Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Memorable Course Images/Concepts

 This woodblock print has always stuck with me, as it was my favorite of the ones we saw in Berman.  The variation in line width and sharpness and the fluid curves of the water as well as the monochromatic nature of it all impress me a lot.  The story of the Bodhidharma also interested me, as I've seen darumas in manga and such.
This image struck me as I was going through the Fukushima pictures.  It just showed the ridiculousness of it all - that humans have made so much in terms of buildings and cities, and yet we make the weapons that destroy us as well.  In this case, an ostrich unknowingly traverses a radioactive area, which is sad and crazy at the same time. 
 This image was one that I knew as soon as I saw it, but hadn't really given it much thought in the past.  I really enjoyed discussing the morality of images such as these, and whether minute things like eye contact permit or prohibit such images to be shown or used in magazines or the like.  I liked that there were no definite answers, so it was up to speculation and interpretation like so many other issues.
 I really loved Takano Aya's artwork, and this one stayed with me after we spent time discussing it.  The pastel color scheme, the roundness of shapes, the simple bodies - it's all so artistically pleasing, but also interesting to analyze.
This painting remained in my mind, as it Murakami made it in response to Fukushima.  Not only is it an incredible piece, but it shows more dangers and solidarity than perhaps his previous pictures that were made as a social commentary on high art and capitalism.


Some concepts that I found really intriguing throughout the course were the ideas from "In Praise of Shadows", the Superflat Theory from Murakami Takashi, and kawaii culture.
"In Praise of Shadows" was really fascinating to me for more than Tanizaki's entertaining prose; the ideas he presented of simplicity and shadows was one that I had thought about before, but never really been able to explain in clear words.  As someone who loves bathing in natural light and the artistic surroundings of nature, I can definitely understand his sentiments.  Additionally, his comparison of traditional Japanese values with those of Westerners emphasized something I try to explain to others when I rabidly compare flashy Hollywood horror films with J-horror films (as I am wont to do).
The Superflat Theory was very interesting to me with all its flattening of values for art and politics.  The background given on the infantilization of Japan after WWII was something I had never considered, but made a lot of metaphorical sense in terms of repression and subcultures as well as the blending of the terrifying with the cute.  All of this was combined into very colorful, psychedelic paintings and sculptures that I enjoy also as an artist.
Kawaii culture is something that I've always looked down upon a bit since I was made aware of it; however, the articles we read changed my mind a little.  While I still do not really enjoy the aesthetic myself, I can respect a sense of rejecting traditional "adult" roles and wishing to prolong a freer, happier "child" state.  This interested me a lot, because there was far more to the topic than I originally gave it credit for.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

The Woman as depicted by Japanese Folklore and Urban Legends

The Woman as depicted by Japanese Folklore and Urban Legends


Upon this island the two deities descended.  Shortly afterwards they desired to become husband and wife...These deities accordingly set up a pillar on the island.  Izanagi walked round one way, and Izanami the other. When they met, Izanami said: “How delightful! I have met with a lovely youth.”  One would have thought that this naive remark would have pleased Izanagi; but it made him extremely angry, and he retorted: “I am a man, and by that right should have spoken first.  How is it that on the contrary thou, a woman, shouldst have been the first to speak?  This is unlucky.  Let us go around again.” 

- F. Hadland Davis, Myths and Legends of Japan, p. 22

Upon scouring Japanese folklore and subsequent media, it becomes immediately apparent how ill-portrayed women are.  Monster after ghost after demon depicts women as dependent and vengeful creatures that serve as mere objects for the men.  The myth-makers, however, made no accidents in creating far more tales of female monsters than those of men; the sexism deeply ingrained in the patriarchal society guarantees this trend.  If the beasts people invent represent the anxieties of their time, then what do these female monstrosities mean for the Japanese?  Perhaps, on a subconscious level, Japan has always been frightened of women rising up in animalistic rage against their subjugation and marginalization.  In this manner, it becomes quite simple to analyze their views and fears.  


