Wei-Te Wong. (Photographer). (2017). Matsuyama Castle [digital image]. Retrieved from flickr website: https://flic.kr/p/UJgEBC . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic (CC-BY SA 2.0).
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Japanese Art & Architecture
Woodblock Print: The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760-1849). The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. 1830/1831. Portland Art Museum, The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection. http://library.artstor.org/asset/AWSS35953_35953_30931257. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
Woodblock Prints: One Hundred Aspects of the Moon
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Japan, 1839-1892. One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. 1885-1892. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, USA, Herbert R. Cole Collection, M.84.31.29, http://www.lacma.org/. http://library.artstor.org/asset/AMICO_LACMA_103886880. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
Woodblock Prints: Picture Book of Selected Insects
Kitagawa Utamaro, Japan, 1753-1806. Picture Book of Selected Insects. 1788. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, USA, Gift of Caroline and Jarred Morse, M.80.219.11, http://www.lacma.org/. http://library.artstor.org/asset/AMICO_LACMA_103886619. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
Japanese Dish from the Edo Period
Japan. Dish. Edo period. The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Bequest of Dorothy Millett Lindeke, 84.83, http://www.artsmia.org/. http://library.artstor.org/asset/AMICO_MINIAPOLIS_103822031. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
Iwasaki Museum
Maki, Fumihiko, 1928-. Ibusuki, Japan: Iwasaki Museum partial view. 1979. http://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822003455027. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
Pagoda
Japan: Ref.: Pagoda. [n.d.]. http://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822003375043. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
Garden at International House of Japan
Maekawa, Kunio (Japanese, 1905-1986), Sakakura, Junzo (Japanese, 1901-1969), Yoshimura, Junzo (Japanese, 1908-1997). International House of Japan, Exterior: View of Garden. 1955, Image: May, 2010. http://library.artstor.org/asset/ACOLUMBIAARTIG_10313270445. Web. 6 Apr 2018.
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Food
Traditionally, the Japanese drink tea and eat rice paired with paired with fish, tofu, pickled vegetables and meats for almost every meal. Soups are made with miso (a soybean paste) with various eggs and meats. Something that is interesting is the differences in eating habits between younger and older generations. Younger generations eat fewer traditional foods and prefer more fruits and breads over rice. This switch to more fats and proteins in their diet than their grandparents, raised the average height of younger Japanese people by about 3-4 inches and decreased the rice consumption between 1960s and 1990 by about half.
Routledge Handbook of Food in Asia by
Throwing new light on how colonisation and globalization have affected the food practices of different communities in Asia, the Routledge Handbook of Food in Asia explores the changes and variations in the region's dishes, meals and ways of eating. By demonstrating the different methodologies and theoretical approaches employed by scholars, the contributions discuss everyday food practices in Asian cultures and provide a fascinating coverage of less common phenomenon, such as the practice of wood eating and the evolution of pufferfish eating in Japan. In doing so, the handbook not only covers a wide geographical area, including Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, India, China, South Korea and Malaysia, but also examines the Asian diasporic communities in Canada, the United States and Australia through five key themes: Food, Identity and Diasporic Communities Food Rites and Rituals Food and the Media Food and Health Food and State Matters. Interdisciplinary in nature, this handbook is a useful reference guide for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology and world history, in addition to food history, cultural studies and Asian studies in general.
Call Number: Online Access
Devouring Japan by
In recent years Japan's cuisine, or washoku, has been eclipsing that of France as the world's most desirable food. UNESCO recognized washoku as an intangible cultural treasure in 2013 and Tokyo boasts more Michelin-starred restaurants than Paris and New York combined. International enthusiasm for Japanese food is not limited to haute cuisine; it also encompasses comfort foods like ramen, which has reached cult status in the U.S. and many world capitals. Together with anime, pop music, fashion, and cute goods, cuisine is part of the "Cool Japan" brand that promotes the country as a new kind of cultural superpower. This collection of essays offers original insights into many different aspects of Japanese culinary history and practice, from the evolution and characteristics of particular foodstuffs to their representation in literature and film, to the role of foods in individual, regional, and national identity. It features contributions by both noted Japan specialists and experts in food history. The authors collectively pose the question "what is washoku?" What culinary values are imposed or implied by this term? Which elements of Japanese cuisine are most visible in the global gourmet landscape and why? Essays from a variety of disciplinary perspectives interrogate how foodways have come to represent aspects of a "unique" Japanese identity and are infused with official and unofficial ideologies. They reveal how Japanese culinary values and choices, past and present, reflect beliefs about gender, class, and race; how they are represented in mass media; and how they are interpreted by state and non-state actors, at home and abroad. They examine the thoughts, actions, and motives of those who produce, consume, promote, and represent Japanese foods.
