Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural And Philosophical Beliefs In Tea Poetry, Julia M. Minor

CAFE Symposium 2023

Tea is a commodity that has greatly changed the course of history. One example of the influence of tea is in poetry. This project analyzes some examples of tea poetry from China and Japan to understand how tea in poetry conveys cultural and philosophical beliefs of given time periods. China and Japan are looked at collectively because their histories are very entwined. In the two Chinese poems, tea is tied to hierarchical relations and the importance of Taoism. In the Japanese poems, tea is greatly related to nature and appreciating simplicity. Three of the four poems are a reaction to …

Garrott, June Rose, B. 1932 (Sc 3670), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3670. Letters and papers of June Rose Garrott, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Includes family information; letters from Japan, where she taught English; Christmas letters; an account of a trip to China; and a list of her writing and scholarly activities.

Peter Boylan: Judo Club And International Experiences, University Libraries

East Campus Oral Histories

WMU Alum Peter Boylan meets with Cassie Kotrch virtually to discuss his memories and stories of East Campus during his time as an undergrad and graduate student at WMU. He also talks about the Judo Club he was part of on East Campus.

When Big Brother Blinks, Josh Eyre

BYU Asian Studies Journal

When discussing modern Japanese literature, works of the late 1930s and early 1940s are largely left out of the discussion. Stories written during this time are ignored by scholars, forgotten by readers, and at times even excluded from an author’s “complete works” by publishers (Keene 1987, 906–907). These works are often thought to be devoid of literary merit or not worth studying due to the high levels of scrutiny and censorship that Japanese authors were subjected to by the far right and intensely nationalistic Japanese government of the time. I would argue, however, that the near total dismissal of Japanese …

Christianity On Home Brew, Brayden Lane

BYU Asian Studies Journal

In 1659, after enduring three years of torture and refusing to renounce his teachings, a Christian priest was executed in Nagasaki by decapitation under order by local officials. This man, who had taken the name of Bastian at his baptism, had spent the previous several years leading and teaching his fellow Christians in the villages near Nagasaki. He did this in secrecy, for in those days, professing belief as a Christian had been declared illegal by the Japanese government under penalty of death. In the course of his ministry, he saw many of his brethren meet their deaths for their …

Japanese Colonialism: Unraveling The Complex Historiography And Cultural Genocide In The Korean Peninsula, Madison Huckabay

History | Senior Theses

Upon the influence of western imperialism reaching East Asia, Japan began its own imperial conquests as it worked to establish itself as a world power alongside Russia and Western powers. After the first Sino-Japanese war between Qing China and Imperial Japan, China was forced to recognize independence to Korea, along with ceding the Taiwan, Pescadores and Liaodong territories to Japan as of 1895. While Japan initially claimed to promote Korea’s independence and nationalism, they officially ended up annexing Korea as of 1910. From the perspective of the western powers and historians, they were initially optimistic about Japan’s reform on Koreans. …

Ramseyer, The Japanese Right-Wing And The “History Wars”, Tomomi Yamaguchi

Journal of International Women's Studies

J. Mark Ramseyer’s publications on the topics of wartime “comfort women” and Japan’s minorities have become the focus of intense controversy. His article on “comfort women” in the International Review of Law and Economics gained global scrutiny following its coverage in Japan’s right-wing newspaper, Sankei Shimbun, and its English-language publication, Japan Forward. Ramseyer claims that “comfort women” willingly entered into sex-work contracts, denying responsibility by Japan’s military and government for the “comfort station” system. He also insists that naming this system “sexual slavery” is “pure fiction” – a stance shared by Japanese history denialists in Japan. Since the controversy over …

Non-Christian, Japanese College Students’ Perspectives Of Engaging With God Through The Participatory Components Of Christian Worship, Jacqueline Leigh Bencke

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study seeks to examine the extent to which non-Christian college students in Japan perceive their engagement with the biblical God while participating in daily chapel services at Kyūshū Lutheran College. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, analyzing survey and focus group data to explore whether a relationship exists between students’ participation in chapel committee activities and their perceived spiritual engagement. Responses to Lynn Underwood’s Daily Spiritual Experience Survey, the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, and the Centrality of Buddhist Religiosity Scale are combined to create a general spiritual profile of respondents. Worship leaders and missionaries who are in positions of …