The Woman as Dependent:
Though following the social trends of a more conservative time, women get depicted far too frequently as sickeningly dependent beings.  In many stories, the women’s weak constitutions make them prone to fainting, the damsel in distress act, and total emotional focus on whomever they are married or wish to marry.  As in many other cultures during earlier centuries, men married women through obtaining their father’s permission; women were given away like cheaply bartered livestock.  To perpetuate the supposed morality of such transgressions, stories were written to include women whose dependency on their men was overt and exaggerated.  
The first tale that comes to mind in such a vein is Botan Dourou or “Peony Lantern”.  In this story, Tsuyu wished to marry a samurai named Shinzaburou, who promised to visit her soon with an escort for etiquette’s sake.  The old man on whom he relied to visit with him, however, did not approve of the match and refused, so Tsuyu soon began to think that her love had been unfaithful.  She pined away in sorrow and died, her maid Yone dying soon after.  One night, though, the two women came - Tsuyu bearing a peony lantern - to visit Shinzaburou at his house; unaware that they had died, he allowed them in night after night to talk and enjoy each other’s company.  A  servant of Shinzaburou’s looked in one night, only to see his master conversing with a pair of corpses.  They called in a high priest in order to put up holy charms on his house to prevent the spirits’ entrance, but his servant was eventually paid by the ghosts to take them down.  The next morning, Shinzaburou was found dead next to a pile of Tsuyu’s bones.

This tale depicts a woman that was so obsessed with her lover that she cannot even rest in the grave without him.  Undefined as her own person, Tsuyu must play the role of “that girl who loves a samurai” that can be found in far more stories than this.  Notice, it did not take long for her to fall over dead after Shinzaburou remained silent - Tsuyu cannot fall into any other category than the stereotypical and sexist view of a “weak, emotional woman”.  Though she eventually gets her way by forcing Shinzaburou to join her in the spirit realm, her goal was inherently a faulty one that revolved merely around men.  
Another example of this poisonous dependency gets brought to light in stories of Nure onago.  As the legends go, the Nure onago will appear as young girls, soaked to the bone and sometimes covered in mud and leaves.  They will smile at anyone who finds them, and if that person smiles back, they will follow him or her until death.  Said to be possibly be the spirits of widows or victims of drowning, these pitiable creatures clamor for attention in the way that men claim women do.
 
The tale of Okiku also suggests similar dependency traits.  In various versions of this legend, either Okiku broke one of the ten heirloom plates of her lover, or was framed for doing so.  She then either gets thrown down a well or threw herself down in shame, depending on the recountence.  Each night, her spirit is heard from the well, counting to nine to tally the plates that she imagines she sees.  Eventually, a priest puts her to rest by yelling “ten!” at the end of her perpetual counting.  In this story, not only could Okiku not give up on a man, but she couldn’t give up on a mere object of his that got broken - even after her own life was lost.  She depended so much on this man’s opinion of her that it troubled her far after she no longer lived.



The Woman as Vengeful:
The majority of the female monster tales, however, undeniably focus on revenge - and more often than not, it is the revenge of a spurned lover.  The sheer amount that this trope appears throughout myths and folklore suggest two very important points to know: men cannot help but feel that they deserve more than one woman, and women are demonized for objecting to it.  
Uji no hashihime’s story of a female oni depicts this clearer than most.  In this legend, Uji no hashihime, made ill by morning sickness, asked her husband to go retrieve some seaweed for her to eat.  On his journey, he met a sea goddess and ran off with her instead; this caused Uji no hashihime to throw herself into the Uji river, became an oni, and murdered a bunch of innocent people in her rage.  Shuten Douji, a male oni that causes havoc, gets acknowledged by locals as a problem for a warrior to defeat honorably, whereas Uji no hishihime is not addressed publicly, as women were considered more of a private issue to be dealt with by their men.  “In contrast, a female oni, the Uji no hashihime described in Heike Monogatari, is marginalized by her husband, a private person....Her unleashed fury that results in the killing of numerous innocent people in the capital and has everyone else locking their doors and hiding, is less a public act than a warning against the danger of women entering the public sphere” (Reider, 57-58).  

