Ukiyo - ad
Some thoughts toward a theory of
representation, social structuration and
cultural values
Todd
Joseph Miles
Holden
Professor, Mediated Sociology
Department of Multi-Cultural
Societies
Graduate School of International
Cultural Studies
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan
Japanese Media and Identity
Much of my work to date has
involved the intersection between
media and identity (in Japan)
Japanese Media and Identity
“Adentity”
Cultural and social
Values in Japanese TV
advertising
(2001)
“Sportsports”
Sports Reports
and
National Identity
(Forthcoming)
“Welcome to my Homepage…”
Japanese Weblogs
and individual identity
(2003)
Mediated Identity
“Masculinities in
Japanese Food
Programming”
Mediations of male
identity in
TV food shows
(2005)
(2001)
“Adolechnics” –
Adolescent
cell phone use and
Sub-group identity
(2004,
Forthcoming)
Mediated Identity: Defined
(1) Interactions
In and through institutions
(2) And involving significations
(3)
conveyed through representations of:
sameness
difference
(4) by media
(5) And brought into relief by:
user’s references to:
Socially-constructed group traits
Their depiction of relationships
between/amongst:
– Themselves
– Their group
– and/or other groups
Previous Research on
Mediated Identity
“Adentity”: the filtration of messages about self, group,
individuality, freedom (and contraint) through TV advertising.
“Welcome to my Homepage…”: sampling of Japanese
home pages in focused areas revealed evidence of rather
unified selves, intentionally constructed for an unknown
public to consume.
“Adolechnics”: how young cell phone users employ
communication technology to frame, enhance selfpresentation, and better understand themselves.
“Sportsports”: daily news reports about Japanese athletic
performance overseas has the effect of creating hyperawareness of national and cultural identity.
“The Overcooked and Underdone”: the various ways that
masculinities (and femininities) are mediated in Japanese
TV food shows
Today’s Discussion
Looks at 2 media or, better, two forms of
expression
Ukiyo-e
Advertising
And their interrelationship
Ontologically – beyond media – I want to
think about what it means that
historically continuities can be seen in
cultural values and practices, as played
out in different epochs, through very
different media.
Today’s Discussion
Because this particular session addresses
communication, identity and values, I
wish to think about matters of form and
content.
Specifically, what are the relationships
between these twin communication forms
and Japanese cultural ideas.
Where I would like this discussion to move
is toward matters of societal nature;
And also, to some degree, questions of
values and identity
Today’s Discussion
In the process, we will talk about the
following key media practices:
Representation
Intimacy
Uchi/Soto
Mass-mediated “bindingness”
Persistence of core cultural values
Today’s Discussion
As for specific content bearing on
cultural values, we shall consider:
Privileged Space
Class
Social Organization/Order
Celebrity
Nature
Sexuality
To Begin
About Contemporary Media
• TV
• Advertising
About Ukiyo-e
The Centrality of Television in
Japan Today
In Japan today, there are 6 TVs for every 10
people
and a diffusion rate of 100%.
TV is viewed by virtually every Japanese every
day – 95% of the population.
This has been the case since the 1960s when the rate
was also 95%.
This far exceeds other popular forms of
information processing: newspapers (86%),
cellphones (73%), and the Internet (27%).
The Centrality of Television in
Japan Today
A 1990s NHK study found that, on average, at
least one TV set played 7 to 8 hours a day in
each Japanese dwelling.
Another study found that TV viewing is deemed
as “indispensable” by 43% of the population.
The Centrality of Television in
Japan Today
Today, the average for personal viewing
per day approaches 225 minutes, and
has constantly topped three hours since
1960.
A recent European survey places the
number in excess of four hours, ranking
Japan third in the world.
261 minutes, this ranks ahead of the
U.S. (at 255 minutes) and behind
Mexico (265) and Bosnia (287). In the
most recent assessment, Japan came
in second only to Bosnia.
The Centrality of TV Advertising in
Japan Today
Japan’s advertising market is the second largest
worldwide
Some Facts/Figures:
Advertising outlays for TV outdistance all other media
sources
At 34.1%
Its closest alternative conduit is newspapers (at
19.9%).
It amounts to $223,250,000 just for television
Dedicated to 957,447 ads
Consuming 6,016 broadcasting hours per year
Source: Dentsu Koukoku Nenkan, ’02 – ‘03 [Dentsu
Advertising Yearbook, 2002 – 2003], Tokyo: Dentsu,
2002; pp.57,90,89.
