Japanese Studies Commons^™

“Drawing Is Where The Joy Is”: Cultural Anxiety, The Monstrous Fantastic, And The Artist As Mediator In Katsuhito Ishii’S The Taste Of Tea, Elise M. Parsons

Channels: Where Disciplines Meet

This article applies George Canguilhem’s notion of monster theory as a method for cultural analysis to the analysis of literature. It argues that monster theory provides one accurate view of Japanese contemporary culture as it is depicted in literature, and that observing the relationship of artists and writers to the monsters they depict can lead to a valid hypothesis about the artist’s view of culture. Using this hypothesis as a theoretical framework, the article then analyzes The Taste of Tea, a contemporary film by Japanese director Katsuhito Ishii, in terms of monster theory. It concludes that monster theory vindicates …

Japanese Pronoun Adventure: A Japanese Language Learner's Exploration Of His Japanese Gender Pronoun, Takumi Nakano

Masters Theses

In Japanese, there are various kinds of first-person pronouns, and some of them express the referent’s gender identity. Gender-neutral pronouns are made in English- speaking world day by day, but there is not any common first-person pronoun which indicates the gender identity that positions the referent’s gender somewhere between masculine and feminine. The present paper conducted a life story research on the “Japanese life” of an advanced learner of Japanese at a university in the United States who has been exploring his gender identity by coining and using a new Japanese first- person pronoun 㛪 ore, which indicates “in the …

Innovation In Nō: Matsui Akira Continues A Tradition Of Change, Mariko Anno, Judy Halebsky

Judy Halebsky

Within the practice of Japanese nō theatre, there are tensions between preserving the art and allowing change. However, innovation through performance has been central to nō throughout its long history, from the variant nō of the Edo era (1603–1868) to the more recent emergence of revival nō and new nō. The long career of nō master Matsui Akira (1946–) offers an individual perspective on the history of change in the tradition of nō. Based on a series of interviews with Matsui and research conducted at the Kita School of Nō and the Hōsei Nō Research Institute, this article examines Matsui’s …

June Watanabe's Translation/Transformatin Of Japanese Nō In Contemporary Practice, Judy Halebsky

Judy Halebsky

This paper considers a 2004 performance of Nö Project II ‘Can’t’ is ‘Night,’ a collaboration of Japanese American dancer June Watanabe, Japanese nö master and Intangible Cultural Treasure of Japan Uchida Anshin, composer Pauline Oliveros, and poet Leslie Scalapino. The project, spearheaded by Watanabe, translated nö for a contemporary San Francisco audience, imbuing it with social and political meaning for California viewers. Watanabe translated nö’s internal concentration into a collaborative process she calls “being in the moment.” The performance became a way for collaborators and audience to examine values in art making and sociopolitical practice.

Between Documentary And Fiction: The Films Of Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Marc Yamada

Journal of Religion & Film

This article investigates the representation of Buddhist values through the interplay between drama and documentary in two of Kore-eda’s films—After Life (Wandafuru Raifu, 1998) and I Wish (Kiseki, 2011). It will argue that the spiritual aspirations of these two films is a product of their nondualistic treatment of a documentary and dramatic style of filmmaking.

フィラデルフィア市, Elvis Lau

Student Publications

I wrote this mini-guidebook of my hometown of Philadelphia. Otherwise known as the city of brotherly love. I wrote this for anyone in Japan who are thinking about traveling to Philadelphia to sight-see. I listed information about a certain food that Philadelphia is famous for (Cheese Steaks), and recommended a place were they can find and try them out. I also talked about two other locations that usually come to mind when you think about Philadelphia: Love Park, and the Liberty bell. I discussed some of the history of these two locations, and why they are famous.

