Before and After

(http://www.ryumurao.com/ryublog/images/hashi.jpg)

At first I tried to focus on the Japanese new culture such as otaku and anime, for I thought that today we touch more these new culture than the Japanese traditional culture in our everyday life. However after I started to observe Japanese life as a native visual anthropologist, I found that there are many kinds of traditional culture which we don't even notice is Japanese traditional culture, but which is deeply related to our everyday life. For example, a very small thing such a Hashi can be traditional culture, and by looking at such little thing, I could find that not only the new culture but also the many traditional culture are necessary for our everyday life.

In addition to the view of Japanese traditional culture, my thought on the pictures has changed by taking Visual Anthropology of Japan class. I regarded pictures just as a record of my memory, yet I learned that it also can be the material to analyze people and the life style.

I went back to my hometown during the break, and I felt that we cannot generalize the country itself. I introduced some Japanese culture through this blog, but I want to say that the best way to know the country is to experience many kinds of life within a country by yourself.

These pictures are taken at Amagi which is in the northeastern of Fukuoka.

This is a picture of Fukuoka city. ( http://www.kyushu-tourist.com/fukuokacity111.jpg)

As you can see, from the houses which people live in to the overall scenery there are many difference between this two city. Only within a prefecture we cannot generalize what it likes, so we cannot say what Japan likes in a few word. If you really want to know about Japan, just experience Japan!

Image Strategy

We often see this kind of poster; needless to say politicians make these posters to build their good images among the citizens. Generally the poster designs are similar each other. As you can see in this picture they have big names, big smiles and the common slogan “unite for the better society!”

To give citizens clean images politicians often higher the stylist or designer, and the trend to focus on their images can be seen in the recent gubernatorial election in Osaka.
For example HashimotoToru who is the governor of Osaka tried to make fresh image. His poster also has big name, smile and common slogan.
This is his picture before & after his stand for the election.

(Photo : http://www.j-cast.com/ )

(Photo : http://osaka.yomiuri.co.jp/tokusyu/h_osaka/ho80405a.htm)

From the hair style to his grasses, his appearance changed a lot. Actually he hired the stylist for the election.

I’m not sure these posters have big effect to make good images, but by these posters the politicians will gain publicity. Today to gain publicity seems very important elements for politicians to win the election, but in my opinion, we should focus on their policy more than their celebrity or images.

Kaitenzushi （回転寿司）

In the Sushi video which I watched in the class, the narrator said that Japanese eat Sushi every day, but of course it is not true. Although Sushi is representative Japanese food, it is regarded as expensive and high class food, and most people cannot afford to eat Sushi every day. Especially like in the video, Sushi bar without conbeyor belt is much more expensive than Sushi bar with the conveyor belt (Kaitenzushi 回転寿司), so Kaitenzushi is more popular for common people.
Kaitenzushi was born in Osaka in 1958, and now there are about 5000 Kaitenzushi in Japan. There are two types of Kaitenzushi, one is Kaitenzushi shop with the flat price and the other is Kaitenzushi shop with the various price, and today I’m going to explain about Kaitenzushi shop with various price.





In this type of Kaitenzushi you can know the price with the color of the dishes.
As you can see in this shop the price of Sushi is from 105 to 525 yen.





These are 105 yen Sushi, Maguro (鮪 tuna) and Geso (げそ　squid's legs).









These are 158 yen Sushi, Saba (鯖 Mackerel) andTachiuo (太刀魚).






These are 210 yen Sushi, Ebi (海老　shrimp) and Tako (蛸　octopus)







These are 368 yen, Kazunoko (数の子　herring roe) and Kani (蟹　crab) .






This is Nodoguro (のどぐろ　Doederleinia berycoides)　which is the most expensive Sushi （525yen）in this shop.






Kaitenzushi enabled us to eat Sushi with reasonable price, and people came to eat Sushi more often than before, so Kaitenzushi can be said as important Japanese culture.

The Sportsmanship

When it comes to the gate ball what image do you have? For me gate ball seems sports for the elderly and good for their health. Actually at the school near my apartment the elderly play gate ball on the Saturday morning.