The Power Of Anime: Artistic Power, Social Consciousness, And Cultural Impact, Natalie Ortez-Arevalo

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project explores the widespread popularity and impact of anime on Japanese culture. In my research, I demonstrate how the integration of anime into Japan’s culture creates big splashes—like stones being thrown into a lake—that, at the same time, ripple out in various directions and reverberate on multiple levels. First and foremost, this research centers around an important concept: that anime contains well-crafted storytelling and powerful imagery that demonstrates wider historical, cultural, and social issues—both the positive and negative. In anime films and shows, symbolism plays an important part as it can be found throughout the imagery and the storylines …

Roles Of Religious Guides In Tourism: A Qualitative Study From Japan, Ricardo Nicolas Progano

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage travel has become an important element in contemporary tourism, as visitors flock to sacred locations (UNWTO, 2015). However, some aspects of pilgrimage travel remain relatively understudied, with one of them being the roles of guides in these locations. Based on previous academic works, the present study aims to bridge this gap by analysing the role of religious figures who engage in guiding activities aimed at the general public. For this, Shippōryū-ji, a Shugendō temple located in Japan, is presented as the case study. As previous research on the subject is scarce, a qualitative approach was deemed suitable. Utilising interview …

The Land Of Eight Million Gods: Communicating Christian Concepts Of God Into The Japanese Worldview, Ray Franklin

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

The author shares how he navigated a Japanese language barrier where the term God in English did not translate correctly.

Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: Veiled Criticism Through Extreme Entertainment, Thoby Jeanty

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis examines the writings of Meiji novelists living during a time of transition. Their writings became known as part of a genre called Erotic Grotesque Nonsense. The genre became defined as engaging in extremes to entertain an audience captivated by the eroticism, grotesque, or even the nonsensical nature of the stories being told. The thesis discovers there is a pressing social commentary on the tumultuous transition to modernity hidden within these works. The traditions established during the Tokugawa era starting from 1603 and lasting until 1867 came under pressure with the start of the Meiji era in 1868. Each …

Hanakatsura: The Works Of Famous Literary Women In Japan, Tei Fujiu (Trans.), Kaho Miyake, Ichiyo Higuchi, Usurai Kitada, Otsuka Kusuo, Paul Royster (Ed.)

Zea E-Books Collection

Originally published in Tokyo in 1903, Hanakatsura (literally “garland of flowers”) features a biographical sketch of the activist and author Kishida Toshiko (Baroness Nakajima) plus four short stories by Japanese women writers of the Meiji era:

Akebonozome: A Cloth Dyed in Rainbow Colors, by Kaho Miyake

Ōtsugomori: The Last Day of the Year, by Ichiyo Higuchi

Onisenbiki: The Thousand Devils, by Usurai Kitada (Mrs. Kajita)

Shinobine, by Otsuka Kusuo

Compiled and translated by Tei Fujiu, four memorable and affecting stories depict women experiencing the frustrations of traditional family roles within an emergent commercial society at the turn of the century. …

Japanese Society Since Wwii, Seiji Shirane

Open Educational Resources

This course examines Japanese society in the aftermath of World War II. How did postwar Japan's changing relations with the US and its Asian neighbors impact Japanese society? Topics include the US Occupation, Japan's Cold War alliances, high economic growth, the 1960s student protests, postwar pacifism and the Self-Defense Force, women and US military bases, discrimination against Korean minorities, the rise of "Cool Japan," and the "people's emperor."

