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Geisha On Fire, Beimeng Fu

Capstones

Masae Satouchi is not an average Japanese woman. When she lived in Shiga Prefecture, a country town an hour away from Kyoto, her ex-boyfriends were uncomfortable with her eccentricity. She liked to wear colorful clothes, they didn’t. “I was too colorful to live in Japan,” she says. Japan is, of course, a modern, industrialized nation. The society, however, is famously conservative and does not allow for much unique self-expression. The situation is particularly difficult for Japanese women. Japan ranks 105 out of 136 in global gender gap index. Most women their quit jobs after having their first child.

Strangers In Their Own Lands: A Story Of Japanese Brazilians, Ken Aragaki

Capstones

Brazil is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. Since the first dispatch of Japanese immigrants in 1908, more than 240,000 people moved from Japan to Brazil between the early 1900s and the 1970s. Many of them settled outside the city of São Paulo and started working as coffee farmers under unfamiliar and harsh conditions. Today, according to some estimates, more than 1.6 million people of Japanese descent live in Brazil.

As Japan became the world’s economic power, it sought foreign workers to fill its booming labor market. The government turned to Japanese Brazilians and started granting them …

Please Read, Joseph W. Anthony-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This is a semi-fictional story told through a series of fake found documents. It describes my work and thoughts through metaphor. Machines have the potential to gain self-consciousness through accumulation of errors. Creativity can be confused with randomly generated variety. The acceptance of chaos and loss of control can provide a path to enlightenment.

The Way Of The Gods: The Development Of Shinto Nationalism In Early Modern Japan, Chadwick Mackenzie Totty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at the development of Shinto nationalism in Edo Period Japan (1603-1868). It focuses on the development of intellectual thought and the relationship between the kogaku school in Japanese Confucianism and the kokugaku school in Shintoism. The primary goal is to demonstrate that there was a trend wherein members of these two schools looked back to the past in order to rediscover a lost utopia and Way. This study examines the works of Yamaga Soko, Itō Jinsai, Ogyū Sorai, Kamo no Mabuchi, and Motoori Norinaga to demonstrate how this line of thought helped contribute to the development of …

#Networkedglobe: Making The Connection Between Social Media And Intercultural Technical Communication, Laura Anne Ewing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Preparing students of technical communication in the twenty-first century means training them to rhetorically utilize a wide variety of online tools. Technical communicators are now required to employ social media applications on a daily basis to communicate with clients, consumers, colleagues, and other organizations. These online modes have also opened the door to global communication wider and continue to present opportunities and challenges to technical communicators worldwide. Using Japan as a model, this dissertation sought to demonstrate a rhetorical exigency for teaching intercultural social media communication strategies to future technical communicators in the United States. The goal of this dissertation …

"Hello Shoppers?" - Themed Spaces, Immersive Popular Culture Exhibition, And Museum Pedagogy, Ian Peters

Communication Dissertations

This dissertation explores popular culture-related themed space exhibitions and immersive museum pedagogy through the emerging post-museum, media convergence culture, and Deborah L. Perry’s museum-oriented “What Makes Learning Fun” framework. These exhibitions utilize popular media like Star Wars, Doctor Who, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki as a means of engaging audiences with brand and subject-specific pedagogy. By bringing fictional worlds to life through environmental stimuli (sets, sounds, objects, media segments), these exhibitions use popular texts as a means of facilitating the educational goals of the institution by having visitors engage in “work as play.” Learning becomes encompassed in …

Silt Geochronology And Mineralogy, Mount Daisen, Japan, Afshan Shaikh

Geosciences Theses

The mineralogy and geochronology of silt fractions were determined for a representative Andisol (volcanic soil) from the Mt. Daisen area as well as for collected bulk reference fallout materials from Japan, and Kyoto dust samples. X-ray diffraction techniques and K-Ar methods were used to determine the age values and mineralogy of test materials. The reference fallout material was the youngest (21 Ma). The Kyoto dust was oldest (210 Ma) of all materials. The silt from the Andisol yielded older age values closer to the top and younger values closer to the parent tephra. The silt mineralogy revealed small amounts of …

Ancient Magic And Modern Accessories: Developments In The Omamori Phenomenon, Eric Teixeira Mendes

Masters Theses

This thesis offers an examination of modern Japanese amulets, called omamori, distributed by Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. As amulets, these objects are meant to be carried by a person at all times in which they wish to receive the benefits that an omamori is said to offer. In modern times, in addition to being a religious object, these amulets have become accessories for cell-phones, bags, purses, and automobiles. Said to protect people from accidents, disease, loneliness, failure, computer viruses, among many other things, these objects are one of the few material aspects of religion that are a …

Publishing Networks In Edo Japan, Hisako Kobayashi

Masters Theses

The publishing business in the Edo period (1603 – 1868) was very unique since it was divided into two genres: shomotsu mononohon and jihon kusazōshi. Publishers had their specialties and their business strategies varied. In this research paper, I examine the publishing strategies from the view of the network system. First, I state the definition of this network. Next, I study the publishing history of the Edo period to gain a general understanding. Lastly, I examine the network systems of the shomotsu publishers and the jihon kusazōshi publishers. I use examples from Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Suharaya Mohē, Tsuruya Kiemon, …