Call Number: GT2853.J3 D48 2018
Analysis of the Food Consumption of Japanese Households (Economic and Social Development Papers) by
This report uses 1997 data to model Japanese household food consumption. It uses two empirical models, one looking at 11 aggregate foods, including rice, and the other looking at seven meats. According to the meat demand analysis, Japanese dietary patterns have become increasingly Westernised.
Call Number: Pendergrass AgVet: TX360 .J3 A53 2003
Food Culture in Japan by
Americans are familiarizing themselves with Japanese food, thanks especially sushi's wild popularity and ready availability. This timely book satisfies the new interest and taste for Japanese food, providing a host of knowledge on the foodstuffs, cooking styles, utensils, aesthetics, meals, etiquette, nutrition, and much more. Students and general readers are offered a holistic framing of the food in historical and cultural contexts. Recipes for both the novice and sophisticated cook complement the narrative. Japan's unique attitude toward food extends from the religious to the seasonal. This book offers a contextual framework for the Japanese food culture and relates Japan's history and geography to food. An exhaustive description of ingredients, beverages, sweets, and food sources is a boon to anyone exploring Japanese cuisine in the kitchen. The Japanese style of cooking, typical meals, holiday fare, and rituals--so different from Americans'--are engagingly presented and accessible to a wide audience. A timeline, glossary, resource guide, and illustrations make this a one-stop reference for Japanese food culture.
Call Number: Pendergrass AgVet: TX724.5.J3 A88 2003
Rice, Agriculture, and the Food Supply in Premodern Japan by
The majority of studies on the agricultural history of Japan have focused on the public administration of land and production, and rice, the principal source of revenue, has received the most attention. However, while this cereal has clearly played a decisive role in the public economy of the Japanese State, it has not had a predominant place in agricultural production. Far from confining its scope to a study of rice growing for tax purposes, this volume looks at the subsistence economy in the plant kingdom as a whole. This book examines the history of agriculture in premodern Japan from the 8th to the 17th century, dealing with the history of agricultural techniques and food supply of rice, wheat, millet and other grains. Drawing extensively on material from history, literature, archaeology, ethnography and botany, it analyses each of the farming operations from sowing to harvesting, and the customs pertaining to consumption. It also challenges the widespread theory that rice cultivation has been the basis of "Japaneseness" for two millennia and the foundation of Japanese civilization by focusing on the biodiversity and polycultural traditions of Japan. Further, it will play a role in the current dialogue on the future of sustainable agricultural production from the viewpoints of ecology, biodiversity, dietary culture and food security throughout the world as traditional techniques such as crop rotation are explored in connection with the safeguarding of the minerals in the soil. Surveying agricultural techniques across the centuries and highlighting the dietary diversity of Japan, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese history, the history of science and technology, medieval history, cultural anthropology and agriculture.
Call Number: Online Access
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Facts in Brief
Japan is an island country off the coast of mainland Asia, just a few hundred miles away from Russia, China and Korea. The four major islands - Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu - form a curve that extends about 1,200 miles. About 125 million people live on these islands making it one of the most densely populated countries. Much of the country is covered in mountains and hills, so about 90 percent of the population lives on the coastal plains which account for about 20 percent of the land area.
Most Japanese people are likely descendants of ancient people who migrated from mainland Asia to the island. There are many cultural similarities because of this migration between Japan and other east Asian countries, but Japanese language and culture developed individually. One ethnic minority in Japan is the Ainu people on the island of Hokkaido. They are ethnically and culturally different from Japanese people and may be descendants of people indigineous to the island. (3)
Music
Shinto and Buddhist philosophies influence much of the aesthetics of traditional Japanese art and music. Many forms of Japanese music prioritize timbre, delicate use of microtones, and refinement of free rhythm. Because of this many genres feature one instrument or a group of instruments that follow the same melodic line, in contrast to many western genres which focus on harmony.
In modern times, many Western genres have gained popularity in Japan and there are many Japanese musicians who have achieved global acclaim in Western classical music, Jazz, Rock and other genres.