Ambient Athleticism: Politicizing Akira’S Accelerationist Olympiad, Thomas G. Chaplin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis politicizes Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 animated cyberpunk film, Akira, specifically through how it stages its myriad neoliberal crises as opportunities for accelerationist solutions mediated by the Tokyo Olympics. Akira’s display of fully animated and intense action physics produces an aesthetic relation to its own athletes that contracts around their bodies in an attempt to transgress classical and oppressive compositions. Akira’s vague utopic promise receives broad acceptance and affirmation by extant scholarship, often relying on the accelerative impulses found in the works of Gilles Deleuze to substantiate Akira’s hopeful ending. Invoking Gilles Deleuze’s notion of athleticism, this thesis critically rereads …

Home, Maddie Yamamura

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

I stood in the brightly lit bathroom, a giggle bubbling out of me as I inhaled the coconut and gardenia scented hand soap. The gentle breeze I’d missed tickled my skin. The Hawaiian humidity hugged me. The rustling palm fronds outside the window whispered hello. Welcome home.

The Japanese Church And Cultural Engagement, Sarah Jane Garon

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses the current cultural engagement done by the Japanese church, with particular attention given to music and the arts. Japan has hosted Christian missionaries for over five centuries and yet most of the population do not claim the religion as their own. Much research has been devoted to understanding the history of Christianity in Japan and the relationship between Japanese Christians and non-Christian Japanese culture. However, very little research has been done on the interactions between Japanese Christians and music and art specifically. This thesis, therefore, is dedicated to discovering how Japanese Christians are currently engaging with music …

Ms-285: Corporal Anthony John Kachmarsky Wwii Collection, Carly A. Jensen

All Finding Aids

The Corporal Anthony John Kachmarsky WWII Collection contains photos and documents of his time in the Pacific Theater. The bulk of the images focuses on the Japanese Surrender Treaty Signing and the occupation of Tsingtao. There are also several medals in Box 2 that Kachmarsky earned during his service, including his Purple Heart. There are magazines, books, newspaper clippings, and postcards that illustrate life in the Marine Corps. Susan Ross Southgate’s ration book and Disney-themed War Bond have been removed from this location and relocated to Vertical File Manuscript Collections.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools …

Overlooked Diplomacy: A Look Into Missed Diplomatic Efforts In The Pacific Theater Of World War Ii, Maxwell Melanson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines possible diplomatic solutions that may have ceased United States-Japanese conflict throughout the late 1930s and 40s. The first chapter analyzes the declaration of the policy of unconditional surrender, and what this policy entailed. Despite Roosevelt claiming that the idea just came to him, it was a carefully developed policy, and was chosen to be enacted for a multitude of reasons. After the Casablanca conference in January 1943, unconditional surrender became a unifying policy and a politically smart policy in Roosevelt's favor. The second chapter then analyzes the tensions rising between Japan and the United States through the …

The Costs Of Lolicon: Japan’S Pedophilia Trade, Megan Sluzhevsky

Senior Theses

This thesis investigates Japan’s normalization of pedophilia via the proliferation of popular culture and media. This analysis will begin by looking at historical examples of pedophilia, specifically focusing on chigo in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, wakashu in Edo Period pleasure quarters, and the spread of soft power diplomacy after World War II. This phenomenon will also be viewed in the modern context by discussing lolicon in Japanese media and advertising, idol culture in the Japanese music industry, the JK business, and “real” child pornography. The ways that Japan benefits from this culture economically and politically will also be investigated. Finally, this …

A Phoenix From The Ashes: Jackson Park’S Japanese Garden, Cultural Exchange, And The Endurance Of Japanese Sites After Pearl Harbor, Brittany Murphy

Asian Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Japanese gardens in the United States have a history that dates back to the World’s Fairs of the late 19th century, when Japan used the World’s Stage to project an image of itself as a powerful nation founded on both modern industrial techniques and traditional culture to compete with dominating Euro-American powers. The history of the Japanese garden in Chicago’s Jackson Park, gifted to Chicago by the Japanese government for the 1893 Columbian Exposition, tells the story of Midwesterners’ love and appreciation for the gardens while also demonstrating the implicit legacies of Executive Order 9066. The garden remained a crucial …

Creative Citizen Peacebuilding: Japanese Artists And Audiences Respond To The Vietnam-American War, Long T. Bui, Ayako Sahara