The Centrality of TV Advertising in
Japan Today
Advertising serves not only a major motor for
Japanese television; it also works as one of
the major means by which cultural
communication occurs.
Ads serve a powerful socializing and ideological
function, narrowly and repetitiously re/producing
images of gender, cultural values, history,
nationalism, and political, social and personal
identity (among others).
On advertising and gender, see Holden 2000
On advertising and cultural reproduction, see
Holden 2001
On advertising and nationalism, see Holden
2002
“Ukiyo-Ad”:
Advertisements
as Strips
Japanese ads often adopt the form of
panels.
Ukiyo-e paintings of the 17th and 18th
century serve as their cultural precursor
Like ukiyo-e, ukiyo-ads are fully realized
(or else pieces of fully-realized) worlds.
They are “arbitrary slice(s) or cut(s) from
the stream of ongoing activity.” (Goffman
1974:10). Video still-lifes, if you will.
The “Reality” of Strips
Ukiyo-ads often stand as
enclaves of invented reality which,
nonetheless, are based on and
transmitted into the “real world”
as their own reality
The constant communication of
their values and practices works
to re/produce society in accord
with that worldview
An Example: Cosmetics
The Scenario
A woman enters a bar
alone
She’s wearing a clinging,
shiny red dress
A young man in a white
shirt is behind the bar
The woman sits alone at
the bar, caressing the
stem of her glass
The Scenario (continued)
She raises her eyes
suddenly to meet the
man’s
…and winks
Shocked, the man drops
the glass he’s holding
As it shatters the woman’s
lips part
Entranced, the man
reaches out to to touch
the woman
The Scenario (continued)
She meets his touch
Then directs his
fingers to her face
The Scenario (concluded)
She regards herself
in the mirror of
her compact
We see her embrace
the man forcefully
In a voice-over the man
utters: "is it okay to
touch your skin?"
Some Media Theory:
Bindingness
In recent work (Holden 2004, Holden and
Ergul, forthcoming) I argue that TV in
Japan is a “binding mechanism”.
TV is one of only a few institutions and
set of fixed activities with a finite set of
codes, languages, customs and
meanings that are shared (at least
interpretable) by the entire society and
engaged in routinely, in a narrow,
consistent set of ways.
Some Media Theory
Moreover, despite a variety of genres, the
communication tropes, constantly recycled
personae, and relatively narrow range of
content work to draw the viewer into an intimate
web of proximity and “common cultural
currency”.
One effect is to create a near-national uchi
A privileged space
Offering “familial”-like membership
A direct link between the viewer’s world and the
invented, hidden, non-existent world of celebrities
An ontological configuration predicated on in-group
“secrets”; whose currency is automatic,
unconditional warmth; one which daily produces an
ongoing collective history.
About Ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e: a precis
As most of you probably know, ukiyo-e
refers to “the floating world”.
Generally, this referred to:
Transience and pleasure
Likely because ukiyo-e came of age during the
Edo period…
a time during which a rising merchant class
began to emphasize (and subsidize) worldly
pleasures;
they frequented the so-called “pleasurequarters” and patronized theaters.
These two sources became the early subject
matter for woodblock prints
Explaining Ukiyo-e Structurally
There are 2 key dimensions to ukiyo-e’s
inception and proliferation.
Production
Factors associated with its development
and distribution.
Consumption
Factors associated with its maintenance
and use.
Explaining Ukiyo-e: Production
The early woodblock prints were
generally commissioned by the Kabuki
and Noh-Theaters and by actors as a
form of advertising.
Marrying Media:
Kabuki and Ukiyo-e
• Ukiyo-e artists produced theater
posters and playbills.
• These prints, which depicted famous
actors, helped promote and then
preserve the aragoto style of acting.
Source: http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/ukiyoe/ukiyoe1.html
Wedding “Commercialized”
Culture and Communication
Ukiyo-e prints were created for a mass-market,
and their publishers dominated the creative
process. As such:
publishers determined the subject matter
commissioned artists
oversaw the creation of the woodblocks, and
marketed the finished products.
To heighten public demand, publishers developed
series of prints which they sold in installments.
Source: http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/ukiyoe/ukiyoe1.html
Explaining Ukiyo-e: Consumption
At ukiyo-e’s inception there was a fixed
social hierarchy:
Warriors, farmers, and artisans stood above
merchants, who were the wealthiest
segment of the population
Having their political power effectively
removed by the shogun rulers, the
merchant class turned to art and culture as
arenas in which they could participate on
an equal basis with the elite upper classes.
– Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ukiyoe/object.html
Explaining Ukiyo-e: Consumption
Ukiyo-e provided not only the merchants, but those in the city and
in less traditional professions a chance to participate in society.
This offered a means of attaining cultural status outside the
sanctioned realms of shogunate, temple, and court.
– Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ukiyo-e/object.html
The key actors in this consumption process included actors,
artists, townspeople, and publishers.
Ukiyo-e: Art High or Low?
At its inception,
Ukiyo-e was
not
considered a
fine art, rather
it was a
commercial
art.
Communicative Arts and Cultural
Continuity
This distinction between High-Low / “Fine” versus
“Commercial” art merits comment.
As Buruma recently observed, “even court painters
of the Kano School made little distinction between
decorative and fine art.” (NYR, June 23, 2005:14)
The same could be said in other (and all) cultural
realms in Japanese cultural communications: where
a tendency to separate high from low was not strictly
adhered to – even prior to Modernism.
Certainly, such melding is characteristic both of ukiyo-e
and advertising.
Cultural Continuities
There are some aspects of ukiyo-e and
contemporary advertising that warrant
special note. Both possess:
Production-consumption systems
Promotional dimensions in their communication
Referencing of cultural, political, social and
moral aspects of the surrounding society
Melding of high and low forms of communication
Requirements for extremely advanced (popular)
cultural literacy by their audiences in decoding
texts
Societal System, Commercialized
Culture, and Communication
The fact that ukiyo-e possesses socio-economic
dynamics similar to the contemporary scene is
significant.
The presence of a promotional system (an
agency/promoter), celebrities, mixed in with
depictions of everyday life, and the
commercialized process of advertising these
elements publicly leads to the
spanning/melding of societal sectors.
It also produces societal bindingness between
message producer, medium, content/consumed
object, and message consumer.
The Historical Continuities of
Communication/Culture
This historical continuity in media/system
matters because I believe it suggests a
seamlessness between (Japanese) culture and
forms of communication.
As such, not only modes of communication,
but the content of communication persist,
helping to unify a culture across time.
Despite political, economic, ideological and
technological changes, much of what came before is
found in the present; what was found in a prior (and
very different) medium continues into the current
moment.
Ukiyo-e as “New Media”
Katsuhiko Takahashi (1992) has
argued that rather than a form of art,
ukiyo-e was akin to modern mass
media, with the functions of
information, advertisement and play.
– See: Edo no nyu media (The New Media of Edo)
Viewing ukiyo-e as a fine art is limiting
insofar as it ignores the functional value
of ukiyo-e during its time.
Ukiyo-e as “New Media”
An aesthetic and class-based theory is
implicated in this, but Takahashi’s examples
are most salient.
The author observes that ukiyo-e reported on
games, depicted scenes from scandal
sheets, served as commercial messages,
as fashion shows, and lampoons.
In some ways this makes it closest to the “wide
show”
It also bears strong resemblance to TV
advertising
How to Read Ukiyo-e
Takahashi concludes in a way similar to
semioticists who work with advertising or
cultural studies researchers who assess
media texts:
ukiyo-e prints should be viewed as objects for
social anthropological analysis rather than art
history.
This is similar, then, to work conducted by, say
Goffman (1968) concerning gender in North
American magazine advertising and Holden
(2000) in Japanese TV advertising.
Static Media?
One issue of concern to media
theorists – but possibly less so to
those engaged in Japanese
Studies – is whether media are
static, discrete entities.
Are they individual in their
ontological characteristics, their
operative aspects, and their effects
Or do they share similar ontologies,
operations, and effects
A Theory of Mixed Media?
Media Studies tends to distinguish between media
forms
TV differs from radio, comics are different than the
Internet
But is it possible that media are melded?
Do they share “readability”
Is the way one encodes messages the same as
the way other media encode?
So, too, is the manner in which one medium is
decoded by its audience the same as the way in
which another is decoded?
A Theory of Mixed Media?
On this account:
ukiyo-e might bear considerable
relationship to comics (manga);
So, too, would it be related to
advertising – either in its tropes of
representation, or its specific content.
One might claim historical continuity
in both form and content (across
media).
Ultimately: Ontological Similarity,
Analogic Breakdown?