Gagaku or “elegant music” was developed centuries ago during Japan’s classical age at the imperial court and accompanied dances and ceremonies. The genre was revitalized during the Meiji restoration and became standardized for performances at the reestablished court. In the post-WWII era, the genre was not particularly popular among the Japanese, but was an inspiration to many Western composers including Olivier Messain, Henry Cowell, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. (7)
The koto is a Japanese instrument related to the Chinese zheng, the Korean kayagŭm, and the Vietnamese dan tranh. It has thirteen strings which are stretched over a soundboard, and the tuning can change with movable bridges under each string. The player sits facing the koto and uses ivory plectra on their right hand fingers to pluck the strings. The left hand can add ornaments or inflections in pitch by adding pressure to the strings. (7)
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The shakuhachi’s origins in Japan likely begin with imported Chinese flutes called chiba (modern day Xiao), that were imported to be in gagaku ensembles in the 8th century. After the original shakuhachi fell out of fashion with gagaku in the 10th century, two descendants developed separately. The hitoyogiri was shorter and straighter, and was used to accompany songs and by traveling Buddhist priests. The fuke-shakuhachi was developed by the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism, a group of ex-samurai who used the cover of religious duties to travel the country freely. With their faces concealed by basket-like tengai hats, the komusō (‘priests of nothingness’) may have used their thicker flutes as weapons. Eventually, the fuke-style shakuhachi would evolve into the modern version, probably because they have more options than the hitoyogiri for altering pitch. (7)
The taiko is a Japanese drum. Although it’s origins can be found in Japanese folk tales, the drum has been used for musical performance, kabuki theatre, and for motivation and communication in battle such as during the Warring States period.
Image courtesy of ARTStor: https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/AMAGNUMIG_10311512813
Taiko Boom by
With its thunderous sounds and dazzling choreography, Japanese taiko drumming has captivated audiences in Japan and across the world, making it one of the most successful performing arts to emerge from Japan in the past century. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among taiko groups in Japan, Taiko Boom explores the origins of taiko in the early postwar period and its popularization over the following decades of rapid economic growth in Japan's cities and countryside. Building on the insights of globalization studies, the book argues that taiko developed within and has come to express new forms of communal association in a Japan increasingly engaged with global cultural flows. While its popularity has created new opportunities for Japanese to participate in community life, this study also reveals how the discourses and practices of taiko drummers dramatize tensions inherent in Japanese conceptions of race, the body, gender, authenticity, and locality.
Call Number: Online AccessISBN: 9780520272422
Drumming Asian America by
With its dynamic choreographies and booming drumbeats, taiko has gained worldwide popularity since its emergence in 1950s Japan. Harnessed by Japanese Americans in the late 1960s, taiko's sonic largesse and buoyant energy challenged stereotypical images of Asians in America as either model minorities or sinister foreigners. While the majority of North American taiko players are Asian American, over 400 groups now exist across the US and Canada, and players come from a range of backgrounds. Using ethnographic and historical approaches, combined with in-depth performance description and analysis, this book explores the connections between taiko and Asian American cultural politics. Based on original and archival interviews, as well as the author's extensive experience as a taiko player, this book highlights the Midwest as a site for Asian American cultural production and makes embodied experience central to inquiries about identity, including race, gender, and sexuality. The book builds on insights from the fields of dance studies, ethnomusicology, performance studies, queer and feminist theory, and Asian American studies to argue that taiko players from a variety of identity positions perform Asian America on stage, as well as in rehearsals, festivals, schools, and through interactions with audiences. While many taiko players play simply for the love of its dynamism and physicality, this book demonstrates that politics are built into even the most mundane aspects of rehearsing and performing.
Call Number: ML1038.T35 A55 2018
Louder and Faster by
2020 Alan Merriam Prize for Best Book Published in Ethnomusicology, Society for Ethnomusicology A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Louder and Faster is a cultural study of the phenomenon of Asian American taiko, the thundering, athletic drumming tradition that originated in Japan. Immersed in the taiko scene for twenty years, Deborah Wong has witnessed cultural and demographic changes and the exponential growth and expansion of taiko particularly in Southern California. Through her participatory ethnographic work, she reveals a complicated story embedded in memories of Japanese American internment and legacies of imperialism, Asian American identity and politics, a desire to be seen and heard, and the intersection of culture and global capitalism. Exploring the materialities of the drums, costumes, and bodies that make sound, analyzing the relationship of these to capitalist multiculturalism, and investigating the gender politics of taiko, Louder and Faster considers both the promises and pitfalls of music and performance as an antiracist practice. The result is a vivid glimpse of an Asian American presence that is both loud and fragile.
Call Number: Online Access
The Shamisen is a plucked three-stringed instrument of Japan. It can be played solo, as a part of an ensemble or as accompaniment in kabuki or bunraku theatre. It has also gained popularity in genres outside of traditional Japanese music.
