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Creating “Japanese-ness”: an interdisciplinary course on
Japan in the 21st century
Melissa D. Aaron
Kailai Huang
Toni Marzotto
Jim Toub
Karl Winton
Course Statement
This course looks at the construction of a Japanese identity, through five different
disciplines; History, Art History, Communication, English and Theater History, and
Political Science. A variety of readings, activities, and assignments are suggested for
potential course use, along with a bibliography divided by module.
Module One:
Creating Japanese-ness: A Historical Back ground (Kailai Huang, History)
The Japanese search for a clear national identity in the modern era has
been a complex and ongoing process that often demonstrates contradictory
inclinations and extremes. The politics of identity--who controls the
meaning of identity--has been profoundly shaped by the state and become an
essential part of Japanese nation-building. The following unit has been
designed to provide a historical background against which the formation
and transformation of Japanese national identity may be better understood.
A selected bibliography will help students to do further research and to
produce a term paper on this subject. Student will hand in a one-page
description of paper theme(s) and sources to be used.
Objectives:
Students will gain a basic familiarity with the contour of
Japanese history from the Meiji Restoration to the present.
Students will be able to identify certain cultural elements
which are considered characteristically Japanese.
Students will be able to put the current discussion and debate
over Japaneseness and Japan's place in international community in a
cultural and historical context.
Text: Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa times to the
present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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Week 1: Constructing a Japanese Nation-State and a National Identity,
1868-1945
Meiji Reforms and Japan's First Opening to the World
Inventing Japanese Identity: kokutai and the Emperor System
datsu-a nyu-o, Leave Asia and Join Europe
Nationalism and the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
Week 2: The Search for National Identity in Post-War Japan, 1945-1989
The Occupation and the Second Opening of Japan
Neutrality vs. Alignment in the Cold War
"Government by Harmony"and the LDP Leadership
Japan as a Global Economic Power and a Member of the West
Week 3: Who and What are the Japanese? Where is Japan Heading?
The Globalization and Japan's Third Opening
Japan's Asianization
Confronting a Multicultural and Multiethnic Society
Cultural Nationalism and Internationalism
Some Useful Websites
http://www.jpri.org
Japan Policy Insititute
http://www.jiapnonline.org Japan Information Access Project
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm Daily Yomiuri News and Editorials
H-Japan: http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~asia/discilist/h-japan/
H-Asia: http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/b/bas/demo/index.html Bibliography of Asian Studies
http://www.ntt.jp/japan.index.html Index for Japanese Information
Module Two
Tradition and Identity in contemporary Japanese art (Jim Toub, Art History)
Is an original and typically Japanese concept still possible while the Japanese,
quote unquote, became so "sadly westernized"?
Takashi Murakami, founder of the Superflat movement, in a
lecture given at the Royal Academy in London in 2004.
This unit will focus on some of the ways that contemporary Japanese art has been shaped
by the often contentious interaction between indigenous artistic traditions and modern
Euro-American culture. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan underwent a period of
rapid and far reaching modernization. Reconciling foreign modernizing influences with
pre-Meiji Japanese culture resulted in ongoing debates about what it meant to be
Japanese in a modern world dominated by the west. This crisis in identity prompted a
whole range of responses from Japanese artists. Many believed that a uniquely Japanese
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art is rooted to preserving traditions handed down from the distant past. Others believed
that only by rejecting the past could Japan be a truly modern country. Examining the
ways Japanese artists have interpreted Japanese artistic traditions in the context of
modern/post modern art may provide insights into what it means to be Japanese in the
21st century.
The following six lectures are designed to provide a general overview of some ways
Japanese artists have integrated traditional and modern/post-modern ideas and art forms.
Students are required to write a 4 to 5 page reaction paper in response to the theme of
tradition and identity in contemporary Japanese art.
Week 4:
Lecture 1: "Traditional" Japanese Aesthetics and the Construction of a Modern
Identity in Early 20th Century Japan
Kojin Karatoni. "Japan as Tradition: Okakura Tenshin and Ernest Fenollosa," Japanese
Art after 1945." Japanese Art after 1945: Scream Against the Sky. Ed. Alexandra Monoe.
New York: Harry Abrams, Inc., 1994. 33-41.
Suggested reading:
Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery. New York: Pantheon, 1953.
Okakura, Tenshin. Book of Tea. 1956, Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Co., 1956
Yanagi, Soetzu. The Unknown Craftsman. Adapted by Bernard Leach. Tokyo, Palo Alto:
Kodansha, 1972.
Lecture 2: Living National Treasures and the Myth of Traditional Japanese
Aesthetics
Aoyama, Wahei. 2004. Critique of Japan's Living National Treasure System.
http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/
Reynolds, Jonathon. "Ise Shrine and the Modernist Construction of Japanese Tradition,"
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 83, no. 2 (June 2001).
Suggested reading:
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. "Touring Japan: Nippon and other Japanese Imperialist
Travelogues," Positions: East Asian Cultures Critique, Duke University Press, 8.3.
(Winter 2000).
Wendelken, Cherie. "Pan-Asianism and the Pure Japanese Thing: Japanese Identity and
Architecture in the Late 1930's. Positions: East Asian Cultures Critique. Duke University
Press, 8.3 (Winter 2000).
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--------------------------. Living with the Past: Preservation and Development in Modern
Japan. Ph.D. Dissertation, Mass. Institute of Technology, 1993.