In a more modern play version of the Uji no hishihime story, Kanawa, the woman prays to be turned into an oni to take revenge on her unfaithful husband.  The husband, who had gone to an Abe no Seimei’s house to get a dream divined, was informed by the Seimei that his wife was going to kill him.  In taking pity upon him, the Seimei saves the husband from the “monster’s” wrath, and she disappears after swearing her vengeance once more.  “Symbolically, as if to underscore the societally mitigated power of woman in Kanawa, the scene in which she attacks her husband occurs in the private confines of a bedchamber.  Thus it is political disappointment, resentment, and rage against a public entity that drives the plot in stories about male oni, while jealousy, shame, and grudges involving love affairs that serve as the driving force in stories about female oni” (Reider, 59).
Another tale of vengeful oni comes in the form of Onibaba’s backstory.  In this bloody, confusing yarn, a five year old child has not spoken since birth, and a doctor claims that a fetus liver is the natural cure.  The job of obtaining said liver gets forced onto the nanny who gives her own daughter an amulet of protection, then sets off on her journey to find a liver.  After years of no luck, the old woman finally comes across a pregnant woman in the mountains and kills her for her fetus’ liver.  With horror, the woman realizes that the lady she killed wore an amulet and was actually her own daughter; she goes mad and begins eating people who wander in the mountains.  

Not only does this story suggest that women are gullible and willing to kill pregnant women to make a child speak, but it also implies that women are a crazy, bestial breed that will fall to cannibalism if traumatized enough.  
On the subject of insanity, the Kerakera onna - yokai that derive from the spirits of brothel girls who were worked to death - follows men around to drive them insane with a cackling laughter.  This demonization of women who were sexually overworked until their untimely deaths demonstrates the disgusting nature of sexism in these legends.  

Another example, the Nure onna, a vampiric snake woman, “While physically much stronger than a human, nure onna prefer to use trickery and guile to catch their prey, rather than relying on brute force” (yokai.com).  This description suggests women’s sadistic pleasure in torment, which men will selfishly declare that they have experienced.  Any sign of strength in women gets morphed into terms such as “overbearing”, “unfeminine”, and “vindictive”.  

These stories from Japanese folklore lead to newer urban legends following the same tropes.  In Teke teke’s backstory, she gets pushed in front of a train and sliced in half.  Far from resting in peace, she drags her torso around with a scythe in attempt to cut other people in half like her. It is troubling that such violent and vengeful depictions of women remain so prevalent in modern myths.  



The Woman as an Object:
Objectification of women characters permeates through Japanese folklore to the present.  Females are designed to fit beauty standards, and when they cannot, they are suddenly considered putrescent yokai.  If they are beautiful, they are shallow beings, usually with violent tendencies.  
A solid first example of this is the Yamauba.  Literally a “mountain hag”, Yamauba is rumored to eat children.  Some stories claim that she has a second mouth on top of her head beneath her hair.  Yamauba, well, “she lacks the feminine traits ascribed to people of the sato, namely, chastity, obedience, and compassion...In other words, yamauba exists outside of the sato’s system of gender normativity.  She refuses to be assigned a household role such as a mother or daughter and will not be territorialized” (Reider, 66).  However, this take suggests that anyone who falls outside the range of acceptable gender normativity will be treated like, and essentially turned into, a monster.

Another example, the Rokurokubi, has an extendable neck that gets hidden during the day.  A certain painting by Koide Narashige sexualizes the figure of the Rokurokubi; “Koide’s illustration for this essay shows Rokurokubi seated on a stage before an all-male audience strumming a samisen, while her primary attraction, her neck, has the appearance of a tall, thin post holding her head high above her body...The bizarrely stretched neck of the Osaka freak show performer and similar motifs in Koide’s writings presents a peculiar parallel to his practice of painting the nude by twisting female anatomies for a male-centered spectatorship” (Tamaki, 89).  The creation of these bizarre women yokai therefore holds traces of men creating exotic figures to perhaps excite them through sheer uniqueness. 

The perfect portrayal of a beautiful, thin woman comes in the form of Futakuchi onna.  Despite her nice figure, Futakuchi onna devours rice ravenously through her second mouth on the back of her head.  As such, though she constitutes the perfect, objectified image of a girl, her “terrible greed” and consumption lead to her demonization.