Image courtesy of ARTStor: https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/AMAGNUMIG_10311512813
Goze by
In a tradition extending from the medieval era to the early twentieth century, visually disabled Japanese women known as goze toured the countryside as professional singers. An integral part of rural musical culture, the goze sang unique narratives of their own making and a significant repertory of popular ballads and short songs. Goze activities peaked in the nineteenth century, and some women continued to tour well into the middle of the twentieth. The last active goze lived until 2005. In Goze: Women, Musical Performance, and Visual Disability in Traditional Japan, Gerald Groemer examines the way of life, institutions, and songs of these itinerant performers. Groemer shows that the solidarity and success goze achieved with the rural public through narrative and music was based on the convergence of the goze's desire for a degree of social and economic autonomy with the audience's wish to mitigate the cultural deprivation it so often experienced. Goze recognized audiences as a stimulus for developing repertories and careers; the public in turn recognized goze as masterful artisans who acted as powerful agents of widespread cultural development. As the first full-length scholarly work on goze in English, this book is an invaluable resource to scholars and students of Japanese culture, Japanese music, ethnomusicology, and disability studies worldwide.
Call Number: ML3750 .G78 2016
Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative by
Alison McQueen Tokita presents a series of case studies that demonstrate the persistence of Japanese sung narratives in a multiplicity of genres over ten centuries, including the way they flourished and declined, together with factors contributing to development and change in narrative performance. Performed narratives are examples of a shared cultural heritage, which in the past have given people a sense of belonging to a community. Narratives that were continually re-told and recycled in different versions and formats over a long period of time served to build people's sense of a common identity over space (the geographical extent of 'Japan') and time (the enduring power of many specific narratives such as The Tale of the Heike). Much scholarly attention has focused on Japanese pre-modern literature and drama, but the tradition of oral narrative has barely been touched. Tokita argues that it is possible to identify a continuous tradition of performed narrative in Japan from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. The elements of variation and change relate to the move away from oral narrative to text-based performance, and from a simple narrative situation with one performer to complex theatrical narratives with dancers, singers and other musicians. The resulting complexity led to the pre-eminence of the musical aspects in some cases, and of dramatic or dance aspects in others. Tokita includes substantial musical analysis and exploration of theoretical issues, as well as documentation of important performance traditions, all of which are extant.
Call Number: Online AccessISBN: 9781315251592
Shaped by Japanese Music by
Shaped by Japanese Music is an in-depth analysis of the musical world of an individual performer, composer, and teacher. Using an ethnographic approach, this study situates musical analysis in the context of its creation, demonstrating that traditional Japanese music is hardly an archaic song form frozen in the present, but an active sociocultural system that has been reproduced in Japan from the seventeenth century to the present day. The dynamics of this cultural system unfold in the musical experiences of Kikuoka Hiroaki, the leader of a school of nagauta music, who struggled to modernize the art form while trying to maintain the qualities he believed to be fundamental to the tradition. Through the focus on Kikuoka's school, readers will become familiar with conflicts in the recent history of this music, traditional Japanese teaching methods, and the technique of modern composition within a traditional form. Underlying all of these different analyses is the concept of kata (form), a Japanese aesthetic that helps shape musical forms as well as the behaviour of musicians.
Call Number: Online Access
Songs from the edge of Japan : music-making in Yaeyama and Okinawa by
Songs from the Edge of Japan is an ethnographic account of the contemporary performance of the music of Yaeyama, in the south of Japan's Okinawa prefecture. The work includes interviews, analysis of popular and scholarly works in Japanese, musical and lyrical analyses, and accounts of fieldwork carried out in Yaeyama and Okinawa since 2000.
Call Number: Online Access
Yogaku by
"This book introduces us to the world of contemporary Japanese music and it guides us towards a better understanding of their world."--Luciano Berio Yogaku discusses over a century of musical activity in Japan, detailing, in particular, the music that was inspired by Western music after the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century, and its development through the end of the 20th century. The book not only examines the infiltration of Western music into Japan, but also provides insight into the aesthetic and theoretical aspects of Japanese musical thought. The word yogaku (Western music) is made up of two characters: yo, which means "ocean" (that is, "over the ocean," meaning Western or foreign) andgaku, which means "music." Divided into two parts, the text covers the period preceding World War I as well as the post-war period. The introduction provides a history of music's role in Japanese society, touching upon the differences in the functions of Japanese and Western music. Part One describes the complex process of a new musical world and the European musical ideas that penetrated Japan. Modernization through westernization is explored; the author details the differences between the traditional Japanese music and that composed under Western influence, as well as the French and German impact on Japanese musical compositions. Galliano looks at the appearance of music in schools and the first Japanese musical compositions, as well as nationalism's effect on music through propaganda and censorship. Part Two explores topics such as the post-war avant-garde, the 1960s boom in traditional music, and the closing decades of the 20th century. The next generation of Japanese composers are also considered. Japanese history and music scholars, as well as those interested in Japanese music, will want to include Yogaku in their collection.