Week 5:
Lecture 3:Tradition and Innovation: Japanese Painting and Sculpture after the
American Occupation
This class will focus on a few Japanese artists who sought to integrate traditional
Japanese art forms and aesthetics with avant garde movements that originated in the west.
It will include examples of works by Morita Shiryu , Teshigahora Sofu, Inoue Yuichi,
Shinoda Toko, Masami Teraoka and Isamu Neguchi.
Monoe, Alexandra. "Circle: Modernism and Tradition," Japanese Art After 1945: Scream
Against the Sky. 125-148.
Suggested reading:
Aston, Dore. Neguchi: East and West. New York: Knopf, 1992.
Tomii, Reiko. "Infinity Nets: Aspects of Contemporary Japanese Painting," Japanese Art
After 1945: Scream Against the Sky. 307-338.
Lecture 4: The Legacy of Mono-ha (School of Things)
Artists to be discussed include Toshikatsu Endo, Tadashi Kawamita, Shigeo Toya,
Ebizuka Isoichi, Fujii Chuichi and Tsuchiya Kimio.
Fox, Howard. A Primal Spirit: Ten Contemporary Japanese Sculptures. Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, 1990.
Monroe, Alexandra. "The Laws of Situation: Mono-ha and Beyond: The Sculptural
Paradigm," Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky. 257-284.
Heyd, Thomas. "Understanding Japanese Gardens and Earthworks: On the Way to
Understanding Nature Restoration." 1992. http//:www.uqtr.uquebec.ca/ae/vol
_6/manon/heyd.html
Toshiaki, Minemura. "What was Mono-ha?" Kamakura Gallery. 1986.
http//www.kamakura-g.com
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Week 6
Lecture 5: Contemporary Japanese Architecture: Synthesis of the Old and the New
Special focus will be given to the architecture of Ando Tadao and Murano Togo.
Tung, Anthony. "Kyoto: Reversing the Culture of Destruction." Preserving the World's
Great Cities. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.
Bognar, Botond. Nikken Sekkei: Building Future Japan, 1900-2000. New York: Rizzoli,
London: Troika, 2000.
Bognar, Botond. Togo Murano: Master Architect of Japan, New York: Rizzoli, 1996.
Geregotti, Vittorio, Ed. Tadao Ando: Complete Works, Condon: Phaidon, 1995.
Sheldon, Barrie. Learning from the Japanese City: West meets East in Urban Design.
London: Spon, 1999.
Wendelken, Cherie. "Putting Metabolisms Back in Place: The Making of Radically
Decontextualized Architecture of Japan." Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in PostWar Architectural Culture. Ed. Sarah Williams Goldhagen and Rejean Legualt,
Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2000.
Lecture 6: The Commodification of Tradition: Japan as Theme Park
Azuma, Hiroki. Superflat Japanese Modernity. MOCA Gallery, Pacific Design Center,
April 5, 2001. http//www.hirokiazuma.com/en/texts/superflat_enz.html
Murakami, Takashi. Superflat. England/Japan. Madra Publishing Co., 2000.
Murakami, Takashi. The Superflat Revolution. 2004.
http//:www.royalacademy.org.uk/?lid=831
Japan National Tourist Organization, Visit Japan Campaign. http//www.jnto.go.jp
This site has links to theme parks which focus on Japanese history.
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Module Three
Japanese Elderly in the 21st Century (Karl Winton, Communication)
This three week section of the class will discuss Japanese culture and the elderly.
Westerners have a stereotyped perspective of how the Japanese take care of their elderly,
believing that they are venerated and that children will take care of their ageing parents.
That is the assumption, but this is not what actually occurs in daily life. Japanese culture
and how Japanese families take care of their aging parents is changing with new
economic times and demographics.
Weeks 7 and 8:
An overview of traditional Japanese family culture and the role of the aging.
--The role of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shinto.
--The “ie” defined and as a basis for adult obligation.
--The role of the daughter-in-law and adult daughter as primary care givers.
Weeks 8 and 9:
How the “new” economic structure and modernization has changed the traditional view
from the “ideal” Japanese care for the elderly to the “real.”
--Modernization of Japan in the postwar years
--Modernization and the change in demographics
--Modernization and family and family obligations.
Texts (articles on reserve):
Brown, N. (2003). “Under one roof: the evolving story of three generation housing in
Japan.” In Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging Society. John W.
Traphagan and John Knight, eds. SUNY Press, Albany.
Jenike, B. R. (2003) “Parent care and shifting family obligations in urban Japan.” In
Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging Society. John W. Traphagan and
John Knight, eds. SUNY Press, Albany.
Lock, M. (1984) “Treating the Japanese elderly: the masking of a social problem.” In
Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 63 & 64: Opportunity, constraint, and change:
Essays in honor of Elizabeth Colson. Jack Glazier, Michael Lowy, Kathryn T. Molohon,
John U. Ogbu and Anya P. Peterson-Royce. GRT Printing: Oakland, CA.
Koyano, W. (2003) “Intergeneration relationships of Japanese seniors: changing
patterns.” In Global Aging and Challenges to Families. Vern L. Bengtson and Ariela
Lowenstein. Aldine Dr. Gruyter: New York.
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Films:
Selections from The Twilight Samurai and Toyko Story.