Ethnic And National Identity Of Third Generation Koreans In Japan, Haruka Morooka

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite Japan’s emphasis on its ethnic homogeneity, there actually are ethnic minorities in Japan. Most of foreign residents in Japan came recently, but a group of Koreans, which is called Zainichi, has been living in Japan before World War II. “Zainichi”, literally means “residing in Japan,” with a connotation of impermanence. It could be Zainichi Chinese or Zainichi Americans, but the term almost exclusively refers “to a population of colonial-era migrants from the Korean peninsula that settles in the Japanese archipelago and their descendants” (Lie, 2008, x). After decades of living in Japan, over 90% of the Zainichi population is …

Maintaining The Japan Connection: The Impact Of Study Abroad On Japanese Language Learners’ Life Trajectories And Ongoing Interaction With Japanese Speakers, Rikki Campbell

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This article explores the post-study abroad life trajectories of learners of Japanese. Drawing upon data collected from eight interviewees, it presents the experiences of study abroad returnees’ ongoing engagement with Japan and Japanese speakers once they were removed from the study abroad environment. In particular, it focuses on the impact of study abroad on ongoing studies and career trajectory, and examines ongoing interaction with Japanese speakers throughout these key life stages. Through the lens of possible selves theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986), this study also examines how the informants’ ongoing engagement with the target language is reflected in …

The Post-Sojourn In Study Abroad Research—Another Frontier, John L. Plews

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Great Mirror Of Motherly Love: Maternal Fantasy, Mystic Mothers, And Reflected Selves In Modern And Contemporary Japanese Fiction, Jessica E. Legare

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fantasy and mysticism often serve as key elements in escapist literature—constructing stories that move protagonists beyond the furthest reaches of the real, the familiar and the human. Yet, the otherworldly can also bring the protagonist within reach of the familiar if we consider the representations of mothering in the following Japanese narratives: Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s “Longing for Mother” (1919), Izumi Kyōka’s “The Holy Man of Mount Kōya” (1900), Takahashi Takako’s “Doll Love” (1976), and Ono Masatsugu’s “Prayers from Nine Years Ago” (2014). Through their depictions based on supernatural and spiritual tropes, mystical-mother figures become metaphorical mirrors meant to reflect the protagonists’ …

Japanese Shôjo: Emergence And Developments Of Shôjo In 1910s Through 1930s Japan, Mayuko Itoh

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From the 1910s through the 1930s, education for girls in Japan changed rapidly. The education for girls centered on practical matters such as houskeeping, but girls made communities in the magazines for girls where they can develop modern self identity. Through their communication, the image of shôjo, or girls was created. In this thesis, I will analyze the magazine community from 1910s through 1930s where shôjo culture developed. By presenting the significant characteristics of the community and its teachings, I will explain how the shôjo community connotes notions of both past and future. Then, I will compare the shôjo …

Soryo No Naka: Saigyo No Shukke To Homososharu Yokkyu To Waka, Jack C. Stoneman

Faculty Publications

Among the many theories that attempt to explain Saigyo’s (1118-1190) sudden and dramatic transformation from samurai to Buddhist monk at the age of twenty three, the most controversial is what I am terming “the homosexuality theory.” At the time Saigyo, or Sato Norikiyo, as he was known before his tonsuring, left his family and career to become a monk, he was in the employ of Retired Emperor Toba (1103-1165) as a member of the Northern Guard (hokumen no bushi), an elite group of bodyguards and personal companions. According to the homosexuality theory, Saigyo became a monk in order …

Japanese Dialect Ideology From Meiji To The Present, Nao Okumura

Dissertations and Theses

The intent of this study is to examine the trajectory of ideology regarding standard Japanese and dialects from the historical perspective, and also to discuss the cause of the post-war shift of the ideology. Before the war, the government attempted to disseminate hyojun-go aiming at creating a unified Japan in the time when many countries were developing to be nation states after industrial revolution. After the Pacific war, the less strict-sounding term kyotsu-go was more often used, conveying an ideology of democratization. Yet despite the difference in the terms, speaking a common language continues to play a role of unifying …

Eustia Of The Tarnished Wings: The Visual Novel In Translation, Matthew R. Bird

Masters Theses

The center of this thesis proposal is a translation of the first book of AUGUST Software’s Eustia of the Tarnished Wings 穢翌のユースティア, a 2011 dark fantasy visual novel. As visual novels are practically unknown in English or Japanese academic writing, this thesis will provide an introduction to the medium’s history, as well as common display and organizational formats of the medium; a literary overview of Eustia of the Tarnished Wings and its characters and themes of choice and sacrifice; and a discussion of translation methodology and goals pursued in the accompanying excerpts.