Anyway do you know the history of the gate ball? The gate ball is born in 1947 in Memuro-cho, Hokkaido. Although the gate ball is popular especially among the elderly, it was made for the children. The population of gate ball player was about 6 million in 1990, but now the population became about 2 million.

According to the Japan Gateball Union, the reason of the decrease in population is that many elderly quit the gate ball by aging so much and the younger people are not attracted by the sports.

However there is another reason, it is the bullying among the elderly gate ball player. The gate ball is the team sports; therefore often the fight and the bullying occur in the team. Moreover surprisingly the murder which is caused by the trouble in the gate ball team was happened in 1999 in Kagoshima. In this case a 69 year-old woman was killed by a 70 year-old man, for the woman gave a bad account of his gate ball skill. By thinking such a case what is important to do healthy and clean sports is the moral of the player.

The Manners when You Pray

　





















As you know Shinto is Japanese religion, and now there are over 80,000 shrines in Japan. The number of shrine is greater than that of temple, and many people visit a shrine to pray their happiness especially on the New Years Day, but when I visited a shrine I felt that the lack of manner of visitors, so today I’m going to talk about important manner when we visit a shrine.


According to Masao Fujii , first, we need to bow deeply and make ourselves presentable in front of the Torii (鳥居) which is the gateway to the shrine.





















Second, we need to wash our hands and mouth at the Chozuya (手水舎) to purify ourselves. When we pray, we need to throw a coin in offering box (賽銭箱). The coin is offering to gods, long time ago the offering was rice. After throwing a coin we need to ring the bell, and bow two times, clap two times and pray. After praying we need to bow again.

These are basic manner to visit a shrine, and it is very simple, so at least we should know these manners and practice these at the shrine.

The Japanese Art Eraser

Please look at this picture;

Do you know what these are? You might think you can eat them, but actually you cannot, because these are erasers. There are so many kinds of erasers which is imitation of foods or other goods such as stationary, and these days, such art erasers are in the spot right. Indeed the art eraser got a first prize in the Japanese Souvenir Contest 2008 (日本のおみやげコンテスト２００８).
Today, many companies make the art eraser, but the company which made the art eraser for the first time is the company called Iwako, according to it’s web site the art eraser was born about 30 years ago, and now there are 500 kinds of art erasers exist.

Some of them imitate foods which represent Japanese culture such as Sushi and Wagashi (Japanese-style confectionery).

However not only the design but also the technique to make such small but fine erasers should be admired.

Aun No Kokyu

As an example of Japanese traditional culture, today I’m going to talk about Karesansui (枯山水), Japanese Zen garden style, and especially I’d like to focus on the Ryoanji (龍安寺) which is the Zen temple in Kyoto.
Usually Karesansui consists of sand, gravel and rocks, and without using water it represents the beautiful landscape of the stream. Karesansui was born to make the beautiful garden in the place where is little water and little space, and in the Muromachi era (室町時代) it developed as a representative garden style of Zen temples. Karesansui is like a picture, because we can feel the beauty not by walking there, but by seeing the landscape quietly.
Ryoanji is famous for its beautiful and mysterious Karesansui garden. Above picture is the miniature of the Karesansui in the Ryoanji, as you can see there are fifteen rocks in the garden, but there is no certain interpretation about the arrangement of the rocks, so each person has different interpretation about that, and we cannot know what the artist really wanted to express through the garden.
I think the puzzle of this stone garden represents “Japaneseness”. There is a word “aun no kokyu (あうんの呼吸)” which means that people can communicate without gestures or words and Japanese have such sense, so the artist who made the Karesansui garden in Ryoanji might consider such a Japanese character when he made it.

The Westernized Japan

Today's　Japanese life style is similar to the western one.　For example the clothes, diet, and houses were westernized, and today I want to focus on the Starbucks Coffee as a example of globalization in Japan. There are numerous coffee shops in Japan, and especially the foreign affiliated coffee shops have a high popularity among Japanese.
Starbucks Coffee is the one of the most popular coffee shop in Japan. It was born in us in 1971, and it came to Japan in 1996. at that time there were only 3 Starbucks in Japan, but now there are 686 shops in japan, and near Hirakata station there are 3 starbucks (picture). The growth of the number of shops is amazing, and also it implies how Japanese are westernized, The atmosphere and the music which is being played in the Starbucks are western, and such western style is accepted and preferred by Japanese. If Japanese are not westernized, they cannot feel comfortable in such place. However many Japanese can feel relaxed by being there and having coffee, so it is the evidence that western life style is established deeply in Japan. 　