Assignment:
One 3-5 page mini-research paper on the topic of Japanese elderly, to be approved by the
instructor.
Module Four
Japan looks back: Conscious nostalgia and the construction of an “authentically”
Japanese past (Melissa D. Aaron, English and Theater History)
Periodically, Japan has sought to define its identity, its unique “Japanese-ness,” by
reference to an authentically “Japanese” past, a past that may or may not exist. This unit
will look at Japanese gei, traditional arts, and more specifically performing arts, to
determine the ways in which these arts have been used to signify Japan to itself and the
outside world in economics, society, and culture.
Objectives:
In this unit, students will—
Familiarize themselves with traditional Japanese performance art forms through reading,
listening, watching, and performing.
Read several “traditional” Japanese plays.
Hypothesize the influence these arts have had on 20th century Japanese society and the
direction such arts will take now.
Assignments:
Reading, viewing films, short film paper, performance project, arts journal.
Week 10: A Conscious Nostalgia.
Construction of tradition begins seriously in the Meiji period, when the supporters
of the Tenno created a cult of the emperor that previously had not existed.
In this unit, two specific types of “traditional” arts will be studied: “traditional”
Japanese theatre, especially Kabuki, and the arts of the geisha. These two art forms were,
in the Edo period, popular art, part of the ukiyo-e or floating world. The business of
theater and the business of geisha (and of prostitution) was known as the “water trade,”
from the geographic restriction of performers and prostitutes into undesirable quarters
located in dry river beds. Now these popular and once-despised arts are revered as
“traditional.” In reclaiming a “traditional” Japan, the appeal to “authenticity” can conceal
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a conservative political agenda, while the gender specialization and funding base—public
vs. private funding—reveals an interesting contrast. The appeals to “authenticity,” the
issue of funding, and gender restrictions on performance offer an irresistible parallel to a
Shakespeare historian.
Week 11:
An incredibly brief introduction to Japanese theater. The “traditional” theater of Japan,
until relatively recently, was the Noh drama and its comic cousin, Kyogen. By contrast,
Kabuki was a lower-class, though very popular, performing art, and heavily regulated by
the state. The first famous Kabuki actor was in fact an actress, but because it was
suspected, not without reason, that Kabuki performances amounted to medicine shows
designed to drum up business for prostitutes, women were forbidden to perform in public.
Puppet theatre, or bunraku, was also popular, and although they managed to avoid sexual
censorship because, as Ben Jonson once pointed out, puppets don’t have genitalia, the
subject matter was often restricted, censored or forbidden, as in Chikamatsu’s plays on
love suicides, a perennially popular subject.
In the Meiji period, there was an attempt to “modernize” Kabuki with Western plots and
theater techniques, while the West was falling in love with “traditional” Japanese theater.
Finally, kabuki has become a stylized, traditional art form, perpetually set in the Edo
period it grew up in. It has been nationalized and supported by the Japanese government
along with Noh, kyogen, bunraku, folk drama, and –tellingly—Western opera and ballet,
two art forms that have generally required a good deal of outside government patronage.
Readings:
Selections from Traditional Japanese Theatre (Columbia, 1998), including pp. 3-43
(brief overview), 303-13 (elements of performance, kabuki and bunraku) and selected
plays.
Film: (watched in class) The Actor’s Revenge.
Web sites:
The National Theatre of Japan http://www.ntj.jac.go.jp/english/index.html.
Kabuki for Everyone: http://www.fix.co.jp/kabuki/kabuki.html (includes film clips).
Kabuki Pavilion: http://www.kabuki.gr.jp/pavilion/english/index2.html.
Week 12:
The tradition of geisha naturally grows out of forbidding women to perform in public.
Confusingly, there were (and are) male geisha (the original word is geiko, arts child, still
used in Kyoto), while now women are permitted to perform on stage. The original Edoperiod geisha formed part of the train of the great courtesans of the day and were
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forbidden to compete with their employer’s “business.” By contrast with the courtesans,
elaborately dressed with heavy hairstyles, the geisha wore elegant but simple clothing
and were primarily performers on the shamisen and dancers. By the eighteenth century,
they had become established.
While geisha were not supposed to be prostitutes, in some places there was little
difference. Almost any geisha needed a patron (or danna) simply to underwrite the high
operating costs of kimono, wigs, lessons, etc.
Two major legal reforms transformed the world of the geisha, the Prostitute and Geisha
Emancipation Act in 1872, (known cynically as the Cattle Release Act) banning
trafficking in people, and the Act in 1958 officially banning prostitution. The 1958 act
brought an end to the courtesans, though they had been gone for some time, and kept one
traditional house open as a museum with reenactors who dance and play music (though
they do not engage in the sexual arts most courtesans were famous for). Geisha continue
to this day.
While there has never been any public funding of geisha—geisha being strictly a private
sector activity—geisha and especially maiko are a major symbol of Japan. Maiko waited
on President Gerald Ford during his state visit, and the Cherry Blossom dances in Kyoto
are open to the public. Still, geisha pay for the privilege of performing in the latter.
Modern day geisha lament that the day of the big spenders is over and that corporations
paying them to entertain demand itemized receipts.
Readings:
Selections-Dalby, Liza. Geisha. Originally published 1983, new introduction added in 1998.
Vintage Books, 2000. An anthropological study by the only anthropologist to become a
geisha.
