The Emperors Naked Army Marches On- Dir. by Kazuo Hara

                                                                       
                                                      

Early this month, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Browning Cinema's presentation of Hara's film The Emperors Naked Army Marches On. Despite believing it to be a culturally significant and a well crafted film, the film itself is simply difficult to watch. Its core analysis of the extreme living conditions for soldiers in New Guinea is overshadowed by Kenzo Okuzaki and his god "given" pursuit of justice. Okuzaki himself seems to serve as a snake oil salesman, beating men in their own homes in his god acknowledged pursuit of justice, and possible one of the greatest villains I've seen on the screen- ultimately fleeing for murder charges despite his insistence that he owns up to all of his actions. 

As someone raised with a relatively cursory education surrounding the pacific theater in WWII,the film highlights a number of the lesser known aspects of Japanese society, including the extreme actions taken by the Japanese army in order to survive as well as Japan's general reverence to the Emperor of the Japan before and after the war. The film also serves as an interesting introduction into Japan's political structure with its depiction of campaigning utilizing a moving vehicle, loose adherence to Confucian ideals like filial piety, and general avoidance of outright confrontation. 

                       

The Emperors Naked Army Marches On serves an interesting documentary depicting the avoidance of WWII in the modern era as well as Japanese society during the technology boom of the 1980s. While I am happy I watched it and believe it is important to better understand Japan as well as World War II, I caution those who have yet to watch it for it is not a lighthearted tale to be viewed at ones leisure.

                           

Samurai Gourmet: Netflix

                         

This week I dove into an interesting cross between a food documentary and fantasy series in the form of Netflix's Samurai Gourmet. The show follows the rebirth of Takeshi Kasumi, a recently retired salary man who embodies the spirit of a samurai in his pursuit of foods and actions outside of his comfort zone. The series serves as a cross between a food documentary and a period piece that depicts the lifestyle and actions of food across the two different time periods: that of the Edo period as well as the modern representation. 

 Because of the shows nature, the film offers a unique insight into some of the more simple aspects of Japanese society and food etiquette. We see the depiction of the traditional Washoku, Japanese food sets, as well as the social expectations surrounding salary men. Through the episodes, we see Takeshi embody the samurai spirit to perform actions outside of his comfort, utilizing the figures masculine nature to do so. In this way, Takeshi is able to take part in different foods and beverages that he was unable to during his time as a salary man, like beer on a weekday.

                                 

Through the supporting characters of the show, we also see a look into the common actions of Japan's society- who lack the spirit of the samurai to change their actions. In this way, we affirm the high cash based society that Japan is known for, the heavy focus of public transit systems like the train to get to and from work, as well as the great hospitality displayed by the hosts and chefs in the preparation and presentation of a meal.  All in all, I found the shows premise to be interesting and a unique perspective compared other show that look into the lives of individual customers like Midnight Diner.

Alterity: Japanese Migrant culture in Brazil-Ted Mack Guest Lecture

                        

Ted Mack’s central thesis consists of the existence of acquired alterity within the Japanese migrants of Japan. He argues that the action of migrating to Brazil fundamentally changes the Japanese migrant- not only their physical location. This thesis is largely supported by the supporting thesis analyzing the depiction of Japanese migrants in Japanese literature as overly sexual being who have a difference in culture fundamentally. He references the story of Ulma, a Japanese migrant who exploits his fellow working men in order to achieve greater wealth and prosperity for himself, as well as the extreme sexual exploitation of Hanoka who prides herself on her sexuality and Brazillian culture. He also compares the interests of Japanese literature in Brazil, which slightly contradicted the idea of alterity as Books popular in Brazil mirrored those popular in japan, but they were higher cost, despite most of the newspaper consumption stemming from Local(Brazilian) producers and distributors.

    After the talk, I asked Professor Mack about Brazilian Migrants emigrating back to Japan, to which I was reminded heavily of the Zainichi experience. I was told that despite their origins, the migrants are unable to pass in Japan, and this different culture prevents them an outsider of their own culture- to an even greater extent than the Zainichi. I also thought it was interesting to talk about the treatment of Japanese migrants in the United states. We have analyzed the presence of “non-traditional” food present in America stemming from Japanese immigration, but have not looked into the reasoning behind the migration- as composed to an analysis of western occupation in Japan or the Japanese occupation of territories leading up to WWII. 

