35 research outputs found
1940 JASC Diary
This is an online publication of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Kansas. The diary is referred to by http://www.halsema.org/people/JamesJuliusHalsema/JimBio.html. For more information about the Japan-America Student Conference, which is still being held annually, see http://iscdc.org/jasc/ .“Several years ago in a casual conversation Jim Halsema not only told me that he was a student delegate to the 7th Japan-America Student Conference held in Japan, but that he had kept a diary of that experience. Luckily for us Jim had that diary in his possession and has been willing to share it with us. Because Jim Halsema was an incredibly astute and careful observer, even at the relatively tender age of 21, we are able to share his keen perceptions of Japan, Korea, Manchuria, and China on the eve of the Pacific War. And what we are able to discern in retrospect from the Halsema diary is that a) the Japanese government had no intention whatever of diminishing its imperial state in Northeast Asia and b) that Japanese public opinion was extremely supportive of that position. From Halsema's observations one easily deduces that, behind the rhetoric of comity which is endemic in the nature of the Japan-America Student Conference, there was already evident a significant degree of tension at the base of Japanese-American relations. That Halsema was as insightful as he was can surely be attributed to his native intelligence and to his education and in particular, to his exposure to Asia including Japan from his earliest childhood.”—Goodman’s intro
Preservation and development in Japanese architecture and town planning
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture and Planning, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (v 2., leaves 309-325).The study examines the architectural preservation program as it has developed over the past century in Japan, and demonstrates how relics of the past have been manipulated and re-interpreted by individuals and communities seeking to define a modern identity. The study chronicles the development of preservation practice from a national perspective, followed by a local historical analysis of the town of Tsumago in Nagano Prefecture. It is proposed that a nativist and modernist construction of the common Japanese house has had a special place in the history of the modern movement in Japan which influenced the conceptualization, study and preservation of traditional architecture over the past century. Also, the legal tools and field practices of both the national preservation program and the grass-roots district preservation movement have been tied to ideological and political concerns which have affected building designation, restoration, and public presentation. The most important example of the grass-roots district preservation movement in Japan is Tsumago-juku in Nagano Prefecture, the first example of such a movement in Asia. It is demonstrated that Tsumago's place in the formation of Japan's modern national identity was of primary importance to the success of its preservation effort. Restoration work there resulted in important national legislation and created a conflict between the "living tradition" of local carpentry and community vs. professional preservationist. This centered on the nature of architectural tradition and definition of authenticity. As a result of the preservation effort, the town's history and traditions have been re-invented to suit the needs of the present, and its material historicity has been compromised in the name of a greater authenticity in the building process. Yet the modernist ideal of a structurally "honest" and materially "natural" Japanese house has made the acceptance of preservation intervention problematic in the architectural community, further demonstrating that the way old houses are preserved is as much a reflection of the architectural and political ideology of our time as they are a portrait of the past.by Cherie Wendelken-Mortensen.Ph.D
Nuclear Catastrophes and the Theatre in Tokyo, 1945-2016
Based on the analytical framework that nuclear threats have always affected Japan after World War II, this thesis develops an alternative narrative of post-war Japanese theatre through the socio-cultural analyses of selected A-bomb (atomic bomb) and post-Fukushima plays. By shedding light on those plays, which respond to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima; and, by juxtaposing those theatre-makers not previously associated with one another, the study introduces five types of theatre, which are products of nuclear-afflicted society.
Drawing from Robert J. Lifton’s contention that nuclear aftermath could be ‘invisible’, the study focuses on plays that not only report the tangible outcomes of the event, but also imagine beyond visible calamities. By adopting the interdisciplinary methodology of the Sociology of the Theatre, this thesis demonstrates how the plays in question materialised through constant dialogue with nuclear-afflicted societies. The keynote that this thesis strikes is that the languages, methodologies and aesthetics that are adopted in theatres, which respond to and represent various nuclear catastrophes, challenge the border of polar opposites such as here/there, life/death, science/ belief, rational/absurdity and present/past.
