The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna - u:japan lectures - Greg Poole: "In the Shadow of a Mountain: A Community School Coordinator and the Politics of Survival in Rural Japan"

I am very happy to pass on this announcement about a lecture by my friend and colleague, Greg Poole, from Doshisha University:

CLICK on the photos to get a clear image to read.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s12e08
Thursday 2026-05-28, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)
***This is 1:00 - 2:30 AM on Friday, 2026-05-29 in Japan***

| Place |

LIVE @ Campus of the University of Vienna 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)
Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies
Seminarraum JAP 1, 2K-EG-21, Ground floor to the left
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.4 (Campus), 1090 Vienna, Austria

| Platform & Link |

https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65583867108?pwd=rydxHuWoGcGIV6FFJdrLghDwpucRHd.1
Meeting-ID: 655 8386 7108 | Passcode: 794196
This lecture will not be recorded.

For more information: https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/startseite/einzelnews/news/in-the-shadow-of-a-mountain-a-community-school-coordinator-and-the-politics-of-survival-in-rural-ja/

CFP: 2026 AJJ Annual Conference @ Akita University, May 23-24th, 2026

2026 AJJ Annual Conference

May 23-24th, 2026

Akita University

Conference Theme

Entanglements and Embodiments: Anthropology, Ethnography and Sensing Japan

Location

The conference will be held at Akita University’s Tegata Campus (walking distance from Akita Station and bus station with a convenient bus connection from Akita Airport)

Keynote Address

“Anthropology of Japan in Japanese Anthropology before and after AJJ”
delivered by Nakamaki Hirochika, Professor Emeritus, National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku)

Call for Papers

The theme for this year’s AJJ meeting is influenced by the work of phenomenologically oriented anthropologists such as Tim Ingold, Paul Stoller, and Thomas Csordas. In differing ways, they are all anthropologists who place perception and interpretation at the core of their ethnographic writing and theoretical explorations. However, as is AJJ tradition, one need not be limited to their work or interpretations to submit a panel or paper.

Overall, we would like to invite reflections on how anthropologists of Japan are impacted by their idiosyncratic and inimitable connections to this country and their chosen field sites. This may include inquiry into the social, physical, political, or affective dimensions that any given anthropologist or folklorist has experienced. Some core considerations might include:

・How do personal experiences influence the selection of a specific location within Japan as a site, a research topic, theoretical frameworks, methods, writing styles, or approaches?
・How does an anthropologist’s sensory engagement mediate the process of interpreting cultural phenomena?
・How is this process consciously suppressed or supported in their analytical writing?

Submitting a Panel or Paper

Panel slots will be 90 minutes, usually divided along the lines of 3 papers, 20 minutes each, then 30 minutes of discussion (though there is some flexibility here if needed).

Full panels are given preference, but please feel free to apply with individual paper proposals.

Papers that clearly relate to the conference theme will be given preference, but others will also be considered.

The application deadline is January 15th 2026. We aim to reply to applicants by February 1st 2026.

Fees for the conference and reception (including food and drinks) will be as follows:

Tenured Faculty: ¥5000 conference fee and ¥3000 reception fee.
Employed but not tenured: ¥3000 / 2000
Graduate Students: ¥2000 / 1000
There is no conference fee for undergraduates; however the reception will cost ¥1000.

Prizes

The Befu Prize and Bookman Prize will be awarded at the end of the conference. For details on the rules for the two prizes, see the following links:

https://www.ajj-online.net/the-harumi-befu-prize/

https://www.ajj-online.net/the-mark-bookman-prize/

**Any paper by a non-tenured scholar or student that is accepted for the conference will be eligible for entry to the prize competitions. Eligible candidates will be asked to supply a 5-minute video summarizing their presentation to assist us in organizing the judging process.

