The Image of Japan

The Image of Japan PDF Author: Jean-Pierre Lehmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136925325
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Japan's image has experienced numerous transmutations. The book covers the metamorphosis from Japan's image of a feudal, exotic and romantic land inhabited by Madam Butterflies, to its sudden emergence as a geopolitical power following its defeat of Russia in 1905. More was to come. In the 1930s and 40s the image of the kamikaze vividly illustrated the fanaticism and barbarity associated with Japan in World War II. With the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan rejoined the international community as a friend and ally of the US. The next transmutation came in the 1980s when the Japanese economy appeared to be functioning on anabolic steroids and its continued ascent to take over the US was predicted. "Japanese management" became more than a science, almost a religion, among business schools and consultancies. Today there are two images: one is conveyed through manga, karaoke and the global fashion for sushi; the other is of an economically and demographically declining nation. Will this image correspond to Japan's swan song or are there more transmutations on the way? One constant in Japanese history and the image it has projected has been the country's constant ability to surprise.

The Image of Japan

The Image of Japan PDF Author: Jean-Pierre Lehmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136925325
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Japan's image has experienced numerous transmutations. The book covers the metamorphosis from Japan's image of a feudal, exotic and romantic land inhabited by Madam Butterflies, to its sudden emergence as a geopolitical power following its defeat of Russia in 1905. More was to come. In the 1930s and 40s the image of the kamikaze vividly illustrated the fanaticism and barbarity associated with Japan in World War II. With the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan rejoined the international community as a friend and ally of the US. The next transmutation came in the 1980s when the Japanese economy appeared to be functioning on anabolic steroids and its continued ascent to take over the US was predicted. "Japanese management" became more than a science, almost a religion, among business schools and consultancies. Today there are two images: one is conveyed through manga, karaoke and the global fashion for sushi; the other is of an economically and demographically declining nation. Will this image correspond to Japan's swan song or are there more transmutations on the way? One constant in Japanese history and the image it has projected has been the country's constant ability to surprise.

The Image Factory

The Image Factory PDF Author: Donald Richie
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781861891532
Category : Fads
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Just as a person contrives a style, the purpose of which is integration and the effect of which is presentation, so a nation collectively projects an appearance, a "national" style. Such styles are made of many layers. The deepest layer is composed of the immutable and the traditional. Nearer the surface floats fashion, changeable but sometimes more abiding. And frothing on the surface is fad. By definition a fad is novel and appears from outside. Fads must have instant appeal and do not have a long shelf life. In Japan, an assortment of islands, the outside is often the quality that defines the inside. Japan has a history of chasing fads and fashion. Since the 19th century, foreign products have been welcomed in, from the cult for "squeaky shoes" in the mid-19th century to the current fad for virtual reality girlfriends. Japan s mandate was that, having been opened late, it had to hurry to catch up. Fads provide both a social distraction and a sense of cohesion, indicating not only foreign importation but also native adaptation. The Image Factory is both an investigation into fads, fashions and style such as US Army surplus uniforms, "pachinko," mutating hair colors and an appreciation of their inherent meanings. The Japanese have seized upon fads and fashion as an arm of enterprise to a much greater extent than elsewhere in the world. Ephemerality has been put to work, the transient has become industrialized, and the results are highly conspicuous."

The Image of Japan in the United States and Europe

The Image of Japan in the United States and Europe PDF Author: Torsten Burgman
Publisher: T.J. Burgman
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description


The Culture of the Sound Image in Prewar Japan

The Culture of the Sound Image in Prewar Japan PDF Author: Michael Raine
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9048525667
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This collection of essays explores the development of electronic sound recording in Japanese cinema, radio, and popular music to illuminate the interrelationship of aesthetics, technology, and cultural modernity in prewar Japan. Putting the cinema at the center of a "culture of the sound image", it restores complexity to a media transition that is often described simply as slow and reluctant. In that vibrant sound culture, the talkie was introduced on the radio before it could be heard in the cinema, and pop music adaptations substituted for musicals even as cinema musicians and live narrators resisted the introduction of recorded sound. Taken together, the essays show that the development of sound technology shaped the economic structure of the film industry and its labour practices, the intermedial relation between cinema, radio, and popular music, as well as the architecture of cinemas and the visual style of individual Japanese films and filmmakers.

