Takeshi Mamezuka Photo Exhibition "People Who Didn't Hear the Pika-don Bang"

Text and photos from kyoto-muse.jp.

The Kyoto Museum of Photography's Gallery Japanesque will be holding a photo exhibition by Takeshi Mamezuka entitled "People Who Didn't Hear the Pikachu/Snake Bang" from Tuesday, July 22nd to Sunday, July 27th, 2025 .

The deaf victims of the Nagasaki atomic bomb have survived the postwar period while bearing the triple suffering of being deaf, unable to speak, and exposed to the atomic bomb. Using a 6x6 format camera, Mamezuka carefully captured their way of life, getting very close to their inner selves. What is captured in his photographs are various thoughts and suffering, as well as the many expressions that only Mamezuka could capture by facing his subjects head-on.

The first paragraph of the artist statement: The atomic bombing had faded from people's memories, and the footsteps of war could be heard, when the news of the Hidankyo's Nobel Peace Prize came in. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing. Deaf atomic bomb survivors of Nagasaki live with the desire for peace and the bombing experience. Looking back, it all began 40 years ago when a group of sign language interpreters was formed in Nagasaki. In Nagasaki, it was thought that one could not fully understand the lives of deaf people without knowing the bombing, so they began to record the experiences of the atomic bombing. As I had a close relationship with the sign language interpreters, I received a request to "record the experience photographically." As a group with no money, we began making volunteer visits to Nagasaki. We continued to visit Nagasaki for nearly 10 years.

Takeshi Mamezuka Photo Exhibition "People Who Didn't Hear the Pikadon Bang"
2025/07/22 ~ 2025/07/27
Gallery Japanesque, Kyoto Museum of Photography

For more information: https://kyoto-muse.jp/news/185559

See also: https://kyoto-muse.jp/exhibition/184680

Saito Harumichi's Photo Exhibition, "Myth 7th Year -- Humanity Begins" at the Ojo Building in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, March 27 - March 30

Saito-san, known as perhaps the most popular deaf photographer in Japan, has been keeping a diary about his feelings about the upcoming exhibition. In one post he wrote:

I want to show children the unchanging sea, the green that surrounds us, the joy of the sunlight that pours down everywhere. I'm stupid. I can't express it to children in words. My words are photographs, so I want to convey them through photographs. I want to leave something behind.

Diary: https://note.com/saitoharumichi/n/n10ff1b560a67?magazine_key=md0209091393d

Exhibition Information

Saito Harumichi "Myth 7th Year - Humanity Begins"
Period: Thursday, March 27, 2025 to Sunday, March 30, 2025
Time: 12:00-20:00 (last entrance 19:30)
Venue: Ojo Building 2nd and 3rd floors
Address: 1-13-2 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Admission fee: 1,000 yen　

Exhibition Announcement: https://photoandculture-tokyo.com/contents.php?i=4959

Mongolian Sign Language Website

Check it out!

https://mnsl.mn/

Announcement of Conference Presentation:「Intersectionality in Japanese Deaf Communities」

「Intersectionality in Japanese Deaf Communities」

Abstract: Are Deaf people in Japan simply disabled, or a linguistic minority, or both? Various physical conditions and individual situations combine to determine access to social welfare, attitudes, identities and language use. Not all deaf people are the same. And Japan itself is not as homogeneous as many believe it to be. An estimated 5 percent of Japan’s population belong to minority groups that suffer from societal oppression. What happens when a deaf individual belongs to one or more of these other minorities? Intersectionality, which emerged from Black feminists in the United States, is a framework that acknowledges and explores concurrent identities and ensuing injustices: racism, sexism, gender discrimination, ableism and other inequalities. This presentation, based upon academic theories, the efforts of activists and my own years of fieldwork, will describe diversity and intersectionality found in deaf communities in Japan, specifically Deaf/LGBTQ+, Deaf/Zainichi Korean and Deaf/Blind groups.