Call Number: Online Access
The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music by
Music is a frequently neglected aspect of Japanese culture. It is in fact a highly problematic area, as the Japanese actively introduced Western music into their modern education system in the Meiji period (1868-1911), creating westernized melodies and instrumental instruction for Japanese children from kindergarten upwards. As a result, most Japanese now have a far greater familiarity with Western (or westernized) music than with traditional Japanese music. Traditional or classical Japanese music has become somewhat ghettoized, often known and practised only by small groups of people in social structures which have survived since the pre-modern era. Such marginalization of Japanese music is one of the less recognized costs of Japan's modernization. On the other hand, music in its westernized and modernized forms has an extremely important place in Japanese culture and society, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, being so widely known and performed that it is arguably part of contemporary Japanese popular and mass culture. Japan has become a world leader in the mass production of Western musical instruments and in innovative methodologies of music education (Yamaha and Suzuki). More recently, the Japanese craze of karaoke as a musical entertainment and as musical hardware has made an impact on the leisure and popular culture of many countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This is the first book to cover in detail all genres including court music, Buddhist chant, theatre music, chamber ensemble music and folk music, as well as contemporary music and the connections between music and society in various periods. The book is a collaborative effort, involving both Japanese and English speaking authors, and was conceived by the editors to form a balanced approach that comprehensively treats the full range of Japanese musical culture.
Call Number: Online Access
Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools by
This well researched volume tells the story of music education in Japan and of the wind band contest organized by the All-Japan Band Association. Identified here for the first time as the world's largest musical competition, it attracts 14,000 bands and well over 500,000 competitors. The book's insightful contribution to our understanding of both music and education chronicles music learning in Japanese schools and communities. It examines the contest from a range of perspectives, including those of policy makers, adjudicators, conductors and young musicians. The book is an illuminating window on the world of Japanese wind bands, a unique hybrid tradition that comingles contemporary western idioms with traditional Japanese influences. In addition to its social history of Japanese school music programs, it shows how participation in Japanese school bands contributes to students' sense of identity, and sheds new light on the process of learning to play European orchestral instruments.
Call Number: Online Access
An Introduction to Japanese Folk Performing Arts by
Japanese folk performing arts incorporate a body of entertainments that range from the ritual to the secular. They may be the ritual dances at Shinto shrines performed to summon and entertain deities; group dances to drive away disease-bearing spirits; or theatrical mime to portray the tenets of Buddhist teachings. Terence Lancashire provides a valuable introductory guide to the major performance types as understood by Japanese scholars.
Call Number: Online Access
The End of Cool Japan by
Today's convergent media environment offers unprecedented opportunities for sourcing and disseminating previously obscure popular culture material from Japan. However, this presents concerns regarding copyright, ratings and exposure to potentially illegal content which are serious problems for those teaching and researching about Japan. Despite young people's enthusiasm for Japanese popular culture, these concerns spark debate about whether it can be judged harmful for youth audiences and could therefore herald the end of 'cool Japan'. This collection brings together Japan specialists in order to identify key challenges in using Japanese popular culture materials in research and teaching. It addresses issues such as the availability of unofficially translated and distributed Japanese material; the emphasis on adult-themes, violence, sexual scenes and under-age characters; and the discrepancies in legislation and ratings systems across the world. Considering how these issues affect researchers, teachers, students and fans in the US, Canada, Australia, China, Japan and elsewhere in Asia, the contributors discuss the different ways in which academic and fan practices are challenged by local regulations. Illustrating from personal experience the sometimes fraught nature of teaching about 'cool Japan', they suggest ways in which Japanese Studies as a discipline needs to develop clearer guidelines for teaching and research, especially for new scholars entering the field. As the first collection to identify some of the real problems faced by teachers and researchers of Japanese popular culture as well as the students over whom they have a duty of care, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies and Cultural Studies.
