Tuesday morning - Japanese lit (Miyake)

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed reading “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful Morning”, not just because it was one of the shorter texts, but because I felt it spoke to the mindset of the generation that we are teaching right now and of the Millenials generation which dominates our society. The story speaks to me of this idea that opportunities will always be there and that one can take their time in grabbing the worm, no need to rise early. Also, this idea of testing out destiny or rather, questioning it. This would be a great short story to teach in an English class to discuss the themes of societal thinking for particular eras or age groups.

Professor Miyake’s discussion was right up my alley. As a former English teacher, I love the exposure to some of these authors that I had never heard of or read before. I also enjoyed hearing about the different genres as well as mediums of storytelling from novels to manga to anime.

This session was my first exposure to Genji. I had never heard of him or his story before. I am now very interested in learning more.

I also enjoyed learning about the significance of poetry in the Japanese culture and how the ability to write a poem was an incredibly worthy trait at one time. When I was an English teacher, I would have my students write haikus and tankas and they always enjoyed it. After their poetry writing experience, they would say that they didn’t know there were so many different styles of poetry and so it would be a lesson I would still recommend.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the discussion about Tanka poetry and the collection of poems called Kokinwakashu. I like how she described how the Japanese culture likes ambiguity in their writings and poems. The Tanka style of poetry involves what she called an "elegant confusion." Tanka poetry contains images of nature and the human condition. It also deals with sadness for passing of natural and human affairs but it cannot be avoided. This is what Dr. Miyake explained as the attitude of "grin and bear it, it can't be changed, just live with it." I would incorporate a lesson plan where I introduce my art students to Tanka poetry. Next, I would break them up into pairs and have them analyze and discover the syllabus structure and themes of Tanka poems. Then we would talk about the "grin and bear it attitude." This is an excellent message to communicate to my students that sometimes we have to go through things that we don't want to, but life keeps going on. Next, students would write a Tanka poem about a human affair in their life that they have to deal with and relate it back to nature.

Her discussion on post-war modern Japan really made me sad for the Japanese people in Japan and in the United States. I had never thought about how a country would feel to be stripped of their weapons, and the toll it took on the men. Men that were descendants of the well known and feared Samarai warriors and were stripped of their protection. It makes me question why Japan was the only one of the Axis powers to be disarmed when Italy and Germany were able to keep their standing armies. I can see why post-war Japanese men had a difficult time and what Dr. Miyake called the "demasculinization of the Japanese male."

[Anonymous]

I would have liked to have completed the readings, but only a few days were given for about 180 pages of suggested readings (Yikes! Where to start?!). Luckily, I have read a few of the authors discussed, and honestly any of them could have been the subject of a three hour presentation.

Ms Miyake offered a great background into the court and the themes that form the basis for the Japanese cannon. After this morning I know that I must read The Tales of Gengi, so that my education is complete, and I will finally be able to read the “Genji Iconography” found in Japanese art, as he seems to show up as often as the Buddha. I will pursue many of her reading suggestions for my own education, and then perhaps pass the titles on to students as I have reviewed the literature. It is also helpful to have a list of seminal anime titles, as many of my students want to be animators and I have very little interest in animation as a craft/artform.

I am finding the outpouring of information from our lecturers a bit overwhelming. As a veteran teacher and a curriculum specialist, I am wishing that the “best practices” we use as teachers were encouraged in this seminar: such as we are known to break down our teaching into themes and units of information that are tangible through scaffolding, and even the gathering of background knowledge. We often ask our students to “pair and share” what they are thinking/learning and to learn from each other, and then we ask them to apply the learning to a task. I think this seminar would be even stronger if the teachers were asked to talk to each other about how we might apply the content in our classrooms, not through this fourm, but face to face before a coffee break. It would be nice for me as a high school teacher, to pair with other high school teachers and talk about what we do, and how this new content all might enrich an already busy teaching schedule.

If I were to redesign the day, I would say that it could have had a few themes, and the lecturers could have supported each other more, as they both seemed to spend a good portion of their time on Genji.
1) The forms of Japanese art and literature that we are most likely to teach our students.
2) Japanese connection to nature: the seasons, Shinto, gardens, love of rustic
3) Enduring stories: Genji, the court of the Heian, and the Samurai era and why they continue to capture the imagination
4) Post war art and literature. How to create in the face of the bomb?

[Anonymous]

In my own classroom, I will use the lists from the Pillow Book as a starting point for generating personal content for art and writing. I already have many list making activities, and this will be an excellent resource. I also thought about how we might look at ancient female poets around the world. So many themes come up as the lecturer is speaking, and I keep finding correlations with the development of Japan with other cultures, such as Mayan, Florentine city-states. Would be nice to have time to make the connections with History teachers.