Downer, Lesley. Women of the Pleasure Quarters. Broadway, 2002. A journalist
interviews current and former geisha; good also on history.
Films: watched in class—clips from Sisters of the Gion and A Geisha.
Web sites:
Immortal Geisha –a fan site, but probably the very best. http://www.immortalgeisha.com
See its companion site on courtesans, http://thecagedbirds.com .
Liza Dalby’s web site: http:// www.lizadalby.com.
Module Five
Rethinking Identity: Women in Modern Japan (Toni Marzotto, Political Science)
This three week module consisting of six class periods will examine the changing role of
women in Japan. The focus will be on the post-WWII period to the present. Module will
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include one in-class group assignment and one 5 page paper examining a current
Japanese policy affecting women.
Week 13:
Class Period 1.
I.
Introduction –Historical Overview
– Japan looks West
– Meijii period
– Taisho Period
– Showa Period
– Heisei Period
Readings:
Bernstein, Gail Lee.1991. Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Berkeley, University
of California Press.
Iwao, Sumiko. 1993. The Japanese Woman: Traditional Image and Changing Reality.
New York, Free Press. Ch. 1, Myths and Realities.
Sugimoto, Yoshio. 1997. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge University
Press. (Skim)
Films:
Excerpts from:
Tokyo Story – Women in 1950s
Family Games – Women in 1980s
In Class Exercise:
Break up into groups. Discuss the portrayal of women’s role in each of
the movies. How does this compare with that of American women?
Class Period 2.
II. Private vs Public Roles/ Lives of Japanese Women
Women’s studies literature often characterize the dual role roles of women as divided
into the private/ or home roles that women play and the public roles that women play. In
Japan as in the U.S. these dual roles tend to overlap. How do government policies effect
these roles?
Readings:
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Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1981. Public Man: Private Woman. Oxford, England: Robertson.
Private Lives
Marriage
-- from go-betweens & match-makers to love marriages
-- expectations of and in marriage -- unequal tea cups?
-- inequality vs division of labor (home)
Reading:
Bardsky, Jan. 2004 “ Women, Marriage and the State in Modern Japan: An
Introduction.” Women’s Studies, June, 33;4, pp. 353-60.
Hirakawa, Hiroko. 2004. “Give Me One Good Reason to Marry a Japanese Man:
Japanese Women Debating Ideal Lifestyles.” Women's Studies. June, Vol. 33
Issue 4, pp.423-442
Newcomb, Amelia, A. 1998. “ In Japan, Single Life Looks Good.” Christian
Science Monitor. January 2. 90:26, p. 1. Op2c.
Children
-- continuation of family line
-- education of children
-- zero population growth
-- tension with women’s work role
-- limited daycare options
Reading:
Creighton, Millie. 1996. “Marriage, Motherhood and Career Management in
Japanese ‘Counter Culture.’” In Ann Imamura (ed). Re-Imaging Japanese
Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 192-220.
Ikeya, Akira, 2002. “Day Care Next on Reform Agenda.” Nikkei Weekly. 11
February: 1, 19.
Peng, Ito. 2001. “Gender and Generation: Japanese Child Care and the
Demographic Crisis.” In Sonya Michel and Rianne Mahon (eds). Child Care
Policy at the Crossroads: Gender and Welfare State Restructuring. New York:
Routledge, pp. 31-56.
Class Period 3
Divorce
-- from male prerogative to women’s choice (pre- 1945)
-- no-fault divorce (1987)
-- older women divorcing
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-- financial dis-incentives
Reading:
Hinz, Christienne. 2004. “Women Beyond the Pale: Marital `Misfits and
Outcasts’ among Japanese Women.” Women’s Studies, June, 33:4, pp. 453-80.
Domestic Violence
-- indirect external pressure
-- 1993 UN Declaration on Elimination of Violence Against
Women
-- 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women
-- modern nation; passage of laws in Korea & Taiwan
-- internal pressure
-- Diet Women
-- Council for Gender Equality
-- informal groups of women
-- 2001 Law for the Prevention of Spousal Violence & the Protection of
Victims
Readings:
Magnier, Mark. 2002. “Confronting Marital Violence Behind the Shoji Screen.”
Los Angeles Times. February 11, 9-10.
Class Period 4
Public Lives
A. Education
– junior colleges
– gaining parity in college admissions
Readings:
Starobin, Soko. S. 2002. “ Community Colleges in Japan and the Social Status of
Women.” Community College Journal of Research and Practice. July:26;6, pp.
493-503.
Hirao, Keiko. 2001. “ The Effect of Higher Education on the Rate of Labor Force
Exit for Married Japanese Women.” International Journal of Comparative
Sociology. November, Vol. 42, Issue 5, pp. 413-34.
B. Workplace, Equal Rights, & Sexual Harassment
-- equal pay for equal work
-- M Curve
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-- glass ceiling; pink collar jobs
-- constitutional rights & legislation
-- reality: court cases esp. equal pay, treatment
Readings:
Strober, Myra H. and Chan, Meling Kaneko. 1999. The Road Winds Uphill all
the Way: Gender, Work and Family in the United States and Japan. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Bergeson, Jan and Kaoru Oba. 1986. “Japan’s New Equal Employment Law: Real
Weapon or Heirloom Sword?” Brigham Young Law Review. 865-90.
