Japanese Studies Commons^™

An Overview Of Japanese Kampo: An Integrative Approach To Medicine, Olivia Yaste

Honors College Theses

There is a growing interest in the use of traditional medicine for the treatment of disease and health conditions around the world. The traditional medicine system of Japan has been in place for thousands of years and the traditional herbal system, Kampo, has been fully integrated into the modern national healthcare system. The compilation of information on topics surrounding Kampo written in English is scattered, making it difficult to gain a broad understanding of the subject without immense time and effort. This paper aims to review the existing literature on a variety of topics surrounding Kampo in order to give …

Japanese-English Translation: Critical Consciousness In Crisis, By Miki Kiyoshi, December 1928 (Excerpt Of §1); Published In Kaizō, January 1929; Translated By Christopher Southward, November 2024: 「危機における理論的意識」、三木清著；1928年12月著作；『改造』1929年1月号発行； 2024年11月南方クリストファー訳, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Critical Consciousness in Crisis, by Miki Kiyoshi, December 1928 (Excerpt of §1) Published in Kaizō, January 1929; Translated by Christopher Southward, November 2024

「危機における理論的意識」、三木清著；1928年12月著作；『改造』1929年1月号発行；2024年11月南方クリストファー訳

Japanese-English Translation:「翻訳について」、岸田國士著、一九三五年一月作 The Question Concerning Translation, By Kishida Kunio (Penned January 1935), Translated By Christopher Southward, November 2024, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Japanese translator, essayist and dramatist Kishida Kunio (1890-1954) on the craft of translation with an emphasis on French literature and French - Japanese translation

Asia In Saint Louis: Synergy Of Library Instruction, Digital Humanities, And Community Engagement, Joan Wang, David Romney

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This article explores the integration of library instruction, digital humanities, and community engagement through the "Asia in Saint Louis" project at Washington University in St. Louis. Led by subject librarians Joan Wang and David Romney, in collaboration with digital humanities specialists and local community organizations, the project aimed to digitally reconstruct and showcase the histories of Asian Americans in St. Louis from the late 19th to the 20th century. Funded by the Missouri Humanities Council, the project employed ArcGIS StoryMap technology to create a series of interactive narratives. These StoryMaps, supported by archival research and community involvement, highlight key themes …

Beyond Boundaries: Evaluating Bl/Yaoi Subject Headings In Academic Library Classification, Cecilia Zhang

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This study critically evaluates the effectiveness of the newly established Library of Congress Subject Headings, "Boys' Love (Gay Erotica)" and "Yaoi (Gay Erotica)," in classifying and facilitating the retrieval of information related to these genres. By examining the complex history of these terms within fan communities in Japan, China, and Korea across different historical periods, this research argues that the current LCSH oversimplifies the genre's rich cultural context and ongoing innovation, creating barriers to effective information retrieval and access. Additionally, the use of the term "Gay Erotica" is misaligned with the nuanced nature of BL/Yaoi, further complicating its classification. This …

Zeami's Buddhism And Noh In Kurosawa's Ikiru, Ronald S. Green

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper explores the influences of Noh drama theorist Zeami Motokiyo on Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru. While Kurosawa's adaptations of traditional Japanese arts are well documented, this study uniquely demonstrates how specific Noh aesthetics shaped this film. It analyzes how Kurosawa's direction of actor Takashi Shimura embodies Zeami's aesthetic principles of awareness of impermanence (mujō), profound mystery (yūgen), and no-mind (mushin), which are performative expressions of Buddhist philosophies. Kurosawa employs four methods developed by Zeami: the use of masks, sparseness in settings and costumes, singing, and the application of an …

Undergraduate Students’ Experiences And Perceptions Of Foreign Language Education, Miho Hamamoto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the enrollments of undergraduate and graduate students in language courses other than English have been continuously decreasing in recent years. Previous research proves that there are diverse benefits that learning a language offers, and it is evident that language education is crucial in this globalized world. However, many universities and colleges in the United States are eliminating foreign language programs, which can deprive students of a crucial opportunity to engage in language learning. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions of foreign language education, and the study was guided …

From Fan Blogs To Fruits Basket: Documenting The Resources Of Anime And Manga Studies Libguides, Billy Tringali, Vibu Logendran

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Anime and manga have seen exponential growth in market value, and popularity, over the last decade. This boom of popularity for anime has been matched in recent years by an increased interest from fans in anime and manga studies. This project seeks to document the contents of anime studies research guides, with the goal of seeing what specific resources, popular media, and fan media like blogs, are listed within these guides and recommended to fans seeking to explore this budding area of scholarship.