Ukiyo-e and TV advertising share
extensive similarities. Above all:
Their polysemy
Focus on celebrity
Attention to everyday life
Enabling surveillance of privileged,
unnavigable worlds
De-centered dissemination of knowledge and
information
Reproduction of popular culture
Distinct Media
Ultimately, though, we are talking
about media with different “feel”,
approach and perspective.
Distinct Media
Despite similar themes or subjects, these are not
identical means of communication;
Moreover, the political, economic and cultural
systems from which they emerged and within
which they operate(d) differ.
Ultimately: Ontological Similarity,
Analogic Breakdown?
Above all, some key differences emerge:
1. Different communication strategies
2. TV ads embellish and draw viewers
into the world of celebrity
3. They help forge more intimate links
with personalities in society who are
inserted into viewer’s lives through
other genre (and media), at other times.
4. Thus, ads provide greater genrespanning
5. Ads also manifest a greater
bindingness function
Deeper Ontologies
Ａｓ you may recall, I have somewhat
whimsically, perhaps foolishly
grandiosely, sub-titled this talk “some
thoughts toward a theory of
representation, social structuration, and
cultural values.”
The theory I have in mind is about
communication and cultural continuity
despite quite radical societal change.
This is what I will now address in the
second half of this talk.
Deeper Ontologies I:
Representation
Let me begin with Representation.
It can be thought of in terms of
any number of elements. Among
the most salient may be:
Medium
Subject
Perspective
Modes of address
Aim
Tropes
Deeper Ontologies I:
Representation
Today, in the interest of time, I will only look at a
few similarities and differences between the
media
Working toward understanding ways that they
articulated with the larger culture and society.
First, I will consider Medium
In what way(s) was ukiyo-e a different kind of medium
In what way(s) can ukiyo-e be thought of as a medium
that is similar to or different than advertising
Next I will focus on Perspective
In terms of modes of address, juxtaposition of images,
and the construction of a set out of serial scenes
Although this involves Tropes this analysis will not
delve into that microscopic medium comparison
Japanese Painting as Medium:
A quick history of forms
Numerous media have been employed in Japanese painting over the centuries.
These include:
emakimono (Horizontal scrolls)
Created by pasting single sheets together to form a long roll.
Images were viewed from right to left
Among the oldest forms of Japanese painting
kakemono (Vertical scrolls)
Mounted on a wall
Has a roller on both ends
The top roller has a string attached to enable vertical hanging
The bottom roller serves to straighten the image due to its weight
Became popular during the Edo era
Comes closest to the Western framed canvas painting
byobu (Folding screens)
Came from China to Japan in the 7th century
Because of size, use was limited to temples and palaces
As merchant class grew, so did the demand for byobu in rich towns
The subjects were similar to those on ukiyo-e
fusuma (Sliding doors)
Shoheiga (interior walls)
During the Muromachi (1333-1573) and Momoyama (1573-1603) periods
Commissioned by powerful feudal lords for their castles
uchiwa (fans)
– Source: http://www.artelino.com/articles/japanese-painting.asp
Ukiyo-e as Medium:
Thus Ukiyo-e represented a departure from its
national precursors.
It was in some ways closer to European
approaches to the presentation of art than
earlier Japanese models.
Its mass-produced nature served to bring it closer
to lithographic print or even later-evolving
media such as records, movies, and television.
Woodblock Prints as Media
The Woodblock Print of Ukiyo-e were
iterated media; if not “mass”, then
“multiple-produced” media.
Unlike paintings, ukiyo-e prints could be
produced rapidly, inexpensively and in
large numbers,
The production of a print involved an artist,
a printing shop and a publisher.
After a publisher's approval was secured, an
artist's drawing went to a printing shop where a
copyist traced it onto transparent paper.
The Media
Culture Link
In this way, ukiyo-e were very
responsive to daily life and culture.
Here we see connections between
media – in particular ukiyo-e and
advertising.
Herein also lies a link between
representation and cultural
values/practices.
Representation
In terms of how it
communicated, ukiyo-e
employed certain
approaches to subject and
perspective that reveal both
similarities and differences
to contemporary advertising.
Tropes of Representation 1:
Serial and Set. Views of a Subject
Two of the most famous
ukiyo-e artists, Katsushika
Hokusai (1760-1849) and
Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858),
produced famous series of
portraits revolving around
the singular object, Mount
Fuji.
Serial and Set: Hiroshige
Serial and Set: Hokusai
Serial and Set: Advertising
In advertising, the fact that multiple
scenes can be embedded in one
communication can be exploited to
create a serial/set effect.