[Anonymous]

Professor Miyake's lecture included a wide range of information in various forms of media. The use of video, however, seems to be one which I will try to implement into my classes next year. For example, in my AVID class I teach students to analyze different writings, articles, video clips, etc. My plan is to do a lesson early in the year to create a class environment rich with discussion. The film, Grave of the Fireflies, is a movie I have shown at the end of the year to give some background into how war has great consequences. We discuss what is shown in the scenes and about the historical context of WWII and how things came to an end and their lasting repercussions.

[Anonymous]

I too thought of Chinatown. the movie, as I read this writing. Perhaps the author of Chinatown used it for inspiration. I would like to know if that is the case.

[Anonymous]

This was the first exposure to Genji for me also. I felt like I had been missing something as everyone was talking about it. I will definitely be spending more time exploring this popular Japanese work.

[Anonymous]

Professor Miyake did an excellent job of explaining the differences between English and Japanese communication. Prior to this lecture, I didn't know that Japanese sentences are formed without a stated subject or that the burden of comprehension is placed upon the listener and not the one attempting to speak/communicate. Abstract concepts are used as a roundabout way of expressing disagreement. I would like to think of a way to introduce this concept into my classroom to aid students in strengthening their writing. In most of the classrooms that I have been in, the burden of understanding is placed upon the teacher both in presentation of information (lecture) and interpretation of student comprehension (assessment of student work). I wonder if students would be able to take the difficulty they experience when attempting to interpret work that they don't have the "insider tools" to fully comprehend and use it toward participating in a discussion identifying the holes in their understanding. Writing their own translation that included those "missing" details might be useful in helping them to later revise their own papers (where cited evidence is often missing).

[Anonymous]

To piggyback on this concept: perhaps students could then discuss the "insider" vs. "outsider" culture Professor Miyake introduced us to, comparing Japanese examples of this to the different communities they come from. I would love to see students filling out a graphic organizer examining the differences between formal essay writing and debate, speech with a superior, speech with a peer, and texting. Possible columns/categories could include established details (what insider information do you share?) and undetermined details (what others might not already know, or might have a different viewpoint of).

[Anonymous]

Tara- thank you for the link to Benedict Anderson's piece. I too was struck by the idea that, in order to become a nation, we have to "have a consolidated language and nature." I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I'd love to hear from my students what their experiences are regarding this. This would be an excellent source material to give to students. I also found this website that might provide other sources: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education-july-dec13-language_07-18/

[Anonymous]

I really liked how Professor Miyake was able to present the history of Japan and how that affected the author and their style of writing. As a history teacher, I am really interested in the economical, social, and political changes of a country. I was surprised to learn about the “in-group” in the Heian period. How their literature was mostly written for those who were in a sub group by the sub group. Also within this era, the Tale of Genji was written and still to this day is an influence on Japanese’ culture. I think students would be interested to see how a novel written in the Heian period is still being replicated today in movies and even manga.

[Anonymous]

The concept of insider/outsider culture really did intrigue me. I now see why the manga books and even anime are cultures within themselves. I see now why their are so many followers of these readings and films. They "get it" and are hooked.

I have shown night of the fireflies and even though it's a cartoon/anime, it's a good change for the students to view the perspective of the Japanese civilians during World War II. The students who don't normally watch anime get exposed to a new form of medium.

[Anonymous]

I thought Professor Miyake was phenomenal. She made great connections with literature to what was going on through the years and the cultural changes. I thought Literature and works were very interesting like Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies. These pieces really show the perspective of the Japanese and what they were going through after WWII. I think these Anime really show what the Japanese were going through and what they were feeling during and after the war. These pieces can bring empathy and show students in the west what the Japanese felt about the war.

[Anonymous]

I became so intrigued by "The Tale of Genji" that I read several articles analyzing this work. Many of them were written when the diary turned 1000 which was 2008. The Economist had an article that points out though it has no military adventures nor epic journeys, "The Tale of Genji" is comparable to Homer's "Iliad." In fact, it is widely regarded as the first modern or psychological novel. This lasting appeal is what I find especially intriguing. The right-wing takes pride in pointing out how sophisticated Japanese society was. For middle-age Japanese, reading the book in social groups is as common as flower arranging. And feminists are appreciative of the fact that it was written by a woman. I continue to look for answers to the question why we are still talking about "The Tale of Genji."

[Anonymous]

I liked several of the suggestions we got regarding Classroom Activities and I think I am going to expand on several for my Spanish class. I really like the idea of making lists similar to those in The Pillow Book of what is hateful, what is adorable, what is fearful, etc. This would be easy for my Spanish 1 class because no complex grammar would be involved; it would be all nouns. And through reading these, I would get a better idea of who my students are. In addition I really liked the idea of drawing a manga of one of the stories or reformulating one's own experiences into a Heian period four-frame manga. I like this idea for several reasons. I like making cross-curricular connections and this connects Spanish to Chinese. In addition mangas are really trendy in pop culture right now, and perhaps this will help with student buy-in. It's not easy to incorporate these Chinese lessons into a Spanish class, but on Tuesday I learned two excellent ways to do this.

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