    All considered, the talk was definitely eye opening towards my consideration of Japanese literature and culture. While I am familiar with the Japanese diaspora and the different locations that they traveled to, I have thought little on the combined cultural impact. Unlike Brazil with a strong individual culture, the United States being composed of a variety of cultures seems to promote the ability to better maintain one's cultural identity- as it is one prevailing culture and tradition with small interaction with hundreds of other cultures. By comparison, the singular strong culture of Brazil seems to demand an adaptation to a certain extent in order to succeed, leading to this alterity. I think it would be interesting to compare the depiction of Brazilian cinema and Japanese migrants in Brazil to Japanese domestic cinema in order to  determine the modern impact of alterity rather than simply looking at literature for the depiction- often stemming from the initial diaspora.

Tears Teacher: Naomi Nakai

            
                                                                 

Tears Teacher by Naomi Nakai is a documentary short looking into the life of Hidefumi Yoshida, a tears teacher of five years that helps to combat social norms of burying emotion within Japanese society. While the documentary itself is fascinating with various shots depicting openly weeping students who have begun to embrace Yoshida's teaching, it also analyzes some of the broader issues within Japan that prevent the open embracing of one's emotions. It looks at the generational divide and stress that stems from Japans work culture, especially that of men around the age of 40 are pressured by the older seniority as well as the increasingly talented new generation coming out of university. 

                                                 

Another aspect I found interesting was the inclusion of Yoshida's specialty cafe, which promotes a public environment in which one can release their emotions. While the idea of specialty cafes themselves are popular throughout Japan, the cafe theme based on emotions rather than a fixed subject like cats or a specific film genre is seemingly unique. If you are interested in heartwarming documentary that also highlights some of the social problems present in Japan's society I highly recommend Tears Teacher.

アジアけんきゅうのイベント

 

先週の週末,  学生かいかんで  アジアけんきゅうのイベントに  いきました.

 私は  かんこくじんとちゅうごくじんとにほんじんのたべもの を たべました.

                              

かんこくじんのぐたいのおんがくをきいて,ドラムやっていました. おんがくはしずかじゃないです.

 

                       
かんこくじんのとこであそびました.

アジアけんきゅうのイベントは,   いって.

Emperor of Japan- Monologue

        For this weeks material I took a dive make into the works of もしもしゆうすけ, a Japanese hosted YouTube channel that serves as a form of honne, or true feelings of Japanese natives. In this particular video, Yosuke breaks down the role of the the Emperor and the nationalism associated with their action. It was interesting to see that the Japanese emperor became synonymous to Japan in the eyes of different ultra-nationalist located in Japan. Furthermore it is this symbolic representation of Japan, that prevents the emperor from being criticized or rarely being used as a talking point in the public sphere. This in its own right serves as a sharp variation to other national figures, like that of the late Queen of England or the      President of Ireland- both of which have the same lack of impact on their national politics. The video also served as a window into the Japanese calender, which restarts with the inauguration of each new Emperor, as opposed to the calander year present in the US, that stems from the death of Jesus(or A.D).

               
                                                

                                      

In terms of my understanding of the Japanese language, I continue to recognize terms and gain better understanding of the language itself. Much of the argument surrounding the emperors role persists as he is  a representation of the people, serving as a we , 私たち.

Earthquakes in Japan

 This week, I discovered a new content creator that I will continue to utilize in the future. もしもしゆうすけ serves as a Japanese youtuber that creates content by discussing typical cultural actions of Japan over his strolls around the city, lasting anywhere from 10 minutes to the better part of an hour. What I enjoy about his editing style is that it offers both English and Japanese subtitles(consisting of hiragana, katakana, and kanji). For this video, Yusuke analyzed the role of earthquakes in Japans daily life, as well as the variation that occurs depending on location. He talks about the special construction of the buildings to withstand earthquakes better as well as the Japanese earth quake scale which serves as a more apt representation of damage to the public infrastructure when compared to the universally recognized Richter scale.

I was able to gain a decent understanding of the role of earthquakes on Japanese society, as well as understanding time frames, scales, and locations as mentioned throughout the video(even without the subtitles). The walking nature of the video also serves as a better insight into Japanese consumer culture as well as typical styles of dress- most intriguing of which being the use of Umbrellas to provide shade and coverage on a sunny day.