Another body image-related yokai is the Taka onna.  This “tall woman” was considered too homely to marry in life, so she stretches her body to watch others’ sexual encounters through hotel windows in the red light district.  

Similarly, Ohaguro bettari, the woman with blackened teeth and no face, is also suspected of being too ugly to marry before turning into a yokai.  The stress that the patriarchal society puts on marriage and dedicating oneself to a man creates a lot of literal demons for Japan.

A more vengeful yokai, the Kuchisake onna, has a disfigured face with scars running from lip to ear.  Wearing a medical mask, she approaches people on the streets and asks them if she’s pretty.  If they say yes, she removes her mask and asks again, if they say no, she kills them.  When asked a second time, “no” leads to the same unfortunate result, while “yes” drives her to slice their face in the same manner as her own.  The very fact that Kuchisake onna is so self-conscious about her appearance portrays the results of such a strict, sexist culture.  In this society, women exist solely for the men to enjoy looking at.  Therefore, any physical disfigurement proves her to be a useless “monster”.  

Yuki onna, though depicted as a beautiful woman who appears in snowstorms, seems to mock women’s supposed “violent tempers” and shallow nature; she murders men who get caught in blizzards and beguiles them into marrying her if she doesn’t.  Her capricious nature paired with her pretty face imply that she does not have much of a personality past her malicious intents.

The last example, is represented by the Inari (fox god).  Though not necessarily female, the “chief attribute of the bad fox is the power to delude human beings, and for this purpose it will take the form of a beautiful woman” (Davis, 93).  The choice of “beautiful women” as a means of malignantly tricking others links the female with deceit, as these tales are wont to do.  Generalizations such as this portray the objectification of women, as they are shown as vessels and costumes instead of people with personalities.



The Woman in Modern Horror:
So has anything truly changed since the early Japanese folklore in regards to women?  The vengeful female monsters can still be seen today in modern horror films.  Ringu and Ju-on (the precedent plots of The Ring and The Grudge) suggest that nothing has strayed too far from the patriarchal message inherent to most plots.  In Ringu, Sadako Yamamura transmits a death curse to anyone who watches her paranormal video tape, unless they spread it to more people until everyone knows her tragic story.  

Kayoko, from the Ju-on series, was murdered by her husband and haunts her former house.  She, and her deceased son, end up killing and driving insane all the residents or mere passersby there.  In conclusion, angry ghost girls still spend far too much of their time attacking people and revenging themselves upon their unfaithful male counterparts.  Too much of how they are viewed comes from societal expectations for women.  In order to create a more flattering and accurate portrayal of women in Japanese myths and media, they must discard their delusions that women are dependent, vengeful, and meant to be seen as objects.


Bibliography:
Davis, F. Hadland. Myths and Legends of Japan. Vol. 1. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1992.  
22-355. Print.  
Davisson, Zack, and Sarayashiki Bengiroku. "百物語怪談会 Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai."
Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. WordPress, 18 July 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
Hearn, Lafcadio. "KWAIDAN: Stories and Studies of Strange Things." Kwaidan. Houghton,
Mifflin and Co. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
"Japanese Folklore and Mythology." New World Encyclopedia. New World Encyclopedia, 2
May 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
"Japanese Legends about Supernatural Sweethearts." Japanese Legends about Supernatural
Sweethearts. Ed. D.L. Ashliman. University of Pittsburgh, 5 Apr. 2015. Web. 25 Mar.
2015.
Meyer, Matthew. "Futakuchi Onna | Yokai.com." Yokaicom RSS. WordPress, 2013. Web. 25
Apr. 2015.
Reider, Noriko T. "3: Women Spurned, Revenge of Oni Women: Gender and Spaces." Japanese
Demon Lore Oni, from Ancient times to the Present. Logan: Utah State UP, 2010. 53-60.
Print.
Reider, Noriko T. "4: Yamauba, The Mountain Ogress: Old Hag to Voluptuous Mother."
Japanese Demon Lore Oni, from Ancient times to the Present. Logan: Utah State UP,
2010. 61-89. Print.
Tamaki, Bert. "Accelerating the Heartbeat: Erotic Nationalism and the Japanese Nude."
Maximum Embodiment Yōga, the Western Painting of Japan, 1912-1955. Honolulu: U of
HawaiÊ»i, 2012. 63-99. Print.  
Wirawan, Anita. "Legend Of Hanako-San: Spooky Japanese Ghost Of The School Bathroom -