The translation presented consists of selected excerpts from …

Assembling Creative Cities In Seoul And Yokohama: Rebranding East Asian Urbanism, Changwook Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

By investigating institutional and cultural practices as well as the consequences of the creative industry-led development policy in Yokohama, Japan and Seoul, South Korea, this dissertation critically reexamines the key rationales of creative economy-driven urban development and considers social costs and tensions between the state, capital and citizens that are embedded within creative city policy discourses and practices. This dissertation intervenes in the conventional understandings, which consider the influx of neoliberalism as the key to explain the rapid global circulation of creative city policy, typically based on cities in the West. By considering the policy transfer as endless processes of …

A Meiji Christian Socialist Becomes A Spokesperson For Japan: Kawakami Kiyoshi’S “Pilgrimage In The Sacred Land Of Liberty”, Masako Gavin

Masako Gavin

This paper studies the life and thought of Kawakami Kiyoshi (1873–1949), a Meiji Christian socialist and prominent journalist in late 1890s Japan for the popular newspaper Yorozu chōhō (Complete morning report). Kawakami was one of the six founding members of Japan’s first but short-lived Social Democratic Party (Shakai minshutō, 1901). After the party was forced to dissolve under the Public Peace Police Law (Chian keisatsuhō, 1900) on 16 July 1901, Kawakami left for the USA to take up a postgraduate scholarship at the University of Iowa. While in the USA, he continued his career in the press, establishing himself as …

World Churches Vertical File, Mcgarvey Ice

Center for Restoration Studies Vertical Files Finding Aids

This set of files is especially useful to scholars of the history missions, particularly among Churches of Christ in the twentieth century. Students and researchers interested in applied missiology among Restorationist traditions, Stone-Campbell movements, and Churches of Christ will also find them helpful. For assistance with specific files or items, contact Mac Ice - mac.ice@acu.edu, or 325.674.2144.

Japanese Neet And Freeter: A Representation Of The Relationship Between Social Changes And Youth's Employment Pattern, Linh Hoang

Honors Theses

My paper attempts to analyze the existence of NEET (No Employment, Education or Training – ニート) and Freeter (Freelancing part-time worker - フリーター), two common groups of young unemployed people and irregular workers in Japan. Throughout the study, the relationship between Japanese social changes, modernization process and Japanese NEETs and Freeters is thoroughly examined. The first social change related to the establishment of these two groups is the transformation of employment system. The combination of a seniority-based system and performance-based system as well as their contrasts has increased the competitiveness in the job seeking war while eliminating some of the …

Reforming Japan: Measuring The Success Of The Allied Occupation's Economic Educational And Constitutional, Gordon Duncan

Honors Theses

Following the surrender of Japan on September 2 of 1945, American forces occupied Japan in an attempt to remove Japan’s ability to wage aggressive war. From 1945 to 1952, Occupation authorities in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur undertook a number of reforms intended to ‘demilitarize’ and ‘democratize’ Japan, some of which left major structural changes to the pre-war Japanese system. This thesis will focus on three reforms: the dissolution of Japan’s zaibatsu (large industrial conglomerates such as Nissan), democratization of the education system, and Article IX of Japan’s Constitution which bans Japan from possessing military forces. I analyze the success …

Peasant Revolts As Anti-Authoritarian Archetypes For Radical Buddhism In Modern Japan, James Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

The late Meiji period (1868-1912) witnessed the birth of various forms of “progressive” and “radical” Buddhism both within and beyond traditional Japanese Buddhist institutions. This paper examines several historical precedents for “Buddhist revolution” in East Asian—and particularly Japanese—peasant rebellions of the early modern period. I argue that these rebellions, or at least the received narratives of such, provided significant “root paradigms” for the thought and practice of early Buddhist socialists and radical Buddhists of early twentieth century Japan. Even if these narratives ended in “failure”—as, indeed, they often did—they can be understood as examples of what James White calls “expressionistic …