Call Number: Online AccessISBN: 9781317269366
Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon by
From the beginning of the American Occupation in 1945 to the post-bubble period of the early 1990s, popular music provided Japanese listeners with a much-needed release, channeling their desires, fears, and frustrations into a pleasurable and fluid art. Pop music allowed Japanese artists and audiences to assume various identities, reflecting the country's uncomfortable position under American hegemony and its uncertainty within ever-shifting geopolitical realities. In the first English-language study of this phenomenon, Michael K. Bourdaghs considers genres as diverse as boogie-woogie, rockabilly, enka, 1960s rock and roll, 1970s new music, folk, and techno-pop. Reading these forms and their cultural import through music, literary, and cultural theory, he introduces readers to the sensual moods and meanings of modern Japan. As he unpacks the complexities of popular music production and consumption, Bourdaghs interprets Japan as it worked through (or tried to forget) its imperial past. These efforts grew even murkier as Japanese pop migrated to the nation's former colonies. In postwar Japan, pop music both accelerated and protested the commodification of everyday life, challenged and reproduced gender hierarchies, and insisted on the uniqueness of a national culture, even as it participated in an increasingly integrated global marketplace. Each chapter in Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon examines a single genre through a particular theoretical lens: the relation of music to liberation; the influence of cultural mapping on musical appreciation; the role of translation in transmitting musical genres around the globe; the place of noise in music and its relation to historical change; the tenuous connection between ideologies of authenticity and imitation; the link between commercial success and artistic integrity; and the function of melodrama. Bourdaghs concludes with a look at recent Japanese pop music culture.
Call Number: ML3501 .B69 2012ISBN: 9780231158749
Made in Japan by
Made in Japan serves as a comprehensive and rigorous introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology ofnbsp;contemporarynbsp;Japanese popular music. Each essay, written by a leading scholar of Japanese music, covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Japan and provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music, followed by essays organized into thematic sections: Putting Japanese Popular Music in Perspective; Rockin' Japan; and Japanese Popular Music and Visual Arts.
Call Number: ML3501 .M33 2014
Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan by
Focus: Music in Contemporary Japan explores a diversity of musics performed in Japan today, ranging from folk song to classical music, the songs of geisha to the screaming of underground rock, with a specific look at the increasingly popular world of taiko (ensemble drumming). Discussion of contemporary musical practice is situated within broader frames of musical and sociopolitical history, processes of globalization and cosmopolitanism, and the continued search for Japanese identity through artistic expression. It explores how the Japanese have long negotiated cultural identity through musical practice in three parts: Part I, "Japanese Music and Culture," provides an overview of the key characteristics of Japanese culture that inform musical performance, such as the attitude towards the natural environment, changes in ruling powers, dominant religious forms, and historical processes of cultural exchange. Part II, "Sounding Japan," describes the elements that distinguish traditional Japanese music and then explores how music has changed in the modern era under the influence of Western music and ideology. Part III, "Focusing In: Identity, Meaning and Japanese Drumming in Kyoto," is based on fieldwork with musicians and explores the position of Japanese drumming within Kyoto. It focuses on four case studies that paint a vivid picture of each respective site, the music that is practiced, and the pedagogy and creative processes of each group. The accompanying CD includes examples of Japanese music that illustrate specific elements and key genres introduced in the text. A companion website includes additional audio-visual sources discussed in detail in the text. Jennifer Milioto Matsue is an Associate Professor at Union College and specializes in modern Japanese music and culture.
Call Number: ML3750 .M334 2016 (OR) Online AccessISBN: 9781138791381
Streaming Audio via Alexander Street Press
Listen to the koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi in this recording.
Music for Theater
Nō theater dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries. In the Edo period, traditionally a Shinto ritual piece called the Okina would start a programme, then nō plays would follow in the order (god plays, warrior plays, plays featuring young beautiful women, miscellaneous plays, notably featuring contemporary characters, including mad-women, and plays featuring supernatural beings, animals or other typical ending plays) with a comic play kyōgen in between every nō. As you can imagine, this would take many hours to complete a whole cycle. It’s more common now to have two or three nō with kyōgen in between as a program. Small drums called tsuzumi, fue or nōkan flute, and a small taiko drum accompany the actors on stage. (7)
Bunraku refers to several forms of traditional Japanese puppet theater. The name bunraku likely comes from Masai Kahei, who used the stage name “Bunrakken”. He brought puppet traditions from Awaji Island to Osaka in the late 1700’s. The musical genre that accompanies bunraku is called jōruri. Narration of the “Tale of Princess Jōoruri in 12 episodes” started to become accompanied, usually by the lute-like biwa. Later, the shamisen replaced the biwa, and the music was combined with puppet plays. As accompanied puppet plays moved from Kyoto and Edo to Osaka, Takemoto Gidayū revitalized it with original compositions set to historical texts and contemporary plays. This music is sometimes called Gidayū, and was popular amongst amateurs to perform outside the theater. A tayū (singer/narrator) speaks all the lines and sings all the music and is accompanied by a shamisen player. (7)
Kabuki combined Nō forms with Buddhist festival dance. It is traditionally performed only by men, and features exaggerated acting, spectacular costumes and lavish scenery. The drama of the extravagant acting made Kabuki very popular and influences taste in the arts and society. The plays are commonly based on family dramas called sewamono or history called jidaimono. Similar to Opera in the West, the themes and tone of these plays can also vary from more comedic to melodramatic. (7)
Japanese Gardens
The Japanese style has spread all over the world. This traditional wooden bridge is from a Japanese garden in Wrocław, Poland. (4)
Japanese gardens are studies in restraint and balance, and inspire reflection and meditation. Evergreen foliage is abundant, and maple trees and stone features add balance and texture. Oftentimes hills, streams, ponds, and gravel create a water-like flow and pagodas, pavilions and bridges offer vantage points to reflect. (Brittanica)
A Practical Guide to Japanese Gardening by
An inspirational and practical guide to creating the Japanese garden style, from design options and materials to planting techniques and decorative features. A comprehensive guide to the history, styles, planning, materials, decorative features, projects, planting schemes and year-round care of Japanese gardens. Practical advice and step-by-step techniques and projects, with over 700 explanatory illustrations, garden plans and evocative colour photographs.
