Japanese Studies Commons^™

Lost In Seattle: What Does Nagai Kafū’S Encounter With The American Northwest Tell Us About Japanese Travel And Immigration Accounts Of The Early 1900s?, Jon P. Holt

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Clanging Bells, Clanging Words: Iwate Dialect In Miyazawa Kenji's "Changa Chaga Umako" Tanka Series, Jon P. Holt

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation examines the inspirational works of writer Miyazawa Kenji (1896 - 1933).

Thus Have I Heard: The Auditory Hallucination Poems Of Miyazawa Kenji, Jon P. Holt

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation examines the works of writer Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933).

'Land Of Kami, Land Of The Dead': Paligenesis And The Aesthetics Of Religious Revisionism In Kobayashi Yoshinori's 'On Yasukuni', James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

In 2005, Japanese manga artist and conservative provocateur Kobayashi Yoshinori published a graphic work entitled Shin gōmanizumu sengen special: Yasukuniron (Neo-Gōmanism Manifesto Special: On Yasukuni), which tackles the much-debated ‘problem’ of Yasukuni Shrine, the militaristic religious complex that has become a lightning-rod for debates regarding Japanese historical memory – especially with regard to the military expansionism in East Asia that led to the Asia-Pacific War (1931–45). Frequently overlooked in discussions of Yasukuni, however, are a number of complex issues related to its religious doctrines – in particular, the interpretation of Shinto presented at Yasukuni and the dominant ideology of Japan’s …

Review: Hank Glassman, The Face Of Jizō: Image And Cult In Medieval Japanese Buddhism., James Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

Review of Hank Glassman, The Face of Jizō: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism.

Singing Japan’S Heart And Soul: A Discourse On The Black Enka Singer Jero And Race Politics In Japan, Neriko Musha Doerr, Yuri Kumagai

East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications

This article analyses a discourse around the ascendancy of Jero, an ‘African-American’ male dressed in hip-hop attire singing enka, a genre of music that has been dubbed ‘the heart and soul of Japan.’ Since his debut in Japan in February 2008, Jero has attracted much media attention. This article analyses a prominent discourse, ‘Jero is almost Japanese because he sings enka well.’ While many argue that to challenge stereotypes and racism is to introduce alternative role models, we show that such alternative role models can also reinforce the existing regime of difference of Japanese vs. the Other and perpetuate …

Fox-Kuzunoha: The Actor Print And The Expression Of Female As 'Other' In The Late Edo Period, Kara Jefts

Honors Theses

Stories of the supernatural are a rich part of Japan’s cultural history, and one way to explore the popularity of these tales is through the widely produced visual medium of Ukiyo-e prints. By the eighteenth century, kabuki theatre became a dominant theme in Ukiyo-e, and kabuki plays provide a way to access diverse folk traditions involving the supernatural, often based on Shinto beliefs or Buddhist principles. Confucian values, at the core of Edo Period society, commonly frame these subjects in contrast to traditional familial relationships. Using the visual language of the stage, moments of dramatic climax in kabuki are emphasized …

Review: James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, And John C. Maraldo (Eds), Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook (Hawai'i, 2011), James Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

Book Review: James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo (eds), Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook (Hawai'i, 2011)

Review: Christopher Ives, Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’S Critique And Lingering Questions For Buddhist Ethics (Uhp, 2009), James Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

Review of Christopher Ives, Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics (UHP, 2009)

Dazai's Women: Dazai Osamu And His Female Narrators, Jamie Walden Cox

Dissertations and Theses

Dazai Osamu (born Tsushima Shûji) was a post-WWII writer who wrote a number of works using a female narrator. This thesis research focused on the reasons as to why Dazai may have written using female narratives, taking into consideration the time period and social milieu in which he was writing, as well as his own personal history with women. In addition, the history of male authors utilizing female narratives was explored, as well as the ideas of gender in the Japanese arts. Dazai works were also compared with Tankizaki Junichirô's to see how the roles of women in their works …

The National Imagination (Spring 2012), Robert D. Tobin, Marvin D'Lugo, Alice Valentine

Syllabi

What images make people think of the United States of America? Cowboys? The flag? And are there similar icons in other cultures that help define cultural identity? The National Imagination explores the concept of a national community as constructed and critiqued through literary and cinematic narratives, as well as other cultural texts.

