occupata in un lavoro che appare inaccettabile per una donna adulta, estromessa dalle tappe obbligate del matrimonio e della maternità, Keiko trova il proprio ubi consistam e i propri gesti, al ritmo scandito dalla musica del konbini, una miriade di suoni e rumori che le sue orecchie finalmente riconoscono. La critica è concorde nel definire la produzione post-Fukushima letteratura della precarietà, fatta di una scrittura che si confronta con la perdita delle certezze, con lo smarrimento e la solitudine che segnano le generazioni cresciute nei decenni perduti. La ragazza del convenience store rientra appieno in questa definizione, ma si discosta dal mainstream perché rende la precarietà un'ancora di salvezza, e fa sì che Keiko riesca finalmente ad accettarsi nella sconnessione da qualunque norma e relazione sociali: paradossalmente, è solo indossando quella che a prima vista appare come la più fissa delle maschere, la divisa da commessa part-time in uno dei tanti, identici punti vendita di una qualsiasi catena di konbini, che la precarietà diventa per lei, come vuole Attali, una fonte di ricchezza. «Contemplo la mia sagoma riflessa nella vetrina del negozio dal quale sono appena uscita. Quelle braccia e quelle gambe sono concepite solo e unicamente per il mondo del konbini: nell'attimo stesso in cui me ne rendo conto la mia vita acquisisce per la prima volta un senso compiuto».

The notion of harmony with nature is very important in Japanese culture. However, it has received very little attention in the discipline of environmental ethics—unjustifiably so, I will argue in this paper. In fact, one can formulate an environmental ethic of harmony that is both clear and action-guiding, and which has certain important advantages over other approaches to environmental ethics.

I will begin by outlining the ontology of nature underlying traditional Japanese conceptions of nature. The key innovation in this ontology is that nature is understood to be intentional. Weather events, earthquakes, seasonal patterns, the growth patterns of crops and trees are all seen as intentional activity by nature. Nature is represented as possessing emotions and desires, through paintings, poetry, religious ritual, novels etc. Haruo Shirane (2012) calls these representations secondary nature, as distinguished from the primary nature they represent.

Recent work in philosophical psychology has shown that we can visually perceive intentions, even in objects that we know do not possess them. Moreover, these perceptions of intentions are unrevisable, so even if we know that the object in question does not possess those intentions, we cannot psychologically revise our perception. In other words, even if we know that something does not really possess intentions, we still cannot in some cases help but see their behavior as intentional, and cannot convey our knowledge of their behavior without using intentional terms. I will argue that this provides a conceptual justification for perceiving intentions in nature, even if we believe nature does not actually possess intentional states. To give an example from a western context, we may perceive such intentions in nature after becoming familiar with environmentalist literature. After reading this literature, it may be that we cannot help but see nature as possessing a desire for humans to stop making it diseased and damaged by their polluting, ecologically irresponsible behavior.

Accompanying the traditional Japanese ontology of nature is an epistemology. For the Japanese, secondary nature provided special epistemic access to the natural world. One can learn about the world directly from secondary nature; moreover, secondary nature also enriches one’s direct perception of primary nature. Someone familiar with Japanese poetry, for example, would be able to perceive aspects of nature, when viewing cherry blossoms for instance, that one otherwise could not.

I will argue that secondary nature can encode robust intergenerational and interregional knowledge of how to live sustainably with nature. If it encodes this knowledge in its depictions of nature as intentional, then by responding to and accommodating these perceived intentions as we pursue our own ends, I will argue, we can live harmoniously with nature. The central features of such a harmonious relationship would be perceiving nature’s intentions, then responding as adaptively, actively and accurately as is necessary to sustain the relationship in a way that is mutually beneficial to both parties.

We can apply this in a non-exclusively-Japanese context. Our media, art, and scientific communications can help us present and perceive nature as intentional (the Gaia hypothesis is a prime example of such a personifying presentation of nature) while encoding genuine knowledge about how to live sustainably and beneficially with the natural world.