Digital Transformation In An Attempt To Revitalize Kabuki Theater Arts, Bella Oktira Sujaya, Shobichatul Aminah, Susy Ong

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

ABSTRACT

Kabuki is a traditional performing art that has been present since the end of the Azuchi-Moyama period. In its development, Kabuki has undergone many changes to adapt to the times. This journal discusses the preservation of Kabuki, one of which is carried out through digital transformation. The Japanese government in the early Meiji era considered the preservation of Kabuki to be crucial because it is one of the rich cultural heritages and to attract tourists. This journal uses qualitative research methods obtained from books, documentation, archives, magazines, online mass media, and social media related to the development of Kabuki. …

Itagaki Paru's Animalized Japan, Adoria Shanelle Walker

Dissertations and Theses

In the earlier works of manga artist and author Itagaki Paru, animal characters are used to prompt a discussion of the uchi/soto ("in-group"/"out-group") dynamic present in Japanese society. Throughout her most popular work, Beastars, and its supplemental short story collection Beast Complex, Itagaki tackles binary thinking and in-group versus out-group social politics using a blatantly obvious, yet nuanced and subtle herbivore-versus-carnivore, predator-versus-prey metaphor. The world she depicts in these works is full of misunderstandings caused by hastily made assumptions, sometimes instinctually quick. With her animalized characters, she explores human stigmatization and the poor treatment of those who do not want …

From “Defilement” To “Modernity”: How Japan's Encounter With The West Brought Beef To The Table, Ying Yi Tan

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The long Tokugawa – Meiji transition (1850s – 1880s) is arguably one of the most profound socio-economic transitions that Japan underwent in its history. This paper uses beef consumption in Japan as a lens to further investigate the players involved in this transition. Historically more eschewed than other types of meat and tightly associated with the notion of the “other,” beef became an embodiment of progress and modernity during the Meiji Period. Through tracing the historical shift in the Japanese perception of beef, this paper argues that the evolution of beef consumption corresponds to the radically shifting attitudes of the …

Abetting Assimilation: Competing Narratives In Sister Inez Hilger’S Together With The Ainu: A Vanishing People, Mark Spangler

CSB and SJU Distinguished Thesis

No abstract provided.

Finding The Right Partner: Japan And Netherlands’ Relationship In The Edo Period, Sarah Weeks '24

Senior Scholarly and Creative Symposium

This thesis paper seeks to enhance the understanding of the Japanese-Dutch relationship during the Edo Period. Despite Japan being a closed country during the Tokugawa Shogunate, it uniquely permitted the Netherlands as the only Western country to have access to trade. This decision was challenging to make due to Japan’s previous failed experiences with the West, such as the Portuguese, whose spread of the Christian religion led to major conflict. When Japan expelled out all Western foreigners, they allowed the Dutch to remain. The Netherlands then became the exclusive Western country allowed in Japan for over 200 years. This relationship …

Houses Built For Gods: Articulations Of Urban Hokora In Kyoto, Steele Engelmann

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Amidst the urban landscape of Kyoto, Japan, there are thousands of hokora, small neighborhood shrines. This study uses social theories of pilgrimage and space to examine the articulation of hokora, community, and personal desire. As sites of local pilgrimage, hokora form networks of communal, but also individual, aspirations across the urban spiritual landscape of the city. This thesis argues that communities are connected to the larger social structures of Kyoto through hokora. As such, neighborhoods are reproduced and displayed through their hokora’s entanglements with the urban, social, and religious landscapes of Kyoto. Therefore, this study deploys an ethnographic approach to …

