In this thesis, I argue that, perhaps more than any other contributing factor, the card game known as Hyakunin Isshu karuta plays a major role in the popularity of the Hyakunin Isshu anthology...Show moreIn this thesis, I argue that, perhaps more than any other contributing factor, the card game known as Hyakunin Isshu karuta plays a major role in the popularity of the Hyakunin Isshu anthology today, and has done so ever since the conception of the game. Where the once-popular woodblock printed parodies and educational books that featured the poems inevitably fell out of fashion, karuta has seen attempts at modernization, standardization and national organization that secured not only its own survival into the twenty-first century, but that of the anthology as well. As there was very little research on this specific topic at the time of writing, I sought to answer this question: how has karuta, and the popularity thereof, concretely contributed to the popularity of the Hyakunin Isshu in the past 70 years?Show less
Ryukyu, also known as Okinawa, is the southernmost prefecture of Japan today. However, these islands were once an independent Kingdom and played a crucial role as a link between Northeast and...Show moreRyukyu, also known as Okinawa, is the southernmost prefecture of Japan today. However, these islands were once an independent Kingdom and played a crucial role as a link between Northeast and Southeast Asia during the maritime period. Established in 1429, the Ryukyu Kingdom existed as a separate state for nearly 450 years until it was incorporated into Okinawa Prefecture by the Meiji Japanese government in 1879. Scholarship on Okinawa has predominantly focused on post-war geopolitics or the general exchanges between China, Japan, and Ryukyu in the early modern period, often relying on textual accounts. Unfortunately, the arts of Okinawa have largely been overlooked by the Western world due to the prevailing notion that Japan is a homogeneous culture, disregarding local variations and leading Western Japanologists to lack specialized interest in Japan's peripheral regions. Similarly, ethnographic museums in the West have limited collections related to the Ainu people. These circumstances suggest that contemporary studies on Japan are largely influenced by the country's nationalist concept of a unified nation, particularly after the Meiji Restoration. China had been sending diplomatic envoys to the Ryukyu Kingdom since the Ming Hongwu Emperor, and this practice continued until the mid-19th century when Japan annexed Ryukyu and made it part of its territory. The four-century-long diplomatic history between Ryukyu and China can be considered the golden age of Okinawan history, during which numerous art forms thrived, and Okinawans took great pride in their unique culture and language. The Okinawans referred to the vessels carrying envoys from China as Okansen (meaning "crown ships"), and the primary envoys who crowned the Ryukyu King were called Sappōshi. Although the Ryukyu Kingdom was officially established as a unified dynasty by King Shō Hashi in 1429, the tributary relationship with Ming China had already begun in 1372, during the reign of the Ming Hongwu Emperor and King of Chūzan. In addition to the vassal and tributary relationship with China, the Kingdom maintained careful relations with Japan after the invasion by the Japanese Satsuma-Shimazu clan based in Kagoshima, Kyushu in 1609. The Ryukyu Kingdom pursued a diplomacy of equidistance and multilateralism, establishing trade with China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asian countries as the foundation of its economy. Consequently, people, goods, and information from various Asian countries were exchanged, giving rise to an international "Ryukyu culture." This study aims to explore the enduring but relatively understudied tributary relationship between the suzerain and vassal states through an examination of historical documents and material culture. Specifically, I will analyze similar tributary offerings found in the collections of various museums.Show less
This thesis examines the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) and the Setouchi Triennale (ST), two of the largest and best-known Art Triennale in (and outside) Japan, and considers how these art...Show moreThis thesis examines the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) and the Setouchi Triennale (ST), two of the largest and best-known Art Triennale in (and outside) Japan, and considers how these art festivals intend to provide a solution to the continuing ageing population and declining birthrate in Japanese rural areas. Japan contains the largest proportion of elderly people in the world and its population continues to decline since 2004. Yet, this decrease is especially severe in rural areas because the majority of the population consist of elderly people. The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) and the Setouchi Triennale (ST), have been established as strategies to tackle Japan’s increasingly ageing population. The former was established by Kitagawa Fram (1946-present) whereas the latter was co-founded in 2010 by Kitagawa Fram and Fukutake Sōichirō (1945/46-present). The common aim of the ETAT and ST initially seems to be the restoration of these economically declining rural areas through contemporary art projects. Yet, this thesis claims that Kitagawa’s and Fukutake’s idealistic views about the countryside and ‘traditional’ countryside lifestyles resulted into their attempt to reshape Japanese society by reidentifying neglected rural areas through contemporary art. This is because both men’s strong partnership and their active involvement in both Triennale shape these art festivals according to their own convictions and objectives. Therefore, this thesis demonstrates that the ETAT and ST’s purpose exceeds rural revitalization and is actually about the creation of a ‘new’ society which is brought together by the art festivals.Show less
This thesis argues that the notion of a samurai film genre is actually an Anglophone construct that is used to classify Japanese films from the 'jidaigeki' (period film) and 'chambara' (swordplay)...Show moreThis thesis argues that the notion of a samurai film genre is actually an Anglophone construct that is used to classify Japanese films from the 'jidaigeki' (period film) and 'chambara' (swordplay) genres. Because of the political situation during the Cold War and the orientalist perspective of Western audiences, Western cultural conventions that would eventually create the samurai film genre were thought of as Japanese cultural conventions based on Japanese cultural tradition. Kurosawa Akira's 'samurai films', which were the first to be shown in the West and also the most widely exported outside Japan, have become representative of this genre, despite the fact that Kurosawa’s jidaigeki films often do not follow the cultural conventions that is believed to be the samurai film genre.Show less
With the drastic shift started by the Meiji Revolution in 1868 and the opening of Japan’s borders also came a need to create a national Japanese identity, and one of several ways to achieve this...Show moreWith the drastic shift started by the Meiji Revolution in 1868 and the opening of Japan’s borders also came a need to create a national Japanese identity, and one of several ways to achieve this was to create a standardised national language. Ueda Kazutoshi stood at the forefront of this movement, advocating for the conceptualisation of kokugo, the national language, and in turn educational reforms which would implement this national language for the improvement and modernisation of the Japanese empire. In the book, Kokugo no tame, he goes into further detail on how to achieve this. This thesis looks at how idealistic and influenced by nationalism Ueda’s Kokugo no tame is by reading, interpreting and finally reflecting on his writings found in the book, as there is discourse on its abstract nature and its achievability. This thesis finds that Ueda’s writings were heavily influenced by the new social context of Meiji Japan and its recent victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, and that with the limitations that nationalism and racialisation bring, it also put limits on the feasibility of Ueda’s envisioned kokugo. While achievable in some ways with concrete ideas on how to implement kokugo, and indeed Ueda’s writings did set up the foundation of language standardisation, it is also the caveats made by Ueda on how kokugo should be educated under nationalist terms which made it more difficult to bring it to fruition according to Ueda’s ways.Show less