Call Number: SB458 .C45 2009
Japanese Gardens by Call Number: SB458 .H53 1998
Japanese Garden Design by
One of the better volumes on the principles of Japanese garden design, avoiding much of the annoying sentimentalism to which Western writers on Japanese gardens are prone. Keane, a landscape architect, integrates Japanese history, philosophy, geography, art, and culture into his discussion of Japane
Call Number: SB458 .K43 1996
Garden Views by
In addition to the serene views captured in the photographs, each book also includes diagrams, plans and schematic drawings.
Call Number: SB458 .G218 1989
Japanese-Style Gardens of the Pacific West Coast by Call Number: SB458 .L48 1999
Zen Gardens by
Shunmyo Masuno, Japan's leading garden designer, is at once Japan's most highly acclaimed landscape architect and an 18th-generation Zen Buddhist priest, presiding over daily ceremonies at the Kenkoji Temple in Yokohama. He is celebrated for his unique ability to blend strikingly contemporary elements with the traditional design vernacular. He has worked in ultramodern urban hotels and some of Japan's most famous classic gardens. In each project, his work as a designer of landscape architecture is inseparable from his Buddhist practice. Each becomes a Zen garden, "a special spiritual place where the mind dwells." This beautiful book, illustrated with more than 400 drawings and color photographs, is the first complete retrospective of Masuno's work to be published in English. It presents 37 major gardens around the world in a wide variety of types and settings: traditional and contemporary, urban and rural, public spaces and private residences, and including temple, office, hotel and campus venues. Masuno achieved fame for his work in Japan, but he is becoming increasingly known internationally, and in 2011 completed his first commission in the United States which is shown here. Zen Gardens, divided into three chapters, covers: "Traditional Zen Gardens," "Contemporary Zen Gardens" and "Zen Gardens outside Japan." Each Zen garden design is described and analyzed by author Mira Locher, herself an architect and a scholar well versed in Japanese culture. Celebrating the accomplishments of an influential, world-class designer, Zen Gardens also serves as something of a master class in Japanese garden design and appreciation: how to perceive a Japanese garden, how to understand one, even how to make one yourself. Like one of Masuno's gardens, the book can be a place for contemplation and mindful repose.
Call Number: SB458 .L63 2012
Landscapes for Small Spaces by
This highly illustrated colour guide to the courtyard gardens of Japan comprises 100 colour photographs, each accompanied by an explanatory caption detailing the location and outstanding characteristics of each garden. An appendix offers practical information on re-creating the Japanese garden. Enjoy it for its sheer beauty or use it for inspiration while creating your own small landscape garden. Japanese gardening is the art of arranging plants, rocks, lanterns, and basins in an open or, as here, an enclosed space. According to the aesthetic principles long
Call Number: SB458 .M597 2002
In the Japanese Garden by
Celebrates the elegant 1,300-year-old art form of Japanese gardening, providing gardeners with the basic concepts for including aspects of the Japanese garden in their own landscape plans.