A Comparison Of Japanese And American Tattoos, Zachary Martin

2024 Student Academic Showcase

In the Japanese culture, tattoos began as a form of punishment for criminals, while tattoos in the American culture began as a display of one’s title as sailor. Throughout time, tattoos in Japan became more synonymous with pride and loyalty, albeit still being primarily used by criminals and members of Japanese gangs. In American cultures, tattoos shifted from a sailor's declaration and pride towards a personal statement by the individual wearing the tattoo. This presentation investigates the similarities and differences in Japanese and American tattoos through their uses in history and present day, as well as the symbolisms and meanings …

From Mountains To Cities: East Asian Landscapes, Catherine Haley, Conrad Martens, Cyndy Basil, Emma Wylam, Isobel Debenham, Katherine M. Tyson, Lenna Kouzoujian, Miriam Glatfelter, Molly Griffith, Noelle Muni, Yan Sun

Schmucker Art Catalogs

Under the direction of Prof. Yan Sun, student curators examine diverse depictions of landscapes from China and Japan. The selected works, including paintings on silk, ornate carvings in lapis lazuli, and prints, among others, offer meditations on nature and industrialization. Students consider the historical, material, aesthetic, and environmental significance of the works on display.

Mending Wounds: A Reparative Feminist Analysis Of The Japanese Film Series Guinea Pig, Mikayla Walker

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

Guinea Pig (ギニーピッグ) is an anthology series of six body horror films created and released in Japan from 1985 to 1990, all connected by a common theme of bodily experimentation and destruction. The series has maintained a controversial legacy due to its portrayal of intense misogynistic violence. However, upon closer examination, the films reveal subtle moments of patriarchal critique when viewed as a cohesive unit. Using Cynthia Freeland’s framework for creating feminist readings of horror films and Eve Sedgwick’s concept of reparative reading, this research aims to highlight those moments of subversion in order to create a more progressive feminist …

Feigned Compliance: The Japanese American Response To Incarceration During Wwii In Light Of Issei And Nisei Conflict, Mary Rose Comerford

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Major: History
Minors: Asian Studies; Business and Innovation

The formation of exclusively Nisei organizations in the 1930s contributed to their rise in community leadership. When WWII began, these Nisei-led groups collaborated with the War Relocation Authority (WRA), which created a narrative of Japanese American compliance. This is evidenced in internment camp newspapers.

Comic Legacies Of The Japanese Silver Screen, Aaron Gerow, Xavi Sawada, David Baasch, Eugene Kwon, Adam Silverman, Anna Tropnikova, Chloe Yan

Film Series Commentaries

Pamphlet created for the film series “Comic Legacies of the Japanese Silver Screen” presented at Yale University from February to April, 2024. Starting with an introduction outlining the history of Japanese film comedy, the pamphlet contains plot summaries and commentaries on the following films:

Buddhist Mass for Goemon Ishikawa (1930, Saitō Torajirō) Fighting Friends (1929, Ozu Yasujirō) Romantic and Crazy (1934, Yamamoto Kajirō) Singing Lovebirds (1939, Makino Masahiro) Akanishi Kakita (1936, Itami Mansaku) Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryō (1935, Yamanaka Sadao) Room for Rent (1959, Kawashima Yūzō) Doctor’s Day Off (1952, Shibuya Minoru) Oh, My Bomb! …

2024 Bloom Forecast Dates, Gina Rippens

Rosen Library Exhibits

On display: February-May 2024
Featured items: Books from the Rosen Library Collection. Handmade Japanese doll. Cherry Blossom Bloom Map. 2024 Bloom Forecast.
Primary Curator: Gina Rippens

See more items from this exhibit

Sakura Hanami: Celebrating The Japanese Cherry Blossom, Exhibit Brochure, Gina Rippens

Rosen Library Exhibits

On display: February-May 2024
Featured items: Books from the Rosen Library Collection. Handmade Japanese doll. Cherry Blossom Bloom Map. 2024 Bloom Forecast.
Primary Curator: Gina Rippens

See more items from this exhibit

Japan Cherry Blossom Map, Gina Rippens

Rosen Library Exhibits

On display: February-May 2024
Featured items: Books from the Rosen Library Collection. Handmade Japanese doll. Cherry Blossom Bloom Map. 2024 Bloom Forecast.
Primary Curator: Gina Rippens