Edwards, Linda. 1994. “The Status of Women in Japan: Has the Equal
Employment Opportunity Law Made a Difference?” Journal of Asian Economics,
5, 2; 217-40.
French, Howard W. 2001. “Diploma in Hand, Japanese Women Find Glass
Ceiling Reinforced with Iron.” New York Times. January 1, p. A4 Op.
Knapp, Kiyoko Kamio. 1995. “Still Office Flowers: Japanese Women Betrayed
by the Equal Employment Opportunity Law.” Harvard Women’s Law Journal,
18: 83-137.
Week 15:
Class Period 5
Women in Politics
-- voting behavior
-- public office holders
-- advocacy and involvement
Readings:
Patterson, Dennis and Nishikawa, Misa. 2002. “Political Interests or Interest in
Politics? Gender and Party Support in Post War Japan.” Women and Politics, Vol
24, Issue 2, pp. 1-33.
Gelb, Joyce. 2003. Gender Policies in Japan and the United States: Comparing
Women’s Movements, Rights and Politics. New York, Palgrave Macmillian.
Class Period 6
F. Women’s Movement
-- First Wave before 20th century
-- suffrage, equality, socialist feminist goals, reproductive
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freedom
-- upper class, blue stockings
-- occupation -- women gain vote, run for office, Art. 14
-- legal bias removed but real discrimination remained
-- Second Wave – 1970s grew out of student, union protests
-- 2000, influence of international feminism
-- sex tourism
-- pornography
-- sexual harassment
Readings:
Buckley, Sandra. 1997. Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminists. Berkeley,
University of California Press.
Chalmers, Sharon. 2002. Emerging Lesbian Voices from Japan. London:
Routledge Curzon.
Rosenberger, Nancy. 2001. Gambling with Virtue: Japanese Women and the
Search for Self in a Changing Nation. Honolulu, HI, University of Hawaii Press.
Assignment: Write a 5 page paper:
Examining a Japanese policy that affects women. What changes
have taken place over the past several decades. You may compare
this policy with a similar policy in the U.S.
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Bibliography:
Module 1: Creating “Japanese-ness”: A Historical Background
1868-1945
Beasley, W. G. The Meiji Restoration. Standford: SUP, 1972.
_______. Japanese Imperialism, 1894-1945. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Bix, Herbert. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York:
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Davis, Darrell William. Picturing Japaneseness: Monumental Style, National
Identity, Japanese Film. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
Dower, John W. War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1986.
Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword; The Japanese Penetration of Korea,
1895-1910. Berkeley: UCP, 1995.
Fletcher III, William Miles. The Search for a New Order, Intellectuals and
Fascism in Prewar Japan. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina
Press, 1982.
Fujitani, Takashi. Splendid Monarchy, Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan.
Berkeley: UCP, 1996.
Garon, Sheldon. Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life.
Princeton: N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Gluck, Carol. Japan's Modern Myths, Ideology in the Late Meiji Period.
Princeton: PUP, 1985.
Hackett, R. F. Yamagata Aritomo in the Rise of Modern Japan, 1838-1922.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973.
Irokawa, Daikichi. The Culture of the Meiji Period. Translated and edited
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Ivy, Marilyn. Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan.
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Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West, Japanese Literature of the Modern Era. 2
vols. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1984.
Kinmonth, Earl H. The Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought, from
Samurai to Salary Man. Berkeley: UCP, 1981.
Marshall, Byron. Learning to be Modern, Japanese Political Discourse on
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Pyle, Kenneth B. The New Generation of Meiji Japan, Problems of Cultural
Identity, 1885-1995. Stanford: SUP, 1969.
Reischauer, Haru Matsukata. Samurai and Silk: A Japanese and American
Heritage. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Rimer, J. Thomas, ed. Culture and Identity: Japanese Intellectuals During
the Interwar Years. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Rosenstone, Robert A. Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji
Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Tanaka, Stefan. Japan's Orient: Rendering Pasts into History. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1993.
Vlastos, Stephen, ed. Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern
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Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Weiner, Michael. The Origins of the Korean Community in Japan. Humanities
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_______. Race and Migration in Imperial Japan. London: Routledge, 1994.
Wilson, George M. Radical Nationalist in Japan: Kita Ikki 1883-1937.
London: CUP, 1971.
1945-present
Allinson, Gary D. Japan's Postwar History. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1997.
Bailey, Paul J. Postwar Japan, 1945 to the Present. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers, 1996.
Buckley, Roger. U.S.-Japan Alliance Diplomacy, 1945-1990. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Dower, John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New
York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.
Eades, Gill, Befu, eds. Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary
Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press 2000.
Field, Norma. In the Realm of a Dying Emperor: A Portrait of Japan at
Century's End. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.
Fu, Charles Wei-hsun and Heine, Steven, eds. Japan in Traditional and
Postmodern Perspectives. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Gluck, Carol and Graubard, Stephen, eds. Showa, The Japan of Hirohito. NY:
W.W. Norton & Co., 1992.
Gordon, Andrew, ed. Postwar Japan as History. Berkeley: CUP, 1993.
Hane, Mikiso. Eastern Phoenix, Japan since 1945. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.
Hoston, Germaine A. The State, Identity, and the National Question in
China and Japan. Princeton, N.J.: PUP, 1994.
Johnson, Chalmers. MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial
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_______. Japan: Who Governs. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1995.
