Japanese Studies Commons^™

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 …

A Theoretical And Performer’S Analysis Of Todd Goodman’S Tuba Concerto And Extended Program Notes Of Recital Pieces, Johnathan De Soto Jr.

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This document analyzes American composer Todd Goodman's 2012 work for solo tuba titled Tuba Concerto. It contains 10 chapters, including one for each of the three movements of the work: an introduction providing biographical information on the composer and context for the work within the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century; a performer’s analysis on the solo tuba part; and the biographical and performance information of composers also performed on the accompanying recital. Each of the four chapters includes theoretical analyses regarding each of Goodman's movements and practical considerations for performers of the work to observe. The thesis also …

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. …

Zen Internationalism, Zen Revolution: Inoue Shūten, Uchiyama Gudō And The Crisis Of (Zen) Buddhist Modernity In Late Meiji Japan, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

In addition to the birth and development of “Imperial Way Zen,” late Meiji Japan witnessed the emergence of a number of young lay Buddhist scholars, priests and activists who attempted, with varying success, to reframe Buddhism along progressive and occasionally radical political lines. While it is true that groups such as the New Buddhist Fellowship (Shin Bukkyō Dōshikai, 1899–1915) were made up mainly of young men associated with the two branches of the Shin (True Pure Land) sect, several of its members did affiliate themselves with Zen, such as Suzuki Daisetsu (1870–1966) and Inoue Shūten (1880–1945). While the former’s work …

A Reflection On The Challenges And Collaborative Potential In Working With Buddhist Studies Materials In East Asian Librarianship, Matthew Hayes

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This article explores a set of shared challenges that tend to emerge for East Asian Librarians in working with Buddhist studies materials. It outlines how Buddhist linguistic conventions can give rise to an unpredictability in reference work, how its historical textual practices can complicate collections development, and how Buddhist temple archive management can make traditional approaches to research advising unreliable. It also proposes that these challenges provide distinct opportunities for collaboration across Chinese, Japanese, and Korean areas of bibliographic coverage. These challenges offer a chance for librarians to work together and develop a standard, field-wide toolset for working with these …

From Post-Pantheism To Trans-Materialism: D. T. Suzuki And New Buddhism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

In modern Western thought, pantheism remains a powerful if controversial undercurrent. Recent re-evaluations of the work of Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) point to pantheism’s radical implications for metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics. Pantheism (Jp. hanshinron 汎神論) also has significant valence within Japanese Buddhist modernism, particularly in the work of scholars and lay activists who articulated the outlines of a New Buddhism (shin bukkyō 新仏教) from the 1880s through the 1940s. For these thinkers, pantheism provided a “middle way” between materialism and idealism, as well as between theism and atheism. In the postwar period, lapsed radical turned Buddhist Sano Manabu …

A Snapshot Of Japanese Family Conversation And Language Maintenance Effort, Yuya Sano

Dissertations and Theses

This research examined what dominant speech style Japanese family members utilize by analyzing their conversations at home. In addition, the research conducted the Parent Interviews to find out what efforts the parents consistently make to develop and maintain their children's Japanese ability in terms of Japanese formal speech style.

The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) to examine the dominant speech style of Japanese during at-home conversations among Japanese family members and (2) to learn about the parents' effort to develop their children's Japanese ability. In order to conduct this research, two kinds of data were collected: Family Conversation …

The Ainu, Meiji Era Politics, And Its Lasting Impacts: A Historical Analysis Of Racialization, Colonization, And The Creation Of State And Identity In Relation To Ainu-Japanese History, Bri Lambright

History Summer Fellows

On March 2nd, 1899, the Meiji government of Japan passed the Hokkaido Former Natives Protection Act. At its core, the act stripped the Ainu of their indigenous identity, labeling the group as ‘former aborigines’ and forcing every member into Japanese citizenship. In an instant, the Ainu became erased in an official capacity from the consciousness of the state and its people, a condition that would last well over 109 years when in 2008 the Japanese state finally acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous group. What is often not acknowledged is that the implementation and subsequent enforcement of the Protection Act …