I will argue that centering environmental ethics around the notion of harmony has two important advantages. Firstly, an ethic of harmony is highly practicable—not in the sense that it is any less demanding, but in the sense that these demands are easier known—as it draws our reasons for acting in concrete cases directly from our perception of nature. We would not, as individuals, need to investigate the complex causal effects of our behavior to understand how we might be responsible for environmental damage, but could simply rely instead upon what we have learnt from scientifically accurate representations in secondary nature. Neither do we need to answer complex questions relating to the value of nature or our responsibilities to future persons before we can generate clear, action-guiding principles. Secondly, it is highly motivating. By encouraging greater knowledge and observation of nature, and by encouraging the creation and consumption of nature-focused and nature-valuing media, it can deepen our emotional connection to nature and increase our emotional motivation to behave sustainably towards it.

This is the title essay from Lafcadio Hearn's incredible and varied book on Japan 'The Romance of the Milky Way'. In this essay he delves into the Japanese legends about Tanabata-Sama, the 'Weaving Lady of the Universe'. The essay combines an appreciation of Japanese with a reflection on several versions of this legend and Lafcadio Hearn's own thoughts on the themes at the heart of these mythical narratives. The text comes from the Living Time Press 2006 edition of his work by Edouard d'Araille. The essay on Lafcadio Hearn by Stefan Zweig (translated from the German into modern-day English by Edouard d'Araille) is available to download as a separate file from academia.edu. There are also the extracts 'Ultimate Questions' and 'Goblin Poetry' available to download from this site (and extracted from the same 'd'Araille Edition' of 'The Romance of the Milky Way'.

Resumo: O presente artigo examina a construção da beleza e sensualidade a partir de uma estética marcada pelo sadismo, perversão e crueldade nas obras de Tanizaki Jun'ichirô, por intermédio da análise do conto A Tatuagem (Shisei), publicado em 1910. Os trechos apresentados da obra demonstram que elementos usualmente ligados a sentimentos negativos, como o sadismo e a crueldade, encontram-se no conto intrinsecamente conectados a valores estéticos clássicos, de tal sorte que o despertar da sensualidade e beleza suprema na heroína é um resultado direto de desejos secretos e latentes de sadismo, crueldade e perversão, instigados pelo tatuador protagonista. Palavras-chave: Tanizaki Jun'ichirô, período Edo, beleza, sensualidade, sadismo.
Abstract: This article examines the construction of beauty and sensuality through an aesthetic approach which emphasizes cruelty, sadism and perversion, in the works of Tanizaki Jun'ichirô. Such an analysis is centered on the presentation and detailed discussion of several passages of the tale entitled The Tattoo, first published in 1910. The passages show that elements usually connected to dreadful feelings, such as sadism and cruelty, are intrinsically related to classical aesthetic values in the tale. In fact, the ultimate state of sensuality and beauty reached by the heroin by the end of The Tattoo is a direct result of secret and dormant desires of sadism, cruelty and perversion, which emerge through the intervention of the tattooer.

From the Brill website:
This provoking new study of the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu) examines the ideological foundation of its place in history and the broader context of Japanese cultural values where it has emerged as a so called ‘quintessential’ component of the culture. It was in fact, Sen Soshitsu Xl, grandmaster of Urasenke, today the most globally prominent tea school, who argued in 1872 that tea should be viewed as the expression of the moral universe of the nation. A tea teacher himself, the author argues, however, that tea was many other things: it was privilege, politics, power and the lever for passion and commitment in the theatre of war. Through a methodological framework rooted in current approaches, he demonstrates how the iconic images as supposedly timeless examples of Japanese tradition have been the subject of manipulation as ideological tools and speaks to presentations of cultural identity in Japanese society today.
E - ISBN : 9789004212985

    From me: photographs that were not included in the book are available in the following paper.
Japanese Harmony as Nationalism: Grand Master Tea for War and Peace
This paper is a slight reworking of a chapter from my _The Ideologies of Japanese Tea: Subjectivity, Transience and National Identity_, with the notable addition of photographs that were not included in that monograph. These photographs should be of interest to tea practitioners curious about daisu serving procedures performed by grand masters in the interwar years. There is also a photograph of the radio broadcast of the sacramental tea serving procedure from Daitokuji on the occasion of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of Sen no Rikyu.