See more items from this exhibit

Sakura Hanami: Celebrating The Japanese Cherry Blossom, Exhibit Sign, Gina Rippens

Rosen Library Exhibits

On display: February-May 2024
Featured items: Books from the Rosen Library Collection. Handmade Japanese doll. Cherry Blossom Bloom Map. 2024 Bloom Forecast.
Primary Curator: Gina Rippens

See more items from this exhibit

Japanese-English Translation: Three Poems By Takeuchi Kozo: Death In Winter; To The North Sea; Sunset (「冬に死す」・「「北海に」・「夕焼け」), Translated By Christopher Southward, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Japanese-English Translation: Three Poems by Takeuchi Kozo: Death in Winter; To the North Sea; Sunset (「冬に死す」・「「北海に」・「夕焼け」), Translated by Christopher Southward

The Coevolution Of The Six Ancient Kilns And Japanese Postwar Local Identity, Benjamin Lewis Rothstein

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

The arts have long been tools used to prop up political visions, and Japan’s traditional crafts are no exception to this trend. Japanese ceramics in particular have enjoyed, or perhaps endured, era after era of patronage by successive governments and movements over their more than a millennium of history. Appropriated by a wave of nationalism in the Meiji period, the rokkoyō (six ancient kilns), long famous for their rustic style and acclaimed tea wares, were converted along with many other traditional crafts into symbols of the Japanese national spirit. In the postwar period, however, without necessarily losing their national importance, …

Review: Science For Governing Japan’S Population, By Aya Homei, Alexander Bay

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Science for Governing Japan’s Population, by Aya Homei.

Bridging Traditions And Innovations In Japanese Kimono Fashion -After Wwii To The Present-, Keiko Okamoto

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

After the Meiji Restoration (1868 - ), there were three major Westernization periods in Japanese clothing history. The first was the period when Japan re-opened its ports to the West, the second was when the Great Kanto Earthquake hit eastern Japan (1912). During the first and the second periods, Western style clothing was added to the existing upper- to mid-class kimono culture. The third period was post-World War II period when the Japanese lost most of their clothing during the war as they were burnt in bombings, bartered for foods, or forced to alter the shape.

This presentation will focus …

Nourishing Connections: Chinese Immigrant Identity In Tokyo Through Commensality And Hospitality, Sarai Brown

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

This paper explores how Chinese immigrants in Tokyo, Japan preserve their cultural identity through practices of commensality and hospitality in stark contrast to Japanese culture. In Chinese culture, hospitality – mainly acts of food sharing – is how kinship relations are built and maintained, eventually growing into an important hierarchy network that ultimately builds a fully realized identity created out of communal belonging. Japanese culture in this sense is not as hospitable, deeming food-sharing as an extremely private and high-risk affair that is considered low-risk in Chinese contexts.

Playing Changes: Music As Mediator Between Japanese And Black Americans, E Taylor Atkins

Faculty Books & Book Chapters

Since the mid-twentieth century, music has played a central role in encounters and interactions between the people of Japan and those of African descent. It proved far more effective for pro- moting interracial dialogue and understanding than efforts in the early 1900s to foster an alliance against white supremacy and imperialism. This essay unpacks the ways that encounters with Black music transformed Japanese musicking and generated knowledge and empathy for people of African descent among Japanese. Personal interactions between Black and Japanese musicians constituted a process of “grassroots globalization” that circumvented the dominance of American mass media in representing African …

Public Patriotism, Silent Dissent: Women And The Making Of Senninbari In Wartime Japan, Mariko Nagai

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the early years of the so-called “Fifteen Year War” (1931–1945), Japanese women and girls created senninbari when men received draft notices to serve. Often worn around soldiers’ waists underneath their uniforms, these sash-shaped talisman were embroidered with 1,000 red knots, each knot made by a woman. In a time when the Japanese government censored dissenting voices against its militaristic and nationalistic foreign and domestic policies, this government-encouraged gesture of stitching senninbari became one of the few ways in which women could voice their personal protests within patriarchal gender expressions (良妻賢母 “good wife, wise mother”). Senninbari’s design evolved with regional- …