Kawai, Kazuo. Japan’s American Interlude. Chicago: UCP, 1960.
Miyoshi, Masao. Off Center: Power and Culture Relations between Japan and
the United States. Cambridge: HUP, 1991.
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Duke University Press, 1993
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Pyle, Kenneth B. The Japanese Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era.
Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1992.
Reischauer, Edwin O. and Jansen, Marius B. The Japanese Today, Change and
Continuity, enlarged edition. Cambridge: HUP, 1995.
Shirane, Haruo and Suzuki, Tomi, eds. Inventing the Classics: Modernity,
National Identity, and Japanese Literature. Stanford, SUP, 2001.
Smith, Dennis B. Japan since 1945, The Rise of an Economic Superpower. NY:
St. Martin's Press, 1995.
17
Vogel, Ezra F. Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in
a Tokyo Suburb. Berkeley: CUP, 1971.
Ward, Robert E. and Sakamoto, Yoshikazu, eds. Democratizing Japan: The
Allied Occupation. Honolulu: UHP, 1987.
Weiner, Michael. Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity.
London:Routledge, 1997.
_______. Race, Identiy and Migration in Modern Japan. 3 vols. London:
Routledge, 2004.
Yoshino, Kosaku. Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A
Sociological Enquiry. London: Routledge, 1992.
Articles
Amstutz, Galen. "Modern Cultural Nationalism and English Writing on
Buddhism. The Case of D.T. Suzuki." Japanese Religions 22.2 (1997): pp.
65-86.
Doak, Kevin M. "Nationalism as Dialectics. Ethnicity, Moralism, and the
State in Early Twentieth Century Japan." In Heisig, James W. and John C.
Maraldo, eds. Rude Awakenings. Zen, the Kyoto School, and the Question of
Nationalism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995, pp. 174-196.
Edwards, Walter. "Buried Discourse: The Toro Archaeological Site and
Japanese National Identity in the Early Postwar Period," JJS 17: 1-23
(Winter 1991).
Hammond, Ellen H. "Homing in on Asia: Identity in Contemporary Japan."
Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, vol. 27, 1995
Kleinen, Peter. "Politics, Religion, and National Integration in
Wilhelmine Germany and Meiji Japan. A Comparative View on the Kulturkampf
and the Persecution of Buddhism." In Umesao Tadao, Fujitani Takashi, and
Kurimoto Eisei, eds. Japanese Civilization in the Modern World XVI.
Nation-State and Empire. Senri, Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 2000,
pp. 61-94 [Senri Ethnological Studies; 51].
Pye, Michael. "National and International Identity in a Japanese Religion
(Byakko Shinkkai)." In Hayes, V., ed. Identity Issues and World Religions:
Selected Proceedings of the XVth Congress of the International Association
for the History of Religions. South Australia: Australian Association for
the Study of Religion, 1986, pp. 234-241.
Sharf, Robert. "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism." History of Religions
33:1 (August, 1993): pp. 1-43.
Module 2: Tradition and Identity in Contemporary Japanese Art
Included in syllabus
Module 3: Japanese Elderly in the Twenty-First Century
Akiyama, H., Antonucci, T., C & Ruth Campbell. (1997). “Exchange and reciprocity
among two generations of Japanese and American women.” In Cultural Context of
Aging: Worldwide Perspectives (2nd edition). Jay Sokolovsky, ed. London: Bergin and
18
Garvey.
Bengston, V. L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) In Global Aging and Challenges to Families.
New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Bengston, V.L., Kim, K, Myers, G. C., and Eun, K. (2000). Aging in East and West:
Families, states and the elderly. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Bier, W. C., ed. (1974) Aging: Its challenge to the individual and society. New York:
Fordham University Press.
Brown, N. (2003) “Under one roof: the evolving story of three generation housing in
Japan.” In Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging Society. John W.
Traphagan and John Knight, eds. Albany: SUNY Press.
Eun, K.S. (2003) “Changing roles of the family and state for elderly care: a Confucian
perspective.” In Global Aging and Challenges to Families. Vern L. Bengston and Ariela
Lowenstein, eds. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Gullette, M.. M. (2004) Aged by culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hashimoto, A. (1996) The gift of Generations: Japanese and American perspectives on
aging and the social contract. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jenike, B.R. (2003). “Parent care and shifting family obligations in urban Japan.” In
Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging Society. John W. Traphagan and
John Knight, eds. Albany: SUNY Press.
---. (1997). “Gender and duty in Japan’s Aged Society: the experience of family
caregivers.” In Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspective. 2nd ed. Jay
Sokolovsky , ed. London: Bergin and Garvey.
Koyano, W. “Intergenerational relationships of Japanese seniors: changing patterns. In
Global Aging and Challenges to Families. Vern L. Bengston and Ariela Lowenstein,
eds. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Lock, M. (1984) “Treating the Japanese Elderly: the masking of a social problem. In
Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 63 and 64: Opportunity, constraint, and
Change: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth Colson. Jack Glazier, Michael Lowy, Kathryn T.
Molohon, John U. Ogbu, and Anya P. Peterson-Royce, eds. Oakland, CA: GRT Printing.
Ohnuki-Tierney, E. (1984) Illness and Culture in contemporary Japan: an
anthropological view. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Olson, L.K., ed. (2001) Age through ethnic lenses: caring for the elderly in a
multicultural society. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield.