Otaku – A Case Of Assigned Identities, Steven O'Branovich

Honors Theses

With the international rise in popularity of anime and manga in the 1990s, Japan shattered its image as a nation of soulless salary men and robots and became an entertainment giant. Since then, anime has become an even larger force in the global cultural landscape, growing from a niche tape-trading market at science fiction conventions to inspiring large-scale conventions of its own. The driving force behind this expansion is a group of people known as otaku. Internationally, otaku are often defined simply as enthusiastic fans of Japanese popular culture and of anime and manga in particular. In Japan, however, the …

Kaze No Daichi Taiko: Convergent Thoughts Colliding Sounds, William Gruber

Honors Projects

By composing original works for kumi daiko, a Japanese group drumming musical style, I answer questions about authenticity and appropriation as an outsider playing this world music.

Becoming All Things To All Men: The Role Of Jesuit Missions In Early Modern Globalization, Ann Louise Cole

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From its founding, the Society of Jesus was globally minded, and Iberian imperial and mercantile expansion during the early modern period granted Jesuit missionaries unprecedented access to the globe through navigation. With its unique emphasis on both global missions and pedagogy, the Society of Jesus was in an ideal position to both generate and disseminate knowledge about the world. As missionaries scattered across the globe constructed the identity of the ethnic and cultural Other encountered on mission in the East and in Latin America, Jesuit missionaries and scholars, both at home and abroad, likewise attempted to construct a global Catholic …

The Unnatural World: Animals And Morality Tales In Hayashi Razan's Kaidan Zensho, Eric Fischbach

Masters Theses

Kaidan is a genre of supernatural tales that became popular during Japan’s Edo period. In 1627, Hayashi Razan translated numerous supernatural tales from China and collected them in five volumes in a work known as Kaidan zensho, the “Complete Collection of Strange Works.” Hayashi Razan was an influential Neo-Confucian scholar and was instrumental in establishing Neo-Confucianism as a dominant ideological force in Tokugawa Japan. As his teachings and stories reached a wide audience, and the government was supportive of Neo-Confucian ideas in Japan, his Kaidan tales, which contained subtle didactic elements, enjoyed success. However, Kaidan zensho was never translated into …

Land Of The Aging Sun : The Impact Of Population Decline On Japanese Economic Performance, Edson H. Flores

Student Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Beautification Practices Among Asian And Asian American College Students, Itsuka Takamune

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The global beauty industry is prominent both in western and non-western nations. East Asian countries like Japan, Korea, and China are the biggest markets. Although each of these countries has local beauty standards, the global beauty industry imposes western beauty standards on individuals in those countries. This affects not only Asians in Asian countries, but also Asian Americans who are thought to be somehow foreign and, therefore, underrepresented in the U.S. media. Moreover, some Asians and Asian Americans take this for granted and unconsciously adopt western beauty standards into their routine beautification practices. Asians' and Asian Americans' beautification practices function …

Deterring Nuclear Attacks On Japan: An Examination Of The U.S.-Japan Relationship And Nuclear Modernization, Alyssa M. Minamide

CMC Senior Theses

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal in covering security commitments with its foreign allies, particularly Japan. The U.S. has promised to defend allies all over the world with nuclear forces, and consequently has been forced into a delicate and precarious position. President Barack Obama wants to reach nuclear zero, which would make the world safe from nuclear destruction in the future; yet he also wants to provide security for allied nations in the present, using the
very weapons he has marked for destruction. And he is facing an aging Cold War-era nuclear arsenal that needs …

The Place Of Classical Chinese Literature In Modern Sino-Japanese Pop Culture: The Case Of Cao Cao In Sanguo Yanyi, Jonathan M. Heinrichs

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

There are few works of Chinese literature more popular than Sanguo Yanyi, or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And there are few characters more complicated than the warlord Cao Cao. Numerous adaptations of this work have been produced in both China and Japan, many of which interpret Cao Cao in different ways. This paper seeks to determine the differences between Chinese and Japanese interpretations of Cao Cao in various adaptations. It then turns to the question of what reasons, whether cultural or practical, would have caused these differences.

Immersion, Nelson James Doak

Senior Projects Spring 2015

Nelson Doak

Immersion

When I surf I feel an equilibrium, rhythm, a wholeness, synchronicity of myself deeply immersed in a process. Surfing is a complete satisfaction with the moment. This fullness or sensation fills a void that I always carry. I can't say exactly what that void is, but it is comprised of: The weight against moving forward, general dissatisfaction, and a stagnancy that comes from a lack of order or discipline.

My project involves finding the equilibrium or rhythm found in surfing through a creative process. One example is throwing a pot on the wheel which is a momentary …

The Demonic Women Of Premodern Japanese Theatre, Jasmine C.E. Umeno

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis aims to examine the ways in which women are used as vehicles within the noh and kabuki theatre traditions to perpetuate moral and religious doctrine. Using the theoretical frameworks of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Jill Dolan, I examine two plays which feature a female demon as their antagonist, Momijigari and Dojoji, and focus on the ways they incorporate Buddhist and Neo-Confucian ideology in their respective noh and kabuki renditions.