Blog 14

Ryosaikenbo are the social expectations of Japanese women; the term’s literal translation is “good wives and good mothers”, and this definition displays exactly what females in Japan are expected to do – raise a family.  This is a struggle for many modern Japanese women, who want to uphold traditional values but also want their own careers.

Zoto is the Japanese custom of gift-giving, which “covers all events in Japanese life and is used to express a variety of feelings”.  There are appropriate and expected gifts for every sort of situation, including birthdays, anniversaries, and career success.

Soshiki is the term for a Japanese funeral.  Most funerals in Japan today are Buddhist, with a Shinto background, although there are many variations for those who hold different religious ideals.  The basis of soshiki is that it “requires respect and honor for the souls of one’s ancestors”; in order to achieve this, many, many different rituals are used, including the Cleaning of the Deceased (matsugo nomizu).

Blog 13

1. I'm not sure that I found the scene that explains it well, although perhaps Kurokawa's decision to make Horikoshi work on an already completed project was an example?  Maybe also the point where Horikoshi is told that he will stay in Germany without really being asked what he wants.

2. When it comes to Sempai-Kohai relationships, the obvious example in The Wind Rises is the relationship between Kurokawa and Horikoshi.  As Horikoshi’s boss, Kurokawa has the right to order Horikoshi around, even “hazing” him slightly.  Because Horikoshi understand this relationship, he answers all of Kurokawa’s questions and orders with a simple “hai” (“yes sir”).

 

3. One of the major themes in The Wind Rises is the process of Japan trying to catch up with its Western counterparts in terms of technology and engineering, so this process of iitoko dori takes place throughout the film, as Horikoshi travels to Germany and speaks to an Italian designer to learn how to create something uniquely his own.

4. Your comparative analysis paper

① What are you going to compare and contrast?

Silence and ambiguity in social interactions in Japanese and American cultures.

②What Japanese key concepts are you going to use? 

Chinmoko, aimai, kenkyo, honne, tatemae

③Thesis statement---What are you going to prove by explaining #1 and #2.  

Although these two cultures have different ways of achieving it, both cultures are attempting to achieve a stronger sense of community: the Japanese use silence and ambiguity in the hopes of causing no one offense, while Americans speak their mind in the hopes of open opinions causing change to ineffective or offensive social rules.

④What is the writing format for your paper

MLA

Blog 12

Nemwashi is the idea of laying "groundwork" in business practice.  Business professionals have a pre-meeting of sorts, researching what the opinions of different members involved with decision making are - it is "groudwork laid unobtrusively in advance".

Sempai-kohai is about social hierarchies within different facets of Japanese life.  "Horizontal relationships are not the norm in Japanese society... and vertical hierarchies dominate".  These hierarchies can be based off of age, experience, and school grade.  Promotions in the Japanese workforce are often based off of age, rather than skill, with the thought that those who have been in a particular work area longer will naturally be better at the job.

Iitoko-dori is the process of adapting elements of foreign culture in order to benefit Japanese culture and lifestyles.  This process is the answer to the question, "why was Japan able to modernize more rapidly than other countries?", and goes back to Japan's Shinto roots.  Because Shintoism has "no absolute sense of values...this has enabled it to coexist with the other valve systems that have entered Japan from the outside".

Your kimono was beautiful!  I've wanted to wear one for a long time, though I had no idea that you were supposed to be flat-chested to wear one properly, or that you had to stuff a towel into it to wear yours properly. 

Blog #11

1.Geishas practice dancing, flower arrangement, calligraphy, and other traditional art forms.  Their lifestyle is rich with traditions and ritual.

2. I think that the experience of leaving one place, like a job or a school, could be considered a form of aware. While we are sad one part of our lives is ending, we are also excited about the opportunities ahead.  This bittersweet feeling can be similar to aware in that we appreciate both the good that is past and the good that is to come.

3. I think that a lot of the film felt very “western”, and the English language added to this.  It didn’t help that background dialogue, considered “unimportant” to plot, was still in Japanese, highlighting the fact that the main characters were speaking a language that was not native to the setting.  I think it would have been more effective to have Japanese used throughout the film, and have the American soldiers at the end speak English; it would highlight the change from the traditional Japanese world to the modern, westernized world.

4. Most of our holidays are tied to specific calendar dates, and not necessarily tied to the season.  We do have our own ways to celebrate the weather associated with each season: we build snowmen and snow forts in the winter, go for hikes in the spring, have picnics in the summer, and clam bakes in the fall.  Japanese might appreciate the beauty of each seasons more than we do; we tend to focus on what activities we can enjoy in each season’s  

5. I felt the image of the women washing their kimono in the river, while Sayuri described the death that had passed because of the war, was particularly stunning.  The red ribbons of silk, flowing like blood, really gave the feeling of extreme sorrow and long-suffering, both in waiting for the war to be over, and in the hard work of washing those strips of silk.

6. Although the book claimed that the Japanese have a less defined ideal of beauty than Western cultures do, I disagree: I think that the notion of Wabi-Sabi, the ideal that both subtlety and exquisiteness paradoxically work in tandem to create aesthetic beauty as well as a guideline to living well, is very constraining.  In Western culture, it is said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”; we are free to choose what we think is beautiful.  A painting hanging in a museum, for instance, does not necessarily fit a set of guidelines that makes it a thing of beauty, but rather, it is viewers that decide whether they think the painting is beautiful.

7. Much of the geisha’s life was hung around the balance of wabi and sabi.  For instance, although their kimono had elegant and extravagant patters, geishas makeup was full of simple, direct contrasts: white on red, black on white.  Although geishas attended the wealthiest, extravagant parties, they were expected to live a life of simple, ritualistic traditions.  Their very nature was shrouded in shadow and mystery, full of subtle signals such as the flick of a wrist.

8.Hatsumomo’s fate is never clearly spelled out, however, Sayuri calls her a woman who has lost everything, even hope.  Audiences are left with the feeling that she simply fades out of existence, because she is no longer part of the only world she has ever known; this is accented by the fact that she is never spoken of again.

In a very Western-style ending, it is indicated that Sayuri and the Chairman live happily ever after as lovers; Sayuri calls this story the “Memoirs of a Geisha” because her life as a geisha is now over and her life with the Chairman has begun. 

I think Sayuri is neither happy nor unhappy with her life; at the beginning of the movie, she calls her story one of sorrow, but she never mentions regret, or wishing for a different life.  I think she accepts that her life has been the way it has, and wishing for something different would not change the truth.  I think she also appreciates that her experiences shape who she is, and that, without them, she would be an entirely different person.

9. I’m not sure I understand this question.

11. As I’ve mentioned before, I think that the movie, while historically accurate and visually beautiful, was very Westernized.  The ending in particular struck me as a common one from Western culture: despite the terrible things the heroine has gone through, she is happy now that she has attained the love of a (much much older) man, who will rescue her from her terrible life, somehow making the whole awful experience worth it.