The result is often conveying a
variety of perspectives, opening
into discourse about various
themes… no different than ukiyo-e
Serial and Set: Advertising
Here, a Pretz campaign employs the
SMAP star, Goro, who engages in a
succession of shared snacks/nearkisses with women and young
girls…
Serial and Set: Advertising
Ranging in race, age, and
attractiveness
Serial and Set: Advertising
In the process, the ad builds discourse
about topics such as monogamy
Serial and Set: Advertising
Ethnic and/or international union
Serial and Set: Advertising
Culture, Occupation, Class
Serial and Set: Advertising
Pedophilia
Serial and Set: Advertising
And identity…
… if not homosexuality
Tropes of Representation II:
Shifting Perspective
What ukiyo-e was less adept at
handling (that ads can) is changes
in perspective. While the former is
rather uni-dimensional, the latter is
more able to change viewpoints, as
in the following example:
Deeper Ontologies II:
Structuration
Social Structuration can be
thought of in terms of elements
such as:
Class
Group
Gender
Economy
Polity
Institutions (such as family, religion,
military, entertainment)
Deeper Ontologies II:
Structuration
Social Structuration in all these
dimensions are present in both
ukiyo-e and advertising
Deeper Ontologies II:
Social Organization/Structuration
Ukiyo-e – perhaps
unintentionally, via the simple
representation of what was
“out there”, effectively
conveyed social
configuration/order.
Ads, of course, can do the same,
but given the democratization
of the public lifespace and the
aim not to disenfranchise
consumption communities,
may do so less often.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Class/Structuration
The ukiyo-e of Edo, in
particular was rife with
images of samurai, as
well as nobility, geisha
and entertainers.
All belonged to specific
classes or orders in
Japan of that tie.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Class/Structuration
Advertising, as well, is capable of
capturing social grades – from
salaried workers, to celebrities
who move in higher society, to
people with money enough to
engage in leisure pursuits.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Group/Structuration
Just as ukiyo-e depicted
relations among people
of like characteristics,
ads often develop
portraits of those within
social groups.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Group/Structuration
So, too, do ads represent relations or accent
differences between different groups.
Something found less often in ukiyo-e.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Gender/Structuration
Ukiyo-e generally
depicted women
indoors;
occasionally they
were engaged in
domestic labor.
Ads may be more
extensive in the
roles they allocate
for women, but very
often they are also
indoors and
performing domestic
labor.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Economic/Structuration
Ukiyo-e was also
effective at
revealing the
contours of the
economic
organization of
Japan at that
time.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Economic/Structuration
TV ads do the
same:
revealing the
contours of
the economic
organization
of Japan
today.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Institution/Structuration
Ukiyo-e occasionally
represented institutions like
religion, the military or
family.
Deeper Ontologies II:
Institution/Structuration
For ads, it is more often the
family, the corporation, and
(increasingly) the
celebrity/cultural
entertainment system that
receive attention.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural Values
Cultural values can be thought of in
terms of ideas and practices
embedded in these
communications, such as:
Nature
Sexuality/eroticism
Groupism
Consumption
Celebrity
Cultural Identity
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning Nature
Both ukiyo-e and ads focus on
nature as a theme
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning Nature
Both ukiyo-e and ads focus on
nature as a theme
– both as central focus…
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning Nature
… as well as feeling-inducing
background
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Sexuality/Eroticism
This is a theme that continually
appears in both media…
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Sexuality/Eroticism
A continuity that is meaningful in
ways that help us see deep
historical threads transcending
media differences.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Sexuality/Eroticism
Although ads are more chaste and tend to
highlight female sexuality and same sex
contact (as opposed to overt sexual acts).
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Consumption
While ukiyo-e did
include images of
consumption, this
was not a central
focus.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Consumption
Ads, of course, aim to
stimulate
consumption and so
that is often what is
depicted.
Surprisingly, as I have
shown in other work
(Holden 1999)
concerning
“product-least
advertising”, ads
often de-emphasize
or ignore consuming
goods.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Celebrity
We have already considered how the aim
of advertising Kabuki, Noh and their
actors served as a major spur in the
development of ukiyo-e.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Celebrity
It could be argued that the celebrity culture
so pervasive in Japan today can be
traced back to the Kabuki/Noh
promotional culture of Edo.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Celebrity
Certainly, by today, the link between
celebrity-star and advertising is firmly
established.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Cultural Identity
Identity is a theme that courses through
contemporary advertising; it touches
on self, class, gender, cultural, and
national identity, among others.