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article explores two case studies related to South Vietnam and Japan, relating them to the controversial history and legacy of the Second Indochina War. The first is the Japanese adoption and adaptation of South Vietnamese antiwar music. The second is a Japanese film, uncovered decades later after the war, exposing the role of Japan in South Vietnam. Cultural productions, from nations allied with the United States, sought to expose the popular struggle for peace against the rising tide of Cold War military violence and corporate capitalist exploitation. Through interviews, archival research, and textual analysis, the article argues for a …

A Comparison Of The Canadian And Japanese Unesco Cultural World Heritage Sites, Tessa L. V. O'Connor

The Confluence

The purpose of this comparative study was to explore the similarities and differences between Canadian and Japanese cultures through a comparison of their respective UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Sites. Specifically, the historical, religious and spiritual, and geographical factors that led to the designation of said World Heritage sites in each country are compared. Analysis of these factors reveals that Canadian Cultural World Heritage Sites, as well as modern Canadian culture, have been molded by a combination of foreign and domestic influences. In contrast, Japanese Cultural World Heritage Sites and modern culture are primarily a result of domestic influences. The cumulative …

Of Spies And Assassins, Haddon Smead

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the possibility of a connection between the Shinobi of Japan and the Order of Assassins from the Middle East. There is evidence that these two secret societies of antiquity are related and that there might have been some level of interaction and/or connection between them. The aligning methodologies, the geopolitical circumstances, the transmission of culture, and the other organizations resembling these two groups establish a frightening level of similarity between them and support the existence of a historical connection. It is hoped that additional study will be undertaken with regards to this subject, and the author of …

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.

The Twenty-Year Occupation: Cultural Reimagination And The American Occupation Of Japan, Phillip Jones

Masters Theses

In the wake of the violence and racial animosity of World War II, the United States carried out an ideologically ambitious occupation of Japan, with the stated purposes of demilitarizing their former enemy and facilitating Japan's reintroduction to the world as an appropriately reformed nation. Between 1945-1952, Japan and the United States engaged in complex and often contradictory processes of cultural reimagination, through which they reimagined the recent past, each other, and their roles in the world. I contend that the Occupation of Japan can only be appropriately understood through these processes, placed within the appropriate historical context. These processes …

Architecture In Anime: Miyazaki's Motifs, Jack Collins

Honors Projects

Internationally known, celebrated, and respected, director Hayao Miyazaki has become a household name by transforming an industry through his films. This research focuses on Miyazaki’s process and the similarities he shares with architects, both in and out of his works. By initially examining his background, the three motifs of architecture, inspiration, and sustainability are explored through works like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and more. The results of this research are to inform fans of both architecture and anime about the connection between someone who designs and builds the world, and one who designs and builds …

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 …

Living Between The Lines: How Japanese Crafts Taught Frank Lloyd Wright, Adolf Loos, And Eileen Gray To See Modern Domestic Space, Regina Nabil Emmer

Art & Art History ETDs

Histories of European and U.S. modernism conventionally accept that Enlightenment rational thought set modern architecture’s terms and criteria in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Rationalism privileges visual and material properties; distinguishes between art, architecture, and craft; and identifies space with the structure that frames it. It normalized the view that buildings stand fixed, independent of our interaction with them, and perpetuates assumptions about what physically defines domestic space. Consequently, Japan’s significance for modern domestic space in Europe and the U.S. has been interpreted as structurally evident. Simultaneously, the architecture of European and U.S. modernists who did not think like rationalists …

A Study Of Japanese Women’S Attitudes Toward Hiring Domestic Laborers, Suzanne Kamata, Yoko Kita

Journal of International Women's Studies

In the Global Gender Gap 2020 Report, which tracks gender parity in education, health, politics, and economic participation, Japanese women were ranked 121^st out of 153 (World Economic Forum, 2019), lagging far behind other Asian countries such as the Philippines, which came in at 16, Singapore, which ranked 54^th, and Thailand in 75^th place. Although Japanese women are highly educated and in good health, this represents an all-time low for Japan and might be seen as a setback. although the number of working women has increased, most are not engaged in career-track jobs; the number of …