Organizer: Van C. Gessel, Brigham Young University
Chair: Ann B. Jannetta, University of Pittsburgh
Challenging the Japanese National Narrative: Inoue Hisashi and the Reawakening of
Regional Identity
Christopher Robins, Indiana University
My paper will discuss selected works of fiction by Inoue Hisashi (1934-present) which are rooted in the language and culture of the Tohoku region. I will consider the way in which Inoue's Tohoku narratives challenge and subvert the urban-based construction of a modern Japanese identity. I will show how these narratives present an alternative vision of Japanese identity; one which defines itself in opposition to the idea of a monolithic Tokyo-centered culture. This vision celebrates imagination, independence, and innovation; seeking personal identity and transcendence in relation to the group versus the universalization of individual experience.
The people, culture and language of Tohoku serve as a useful foil against the idea of Japan as an homogeneous nation. Paradoxically, Tohoku shares close linguistic roots with "standard" Japanese (Tokyo dialect) while at the same time, to the typical urban dweller, the sound of the Tohoku dialect is virtually synonymous with an earthy backwardness utterly at odds with the vision of Japan as an advanced, cosmopolitan culture.
The central focus of the paper will be concerned with Inoue's major satirical novel, Kirikirijin (The Kirikirians [1973-81]). This novel challenges the political, cultural, and linguistic authority of Tokyo, depicting the Kirikirians' political secession from the rest of Japan. Inoue also subverts the modern Japanese literary canon when Soseki's Kokoro, Kawabata's Yukiguni, and other well-established works are translated into local dialect.
Internationalization, Hometown-ism, and an Instance of Cultural Syncretism at the
Hamamatsu Kite Festival
Joshua H. Roth, Cornell University
In Japan, over the past two decades, there has arisen a discourse of internationalization (kokusaika). Contributors to this discourse encourage Japanese people to be more knowledgeable of foreign languages and customs and for the Japanese nation and corporations to become more savvy and responsible players on the world stage. Simultaneously, there has arisen a movement promoting hometown community spirit (furusato zukuri) . In increasingly urbanized and atomized Japanese neighborhoods, municipal governments have been attempting to foster greater community spirit through the promotion of festivals that celebrate community and draw upon local traditions and histories.
In this paper, I will show how these apparently contrary movements-the outward-looking internationalization and the inward-looking hometown-ism-are in fact two sides of the same sociological coin. I look specifically at the case of Hamamatsu, an industrial city of 500,000, where, for over a century, a kite festival has taken place in early May. In the post-war period, with a rise in a newcomer population from other parts of Japan, and the incorporation of neighboring townships into an ever expanding municipality, the festival has spread to roughly 150 neighborhoods and become the city's official festival.
In this paper, I consider whether the festival can extend to the integration of even newer newcomers, the recent wave of Brazilian and other foreign workers who now make Hamamatsu one of the most international of Japanese cities. During the festival in 1995, I witnessed a hybridization of Japanese revelry and Brazilian music which sheds light on its integrative possibilities.
The Development of National Identity: The Symbolization of the Emperor in
Nineteenth-Century Japan
Yuichi Tamura, University of Kansas
This paper deals with the development of cultural nationalism and national identity in 19th-century Japan. National identity in Japan was created through the interplay of socio-political conditions and change in perceptions among Japanese. Faced with the threat of Western power, the intellectuals in Japan strived to generate the national community by creating a national identity to avoid foreign domination. Until that time, under feudalism in which each feudal domain had relatively autonomous power, there was no conception of Japanese as a single distinctive race, group, or people. The threat from outside precipitated the creation of a national identity and the development of nationalism.
To explore the rise of nationalism in Japan, I will focus on the symbolic rise of the emperor and the construction of its cultural and political meanings during the twilight years of Japanese feudalism. All the nationalistic arguments articulated by intellectuals in the 19th century centered upon the sovereignty of the emperor. This paper will show: (1) cultural grounds for the symbolization of the emperor; (2) the roles of intellectuals in the process of the national symbol creation; and (3) the transformative nature of the meaning attributed to a national symbol in constantly changing socio-political conditions.
The Creation of a Superior Japanese Culture: The Case of Hori Ichiro
Hideaki Matsuoka, University of California, Berkeley
Since the beginning of the Meiji Era, the gap between Japan as an ideal and Japan as a reality had been one of the most important problems to be resolved. Japanese intellectuals created fantastic histories/stories that interpreted world history from the viewpoint that put Japan in the center of the world.
Kokumin Seishin Bunka Kenkyusho (Center for the Study of National Spiritual Culture), founded in 1932 under direct control of the Ministry of Education, was a national institution to prove the superiority of Japanese culture. The center hired intellectuals to carry out this purpose. Hori Ichiro (1910-1974), the son-in-law of Yanagita Kunio, was one of them.
Hori had exerted himself to establish a new discipline: Japanese cultural history. Soon after he obtained a job at Kokumin Seishin Bunka Kenkyusho in 1939, however, he began writing books and articles to argue the excellence of Japanese culture. His unpublished diary clearly evidences that he did not write these in going with the current of the time, but rather he really believed that Japan was Shinkoku (The Land of God).
By analyzing nationalistic atmosphere of Kokumin Seishin Bunka Kenkyusho, and problematic in Hori's approach, this paper explores two issues: (1) What was Kokumin Seishin Bunka Kenkyusho in wartime Japan; and (2) How a young scholar who sought to study Japanese cultural history came to insist on the superiority of Japanese culture.
The Construction of National/Ethnic Identity of the Korean Community in Osaka,
1920-1945
Chisato Hotta, University of Chicago
This paper will examine the experience of the Korean community in Osaka between 1920 and 1945, while highlighting a parallel experience of the African American community in Chicago within the same time frame. To challenge an inadequate notion of homogenization which treats Koreans merely as victims of colonization, and depicts their community life as miserable and helpless, I will exhibit the dynamic and powerful role of the Korean community in Osaka. Similar to the black urban community, the segregated Korean community struggled not only to preserve its Korean identity, but also to empower themselves within a hostile environment. In particular, in response to Kominka (the production of a Japanese imperial subject), which aimed to eliminate a discrepancy between its ideology and everyday practices, the Korean community supported cultural continuity and provided Korean language education through the operation of night schools. At the same time, the community helped develop mutual aid systems such as the establishment of the Proletariat Consumer Co-op as well as provided a base for political liberation activities. I will show how the Koreans fought against the systematic racism and institutional discrimination they faced and tried to build a vibrant life for themselves.