SouthWest Conference on Asian Studies
Stephen F. Austin State University
Panel V 4.5: “Community and Memory in East Asia”
Saturday, November 2, 8:45 am – 10:00 am (10:45 pm – 12:00 am in Osaka, Japan)

Conference program here: https://www.swcas.net/

「Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body 」There's nothing like holding the real book for the first time...

Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body
Editors: Kaori Fushiki, Ryoko Sakurada (2023)

Book information: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-5724-8

See also: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2023/12/new-book-announcement-long-time-in.html

Chapter 4, p. 42-60

The Embodiment of the Deaf in Japan: A Set of Heuristic Models for Identity, Belonging and Sign Language Use

Steven C. Fedorowicz

Abstract: This chapter is an ethnographic and linguistic exploration of deaf people in Japan organised around Mark Johnson’s (2007) philosophy of embodied meaning where meaning and worldview are created, interpreted and expressed through the body and bodily interactions. The application of this holistic approach to the body treats deafness as a condition that affects human behaviour rather than a deficiency/impairment. The situations of deaf people in Japan, including academic models, social welfare policies and Deaf/deaf politics, are organised and presented through the use of Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1990) architectonics. The language use of Japanese deaf people, especially their preferred language of Japanese Sign Language (JSL), is contextualized through the use of David F. Armstrong et al.’s (1995) gestural approach to communication. How do deaf people in Japan deal with limits—or challenges—of communication with hearing people and among themselves? The chapter concludes that for deaf people, the body is a medium they use to create text and discourse through the performance of sign language, ultimately displaying a perceived notion of Deaf identity.

Keywords: Deaf/deaf, Japanese Sign Language, Ethnography, Embodiment, Gestural linguistics, Architectonics

New Book Announcement: A LONG time in the making! "Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body"

Finally! The new book edited by Kaori Fushiki and Ryoko Sakurada has been published! The origins of this book go back to May, 2014 and the panel "Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body" at the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Studies conference in Chiba, Japan. It has been a long and difficult road.

Book description (from Amazon.jp): This book seeks to break new ground, both empirically and conceptually, in examining changing understandings of the physical human body from a variety of anthropological perspectives. In doing so, it interrogates how the body has been and continues to be conceptualised, experienced and interacted with. After an introductory appraisal of recent approaches to understanding the body, the book provides empirically rich accounts from East and Southeast Asia of how cultural, environmental and social norms shape human physicality. The contributions are organised in four broad themes. Part I, ‘Body and Space’, offers two contrasting case studies from Malaysia, both of which examine gender norms associated with marriage and pregnancy, including the taboos associated with these rites of passage. Part II, ‘Imperfect Bodies: Communication and the Body as Media’, analyses two case studies―Deaf people in Japan and masked theatre performance in Bali, Indonesia, to reflect on changing attitudes towards disability, which reflect broader social norms and cultural beliefs about the nature of disability and its place in society. Part III, ‘The Body and Image’, provides a pair of case studies from Singapore, on male fans of the popular manga boys’ love genre and on ways that the Chinese zodiac system is determined from birth and continues to be spiritually embedded in the body of a Chinese individual through ritual practices. Part IV, ‘The Body as Container: Taming the Bodies?’, presents a single case study from Thailand of spirit possession among schoolchildren. Though wide-ranging, all the case studies posit that the body is a site of constant negotiation. The way the body is presented and the way it is seen are shaped by a complex array of social, cultural, political and ideational factors. Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body is a valuable interdisciplinary work for advanced students and researchers interested in representations of the body in East and Southeast Asia and for those with wider interests in the field of critical anthropology.

Of interest to VAoJ readers might be chapter 4, The Embodiment of the Deaf in Japan: A Set of Heuristic Models for Identity, Belonging and Sign Language Use. I will post more specifics when I actually receive my own print copy, hopefully soon. It is currently available on Amazon in Kindle format; the print format will be available is March, 2024.

Many thanks to the editors, contributors and production staff.

