4 resultados para Japanese Culture
em Bucknell University Digital Commons - Pensilvania - USA
Resumo:
This article focuses on several key philosophical themes in the criticism of Sakaguchi Ango (19061955), one of postwar Japans most influential and controversial writers. Associated with the underground Kasutori culture as well as the Burai-ha of Tamura Taijir (19111983), Oda Sakunosuke (19131947) and Dazai Osamu (19091948), Ango gained fame for two provocative essays on the theme of daraku or decadenceDarakuron and Zoku darakuronpubished in 1946, in the wake of Japans traumatic defeat and the beginnings of the Allied Occupation. Less well-known is the fact that Ango spent his student years studying classical Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan, and that he at at one time aspired to the priesthood. The article analyses the concept of daraku in the two essays noted above, particularly as it relates to Angos vision of a refashioned morality based on an interpretation of human subjectivity vis--vis the themes of illusion and disillusion. It argues that, despite the radical and modernist flavor of Angos essays, his decadence is best understood in terms of Mahyna and Zen Buddhist concepts. Moreover, when the two essays on decadence are read in tandem with Angos wartime essay on Japanese culture (Nihon bunka shikan, 1942), they form the foundation for a postmetaphysical Buddhist critique of culture, one that is pragmatic, humanistic, and non-reductively physicalist.
Resumo:
This essay provides a critical analysis of the aesthetic ideology of Gomanism in the manga of Kobayashi Yoshinori (b. 1953), particularly Yasukuniron (On Yasukuni, 2005) and Tennron (On the Emperor, 2009), in order to flesh out the implications of the authors revisionist approach to Japanese religion, politics and history.
Resumo:
In this thesis, I examine the influences of westernization, the tension between Japanese modernity and tradition, and the stories of Hans Christian Andersen on Ogawa Mimeis childrens stories. I begin the body of my thesis with a brief historical background of Japan, beginning with the start of the Meiji period in 1868. Within the historical section, I focus on societal and cultural elements and changes that pertain to my thesis. I also include the introduction of Hans Christian Andersen in Japan. I wrap up the historical section by a description of Ogawas involvement in the Japanese proletarian literature movement and the rise of the Japanese proletarian childrens literature movement. Then, I launch into an analysis of Ogawas works categorized by thematic elements. These elements include westernization, class conflict, nature and civilization, religion and morals, and children and childhood. When relevant, I also compare and contrast Ogawas stories with Andersens. In the westernization section, I show how some of Ogawas stories demonstrate contact between Japan and the West. In the Class Conflict section, I discuss how Ogawa views class through a socialist lens, whereas Andersen does not dispute class distinctions, but encourages his readers to attempt an upward social climb. In the nature and civilization section, I show how Ogawa and Andersen share common opinions on the impact of civilization on nature. In the religion and morals section, I show how Ogawa incorporates religion, including Christianity, into vii his works. Andersen utilizes religion in a more overt manner in order to convey morals to his audience. Both authors address religious topics like the concept of the afterlife. Finally, in children and childhood, I demonstrate how both Ogawa and Andersen treat their child protagonists and use them and their situations to instruct their readers. Through this case study, I show how westernization and the tensions between Japanese modernization and tradition led to the rise of the proletarian childrens literature movement, which is exemplified by Ogawas stories. The emergence of the proletarian childrens literature movement is an indication of the establishment of a new concept of childhood in Japan. Writers like Ogawa Mimei attempted to write childrens stories that represented the new Japanese culture that was a result of adapting Western ideals to fit Japanese society. Some of Ogawas stories are a direct commentary on his opinion of Japanese interaction with the West. By comparing Ogawas and Andersens stories, I demonstrate how Ogawa borrows certain Western elements and possibly responds directly to Andersen. Ogawa also addresses some of the same topics as Andersen, yet their reactions are not always the same. What I find in my analysis supports my thesis that Ogawa is able to maintain Japanese tradition while infusing his childrens stories with Western and modern elements. In doing so, he reflects a largely popular social and cultural practice of his time.
Resumo:
For several centuries, Japanese scholars have argued that their nations cultureincluding its language, religion and ways of thinkingis somehow unique. The darker side of this rhetoric, sometimes known by the English term Japanism (nihon-jinron), played no small role in the nationalist fervor of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While much of the so-called ideology of Japanese uniqueness can be dismissed, in terms of the Japanese approach to religion, there may be something to it. This paper highlights some distinctiveif not entirely uniquefeatures of the way religion has been categorized and understood in Japanese tradition, contrasting these with Western (i.e., Abrahamic), and to a lesser extent Indian and Chinese understandings. Particular attention is given to the priority of praxis over belief in the Japanese religious context. Des sicles durant, des chercheurs japonais ont soutenu que leur culture soit leur langue, leur religion et leurs faons de penser tait en quelque sorte unique. Or, sous son jour le plus sombre, cette rhtorique, parfois dsigne du terme de japonisme (nihon-jinron), ne fut pas sans jouer un rle dterminant dans la monte de la ferveur nationaliste la fin du XIXe sicle, ainsi quau dbut du XXe sicle. Bien que lon puisse discrditer pour lessentiel cette soi-disant idologie de lunicit japonaise , la conception nippone de la religion constitue, quant elle, un objet danalyse des plus utiles et pertinents. Cet article met en vidence quelques caractristiques, sinon uniques du moins distinctives, de la manire dont la religion a t labore et comprise au sein de la tradition japonaise, pour ensuite les constrater avec les conceptions occidentale (abrahamique) et, dans une moindre mesure, indienne et chinoise. Une attention toute particulire est ici accorde la praxis plutt qu la croyance dans le contexte religieux japonais.