Piovesana, G. K., (1974) “The aged in Chinese and Japanese cultures.” In Aging: Its
Challenge to the Individual and Society. William C. Bier., S.J. New York: Fordham
University Press.
Raymo, J. M., Kaneda, T. (2003) “Changes in the living arrangements of Japanese
elderly: the role of demographic fators.” In Demographic Change and the Family in
Japan’s Aging Society. John W. Traphagan and John Knight, eds. Albany: SUNY Press.
Shibusawa, T., Lubben, J., and Kitano, H. H. L. (2001). “Japanese American Elderly.” In
Aged Through Ethnic Lenses: Caring for the elderly in a multicultural society. Laura K.
Olson. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield.
Tsuji, Y. (2001) “Death Policies in Japan: the state, the family and the individual.” In
Family and Social Policy in Japan. Roger Goodman, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Yee, B.W.K. (1997) “The social and cultural context of adaptive aging by southeast
19
Asian elders.” In The Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspectives. 2nd ed. Jay
Sokolovsky, ed. London: Bergin and Garvey.
Module 4: Japan Looks Back: Conscious Nostalgia and the construction of an
“authentically” Japanese past
Brandon, James R. “Time and Tradition in Modern Japanese Theatre.” Asian Theatre
Journal. Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 71-79.
Brazell, Karen, ed. Traditional Japanese Theatre: An Anthology of Plays. New York:
Columbia, 1998.
Dalby, Liza. Geisha. Originally published 1983, new introduction added in 1998.
Vintage Books, 2000.
Downer, Lesley. Women of the Pleasure Quarters. Broadway, 2002.
Gerstle, C. Andrew. “Flowers of Edo: Eighteenth-Century Kabuki and its Patrons.”
Asian Theatre Journal. Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 52-75.
Immoos, Thomas. “The Birth of the Japanese Theater.” Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 24,
No. 4 (1969), pp. 403-414.
Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. “Self and Other in Esteemed Status: The Changing Cluture of
the Japanese Royalty from Showa to Heisei.” Journal of Japanese Studies. Vol. 23, No. 2
(Summer, 1997), pp. 257-289.
Leiter, Samuel L. “The Kanamaru-za: Japan’s Oldest Kabuki Theatre.” Asian Theatre
Journal. Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring, 1997), pp. 56-92.
Ortolani, Benito. The Japanese Theatre: From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary
Pluralism. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990.
Thornbury, Barbara E. “From Festival Setting to Center Stage: Preserving Japan’s Folk
Performing Arts.” Asian Theatre Journal Vol. 10, No. 2 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 163-178.
Yuichiro, Takahashi. “Kabuki Goes Official: The 1878 Opening of the Shintomi-za.”
TDR. Vol. 39, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 131-150.
Module 5: Women in Modern Japan
Bardsky, Jan. 2004 “ Women, Marriage and the State in Modern Japan: An Introduction.”
Women’s Studies, June, 33;4, pp. 353-60.
Bergeson, Jan and Kaoru Oba. 1986. “Japan’s New Equal Employment Law: Real
Weapon or Heirloom Sword?” Brigham Young Law Review. 865-90.
Birnbaum, Phyllis. Modern Girls, Shining Stars, The Skies of Tokyo: Five Japanese
Women. NY: Columbia University Press.
Bishop, Beverly, 2000. “ The Diversification of Employment and Women’s Work in
Contemporary Japan.” In J.S. Eades, Tom Gill, and Harumi Befu(eds). Globalization
and Contemporary Japan. Melbourne, Australia; Transpacific Press, 93-109.
Buckley, Sandra. 1997. Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminists. Berkeley,
University of California Press.
Chalmers, Sharon. 2002. Emerging Lesbian Voices from Japan. London: Routledge
Curzon.
Creighton, Millie. 1996. “Marriage, Motherhood and Career Management in Japanese
‘Counter Culture.’” In Ann Imamura (ed). Re-Imaging Japanese Women. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 192-220.
20
Edwards, Linda. 1994. “The Status of Women in Japan: Has the Equal Employment
Opportunity Law Made a Difference?” Journal of Asian Economics, 5, 2; 217-40.
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1981. Public Man: Private Woman. Oxford, England: Robertson.
French, Howard. 2000. “Women Win a Battle, But Job Bias Still Rules Japan.” New York
Times, 26 February, A3.
French, Howard W. 2001. “Diploma in Hand, Japanese Women Find Glass Ceiling
Reinforced with Iron.” New York Times. January 1, p. A4 Op.
Gelb, Joyce. 2003. Gender Policies in Japan and the United States: Comparing Women’s
Movements, Rights and Politics. New York, Palgrave Macmillian.
Gelb, Joyce. 1991. “Tradition and Change in Japan: The Case of Equal Employment
Opportunity Law.” U.S.- Japan Women’s Journal English Supplement 1. August, 51-77.
Hayashi, Hiroko. 1991. “Legal Issues on Wages of Japanese Women Workers.”
International Review of Comparative Public Policy.
Hayashi, Hiroko. 1995. “Ten Years of the Equal Employment Law in Japan: Its Future
Problems.” Jurisuto. November 1079: 2-4.
Helweg, Diana. 1991. “Japan’s Equal Employment Opportunity Act: A Five Year Look
at its Effectiveness.” Boston University International Law Journal, Fall, 293-320.