Deeper Ontologies III:
Cultural values concerning
Cultural Identity
Ukiyo-e, as a more privileged or targeted
form of communication may have done
this less, though identity discourse is
present
Deeper Ontologies IV:
Media and Surveillance
Ukiyo-e, in its heyday, was about the
representation of (if not the invitation
into) private, privileged space.
There was a furtive, surveilling
element
Deeper Ontologies IV:
Media and Surveillance
This space was not accessible by all
Though via consumption of the
medium, there was an ability to gain
access
Deeper Ontologies IV:
Media and Surveillance
Ads work in
the same
way, treating
us to stolen
glimpses
inside…
Deeper Ontologies IV:
Media and Surveillance
The worlds of domestic athletes living and
playing in foreign lands;
Deeper Ontologies IV:
Media and Surveillance:
Work Inside Corporations
Deeper Ontologies IV:
Media and Surveillance:
Family Life
Media Divergence
While we have spent much of this
talk thinking about similarities
between media, there are
important ways in which they
diverge.
One is their presence in
contemporary culture
Ukiyo-e Today
The style persists today
But often associated with erotica, divested of the other
cultural and social elements that ukiyo-e was noted for.
Ukiyo-e Today
In some cases, the cultural and social elements for
which ukiyo-e was noted are still featured; above
all, nature, performers and human subjects..,
although often in more grotesque or aberrant
ways.
Advertising:
The “Truer” Ukiyo-e of Today
However, both in terms of quantity
(ubiquity) and quality (themes covered)
advertising comes closer to filling this
social role today.
It treats all the themes once at the heart of
ukiyo-e…
i.e. privileged space, celebrity, social order,
nature, and consumption
Media Divergence
Beyond this advertising
performs communication
functions, such as
education & cultural
reproduction, but also
historical reinvention –
elements not exploited as
much by ukiyo-e.
Intimacy and Uchi
The claim that is harder to show in the
context of this talk is the one that I pursue
in my research on TV.
Looking at Wideshows, Cooking Shows,
News, Quiz, Dating and “Reality” shows,
one see that way that uchi or an inclusive
grouping is created via such media.
Advertising plays a decided role by creating
an invented, shared space, often invoking
many of the same human figures and
themes that exist out in the real world, as
well as on the daily news and
entertainment programs on TV.
Ukiyo-ad, Intimacy and Uchi
In some ways this takes us away from
ukiyo-e, but in other ways it doesn’t.
For here, what we encounter is privileged,
bracketed, inclusive but private space.
Viewer-consumers are invited as spies,
but are also made complicit in their
participation.
Ukiyo-ad is the medium that secures this
social configuration and creates a
national community.
Conclusion:
Getting through “So What?”
If it was only about similarity in the
style or modes of representation,
that would be nothing more than a
curiosity;
To some it would also seem less
than profound as we are talking
about shared forms of expression
in a society that possesses
historical continuity.
Conclusion:
Getting through “So What?”
However, if it is about identical
themes reproduced in two different
forms of communication, separated
by one to two hundred years of
cultural development, then that
actually stands as a fact of
significance.
Conclusion:
Getting through “So What?”
Suddenly what we are talking about
is:
Less FORM of expression than
CONTENT being expressed
Not simply framed activity, not only
carefully staged scenes…
Social organization, practices and
values which, despite major political,
economic and cultural changes over
the years, still bear great similarity.
Conclusions
As a form of communication, ukiyo-e
barely persists today (or at least not
with the impact and cultural position it
once had)…
But as a means of concretizing Japan –
its social structure, cultural practices
and values – it stands as a vital
communication precursor to the way we
represent and interpret the world around
us today.
Finally…
A bit troubling is what this means for
other theorization I have formulated
concerning globalization (Holden 2003).
There, I advance a notion of distinct
“careers” that nations evince based on
set of factors such as their resource
and ethnic mix, political and economic
institutions, and the like.
Finally…
In light of today’s paper, one must ask:
“What does it mean if a nation like
Japan has an exogenous profile based
on temporal diversity – a set of
genotypically distinct careers – but an
endogenous profile based on
continuity of cultural values?”
Is this a problem of ontology or of
epistemology?
But I will leave the adjudication of that
dispute for another day.
Thank You for your attention