Are They Shy?

This week’s topic is “Japanese people”, so I’m going to explain about character of Japanese people. Japanese are often described as shy people, but by my observation in Karaoke box, it is not true. Karaoke culture is born in Japan in 1971, the name “Karaoke” is the abbreviation of two words which are Kara(空, empty) and Orchestra. At first it was not a popular entertainment, but now Karaoke is very popular entertainment not only in Japan, but also in other countries. Needless to say Karaoke is a place which we can sing freely, and also it is a place you can break your stereotype about Japanese character. In my opinion to sing in front of many people is very hard, so if he/she is really shy, they will not go to Karaoke, but many Japanese enjoy going Karaoke, so it is the evidence that many Japanese are not shy. These photos are taken in Karaoke box, and as you can see they are really enjoying Karaoke, and especially the woman who are singing with dance seems not shy at all. If you have the stereotype that Japanese is shy, you might be surprised at the truth, but these Japanese is not unusual.
If you have Japanese friends, I recommend you to go to Karaoke with them. Your eyes to see the Japanese might change.

The Wild Commuters

The train is very important transport in Japan especially the urban side of Japan. Many people use the transport to go to the company and school. Actually I use the train to go to school every day, and I think by observation of the commuters you can see the wild aspect of Japanese .

You can see that especially at the rush hour. In my experience the rush hour congestion of the train is awful. In the first picture, 5 people lined, and after about 30 seconds the number of people became 10 (second picture), so as you can see people increase like virus at the rush hour. In these two pictures commuters are lining very politely, but once the train comes they almost forget about a manner, and start to rush for the door.

Here is a video about Japanese rush hour from YouTube. In this video you can see the scene of the awful rush hour. As a stereotype to the Japanese people may think that Japanese is polite, but indeed Japanese seems wild by the observation of the commuters.

The Importance of Festival

I’m going to introduce the neighborhood Neyagawa where I live now as my second blog for anthropology class. Especially I focus on the Shinto shrine which is called Sumiyoshi shrine, and which is near the Neyagawa station. Here is the photograph, as you can see it is the common shrine.　There is a two pair of stone guardian dos and offering box, and there is no one in the precinct as usual. I pass through the precinct to go to the station and to go home almost everyday, but it is rare to see the people who come to this shrine to pray, so when the people come to this shrine?














The answer is when the festival is held. 7 festivals are held in this shrine for a year, and only then many people gather in the precinct. The picture of below was taken at the akimatsuri which is held in the fall (from the web page of Sumiyoshi shrine). There are many people there and the atmosphere seems completely different from the above two photographs.
In the video which I watched in the class one anthropologist says that festival has a role to build up the relationship with neighbors, indeed it’s one of its role, but I think festival also has the role to gather people and to introduce about Shinto. This role is very important to give Japanese chances to rethink about their religion, because most of Japanese especially young generation doesn’t care which religion they believe, as the evidence they mix up different religion. For example most of Japanese have family Buddhist alter, and in spite of this, they cerebrate Christmas, moreover they go to shrine to pray their happiness on the new years day, like this they mix up at least three religion. Therefore to think about their religious festival is important in today’s Japan.

Visual Anthropology of Japan

When you think about Japanese culture, what do you come up with? Actually many of you may think of Japanese traditional culture such as the temples, kimono and samurai, indeed these are important part of Japanese traditional culture, but to know today’s Japan you need to know the new Japanese culture such as anime, manga and otaku. Especially the word “otaku” is widely used in Japan, and many otaku exist in Japan. In the dictionary otaku is defined as young people who are highly skilled in computer technology. However most Japanese use “otaku” as the people who are crazy about something such as anime, young age idol and electricity products, and most of otaku are not so attracted by the opposite sex, and sometimes the word “otaku” is used discriminatorily, so when you use “otaku” you need to be careful. Although otaku is becoming the important part of Japanese culture, most of Japanese have prejudice to them, so not to destroy the culture we need to rethink the definition of “otaku”.