    The source for the photographs is 「利休居士三百五十年忌余香録」 著者, 利休居士三百五十年忌法要協賛会. 出版地, 京都. 出版社, 利休居士三百五 十年忌法要協賛会出版部. 出版年, 1940.

Examining a wide range of Japanese videogames, including arcade fighting games, PC-based strategy games and console JRPGs, this book assesses their cultural significance and shows how gameplay and context can be analysed together to understand videogames as a dynamic mode of artistic expression.

Well-known titles such as Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter and Katamari Damacy are evaluated in detail, showing how ideology and critique are conveyed through game narrative and character design as well as user interface, cabinet art, and peripherals. This book also considers how ‘Japan’ has been packaged for domestic and overseas consumers, and how Japanese designers have used the medium to express ideas about home and nation, nuclear energy, war and historical memory, social breakdown and bioethics. Placing each title in its historical context, Hutchinson ultimately shows that videogames are a relatively recent but significant site where cultural identity is played out in modern Japan.

Comparing Japanese videogames with its American counterparts, as well as other media forms, such as film, manga and anime, Japanese Culture Through Videogames will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, as well as Game Studies, Media Studies and Japanese Studies more generally.

This is my 2010 translation of Izumi Kyoka's novella, 湯女の魂 (Yuna no tamashii, The Spirit of the Bath Girl), done as part of the MA Thesis work at the Ohio State University.

Izumi Kyōka first read Yuna no tamashii to the audience at a meeting of a ghost story club held at Kawakami Bizan's house. It was subsequently published in Shinshōsetsu, 5:6 (May 1900).  Kyōka was twenty-seven years old at the time of the publication.

講演要旨：
本講演では、2018年に河出書房新社より出版された『遠藤周作全日記』を基にして、世界文学の読者(the reader of world literature) としての遠藤周作のプロフィールを明らかにする。
遠藤は「作家と読書」（1958年）で次のようなことを述べている。「『テレーズ・デスケルウ』を久しぶりでとり出して読みなおす。幾度、読んでもこの小説は飽きるということがない」（『遠藤周作全日記』p. 395）。「この小説」とは、遠藤の愛読書であったフランソワ・モーリヤック(François Mauriac) の作品『テレーズ・デスケルウ』(Thérèse Desqueyroux, 1927年)　のことである。遠藤周作はこの小説を大学時代から読み続けたのだが、その読み方ははウラジーミル・ナボコフ(Vladimir Nabokov) がかつて論じた読者の姿と共振するものであった。“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a rereader” (V. Nabokov, Lectures on Literature) 。もっとも、遠藤周作とモーリヤックのつながりは既に指摘されており、様々な研究者が論じている。
そこで、本講演では地平を拡大し、1950年から書かれた「作家の日記」や「滞仏日記」、小説創作日記、「作家と読書」などを通して、遠藤周作が大学時代から出世作のころまで読み続けた作品を「世界文学の入門」として読み解こうと考える。つまり、カトリック文学やフランス文学だけではなく、日記の中に書かれた遠藤が読んだとされる多様な作家――フォークナー(William Faulkner) 、スタインベック (John Steinbeck)、エリオット (T.S. Eliot) 、カミュ (Albert Camus) 、サルトル (Jean-Paul Sartre) ――にも言及しながら、遠藤周作と世界文学との関係を探り、日記における新たな視座を得たいと考える。