New publication from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission For Asia and the Pacific: 「Sign language, what is it? An ESCAP guide towards legal recognition of sign languages in Asia and the Pacific」

Abstract:

Sign language is a distinct language. This recognition is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. There are over 200 sign languages spoken around the world by 70 million Deaf persons. Yet, most hearing people have not been exposed to sign languages and either misunderstand or have limited knowledge about Deaf persons and sign languages. Deaf persons remain largely unheard and unseen in Asian and Pacific societies. The Asia-Pacific region is rich with social, cultural and linguistic diversity. Sign language and Deaf culture are important elements of this rich tapestry.

Sign Language, What is It? An ESCAP Guide towards Legal Recognition of Sign Languages in Asia and the Pacific seeks to refute myths about sign language. It explains the history, distinct elements, and culture of sign language and Deaf persons. It clarifies the importance of early Deaf childhood learning, Deaf education and sign language interpreting. The Guide provides key elements of laws that recognize sign language as a language and that promote its use in diverse situations in the daily life of Deaf persons. This Guide is the first publication on sign language that has been produced to support ESCAP member States in understanding the importance of sign language as a basis for the implementation of the Convention provisions with regard to Deaf persons, Deaf linguistic rights and Deaf culture. This Guide emanates from a collaborative endeavour between ESCAP and The Nippon Foundation.

I might change the first sentence to "Sign languages are real languages that use a visual modality."

This project was a great undertaking and this guide is an excellent resource with useful information, references and citations of important research, infographics, photographs and other materials. Japan is well represented. Especially on pages 54-55, 57-58, 89, 95,137 and 178.

For more information and a free download of the document! https://www.unescap.org/kp/2022/sign-language-what-it-escap-guide-towards-legal-recognition-sign-languages-asia-and-pacific#

"第14回国際手話言語学会 - Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 14: 2022, Osaka, Japan" - September 26- October 1, 2022 - National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku)

TISLR14 will be held at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku). TISLR will be held for the 14th time, but this is the first time it will be held in Asia. For this reason, we have also incorporated a project (panel discussion) that will serve as an opportunity to build a network for sign language linguistics research in Asia. This conference will be held online and onsite in parallel, with consideration given to preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus. We look forward to your active participation and submission of research presentations.　

Date: September 26 (Mon), 2022 - October 1 (Sat), 2022

Venue: Hall at the National Museum of Ethnology
Online and onsite sessions will be held in parallel
National Museum of Ethnology
10-1 Senri Expo Park, Suita, Osaka
565-8511, Japan

Main organizer: National Museum of Ethnology

Schedule:
September 25 (Sun) – 26 (Mon) : Pre-event (Japanese sign language class, Asian sign language workshop, welcome drink [tentative], meeting with interpreters [Presenters are required to attend])
September 27 (Tue) - September 30 (Friday): Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR14)

Official languages: Japanese Sign Language, American Sign Language, International Sign Language, English

https://www.tislr2022.jp/

"Tokyo station trials sound visualization for deaf and hard of hearing"

Photo from Japan Today, June 16, 2022.

Text from The Japan Times, June 16, 2022.

A train station in Tokyo on Wednesday started reproducing platform announcements and the sounds of train arrivals and departures onto a screen in the form of text and sign language to help deaf and hard-of-hearing travelers.

In the trial project that began at Ueno Station and will run through Dec. 14, East Japan Railway aims to provide such travelers with a safer and more convenient travel experience.

In the service developed in conjunction with Fujitsu, station announcements and train sounds collected by microphones are converted into text and onomatopoeic descriptions in real-time using artificial intelligence.

They are then displayed on a screen positioned above a vending machine, with the roar of trains represented by cartoonish fonts and with different sizes to add to the detail provided, with the text changing to represent volume levels, for example. The screen will also show station staff signing commonly used announcements.

On Wednesday morning, the whooshing sound of an approaching Yamanote Line train was expressed with Japanese onomatopoeia. A sign language video was shown to inform passengers that the doors were closing ahead of the train’s departure.

