Aesthetics & Politics: A Brief History Of Japan & The Us’S 20th Century, 2022 Sarah Lawrence College
Aesthetics & Politics: A Brief History Of Japan & The Us’S 20th Century, Ricky Brown
Theatre Thesis - Written Thesis
This paper is a look at the combination of aesthetics and politics and how that combination effected the lives of black Americans, Japanese women and the people of Korea under Japanese occupation during the early 1900s.
Dawn Of A Silver Millennium: Millenarianism, Futurity, And Utopia In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, 2022 University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dawn Of A Silver Millennium: Millenarianism, Futurity, And Utopia In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Matthew Dentice
Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference
The story of Sailor Moon, told and retold in countless forms in the thirty years since the original manga’s publication, is imbued with a cosmic sense of time. The modern-day protagonists’ personal journeys are tightly interwoven with the distant past of the Silver Millennium and the far future of thirtieth-century Crystal Tokyo. But only the manga is fully willing to grapple with what the future means for its own present moment. Written in the early 1990s during Japan's "Lost Decade," Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon dramatizes the angst that accompanies the imminent arrival of a new millennium. As the Sailor Guardians …
Press Any Button To Get Started: Approaching Japanese Culture And Society Through Video Games, 2022 Ursinus College
Press Any Button To Get Started: Approaching Japanese Culture And Society Through Video Games, Amanda Weber
East Asian Studies Honors Papers
This project argues for inclusion of video games into the liberal arts curriculum alongside more traditional texts. Three Japanese-developed video games are analyzed in terms of their appropriateness for the Ursinus Quest curriculum while also exploring their appropriation of characters, themes, and values from Japanese mytho-history. My approach incorporates the methodology introduced by the scholar James Paul Gee who studies video games through the lens of semiotics and gaming theory. Gee defines key elements presented in video games as ‘lifeworld domains,’ which incorporate cultures, societies, and individual and group experiences. The value of video games resides in the players’ development …
When I Was A Boy In Japan, 2022 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
When I Was A Boy In Japan, Sakae Shioya
Zea E-Books Collection
Japanese children in the 1870s and 1880s were offspring of a centuries-old traditional order who faced a world suddenly dominated by foreign science and commerce. As a child in Meiji Japan, Sakae grew up among survivors of the shogunate and observed their samurai culture displaced by Western morals and practices. Meanwhile the traditional values of Japanese life still exerted a strong influence over his family and education and played a large part in shaping his experience, as recounted with charm and tenderness in this simple and reflective reminiscence.
Sakae Shioya (1873–1961) attended Tokyo’s First Imperial College and came to the …
“For Now We See In A Mirror, Dimly”: Dialectical Wholeness In Oshii Mamoru’S Ghost In The Shell, 2022 Dartmouth College
“For Now We See In A Mirror, Dimly”: Dialectical Wholeness In Oshii Mamoru’S Ghost In The Shell, Mari Aida
Comparative Literature M.A. Essays
This essay argues that Oshii Mamoru's 1995 animated film Ghost in the Shell, while indicating possible alliances with the political interests of cyberfeminism, ultimately advocates for the oppositional agenda of dialectical wholeness. Foundational texts of cyberfeminism, such as Donna J. Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs," have criticized narratives of isolation and a return towards a primordial wholeness implicit in Euro-American scientific culture. In the context of these texts, the cyborg symbolizes a departure from such narratives and guides the political project of reimagining epistemological boundaries. However, despite its apparent alignment with such projects, Ghost in the Shell dramatizes and …
Butoh: From Wwii To The West, 2022 Belmont University
Butoh: From Wwii To The West, Caroline Conner
Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)
Butoh is an underground dance movement in Japan that explores the human psyche in unconventional and sometimes grotesque ways. It originated out of the devastation of WWII Japan and rails against the rigidity of society as well as traditional theatre and dance forms. It has ties to Buddhism, in that both view suffering as a natural state of the world, and both may lead to depersonalisation (intentionally or otherwise), which is described as a loss of identity or sense of self. Gone unchecked, this detached exploration of the psyche can lead to personality dissolution, which can be especially problematic to …
Striking Chords Ii: Music In Ukiyo-E Prints (2022), 2022 Rhode Island School of Design
Striking Chords Ii: Music In Ukiyo-E Prints (2022), Theory & History Of Art & Design Department, Elena Varshavskaya (H791 Instructor)
Ukiyo-e Prints Course | Exhibition Catalogs
"The theme of music in ukiyo-e prints has been explored by the RISD art history students for two semesters (fall 2021 and spring 2022) in a hands-on curatorial format. The resulting exhibition Striking Chords: Music in Ukiyo-e Prints, is on view at the RISD Museum from February through July 2022.
The spring semester project is virtual. However, the approach is similar – to comprehensively study music-related prints in the collection of the RISD Museum and to share the findings with interested audiences, albeit in digital format.