Call Number: SB458 .Y34 1996- Design and Meaning in Japanese Gardens byCall Number: SB458 .B74
- Japanese Gardens of the Modern Era byCall Number: SB458 .O327 1987
A Trident Maple (Acer buergerianum) bonsai, Japanese Collection 52, on display at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the United States National Arboretum. According to the tree's display placard, it has been in training since 1895. It was donated by Prince Takamatsu. (4)
‘The art of miniature trees’ is a horticultural artform that was brought to Japan by Zen buddhist priests from China, circa 1100 AD. Cultivation of potted trees became very popular among the Japanese nobility, and techniques for pruning or training the trees developed over many centuries. Bonsai refers to the careful technique of controlling the growth of the tree as well as the miniature trees themselves.Like many other forms of Japanese art, balance, nature and attention to detail are essential when altering the tree's growth. Expertly made bonsai give an impression of having grown without human intervention. (grove art)
Isekai
A hand-colored woodblock print of Urashima Taro riding on the turtle's back. Ink and color were applied by hand, and this piece was published by Matsuki Heikichi in the Meiji period, around 1899. (6)
Isekai, meaning ‘other-world’, is a genre of Japanese media where characters move between worlds. Isekai has roots in ancient Japanese literature, such as the story of Urashima Tarō, a fisherman who saves a turtle then rides on its back to an undersea palace. One of the first Japanese animated films was an adaptation of this tale by Seitaro Kitayama in 1918. Modern examples of Isekai stories include Spirited Away (2001) and the Super Mario Bros. anime film from 1986. There are many similarities between isekai stories and English “portal” fantasy. Stories like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and The Chronicles of Narnia share many similar tropes and narrative devices with isekai.
A chapter from Paratextualizing Games highlights the various subgenres of isekai:
“Isekai can be split up more productively into several subcategories based on how characters are transferred to another world. In tensei (reincarnation) stories, characters have often reincarnated from miserable households, unfortunate accidents, or overworking (known as karoshi, or death by overwork). In tenii (transference) isekai, characters often bring goods and material back and forth, frequently leading to a transition of goods, cultural exchanges, and seek to establish interstate flows between the worlds. In shoukan (summoning), characters are ‘summoned’ by citizens from the other world and are often tasked with a largely insurmountable mission, such as “defeating the demon king.”” (8)
Paratextualizing Games by
Gaming no longer only takes place as a »closed interactive experience« in front of TV screens, but also as broadcast on streaming platforms or as cultural events in exhibition centers and e-sport arenas. The popularization of new technologies, forms of expression, and online services has had a considerable influence on the academic and journalistic discourse about games. This anthology examines which paratexts gaming cultures have produced - i.e., in which forms and formats and through which channels we talk (and write) about games - as well as the way in which paratexts influence the development of games. How is knowledge about games generated and shaped today and how do boundaries between (popular) criticism, journalism, and scholarship have started to blur? In short: How does the paratext change the text?
Call Number: Online Access Available
Spirited Away by Call Number: PN1995.9.F67 S693 2001Publication Date: 2001When a young girl gets trapped in a strange new world of spirits, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and rescue her parents.
Citations
(1) "Japan flag." World Book Advanced.
https://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar755206. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022.
(2) Japan [Online map]. (2022). World Book Advanced. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022.
https://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/media?id=mp000108
(3) Allinson, Gary D. "Japan." World Book Advanced, Accessed 25 Oct. 2022.
https://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar285600.
(4) Simonilja. "File:Traditional wooden bridge in a Japanese Garden.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Accessed October 28, 2022. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traditional_wooden_bridge_in_a_Japanese_Garden.jpg.
(5) Ross, Sage. "File:Trident Maple bonsai 52, October 10, 2008.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Accessed October 28, 2022. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trident_Maple_bonsai_52,_October_10,_2008.jpg.
(6) Heikichi, Matsuki. "File:Matsuki Heikichi(1899)-Urashima-p09.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Accessed October 28, 2022. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matsuki_Heikichi(1899)-Urashima-p09.jpg
-Urashima-p09.jpg){kind=link}
(7) Ferranti, Hugh de, Shigeo Kishibe, David W. Hughes, W. Adriaansz, Robin Thompson, Charles Rowe, Donald P. Berger, W. Malm, W.P. Malm, David Waterhouse, Allan Marett, Richard Emmert, Fumio Koizumi, Kazuyuki Tanimoto, Masakata Kanazawa, Linda Fujie, and Elizabeth Falconer. "Japan." Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 28 Oct. 2022. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000043335.
(8) Tagliamonte, Giovanni, and Yaochong Yang. “Isekai: Tracing Interactive Control in Non-Interactive Media.” In Paratextualizing Games, 13:341–372. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2021.
(9) Dontworry. "File:Koto-2009-ffm-003.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Accessed November 1, 2022. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Koto-2009-ffm-003.jpg.