Hinz, Christienne. 2004. “Women Beyond the Pale: Marital `Misfits and Outcasts’
among Japanese Women.” Women’s Studies, June, 33;4, pp. 453-80.
Hirakawa, Hiroko. 2004. “Give Me One Good Reason to Marry a Japanese Man:
Japanese Women Debating Ideal Lifestyles.” Women's Studies. June, Vol. 33 Issue 4,
pp.423-442.
Hirao, Keiko. 2001. “ The Effect of Higher Education on the Rate of Labor Force Exit for
Married Japanese Women.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology. November,
Vol. 42, Issue 5, pp. 413-34.
Hsia, Hsiao-Chuan and Scanzoni, John H. 1996. “Rethinking the Roles of Japanese
Women.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Summer, Vol. 27, Issue 2, pp. 309331.
Ikeya, Akira, 2002. “Day Care Next on Reform Agenda.” Nikkei Weekly. 11 February: 1,
19.
Ikeya, Akira. 2002. “Tying the Knot.” Nikkei Weekly. 1 April.
Imamura, Anne (eds.). 1996. Re-Imaging Japanese Women. Berkeley, University of
California Press.
Iwao, Sumiko. 1993. The Japanese Woman: Traditional Image and Changing Reality.
New York, Free Press.
Kelsky, Karen.2001. Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams. Durham,
NC: Duke University Press.
Kelsky, Karen. 2001. “Who Sleeps with Whom, or How (Not) to Want the West in
Japan.” Qualitative Inquiry. August, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp. 418-36.
Knapp, Kiyoko Kamio. 1995. “Still Office Flowers: Japanese Women Betrayed by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Law.” Harvard Women’s Law Journal, 18: 83-137.
Kodero, Kyoko. 1996. “Gender and Space in Japanese Society: An Illusion of
Motherhood.” International Review of Sociology: 6;3, pp. 465-478.
Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda. 1995. Japanese Women. New York:
Feminist Press.
21
Liu, Dongxiao and Boyle, Elizabeth Heger. 2001. “Making the Case: The Women’s
Convention and the Equal Employment Opportunity in Japan.” International Journal of
Comparative Sociology. November, Vol. 42, Issue 4, pp. 389 -405.
Mackie,Vera. 2003. Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Magnier, Mark. 2002. “In Japan, Women Fight for the Last Word on Last Names.” Los
Angeles Times. 10 March.
Magnier, Mark. 2002. “Confronting Marital Violence Behind the Shoji Screen.” Los
Angeles Times. February 11, 9-10.
Miller, John H. 1996. “Japanese Women Win Bias Suit.” Wall Street Journal- Eastern
Edition. November 29. 228:107, p. A4.
Morley, Patricia. 1999. The Mountain is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives.Vancouver:
UBC Press.
Newcomb, Amelia, A. 1998. “ In Japan, Single Life Looks Good.” Christian Science
Monitor. January 2. 90:26, p. 1. Op2c.
Patterson, Dennis and Nishikawa, Misa. 2002. “Political Interests or Interest in Politics?
Gender and Party Support in Post War Japan.” Women and Politics, Vol 24, Issue 2, pp.
1-33.
Peng, Ito. 2001. “Gender and Generation: Japanese Child Care and the Demographic
Crisis.” In Sonya Michel and Rianne Mahon (eds). Child Care Policy at the Crossroads:
Gender and Welfare State Restructuring. New York: Routledge, pp. 31-56.
Raymo, James M. 2003. “Educational Attainment and the Transition to First Marriage
Among Japanese Women.” Demography. February, Vol. 40, Issue 1, pp. 83-105.
Renshaw, Jean R. 1999. Kimono in the Boardroom: The Invisible Evolution of Japanese
Women Managers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosenberger, Nancy. 2001. Gambling with Virtue: Japanese Women and the Search for
Self in a Changing Nation. Honolulu, HI, University of Hawaii Press.
Sakamoto, Kazue 1999. “Reading Japanese women's magazines: The construction of
new identities in the 1970s and 1980s.” Media, Culture & Society; March, Vol. 21 Issue
2, pp.173-194.
Schoppa, Leonard. 2001. “Japan: The Reluctant Reformer.” Foreign Affairs, SeptemberOctober, 80, 5:76-88.
Starobin, Soko. S. 2002. “ Community Colleges in Japan and the Social Status of
Women.” Community College Journal of Research and Practice. July:26;6, pp. 493-503.
Strober, Myra H. and Chan, Meling Kaneko. 1999. The Road Winds Uphill all the Way:
Gender, Work and Family in the United States and Japan. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Sugimoto, Yoshio. 1997. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge University
Press
Tanaka, Yukiko. 1995. Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women. Westport, CT:
Praeger.
Tipton, Elise K. and Clark, John(ed.). 2000. Being Modern in Japan: Culture and Society
from the 1910s to 1930s. Sydney, Australia, Australian Humanities Research Foundation.
Yoneda, Masumi, 2000. “Japan.” in Marilou McPhedran, Susan Bazilli, Moana Erickson
and Andrew Byrnes, eds. The First CEDAW Impact Study: Final Report. Toronto,
Canada: Center for Feminist Research and International Women’s Rights Project.
Yoshihama, Mieko. 1999. “Domestic Violence: Japan’s “Hidden Crime.” Japan
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Quarterly, July-September, 76-82.