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Rob_Hugo@PortNWDuring tonight's lecture about Japan I began puzzling over the question of why Japan did not invent its own writing system before contact with China. It occurred to me that some early writing (eg. Egyptian hieroglyphs and pictographs) arose in centralized civilizations and served some official function. Since Japan was not centralized, perhaps the impetus to invent a writing system simply was not there. This led me to wonder why Japan did not centralize before contact with China and it occurred to me that other early civilizations emerged around major river valleys, and Japan does not have a major river valley. Instead it has many small river valleys dispersed throughout the country.
Taking Egypt as a contrasting example, centrality seems utterly logical given that the so-called "gifts of the Nile" were concentrated geographically. Early Japan seems to be closer in structure to Northwest Native American culture, in which powerful families controlled different areas of the Puget Sound. Like Japan, the Pacific Northwest enjoys an abundance of food and water, but this abundance is not concentrated in any one place. So I think an argument could be considered that Japan's geography did not provide the requisite features that gave rise to writing systems in other parts of the world.
On a more contemporary note, I have often thought of Japanese people as the "granolas" of Asia. This designation comes from Japan's embracing of the natural world in its aesthetics as well as other second-hand observations I have made of Japan. During this evening's lecture I was reminded of a photograph a friend of mine showed me from his trip to Japan years ago. In the photograph, happy crowds were gathered at the base of a mountain with water jugs to gather the spring water that flowed there. The water trickles through the rock for seven years before bubbling into that spring, and people collect the water because of its fresh, clear taste. Remembering that photograph made me think of a Japanese cookbook I was reading once. The author of the cookbook said that some ingredients were not available in markets because they are gathered in local forests at certain times of the year specifically to make certain dishes.
As I was thinking about the gathering of water and wild plants, I remembered a Japanese exchange program my sister was involved in a few years ago. Before the students went home to Japan everyone in the program got together for a barbecue at a waterfront park near Seattle. While we were grilling and eating salmon, the students wandered to the nearby pier to gather and eat shellfish that were living on the pilings. They did not barbecue the shellfish, they simply plucked them off the pilings and ate them. The amazing thing about it was that as many times as I had been to that park I was not even aware of all the animals that lived on those pilings. Had I noticed them before, I would never have thought to snack on them.
clay dubePrincess Sayako was an inspiration to many Japanese women who admired her independence. And she worried those who thought that by remaining unmarried she was setting a dangerous example. She recently announced that she's going to marry.
Here is a NY Times article on the announcement. She'll marry a commoner, a government employee.
Every year for a decade she's had to answer, on her birthday, questions from reporters on whether or not she would marry. In 1997 she tried to get the questions to stop, but they continued.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/international/asia/06tokyo.html
AnonymousI read through your comments and also questioned about why the development of the Japanese writing system at the time it came about. I know concerning Mesopotamia and the writing system the 6th grade text identifies the development of pictrographs and eventually cunieforms and something that occurred due to trade. And then of course came the history and/or Gilgamesh tales.
I also view Japan as more isolated, but many parts of China were also isolated and there were many language and dialectical barriers.
At first I thought Clay Dube informed us that the people of Japan tried to use the Chinese characters with their own Japanese sounds, but that didn't work.
Then I thought something was mentioned that only the women wrote in Japanese. I'm not sure, but was Chinese still used as the language of trade and business???
I also have questions about the development of the Japanese written
language and why it occurred at the time it did.
clay dubeBack in June 2001, Atlantic Monthly featured an exchange between editor James Fallows (author of the excellent Looking at the Sun) and Alex Kerr about Kerr's just published Dogs and Demons: The Dark Side of Japan. The exchange can be seen at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/fallows/jf2001-06-21/
Fallows appreciates that Kerr takes Japan seriously, that he isn't, as many writers do, just using Japan to make a point about the US (showing perceived US shortcomings or highlighting strengths). Kerr argues that life has become rather ugly for many Japanese. The statistic that Fallows pulls out of Kerr's book to suggest why this might be is startling: Japan has 1/25th the land area of the US, yet it produces and uses more concrete than the US. This can only mean that building is a major constant in Japan.
Unfortunately, only subscribers to the Atlantic get to see the whole exchange. (It's also available to those with access to Lexis-Nexis or other article databases.) Fallows concludes the first round by asking how Japanese civilization, with such a refined aesthetic sensibility, could produce ugly cities?
Are Japan's cities ugly? Compared to what? Please share your thoughts on urban Japan.
AnonymousRecently, I heard on the news that, in response to North Korea’s test fire of missiles over the Sea of Japan, Japan was considering altering its constitution to allow the Japanese defense forces to preemptively strike if necessary. Can anyone tell me if Japan is still pursuing this constitutional amendment? Does Japan really need an amendment to preemptively strike if her national security is threatened? What might the Chinese response be to such an amendment? If anyone can direct me to any resources on this subject, I would be grateful. Thanks.
AnonymousI know this response is rather late.....but I wanted to share my POV on Japanese cities. Since 1988, I have been to Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, and Sapporo to visit friends (not as a tourist) and done the tourist cities. Over the nineties, the big cities did much to give themselves facelifts. Some really beautiful architectural events took place.