Total Prevention: A History Of Schistosomiasis In Japan, Alexander Bay

History Faculty Articles and Research

In Japan, schistosomiasis was endemic in Yamanashi Prefecture and a few other hotspot areas where the Miya’iri snail lived. The parasite’s lifecycle relied on the intermediary Miya’iri snail as well as the human host. Parasite eggs passed into the agrarian environment through untreated night soil used as fertiliser or through the culture of open defecation in rural Japan. Manmade rice fields and irrigation ditches, night soil covered paddies and highly refined growing seasons put people in flooded rice paddies to intensively work the land in the spring and summer. The disease was equally dependent on human intervention in the natural …

Nami-Ko: A Realistic Novel, Kenjiro Tokutomi

Zea E-Books Collection

Nami-Ko, also called The Cuckoo (不如帰, Hototogisu), is a tragic story of love and devotion, through sickness, war, oppression, and vengeance. Eighteen-year-old Nami Kataoka hoped her marriage to Baron Takeo Kawashima would bring freedom from her overbearing stepmother. But the couple’s happiness is spoiled by her illness, her mother-in-law’s jealousy, and the schemes of Chijiwa, her husband’s cousin and her own disappointed suitor. Takeo’s naval career takes him away for long periods, and when war breaks out between Japan and China (in 1894), his mother takes advantage of his absence to break up the marriage, sending Nami back …

Talking To Ai Tutors: Speaking Practice Using A Japanese Language Learning App To Improve L2 Learners’ Fluency, Ryo Nakayama

Masters Theses

This study examines (1) whether L2 learners’ oral fluency and accuracy improve through conversation practice with AI tutors in a Japanese language learning app, (2) when fluency increases, and (3) which learning cycle is most effective. Ten participants joined the study and practiced conversations with Kaizen Languages’ AI tutors for three weeks. Learners selected their preferred learning cycle: a group with fewer lessons to complete per day but more practice days per week or a group with more lessons to complete per day but less frequent practice days per week. After three weeks of self-study, participants took an oral test …

Songs Of Limitless Love: A Translation And Critical Exploration Of Suzukake Shin’S Ai Wo Utae, Venezio K. Terranova

Masters Theses

This thesis is a translation and analysis of select tanka from the tanka anthology, Ai wo utae (Sing Love), by Suzukake Shin, an openly gay Japanese contemporary tanka poet. Published by Seidosha in 2019, the anthology contains twenty-eight rensaku (sequences) with a total of 295 individual tanka. In this thesis, I have translated six of the twenty-eight rensaku for a total of sixty-three individual tanka. Tanka are a thirty-one syllable Japanese poem that has its roots in the Heian Period (794-1185). Before presenting my English translations of Suzukake’s tanka, I give a critical introduction that consists …

Wang Xitian And The Chinese Experience In Imperial Tokyo, 1899-1923: Class, Violence, And The Formation Of A New National Consciousness, Isabella Yihan Yang

Student Work

A 2021-2022 Williams Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Isabella Yang (Saybrook ‘22) for her essay submitted to the Department of History, "Wang Xitian and the Chinese Experience in Imperial Tokyo, 1899-1923: Class, Violence, and the Formation of a New National Consciousness” (Daniel Botsman, Professor of History, advisor).

Drawing upon a remarkable array of sources in Japanese, Chinese and English, Isabella Yang, in her thesis “Wang Xitian and the Chinese Experience in Imperial Tokyo, 1899-1923: Class, Violence, and the Formation of a New National Consciousness,” has crafted a genuinely path-breaking account of an aspect of …

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 …

Japanese Gender Trouble In Revolutionary France: Ikeda Riyoko's Shōjo Manga The Rose Of Versailles, Saki Hirozane

Dissertations and Theses

Although traditional gender norms are reinforced by pop-culture media in Japan, some comics aimed primarily at female readers fight against those same gender norms. Shōjo manga (Japanese girls' comics) are no exception and have done so since their "revolution" in the 1970s. In the 1970s, a new wave of young female shōjo manga artists pioneered a different kind of girls' manga because they created new perspectives for their young female readers.