Bushido: the Soul of Japan

Bushido: the Soul of Japan PDF Author: Inazo Nitobe
Publisher: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Bushido: The Soul of Japan written by Inazo Nitobe was one of the first books on samurai ethics that was originally written in English for a Western audience, and has been subsequently translated into many other languages (also Japanese). Nitobe found in Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, the sources of the virtues most admired by his people: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty and self-control, and he uses his deep knowledge of Western culture to draw comparisons with Medieval Chivalry, Philosophy, and Christianity.

Little Pictures of Japan

Little Pictures of Japan PDF Author: Olive Beaupré Miller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Children's literature
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
From the Foreword: Friends of Moon and Winds-so were the Japanese poets called who wrote the tiny poems that comprise the greater part of this book. Dewdrops of smallest compass are they, yet mirroring in vivid flashes the whole of Japanese life. In few words of primitive, childlike simplicity these old sages sang, for the little hokku poems are gems of only three lines comprising no more than seventeen syllables, the tiniest poems in the world. These minute gems, however, usher one into that atmosphere of tender sympathy with all that has life, that world of benign serenity where dwelt the ancient poets of Japan. Cricket, butterfly, bee, and frog, stars, flowers, winds-these were the things of which they sang. What could be more simple or within the understanding of the smallest child? Yet here is real poetry, and not mere doggerel, the finest poetry of Japan. -- Provided by publisher.

Foreign Images and Experiences of Japan: First century AD to 1841

Foreign Images and Experiences of Japan: First century AD to 1841 PDF Author: William McOmie
Publisher: Foreign Images and Experiences
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
This volume begins with the earliest written reports from China in the first century AD and ends with a survey of Dutch reports from 1841. The volume is supported by a significant Glossary and Bibliography, as well as Subject and Name/Place Indexes.

Japan's Image in America

Japan's Image in America PDF Author: Charles B. Wordell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description


Early Japanese Images

Early Japanese Images PDF Author: Terry Bennett
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462911374
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This fascinating Japanese photography book features over 140 images taken between 1853 and 1905 by the most important local and foreign photographers then working in Japan. Almost one-fourth of the images are hand colored, superb examples of a rich art form long since vanished. The Japan of this book too has disappeared, but author and compiler Terry Bennett has put together a unique portrait of the country at perhaps its most decisive turning point, a nation about to abandon its traditional ways and enter the modern age. Important features of Early Japanese Images include the following: A historical overview of the years 1853-1912 The story of early Western photographers in Japan The story of early Japanese photographers Over 100 images reproduced in original sepia tones Over 40 images reproduced as originally handcolored An invaluable index that identifies the photographers

Deus Destroyed

Deus Destroyed PDF Author: George Elison
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684172799
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
"Japan’s “Christian Century” began in 1549 with the arrival of Jesuit missionaries led by Saint Francis Xavier, and ended in 1639 when the Tokugawa regime issued the final Sakoku Edict prohibiting all traffic with Catholic lands. “Sakoku”—national isolation—would for more than two centuries be the sum total of the regime’s approach to foreign affairs. This policy was accompanied by the persecution of Christians inside Japan, a course of action for which the missionaries and their zealots were in part responsible because of their dogmatic orthodoxy. The Christians insisted that “Deus” was owed supreme loyalty, while the Tokugawa critics insisted on the prior importance of performing one’s role within the secular order, and denounced the subversive doctrine whose First Commandment seemed to permit rebellion against the state. In discussing the collision of ideas and historical processes, George Elison explores the attitudes and procedures of the missionaries, describes the entanglements in politics that contributed heavily to their doom, and shows the many levels of the Japanese response to Christianity. Central to his book are translations of four seventeenth-century, anti-Christian polemical tracts."