Called Ekimatopeia, a portmanteau of the Japanese word for “station” and the English word “onomatopoeia,” the service is based on ideas that came out of a workshop conducted at a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students last summer in Kawasaki.

“We thought it would be helpful if we could understand what was going on around us through written words. It feels amazing that our idea became a reality. I want it to be displayed in more stations,” said Sora Konno, 18, a student at the school.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/06/15/national/station-sounds-visualized/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1655286685

Short video of the Ekimatopeia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz_LgzSuqYs&t=4s

New Publication:「Barrier-Free Communication for the Deaf in Japan: A Local Initiative for Medical Interpretation Services in Japanese Sign Language」

Fedorowicz, S.C., “Barrier-Free Communication for the Deaf in Japan: A Local Initiative for Medical Interpretation Services in Japanese Sign Language.” Journal of Inquiry and Research, Volume 114. Kansai Gaidai University, (2021): 319-337.

Abstract: A new city hospital in Hirakata, Osaka opened in 2014. In 2011, a small group of deaf citizens requested a much-needed service at the new hospital: on-site, full-time medical interpretation in Japanese Sign Language (JSL). The group sought to strengthen their position by aligning themselves with foreign residents in the city. The Hirakata Initiative for Medical Interpretation Services for Deaf People and Foreign Residents set out “to change the city to be friendly to every citizen with a secured and comfortable life… [and] to ensure easy access for the hearing impaired and foreign residents to medical care.” Public forums were scheduled featuring doctors, professors, interpreters and other specialists to discuss the needs and future prospects of medical interpretation. Initially there were feelings of optimism that policies and services crafted locally would ultimately serve as a template for medical interpretation in other areas in Japan. Although the group disbanded before realizing their ultimate goals, their activities were still worthwhile and beneficial. By analyzing the achievements and failures of the initiative, important lessons can be learned for future deaf activism. This paper, through multimodal and autoethnographic techniques, explores how the pluralistic dynamic efforts of local grassroots organizations are often the most successful in improving cultural, linguistic and personal accessibility for deaf communities in Japan (Mori 2011).

Key words: Deaf / Japanese Sign Language / barrier-free / medical interpretation / ethnography

For more information: https://kansaigaidai.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=8036&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21

Download pdf: https://kansaigaidai.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=8036&file_id=19&file_no=1

"Unsound: The Legacy of Alexander Graham Bell" (in ASL, English and English closed captions)

Description: American Sign Language interpretation of Unsound, a radio documentary from IDEAS exploring the legacy of Alexander Graham Bell and his role in a movement called oralism, and the harmful legacy that still reverberates today.

The great project of Alexander Graham Bell's life was not, perhaps surprisingly, the telephone.

His life's true passion, and the project he focused on his entire life and funded with his earnings from the telephone, was the 'education' of deaf people. He was part of a movement called oralism and believed all deaf people should learn to lipread and speak rather than use sign language.

But not all deaf people can learn to speak. Or believe they should. And the harm of oralism still reverberates today.

This is a great interpretation from a Deaf perspective. Watch in full screen and hit the CC button for captions.

Radio show source: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/unsound-the-legacy-of-alexander-graham-bell-1.6020596

Video source: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1894072899880

For English transcript: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/transcript-unsound-the-legacy-of-alexander-graham-bell-1.5998768

"American Anthropological Association - Weekend Reads. How Anthropology Can Learn from 'Asia as Method'" - this weekend, too!

Cultural Consumption and Performance in Asia Series
https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/tag/cultural-consumption-and-performance-in-asia/

Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan
https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/

H-ASIA Announcement 「Webinar: Representations of Deaf People in Japan」

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vAeF7_WxQlKdgXnOL2IVfQ

Inquiries (e-mail): nirc-ai-jimu@nanzan-u.ac.jp

Asian Ethnology Podcast 2021. Interview with Steven Fedorowicz: Deaf Communities in Japan. Nanzan University. By Mark Bookman.
Transcript: https://asianethnology.org/storage/pagefile/Steven%20Fedorowicz%20Interview%20Transcript.pdf

Announcement source: https://networks.h-net.org/node/22055/discussions/7632905/webinar-representations-deaf-people-japan

「Deaf-World in Japan」Presentation and Webinar at University of Findlay

This happens on March 17, 2021 @ 8:30 AM Japan time.