Ikeda Riyoko's Rose of Versailles (Berusaiyu no bara, 1972-73), set in Revolutionary-Era France, changed how Japanese women could see themselves in the 1970s. In Rose of Versailles …

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 …

The Influence Of Japan And India In The Circle Of Patrick Geddes, Murdo Macdonald

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the influence of Japanese art in Evergreen contributions by E.A. Hornel and Charles Mackie, the influence of Patrick Geddes's ideas in Japan, and Geddes's links with the early 20th century revival of interest in Hinduism and Indian art.

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 …

Making The Old New: The Recontextualization And Traditionalization Of Tree Spirits In Video Games, Alexandria Ziegler

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Folklorists study the active rituals between humans and deities, as well as the inactive participation between them in narrative. However, they do not study the active participation that comes in the form of video games between them, though with shifts in society, this new way of engaging through digital forms is widespread and accessible. In my research, I studied Russian and Japanese tree spirits in a variety of video games to understand this new form of engagement with ancient deities. These video games are Okami, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Black Book, and The Witcher 3: The …

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 …

ポストコロナの日本語授業に向けて: 遠隔から対面授業を体験した初級学習者の継続的な観察からわかること, Atsuko Takahashi, Yuko Takahashi

East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications

本研究では、コロナ禍で遠隔、以後対面授業へ移行した初級学習者の学習経験の調査を目的に、筆者ら の大学で 2020 年秋から遠隔で日本語 1 年生を履修、2021 年秋に対面で日本語 2 年生を続けた学生らを対 象に、匿名アンケートとインタビューをし、その結果に加え、授業観察やエッセイ等をデータとして分 析した。また、インタビューを元に、遠隔授業と対面授業をそれぞれ担当した教師の対話もデータとし て考察した。本稿では、遠隔と対面授業で学習者が感じた違いとそれに伴う学習観の構築を探り、同価 値理論を背景とした遠隔から対面カリキュラム移行の際に生じた学習観のズレや、其々の学習環境にお ける学習の有効性について考察する。本研究は、遠隔授業を経験した初級学習者を対面授業後も継続的 に観察した報告例として、ポスト・コロナの日本語授業を考える上で、学習観を踏まえた教師側の情報 交換や振り返りの機会に貢献できるのではないかと考える。

Rethinking The Benefits Of Tadoku: The Effectivness Of "Tiny Tadoku Habits" On Learners' Sense Of Well-Being | 多読によるプラス要素の再考察: 通常授業内「ちょこっと多読」がもたらす学習者のウェルビーイングへの有効性, Atsuko Takahashi, Chikako Hirayama Cooke

East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Valiant Woman, Ann Louise Cole

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1600, Hosokawa Tama Gracia perished under mysterious circumstances. She was a noblewoman married to a powerful daimyo, the daughter of a traitor, and a Kirishitan convert during the “Christian Century” in Japan. In life, she was both dutifully subservient and tenaciously bold. In death, she was fodder for propaganda, and in the hands of European writers her life story was re-written for specific narrative purposes. The most striking of these artistic transformations is her depiction as a Christian martyr in the late seventeenth-century Latin Jesuit drama Mulier fortis. The music for this drama was composed by Johann Bernhard Staudt …

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.

Traumas And Recovery In Takaya Natsuki's Fruits Basket, Vesper North

English (MA) Theses

This thesis examines the various traumas within Takaya Natsuki’s anime series Fruits Basket and how the act of transformation triggers the beginnings of recovery for numerous characters. Fruits Basket bears striking similarities to the French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (as well as later adaptations) originated by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve. Throughout, I draw parallels between the “Beauty and the Beast”-genre with Fruits Basket and how the anime expands upon shared themes, specifically trauma. Additionally, I analyse the birth of and recovery from traumas (caused by bullying, loss, abuse, and feelings of otherness) for “Beauty and the Beast” archetypes within …

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, 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 …