Nineteen prints have been selected. In the exhibition’s virtual space, they are displayed according …
Live As Fireflies: The Narration Of Traumas In Two Films, 2022 Trinity College
Live As Fireflies: The Narration Of Traumas In Two Films, Tucker Obrien
Senior Theses and Projects
The films To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou 1994 in China, and Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata in Japan, tell the stories of two families’ daily life as they endure the aftermath of historical tragedies in the 20th century. Affected by the histories of China and Japan in the twentieth century, the actions and thoughts of the characters embody different forms of their traumas. I argue that these two films depict traumatic expressions of the Chinese and Japanese people to their respective historical tragedies, through the abnormal behaviors and uncanny psychologies of the characters. The visualized …
Xbox In Japan? Understanding The Distinctions Of The Japanese Video Game Market To Increase Microsoft's Competitive Advantage, 2022 University of South Carolina
Xbox In Japan? Understanding The Distinctions Of The Japanese Video Game Market To Increase Microsoft's Competitive Advantage, Sekani Adebimpe
Senior Theses
Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony remain the biggest players in the video game console space. While all three companies have achieved worldwide success, Microsoft’s performance with the Xbox brand in Japan is an outlier for its historically poor sales numbers dating back to its 2001 debut. The purpose of this thesis is to unearth the various cultural distinctions inherent to the Japanese gaming industry that Microsoft must consider to gain a stronger foothold in the country, as well as diagnose the biggest issues facing Xbox with Japanese consumers. To accomplish this, several cultural frameworks were used to assess the differences between …
The Influence Of The Thirty-Six Stratagems On Chinese Strategy In The Diaoyu Islands, 2022 Liberty University
The Influence Of The Thirty-Six Stratagems On Chinese Strategy In The Diaoyu Islands, Brent Schuliger
Senior Honors Theses
The Diaoyu Islands are a small, uninhabited archipelago in the East China Sea which has begun increasing in strategic significance due to its advantageous location near Taiwan and along the First Island Chain. The islands are currently under Japanese administration, but the People’s Republic of China considers them historically Chinese and contests Japan’s claim to the islands. A careful examination of China’s actions in challenging Japan’s rule over the Diaoyus reveals the influence of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, a tome of ancient Chinese military wisdom which provides a framework onto which China’s current strategy corresponds. This thesis examines the historical …
Human Rights And Professions Museums As Interlocutors Of Buraku Identity In Japan, 2022 Florida International University
Human Rights And Professions Museums As Interlocutors Of Buraku Identity In Japan, Lisa Mueller
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Members of the Buraku minority group in contemporary Japan are traditionally perceived as descendants of outcaste communities who performed work deemed impure according to Shinto and Buddhist taboos in Japan’s caste system during the Tokugawa Era (1603-1867). After receiving emancipation in 1871, they continued to experience severe discrimination. Following successful activism culminating in government-issued affirmative action “special measures” funding beginning in 1969, Buraku people have now approached social and economic parity with mainstream Japanese. Partially due to these successes, the Buraku Liberation League, the largest Buraku rights organization in the country, has now embraced a new globalized, UN-centric Buraku identity …
A Study On The Sports Industry In Edo: Preface To A Study Of The History Of The Sports Industry In Early Modern Japan, 2022 Faculty of Law, Toyo University
A Study On The Sports Industry In Edo: Preface To A Study Of The History Of The Sports Industry In Early Modern Japan, Hironori Tanigama
Japanese Society and Culture
This study discusses what sorts of industries developed in Edo during the early modern period and their characteristics, with a specific look at the sports industry. The results of this study are as follows. 1. In the 17th century, the sports industry in Edo targeted the ruling samurai class. Samurai in Edo were fond of sumo tournaments and archery exhibition competitions; both were heavily influenced by the Kyoto area (then the capital). At the time, traditions carried on since the Middle Ages remained strong in the world of sports. 2. At the end of the 17th century, various urban sports …
Pathetic Beauty: Mono No Aware In Hollywood Cinema –To Family And Friends In These Estranged Times–, 2022 Faculty of Law, Toyo University
Pathetic Beauty: Mono No Aware In Hollywood Cinema –To Family And Friends In These Estranged Times–, Aaron Francis Ward
Japanese Society and Culture
Mono no aware is considered to be one of the central-most Japanese aesthetics and distinctive to Japanese identity (Keene 1995; Miller 2011). This aesthetic standpoint finds wistful beauty in the transient, and is most often translated to ‘beauty in pathos’ or ‘the ah-ness of things’ (Hume 1995), as exemplified in the Heian-era classic, The Tale of Genji (Murasaki 1981). To the outside world, mono no aware is most commonly associated with cherry-blossom viewing, where the short-lived existence of the falling cherry blossom is seen as a metonym for contemplation of the beauty in the transience of life itself. Although this …