This is the Extended Essay 'Goblin Poetry' from this unique collection of stories, essays and studies by American-turned-Japanese Author Lafcadio Hearn. It is an in-depth analysis and consideration of a sub-genre of Japanese Poetry by the ultimate expert on Japanese Culture. It features prominently in the book 'The Romance of the Milky Way' which is introduced by a bigraphical essay on the life and work of Lafcadio Hearn by modern German novelist Stefan Zweig (who provides an intelligent and deep-thinking portrayal of one of Japan's greatest imports). The volume includes full textual annotations and two portraits of the author (one drawing, one photograph). A beautifully edited book which is an inspiring joy to read. This essay, like the rest of the volume, has been meticulously edited by modern poet Edouard d'Araille, who has also translated Zweig's essay from German into English (also on Academia.edu).

This paper sheds light on representations of places that are perceived as peripheral in the Japanese mainstream discourse, by identifying different types and layers of otherness and othering in contemporary literature from Iwate. The focus lies on the close reading of the story “Kusachi ni furu ame wa” (The rain on our meadows, 2015) by the award winning local author Tada Kakuko. In this text she portrays a remote village in Iwate, addressing social issues such as aging society, rural depopulation, and poverty, as well as nuclear pollution. The analysis shows how the text deals with images of Iwate from an insider’s perspective and how pressing local and global issues are negotiated in a ‘peripheral’ setting. By emphasising “jimoto”, the home area, the usual perspective which places Tokyo at the centre is reversed: The own land is declared most important, while at the same time otherness is constructed through a geographical and emotional distinction from the metropolitan society in an ambivalent mix of critical counter narrative and nostalgic longing for a return to an ‘honest rural life’.

The 1954 Godzilla (Gojira) is a landmark monster film, and the film franchise has made the monster Godzilla one of the most globally recognizable figures of Japanese celebrity. The original Japanese film is remarkable for its melding of concerns about scientific progress, environmentalism, and for its use (at the time) of excellent special effects. In particular, the monster Godzilla (actor Haruo Nakajima in a rubber suit) rampages across small villages and through power lines, flattens planes and ships alike, and finally destroys Tokyo. It is the first of the live-action Japanese film genre tokusatsu (special filming) and is also part of the kaiju (monster or strange beast) genre. Gojira is an amalgam of gorira (gorilla) and kujira (whale). However, in order to export the film to the United States, Toho Studios used Godzilla, a portmanteau of god, lizard, and gorilla. Rather than invading foreign countries (and invoking colonial narratives by locating the foreign, other, or monstrous in former colonial spaces), this monster is terrorizing the nation-state itself. Godzilla’s origins and subsequent defeat are articulated through sophisticated scientific analysis and discovery. Dr. Yamane determines that Godzilla is the product of irradiated nuclear testing that penetrated the ocean’s depths, and Dr. Serizawa developed a weapon he called the “Oxygen Destroyer” that can dematerialize Godzilla and destroy all life in the body of water where it is deployed. The government sends naval vessels to drop depth charges in an attempt to destroy the monster, although neither the Japanese Coast Guard nor the land-based military succeeds in stopping Godzilla. Scenes of Japanese people running to air raid shelters coordinated by soldiers and the flattening of major cities recall the destruction rained down on Japan in World War II. The film closes with a somber note. Although the young lovers Emiko Yamane and Hideto Ogata reunite and Serizawa’s sacrifice saves them all, Yamane suggests that if nuclear testing continues another Godzilla may rise in the future. Godzilla did return, of course, in subsequent films, first as a rampaging monster and later as a defender of Japan, beginning in 1955 and continuing in the 2000s. Scholarly interest in studying the franchise began in the late 1990s with news of a new US film from TriStar Pictures starring Matthew Broderick, and much of the scholarly attention to the series flourished in the 2000s. The franchise remains active with the film Shin Gojira (Godzilla: Resurgence), produced in 2016 by Toho Productions and Cine Bazar, that drew inspiration from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011.