Our underlying premise is that national languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. We are interested in examining those subjective expressions of culture—images, symbols, narratives—that lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations. We are also interested in discovering points …

Revisiting The Thetic/Categorical Distinction In Japanese, Masanori Deguchi

Modern & Classical Languages

In this study, I propose a refinement of Kuroda's (1972, 1990) claim that the categorical and thetic judgments are realized syntactically in Japanese. Succinctly put, Kuroda argues that sentences with the topic marker wa represent categorical judgments whereas those with the nominative marker ga represent thetic judgments. In the present study, I demonstrate that wa-sentences do not uniformly represent categorical judgments and that ga-sentences do not represent thetic judgments across the board either. In particular, I argue that ga-sentences represent thetic judgments only on the so-called "neutral-description" reading (in the sense of Kuno 1973); on the "exhaustive-listing" reading, they instead …

Revisiting History Through Crime Fiction: Shiono Nanami’S Scarlet Venice In The Renaissance Trilogy Of Murder, Ikuho Amano

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications

In her Renaissance Trilogy of Murder (1988), Shiono Nanami (塩野七生, 1937- ) rejuvenates the classical genre of historical crime fiction, dismantling a canonical outlook of late Renaissance Italy. As historiographer of Ancient Rome, the Italian Renaissance, and the Mediterranean naval epic, Shiono achieved literary stardom in Japan in the 1980s, and has been internationally known for her pragmatist approaches to history and contemporary politics. Her writing has reassessed established history from the non-Western and non-Christian viewpoints. Most notably, her magnum opus, Rōmajin no monogatari (Res GestaePopuli Romani—Tales of the Romans) (published 1992-2006) tirelessly describes the empire’s politics, beginning …

Redefining The Multiple: Thirteen Japanese Printmakers (Exhibition Catalogue), Sam Yates, Yoshihiro Nakatani

Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture

Curated by Sam Yates and Hideki Kimura, professor of art at Kyoto City University of Arts, Redefining the Multiple unites 13 printmakers from Japan who bring the techniques and concepts of printmaking to a wide range of contemporary and traditional media.

Of the selected participants, four make three-dimensional objects and installations, two paint with printmaking tools and techniques, three use digital photography and technology, while others utilize traditional and recognizable printmaking methods.

The featured artists are: Hideki Kimura, Junji Amano, Kouseki Ono, Koichi Kiyono, Shuji Chiaki, Toshinao Yoshioka, Shunsuke Kano, Naruki Oshima, Marie Yoshiki, Nobauki Onishi, Shoji Miyamoto, Arata Nojima, …

Japan As A Clean Energy Leader, Stefan N. Norbom

Gettysburg Economic Review

Over the past several decades, Japan’s energy strategy had positioned it as the world’s leader in clean and efficient electricity production and usage. This strategy, heavily dependent on nuclear energy, was essentially destroyed by one of history’s largest earthquakes, followed by a tsunami which overwhelmed five nuclear reactors on March 11, 2011. As of April 2012, all of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors have been shut down and it is uncertain when and how many may be restarted. This paper examines Japan’s options for crafting a new way forward with an energy policy to power the world’s third largest economy while …

情報リテラシー教育を取り入れた初級日本語コースカリキュラムの作成と実践報告, Atsuko Takahashi

East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications

近年，日本語教育では，日本語中・上級レベルにおいて内容重視型カリキュラムや批判的思考力を取り入れた学習活動を採用する動向がみられている。一方で，初級レベルでは，教科書の基本文法，語彙，表現，漢字を学習するという言語習得を重要視した伝統的なカリキュラムが組まれている。ここで，問題になるのが，教科書中心の初級カリキュラムに慣れた学習者が中級レベルに進む際に，教科書外の教材を中心とした内容重視型カリキュラムで求められる自律学習能力に欠けているという現状である。本稿では，情報リテラシーをどのように言語学習活動に応用できるのかを検討し，日本語教師と図書館員の協働作業のもと，日本語教育と情報リテラシー教育を融合させたカリキュラムを作成し，アメリカ私立女子大学の１つであるスミス大学の日本語１年生コースで実践した例を紹介する。初級レベルから情報リテラシーを言語学習能力と共に培うことは，学習者の初級から中級レベルへの移行をスムーズにし，言語・文化・社会情報に関わる内容重視型の学習活動に必要とされる自律学習能力の育成に役に立つのではないかと考える。

Review Of: Overcoming Modernity And The Kyoto School: Modernity, Empire, And Universality, Edited By Sakai Naoki And Isomae Jun'ichi, Michiko Yusa

Modern & Classical Languages

This volume is an outcome of a workshop held at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto on 23-24 May 2009, which brought together scholars from Japan and abroad to "readdress the question of modernity." It includes ten essays, a substantial introduction, and a postscript.

Translation Of "A Love Letter" By H. Kyojiro, H. Kyojiro, William O. Gardner , Translator

Japanese Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Translation Of "Advertising Tower!" By H. Kyojiro, H. Kyojiro, William O. Gardner , Translator

Japanese Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Japanese Modernism And "Cine-Text": Fragments And Flows At Empire's Edge In Kitagawa Fuyuhiko And Yokomitsu Riichi, William O. Gardner

Japanese Faculty Works

This article notes that Kitagawa Fuyuhiko's writings from the 1920s and 1930s, together with the contemporaneous works of prose author Yokomitsu Riichi, are strongly marked by the confluence of the literary and the cinematic. Kitagawa and Yokomitsu's engagement with film was not limited to a fascination with the precision, objectivity, or mobility of the “camera eye.” Rather, it extended to the entire ability of the cinematic apparatus to capture the temporality of objects in motion, and of the ability of the filmmaker to organize segments of space into a new synthetic whole. The article explores this confluence through a brief …