In Nagoya, the city I lived it, a new sports dome was built and Meieki, the trainstation, was massively redone, at least on the outside. Tokyo's Shinjuku area sports the soaring city-hall building, and, of course, Shibuya is an internationally recognized intersection.
As a resident there, I noticed that Japan is "old". Old in the sense that most of the facelifts happen in the inner city (something that Los Angeles has been very slow to learn), and that keeps it alive and thriving. Out in the "burbs", the look is "lived-in", but I do not remember too many neighborhoods that looked like slums (I wish I could say the same for LA). I was always amazed at how I could walk in Nagoya, safely, far from the "gaijin" enclaves, anywhere in the city, and feel comfortable. Neighborhoods are, like NY, self-supporting, and easy for a person travel. Of course, if you are Japanese, you drive, but I walked a lot.
Now, a peev. Japanese streets are not as well marked as in LA. Rather, the neighborhoods are marked by groups of blocks, not by length of street between blocks. How do you find 10625 Plainview Ave in Japan? Not by a sign telling you that you are on Plainview, or where the 10000 block is. You just know the "chome", or collection of blocks, the address is in and then you go hunting. The complexity of this dawned on me when I was taken by my vice principal and school office manager to meet my landlord.....the city of Nagoya had arranged my apartment rental, but I was obliged to meet my landlord. We drove around his neighborhood, up and down many streets, looking for his house. I had a similar problem finding a high school on National Sport Day, but I had the advantage of following all the school uniforms for several blocks to the campus.
You do see a lot of those combi buildings, bottom shops, stores, banks, and top apartments, and though it may give a crowded feeling, there is "wa" about it.
Well, there are some raw vignettes of Japanese cities for you.
Two things I cannot address, but am aware of, is the rising homeless problem and the foreign laborer issue. I have seen news stories, but have not been there since 1998 to comment on what impact the situations are having on cities.
VO
AnonymousI just looked at some news pieces about the Japanese government's discussions in July, 2006. It seems that they feel they don't need to visit the constitution so long as the present interpretation of "defense" is applied, a pre-emptive strike only on the NK missile launch sites is warranted.
Since July, however, Japan has relied on negotiations, and this week's announcement about NK backing down in exchange for oil makes the constitutional issue a moot one for the duration.
VO
AnonymousI just got the new edition of Education About Asia, Spring 2007, and read the article "Japan and the World, 1450-1770: Was Japan a "Closed Country?" The article makes an important point in that many World History textbooks, including the one I have to use, makes it seem like Japan was closed to ALL countries during this period. However, Japan was not closed off to Korea, China, and other South and Southeast Asia countries. Japan may have been isolated by it's geography, limited technology and communications, but Japan was still influenced by her neighbors over time. I think it might have been U.S. Commodore Perry and his veiled threats to bombard Edo that gave rise to the notion of a closed country to the "foreigners."
AnonymousOn a lighter note, the Anime-Expo 2007 was held in Long beach over this past weekend from Friday, June 29th through Monday, July 2nd. I was able to attend all 4 days--yay.
This was my first anime convention and I was amazed by the dedication fans put into their cosplay and their support of this part of Japanese culture. There were purportedly 50,000 attendees this year; up 15,000 from last year's number! Wow.
This is not simply a convention for avid fans to dress and be seen by others. There were also concert performances during all four days, workshops ranging from how to draw manga to how to get published. There were key speeches everyday that highlighted topics on licensing, increase anime popularity in the media, etc. just to name a few, and lots more fun.
I love animes and mangas, so I there for the cheaper goods. I was able to attend some of the workshops and sat in some focus panels featuring directors and bands. My favorite one was the focus panel on the six-girl group: Oreskaband. They're a ska group from Osaka, and their sound is awesome. I highly recommend their music. It's intended for all ages.
The cost for 4-day attendance was $60 adults and $30 kids. Sixty dollars for 4 days is pretty good, especially when you can attend from 9AM to the wee hours of the morning. There were about 5 video rooms and the theater opened to screen movies and videos. If you're tired from walking in the exhibit hall or from workshops, you can escape the heat and crowd by chilling at one of the video rooms and enjoy animes with other fans. It's great. I loved the excitement of the crowd. It was also fun just to people-watch. You can bet that I'll be attending next year.
AnonymousEventhough I did not attend the Anime Expo at the Long Beach Convention Center the last week of June, I did get to see a lot of the fan base and Anime's growing popularity in effect in the streets of Downtown Long Beach. My friends and I were at Gameworks and we got to see a parade of Anime characters and Japanese-Influence fashion. It was like Halloween! But in the summer, and without the creepy vibe and trick-or-treating bags. It was all fun and good times. Gameworks was blasting Japanese cartoons on the plasma TVs, and even video game characters like Sonic the Hedge Hog, and Mr. and Mrs. Pacman made brief appearances. It was an interesting experience. I felt like a kid in an amusement park. Seeing the folks so immersed in the Anime Movement got me intrigued and curious about Japanese cartoons. I had never seen an Anime prior to this event, but the excitement in Long Beach prompted me to go out and rent a few.
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