Anita's Notebook." Anita's Notebook. WordPress, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Visual Kei

VISUAL KEI
  • started in the early 1980s with bands like X Japan, Buck Tick, D'erlanger, and Color
  • began as "being different" visually to accompany unique music (with traces of punk rock, glam rock, and heavy metal)
  • escalated in popularity through early 1990s, but began to fade after X Japan disbanded in 1997
  • more modern bands like Alice Nine, The Gazette, Dir en Grey continued the trend from 2000 on to present day
  • original Visual Kei trendstarters criticize the modern bands of this fashion, as they started "to be different" and people are now using it to "look like someone else" in being visual kei; critics say that "makeup and outrageous looks became more important than music"








^X Japan (original Visual Kei band)

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Fukushima Images

 It's striking how similar this setting is to anime cliches of kids putting their shoes in their lockers.  However, the hazmat suits taint the image and thwart the initial innocence.

This painting displays a unique subject matter: the combination of the disasters of 9/11 with Fukushima.  Is it a desperate attempt to bring attention to the matter that the Japanese government suppresses as well as America seems to have forgotten?  Or is it suggesting that all disasters are equal in their tragedy, when people die by either nature or other people's hands?

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Blossay Preliminary Notes

Idea: the “Woman” as the base for monsters and horror in Japanese folklore and media (possibly attributed to sexism and objectification of women)

General notes regarding examples:
Folklore
  • Futakuchi onna: mouth on back of head; stingy husband wouldn’t feed her; possibly let a stepchild die of starvation
  • Rokurokubi: neck stretches while sleeping; disease; yokai
  • Nukekubi: head detaches when body is asleep; like astral-projecting
  • Yama uba: eats children; seduces people by dancing; lives in mountains; Jynx
  • Onibaba: shriveled old cannibal woman; tore out daughter’s fetus’ liver by accident and went mad
  • Yuki onna: leaves people frosty corpses; maybe a soul who died in a snowstorm; no feet; sometimes succubus-like and drains people of life
  • Okiku: tricked into losing one of the ten important plates; gets thrown into a well after refusing advances of guy
  • Oiwa: gets face scarred by poison cream and accidentally stabs herself
  • Botan Dourou: a ghost girl seduces a guy several times and he dies
  • Ohaguro bettari: woman with only a blackened mouth on her face
Urban Legend
  • Teke teke: half body; carries scythe and cuts people in half
  • Hanako: WWII girl haunting bathrooms; 3rd floor 3rd stall 3 knocks
  • Kuchisake onna: slit mouth; chases children; asks “am I pretty”
Modern Media (I plan to look into the progression of themes in Japanese horror)
  • Sadako: from Ringu; hair in face; comes out of well
  • Kayoko: from Ju-on; bloody; murdered and murderer; clicks


Sources so far
Myths and Legends of Japan, F. Hadland Davis

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Kawaii + Me

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the "kawaii" culture now, as I did as a child as well.  As a young child, I resented cutesy toys and dolls, preferring dinosaurs and Star Wars figurines.  I loved stuffed animals, but only because I loved animals more than people at that point.  To this day, the pastel colors and infantile toys make me grimace, and I remember receiving a Hello Kitty clock when I was kid and hating it.  
Ironically, I still own this clock today, but at this point, I've had it so long that I don't even acknowledge the colors or Hello Kitty figure.  It does amuse me that such items that I was expected to like as a little girl - the original demographic - are now so popular to adults in Japan.  I respect the individualistic rebellion against traditional, stifling social norms in Japan, but the aesthetic itself frankly doesn't appeal to me as a fashion statement.  On the other hand, I will shamefully admit that sometimes I enjoy cutesy animes or anime moments (and I still have stuffed animals, like Aika-san), so I can't denounce the kawaii altogether.  

