East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Maritime Trade And The World Picture: Exploring Shiga Shigetaka's Map Of Global Trade, Chinying Lee

Japanese Society and Culture

Shiga Shigetaka (志賀重昂, 1863-1927) was a Japanese geographer of the mid-Meiji period, one of the Southern Expedition theorists, a conservative, and a Classical Chinese poet. At that time, he was one of the very few scholars who had knowledge of geography and Classical Chinese poetry and cultural arts, as well as had many experiences in Europe, Asia, the United States and Oceania.

Through his own geographical knowledge and foreign experience, Shiga constructed a world map with global trade as the main constituent. Here are some examples: Japanese-made round paper fans (uchiwa, 団扇) and parasols can be sold to Australia; New …

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–, 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, 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 Aesthetic Society And Its Gatekeepers, Aaron Francis Ward

Japanese Society and Culture

The current study draws on Saito’s (2007) application to western context of the Japanese practice of appreciating the aesthetic and ethical aspects of everyday objects, examined through the complexity of aesthetic evaluation. Bourdieu’s (1984a) moderating variable cultural capital is used to advance an understanding of perceptual and linguistic complexity in daily aesthetic consumption. By engaging participants in a quasi-experiment of multi-sensory trials of everyday products (lemon squeezers), an examination was made of how language use reveals embodied knowledge of daily consumption practice. As the participants’ volumes of cultural capital increased, there was a greater tendency to categorize the stimuli according …

Transition Of Multicultural Symbiotic Policies In Japan: Case Studies Analysis Of Tokyo, Toyohashi And Minamiuonuma City, Kozue Kashiwazaki, Ryo Sato

Japanese Society and Culture

How to attract foreign human resources and settle in has been one of the main issues of Japan where is facing depopulation and required to lead local regeneration with diversity. This paper introduces the transition of multicultural symbiotic policies in Japan and case studies at city level based on the collected data by in-depth interview in 2015. Data was collected in three advanced case studies, Tokyo, Toyohashi, and Minamiuonuma city. Through the overview of transition of policies and case study analysis, this paper attempts to find the fundamental and potential gaps between policies and actual condition at national and city …