The five strands of nuclear-afflicted theatres and the set of theatre-makers introduced are: ‘The Theatre of Collective Kūki’ (air) developed by Noda Hideki; ‘The Theatre of Guilt and Self-Censorship’, introduced through works by Hotta Kiyomi, Inoue Hisashi and Okada Toshiki; ‘The Theatre of Sensate Atomisation’, which argues the political standpoints of Miyoshi Jūrō and Takayama Akira; ‘The Comedy of Post-humanism Absurdity’, that deals with the post-humanist and post-human theories of Betsuyaku Minoru and Matsui Shū; and ‘The Theatre of Nuclear Nostalgia’, in which Kitamura Sō and Fujita Takahiro present a bifocal time structure. Rather than chronologically, the study is thematically structured, through which arguments on why analytical parallels could be drawn between theatres after Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima are developed
Animating Heritage: Affective Experiences, Institutional Networks, And Themed Consumption In the Japanese Cultural Industries
This dissertation ethnographically examines a Japanese historical themed park to illuminate the cultural industries’ role in shaping Japanese identity through creative labor, consumption, and institutional relationships. It argues that cultural heritage is animated through embodied experiences (taiken) with performative elements and contingent contexts that take place around a central organization’s selective interpretation and staging of the past. This dissertation is based on 15 months of fieldwork in 2015-2017 at and around “Edo Town,” the pseudonym for a historical themed park in Japan that evokes the Edo or Tokugawa period (1603-1867) in Japan’s history. I explore the creative labor, institutional networks, and consumption practices around embodied experiences staged by its operating company to communicate an Edo-like Japanese identity. Such an identity recovers an alternate mode of sociality and being that aims to rehabilitate contemporary social anxieties about economic stagnation and the loss of collective Japanese identity. I demonstrate that cultural industry venues exist beyond their representations, as Edo Town is not only a historical themed park but also an employer of local residents, an actor training institution, a touristic destination, a provider of cultural knowledge expertise, as well as an alternate social space that sustain relationships outside of work and home. More broadly, I analyze how human agency is modified through theming and animation frameworks when people develop social senses that are alternate to their everyday lives. In this case, both themed park workers and visitor-consumers merge with Edo-like characters that enable them to encounter each other differently from their usual selves. In the process, they are socialized with the meaning of Edo-like Japaneseness as a corrective to what they have taken for granted in real life. I also highlight how history-themed parks and spaces like Edo Town challenge conventional modes of cultural transmission through creative re-enactments of cultural knowledge as intangible heritage, including the use of theater, characters, and fictional social encounters as the media of communication
STUDY ON THE ACTUAL CONDITION IN SAN-MACHI IMPORTANT PRESERVATION DISTRICT FOR GROUPS OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS, TAKAYAMA CITY
Dealing with Disasters: Environmental History of Early Modern Cities (Edo, Istanbul, London, Pest, and Prague)
List of ContributorsForeword Introduction The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in Early Modern Cities / Koichi Watanabe trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Part I: Aspects of Urban Disasters Chapter 1 Typhoon Damage in 1856 Edo: Integrating Archaeology, Climatology and History / Koichi Watanabe, Junpei Hirano, Hiroyuki Ishigami, and Masumi Zaiki trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Chapter 2 The Great Flood in Pest, 1838 / Csaba Katona Chapter 3 Fire Disasters in European Cities, 1600-1800 David Garrioch Comment Disaster of Beijing in the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911 / Akira Horichi trans. by Yoko Onodera Part II: Disasters and Responses Chapter 4 Prevent the Big Water. Flood Control Measures in Prague (Bohemia) Issued by Public Administrative Bodies in Late 18th Century / Ondřej Hudeček Chapter 5 Citizens’ Awareness of Firefighting in Edo: Analysing Eighteenth-Century Textbooks on Firefighting / Reiji Iwabuchi trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Part III: Infrastructure as Artificial Nature Chapter 6 The Ordinary Made Extraordinary: The Archaeology of Water Management in a Global City / Sophie Jackson Chapter 7 Management and Civil Engineering of Urban Water Supply and Sewage System in Edo as Seen from Archaeological Excavation / Hiroyuki Ishigami trans. by Mina Ishizu Chapter 8 Dredging the Edo Castle\u27s Moat: a Case of the Okayama-Domain Dredging in 1765 / Reiji Iwabuchi trans. by Naoko Nomoto Chapter 9 Canal, Dredging and Sedimentation in the Lowland Area of East Edo: Considering Physical and Spatial Characteristics of Canals in a Historical Context / Genki Takahashi trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Part IV: Hinterland and Nature Chapter 10 Flooding in Edo and the Tone-gawa River and Tama-gawa River Systems / Koichi Watanabe trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Chapter 11 The Great Edo Flood of 1742 and the Okutama Valley / Koichi Watanabe trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Chapter 12 The Deluge of Istanbul in 1563: a Case of Flood Where There Was No River / Kazuaki Sawai trans. by Yoko Onodera Chapter 13 Storms, Flooding and the Development of London 1300-1500 / Matthew Davies Chapter 14 Bridging London’s River’s General Situation of London, the Thames, the Bridge / Vanessa Hardin
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Everyday Fascism in Contemporary Japan
This dissertation uses the concept of fascism in order to examine the socio-culture of contemporary Japan. Defined in terms of its commodity structure, fascism turns out to be a relevant concept to Japan not only prior to and during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945) but also from the postwar days to date. Against various forms of culturalism that claim that the country is essentially totalitarian and its culture is innately violent, I will argue that the country has shared fascist conditions with those other countries and regions that operate in the mode of mechanical reproduction. While the overall mode of mass-reproduction has been further articulated by different moments, such as late capitalism or post-modernism, the cultural and political condition of reducing singular lives and events into standardized forms has continued in these countries and regions roughly since the 1920s.
My view will expand the horizon of studies of fascism, which has hitherto been limited to Europe between the two World Wars. At the same time, the view of fascism's generality should not be blind to local inflections and historical specificities. In this dissertation, I will examine such trans-war Japanese institutions as the ideologies of emperorship, formation of the petty bourgeois class, and corporatist organizations of gender and locality. My dissertation will ethnographically investigate the way in which these institutions have interacted with the country's modern capitalist everyday to result in fascist violence. The specific sites in which my ethnographies take place are the contemporary Tokyo and Yokohama suburbs (Chapters 1 and 3) and the Yasukuni Shinto Shrine in Tokyo (Chapters 2 and 4), among others.
These ethnographies will elucidate how the categories of class, gender, and generation crisscross everyday pleasures and anxieties of commodification. Lastly and not least importantly, another historically specific element of postwar Japanese fascism is memories and traces of its prewar violence exercised on other Asians and Pacific Islanders. The problem of ill mourning seems to critically ground the postwar Japanese formation of fascist potentialities. The last chapter will discuss contemporary Japanese efforts for mourning and the accompanying issue of ethics