The Cherry Blossom And Its Influence On Japanese Culture, 2022 Autonomous University of Nayarit
The Cherry Blossom And Its Influence On Japanese Culture, Gilberto Mejía Salazar
Japanese Society and Culture
The following research is of a documentary approach, and its objective is to analyze the cherry blossom from a social and cultural perspective, to know the importance and influence that this flower has on society and the environment. Thus, the Shinjuku Gyoen Park and Chidorigafuchi Park were taken as a reference, in this sense, it is understood that within the city of Tokyo there are parks and areas whose purpose is to provide various activities to citizens to contemplate nature, and therefore giving a great show to witness the cherry blossom in its maximum splendour. The influence of the cherry …
“The Power Of Onomatopoeia In Manga” An Essay By Natsume Fusanosuke With Translators’ Introduction, 2022 Portland State University
“The Power Of Onomatopoeia In Manga” An Essay By Natsume Fusanosuke With Translators’ Introduction, Jon Holt, Teppei Fukuda
World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations
Natsume Fusanosuke is one of the founding critics of manga that pioneered a style of formal analysis of manga in the 1990s. Natsume’s first important foray into his “theory of expression” (hyōgenron) was seen in the collaborate work, Manga no yomikata (How to read manga) in 1995. He later streamlined those ideas in a twelve-episode series Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono bunpō to hyōgen (Why is manga so interesting?: Its grammar and expression) for NHK television in 1996. The accompanying expanded book (1997) consists of well-ordered, individual essays on elements of manga such as …
The Pagoda, 2022 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
The Pagoda, Rohan Kōda, Nariyuki Koda
Zea E-Books Collection
This novel is a landmark in Japanese literature, widely known, read, and beloved. Sometimes known as “The Five-Story Pagoda,” it tells the story of Jubei, a carpenter and craftsman, who dreams of building a pagoda for the Abbot of the Kannoji Temple. Despite his poverty, low station, and poor reputation—he is known as “the slouch”— Jubei’s determined and uncompromising allegiance to his own vision bring him the possibility of raising a great work for the ages … but will it stand against the howling demons of a tropical typhoon?
Rohan Kōda’s The Pagoda (Gojūnotō, 五重塔) first appeared in …
A Daughter Of The Samurai, 2022 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A Daughter Of The Samurai, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto
Zea E-Books Collection
Born in 1874 the youngest daughter of a samurai and former daimyo—a feudal prince under the Takugawa shogunate—Etsu Inagaki grew up surrounded by ghosts of an aristocratic military lineage. Having fought on the losing side in the wars that installed the Meiji emperor, the Inagaki family was reduced in power, status, and wealth but not in pride or devotion to its traditional roles and customs. Etsu’s upbringing and education were conservative and old-fashioned, guided by the Shinto and Buddhist beliefs her family held. The samurai virtues of honor, stoicism, and sacrifice applied to daughters and wives as well as sons …
Zen And The Art Of Resistance: Some Preliminary Notes, 2022 Bucknell University
Zen And The Art Of Resistance: Some Preliminary Notes, James Mark Shields
Faculty Contributions to Books
In the Western and oftentimes Asian imagination, Buddhism generally—and Zen more specifically—is understood as being resolutely disengaged, attaching itself to a form of awakening that is not only, as the classical phrase has it “beyond words and letters,” but in the modern summation by D. T. Suzuki, perfectly compatible with any and all forms of political and economic “dogmatism,” whether capitalist, communist, socialist, or fascist. Of course, as numerous scholars have shown over the past century, on the level of historical actuality, Buddhist and Zen teachers and institutions have long participated in (usually hegemonic) economic and political structures. The …
Ten Nights' Dreams And Our Cat's Grave, 2022 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Ten Nights' Dreams And Our Cat's Grave, Natsume Soseki
Zea E-Books Collection
Ten Nights’ Dreams (夢十夜, Yume Jūya) is a classic written work from the Japanese master Natsume Soseki. Originally published in 1908, it announced the emergence in Japanese literature of a modernist and impressionistic mode. Short vignettes with fantastic, tragic, or magical events convey an exquisite sensibility compounded with stark realism. Love, honor, duty, artistry, desire, despair, and regret all shape events in the dream-world. The stories themselves suggest echoes of meanings beyond the failures of rational sense-making. Ten dreams—each unique and arresting—form a panorama of life and feeling, at once universal and intensely present.
“Our Cat’s Grave” is a brief …
I Am A Cat, No. Ii, 2022 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
I Am A Cat, No. Ii, Natsume Sōseki, Kan-Ichi Ando
Zea E-Books Collection
What would the neighbors say about you if they didn’t know your cat was listening?
What if it was “The Cat With No Name”? The one who claims “I have, as a cat, attained the highest pitch of evolution imaginable. … My tail is filled with all sorts of wisdom and, above all, a secret art handed down in the cat family, which teaches how to make fools of mankind. … I am a cat, it is true, but remember I am one who keeps in the house of a scholar who reads the Moral Discourses of Epictetus and bangs …