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Ukiyo-e Prints

The ukiyo-e above, Bodhidharma Crossing the Yangzi on a Reed, shows the Bodhidharma (Buddhist monk who founded Zen Buddhism in East Asia) as he flees China in a really intense way.  He apparently lost the favor of the Chinese Emperor, which caused him to flee across a river on a reed.  The artist, Utamaro Kitagawa, is noted for his pictures of bijin - pretty women - so this depiction of Daruma (the Bodhidharma) is especially unique.  Also, the lack of color is not for a lack of printmaking skill at this point in history, but rather a conscious choice to go with the religious theme.  The stylized waves are very characteristic of traditional Japanese prints, but the robes almost appear as a rock or mountain rising up from the water - almost suggesting that he has become enlightened enough to become part of the energies of the universe.  His intense expression also suggests his strict concentration that he is once told to have focused while staring at a wall for 7 years until his limbs fell off.

This print, Meditation Paris, by Saitou Kiyoshi, is a very interesting one to analyze.  Though most of his prints focused on an Orientalist's view of Japan with many geisha-like women and red and black color schemes suggestive of Japanese temples, he made several that strayed from these attributes.  Though he maintained a simple color scheme in this print, the subject matter of nuns or whatever these people are is not highly representative of Japan (like the dachshund).  Saitou uses a lot of texture in his prints - in some choosing to even leave in the wood's texture.  This print is very visually interesting with the curves, but also has an aura of mystery from the unexplained subjects.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Globetrottin'

 As seen here, a young boy and girl are socializing under the strict rules of their people.  A boy and girl are betrothed to each other from birth, marking the only person of the opposite gender the girl can speak to.  She learns from an early age to serve her to-be husband by making him tea, all the while maintaining several feet of distance.  In several years, after the marriage ceremony, she will take part in the horrid tradition of dying her teeth black; this will soon lead to her death from the rotting of her teeth then skull.

 Here we see the enshrined flower species that they are offering up to the Daybot.  The carefully-selected species have been groomed for years by professional monk-gardeners who lovingly bathed them in the blood of their sacrifices (usually small rodents or birds).  The little stands they sit on are said to be ancient relics that the Daybot once blessed when wandering the country to convert people.  The pink flowers are especially beloved in Japan, as they represent the solidarity and matchmaking done under cherry blossoms in season.

Above, we see the geishas and samurais going to Sunday prayers to their Shinto shrine, which they -believe houses more than one God - how blasphemous they are!  The big lantern-like statue in front of the shrine emanates sacred energy which they bow before to gain the gods' blessing.  The curved rooftop represents the dragon's tail which is said to be good luck to have amulets of.  After the ceremony of burning incense and chanting, these geishas and samurais will all journey to the communal bath and engage in scandalous activities which are considered just as spiritual as their praying.

 Here, we see the natives' idea of fun - making wooden sandals.  As one of the few free time activities in Japan - the others being playing go and discordant instruments - many women enjoy making these while gossiping.  These horrible contraptions, comparable to their Chinese sisters' foot-binding, exact much pain on the wearer, yet are considered a sign of beauty and status.  Samurai all fight in these gaytah as a sign of their power and experience - it takes roughly 30 years of practice to be able to run and swing a sword in these unbalanced shoes.  Additionally, the Japanese public generally cannot afford shoes that cover their whole foot, so they must resort to these horrors.

The peasant in this image must travel ten miles a day with his trusty ox to deliver fans and baskets to neighboring villages.  The landscape seems sloped, so he clearly is journeying over the famed Mt. Fuji that is central to the Japanese culture.  They believe that many camee - gods - live on the volcano.  The peasant here was once a samurai, but you can tell from his scarf of disgrace around his head - not to be confused with the Grecian fashion present in Paris at this time - that he was kicked out for slandering the Emperor.  Coincidentally, the Emperor must make monthly trips to Mt. Fuji to renew his blessing from the camee and make sacrifices.