BONUS! Click here for additional resources about deaf communities and sign language in Japan.

"The Journey Towards Inclusive Bilingual Sign Language Schools - Case Study of Meisei Gakuen"

Posted by Visual Anthropology of Japan on Thursday, February 11, 2021

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Wfdeaf.org

Asian Studies Conference Japan 2020 in Tokyo Canceled - along with at least one great panel (hope we can do it in the near future...)

This is what we were going to do:

Disability and Accessibility in Japan

Accessibility is more than ensuring the “ability” of people with disabilities to access products, services, structures, and systems. Questioning access in Japan requires unpacking the meaning given to the spaces, networks, and systems by the people that create and utilize them. Accordingly, this panel shifts its focus to the actors involved in Japan’s accessibility: experts, students, educators, and advocates.
The panel begins by analyzing the collaborative mechanisms of accessibility before introducing ethnographies of deaf and hard-of-hearing people to explore positionality in information accessibility. In the first paper, Mark Bookman uses the 1964 and 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo as case studies to illustrate how compliance, coordination, and competition between experts in various fields can make the difference between erecting and dismantling barriers for persons with disabilities. Next, Jennifer M. McGuire sheds light on deaf and hard-of-hearing university students’ emic understandings and usage of reasonable accommodations. McGuire shows how concerns about disability disclosure can pose distinct barriers to information access. Junko Teruyama presents an auto-ethnographic analysis of a non-signer in a team-ethnography of signing deaf and hard-of-hearing schoolteachers. Teruyama illuminates issues of language and information accessibility as well as cultural literacy, which reflect the lived experiences of schoolteachers in a hearing environment. Finally, Steven Fedorowicz’s ethnography of local grassroot deaf groups working to improve sign language interpretation, dissemination of basic and emergency information and understanding of diversity and intersections in representations of deaf identities illustrates how networking, lecture/workshops and media productions are used to advance cultural and personal accessibility.

ハートネットＴＶ「手話で楽しむみんなのテレビ！～“昔話法廷”編～」 - NHK's Heart-Net TV "TV for everyone who enjoys sign language!" - 「Folktale Court」

Image and Japanese text from NHK's Heart-Net TV.

ＮＨＫの人気番組に手話がつく「手話放送」第２弾！今回は、Ｅテレで話題となったドラマ「昔話法廷」に手話をつけて放送。「さるかに合戦」をモチーフに、カニの親子を殺した猿が法廷で裁かれる。死刑を求めるカニの子ども、涙声で謝罪する猿の台詞を、耳の聞こえないろう者たちが手話で表現する。ＮＨＫ初の手話つきドラマ、果たしてその仕上がりやいかに？手話のできる芸人・河本準一さんをナビゲーターに迎えてお送りする。

Rough summary: A court drama performed in Japanese Sign Language. A monkey character who killed a crap parent and child in an old Japanese folktale is tried in court.

NHK ETV (channel 2)
2020年2月19日(水)　午後8時00分 〜 午後8時30分
Wednesday, 2/19/20, 8:00 pm - 8:30 pm.

Source: https://www.nhk.or.jp/heart-net/program/heart-net/1291/

For more: https://www.nhk.or.jp/heart-net/article/315/

"Japanese panel proposes using red and white flag as tsunami warning"

Image and text from The Japan Times, 2/14/20.

An expert panel of the Meteorological Agency has proposed that a red and white checkered flag be used to swiftly convey tsunami warnings to people with hearing impairments at seaside resorts.

A test conducted at a beach in Yokohama found that a red and white checkered flag is easy to see for people with color vision deficiency, the panel said Thursday.

The panel said the flag is also effective for evacuating people from abroad as it has the same design as an international maritime signal flag warning of danger.

The shorter side of the flag should be at least 1 meter long so people can see it from a long distance away, the panel said.

The agency will revise related regulations around June to call for the use of flags with this design. Possible examples include the flag being waved by lifeguards and raised at tsunami evacuation towers.

“The flag will be effective not only for the hearing impaired, but a wide range of people at noisy beaches,” said Atsushi Tanaka, a professor at the University of Tokyo and head of the panel.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/14/national/japan-flag-tsunami-warning/

Post-Lecture and a shot of "double inspiration porn"

The talk at the Kyoto Asian Studies Group went very well last night. There was a good crowd with several familiar faces. The lecture was one hour and five minutes (thanks to my DWJ students for suggestions on how to cut an earlier and longer version...) and there was almost an hour of interesting and important discussion afterwards. It was a great time. Thanks to KAS and everyone who attended!

In a congratulatory message my former professor and colleague sent me this:

Those who came last night will immediately get it. For those who couldn't attend, it is related to the following quote used in the presentation (and ensuing discussion).

I used to watch videos of abandoned dogs finding their forever homes and deaf people being able to hear for the first time to help soothe me on a bad day.

"Inspiration porn misrepresents deaf people, culture"
BY BRITTANY CRUZ-FEJERAN
The Southwestern College Sun, 05/13/2019
url: https://www.theswcsun.com/inspiration-porn-misrepresents-deaf-people-culture/

See the video before and prepare to be double inspired! (Thanks to EK for the message and screen shot.)



See also: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2019/09/announcement-kyoto-asian-studies-group.html

Announcement: Kyoto Asian Studies Group Meeting on September 17, 2019 - “Inspiration Porn and Representations of Deaf People in Japan”

Announcement from H-Japan, September 9, 2019:

The speaker for the September meeting of the Kyoto Asian Studies Group is Steven C. Fedorowicz, who will present “Inspiration Porn and Representations of Deaf People in Japan” (see abstract below).

The talk will be held on Tuesday, September 17th, 18:00-20:00 in Room 212 of the Fusokan on the Doshisha University Campus (see link below for access information).

Abstract

Inspiration Porn and Representations of Deaf People in Japan

This presentation examines so-called "inspiration porn" -- the idealization of disabled people doing everyday tasks (e.g. riding a train, having a job) or for achievements having nothing to do with their particular disability (e.g. deaf athletes) -- and its relationship to disability identities with a focus on deaf people in Japan. Cross-cultural examples, observations and perspectives will be discussed to set up an exploration of how disabled and deaf people are portrayed in various media. Japanese deaf people are often critical of the representations of deaf protagonists and characters in popular television dramas and movies. Such representations create strong but inaccurate images of deafness and sign language that ultimately serve to perpetuate deficit models of disability. On the other hand, representations of disabled/deaf people themselves challenge and add to a social welfare discourse leading to (re)evaluations of societal norms and attitudes towards disability with the ultimate goal of a barrier-free environment. This presentation will also discuss how the Law to Eliminate Discrimination against People with Disabilities (April 2016), Sagamihara Care Home Massacre (July 26, 2016) and upcoming Tokyo 2020 Paralympics have changed and influenced disability discourses and representations.

Steven C. Fedorowicz is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Asian Studies Program, Kansai Gaidai University.

Sponsored by the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies. For access information see:

http://www.doshisha.ac.jp/en/information/campus/imadegawa/imadegawa.html

Please refrain from bringing food or drinks into the meeting room.

Contact: Niels van Steenpaal, nielsvansteenpaal@hotmail.com

About the Kyoto Asian Studies Group:

The KASG is a long-standing Kyoto-based research network that hosts monthly research presentations by experts from various Asian Studies fields. Emphasizing long Q&A sessions, we aim to provide an informal atmosphere in which scholars can freely exchange ideas concerning both finished and in-progress research. Admission is free, and we always welcome new members and presenters.