For more information: https://www.ajj-online.net/2025/11/02/cfp-2026-ajj-annual-conference/

Announcement: A screening of a documentary film "Kitaushima" (North Cormorant Island)

Produced, Directed and Written by John Williams
Co-Producer and Co-Director: Yu Iwasaki
2024/86 min./Japan/Bilingual version (Japanese with English subtitles, English with Japanese subtitles)

November 12, 2025
18:30 to 20:30 (Doors Open at 18:00，Screening from 18:30）
Room L-821, 8F, Library building, Sophia University
No registration necessary / Free of charge

North Cormorant Island was filmed over ten years (between 2014 and 2024) in the remote fishing village of Kitaushima (which means North Cormorant Island), on Sado Island, Japan. Until the 1960’s the village was only accessible by boat, but a couple of hundred people lived there, rice-farming, fishing and raising cattle. After a road was built, young people began to drift to the cities and now there are less than thirty residents, most of them over seventy years old. The film blends observational documentary, following the everyday life of the village, the rituals, customs and work of the people who live there with a personal, poetic reflection on the director’s childhood in his father’s village in Wales. It is a film about time, place, mortality and human relationships with the land and the sea.

The film was awarded the Audience Award at Tokyo Documentary Film Festival, 2024.

Trailer： https://youtu.be/vm7UQ7CNgo8

This event is part one of the Sophia Symposium 2025 “Exploring a Japanese Fishing Village through Art” organized by John Williams and the ICC Collaborative Research Unit with the JSPS Scientific Research (C) 24K03565 Art, Environment and Sustainable Futures.

Symposium Part two: November 15th / 18:30 to 19:30 (Doors Open at 18:00) Performance of a Play “The Blue Tanuki Dreams of a Two-Moon Night.” (In Japanese with English text explanation.)

Symposium Part three: November 16th / 10:00 to 18:40 Symposium with guest speakers reflecting on similar projects in villages in Brazil, Norway and the UK.

***

北鵜島

監督：ジョン・ウィリアムズ、岩崎裕
2024年／86分／日本／バイリンガル版（日本語に英語字幕、英語に日本語字幕が付きます）

11月12日
18：30－20：30（開場18：00、上映開始18：30）
上智大学図書館 8階 L-821会議室
事前登録不要／入場無料

佐渡島にある海辺の小さな集落、北鵜島。その素朴さと美しさに魅了された、英国ウェールズ出身の監督が10年にわたり東京からかの地へ通い、人々と風土を記録する。中世から続く神事「車田植」などの風習や、山海の恵みと厳しさと共に生きる人々の知恵や精神に触れるなかで、監督は故郷ウェールズでの思い出や、海洋学者だった父の最期に思いを馳せる。さまざまな歴史や記憶が重なり、やがて鮮やかな人間賛歌へと結実していく。（2024年東京ドキュメンタリー映画祭観客賞受賞作品）

Source: https://www.icc-sophia.com/post/a-screening-of-a-documentary-film-kitaushima-north-cormorant-island/

(More) Potato Chip Baseball Cards - 2025 Second Series

We bought three packs and got 6 cards, none of which were Hanshin Tigers... Hopefully we will have better luck next time. Especially since, as of the time of this post, the Tigers are at M4, or Magic 4. This means when the Tigers win 4 more games they will be the Central League Champs!

See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/07/where-to-get-baseball-cards-in-japan.html

Where to get baseball cards in Japan? Forget the bubblegum, think potato chips and kaki no tane... (and updated 7/14/25)

When I was growing up in America, I would often buy baseball cards that came with a stick (and scent) of bubblegum. But here in Japan, you can get baseball cards when you buy a certain brand of potato chips and a certain brand of kaki no tane (small, crescent-shaped rice crackers flavored with soy sauce and chili). Here are a couple of recent purchases...

I bought 3 small packs of chips at my neighborhood convenience store in Kadoma-shi. You get two cards per pack. Unfortunately I didn't get any Hanshin Tigers player cards this time.

*******

I found these kaki no tane at a convenience store in Kyoto. I had never seen these before. You get one card per pack. I was lucky to get one Hanshin Tigers player card, Nakano Takumu. My daughter and I enjoy opening up the packs and seeing which players we got, and then eating the snacks. Go Tigers!

UPDATE! 7/14/25:

Recently when we bought potato chips we got a "lucky card." We sent it in the the company and received a small folder to keep our cards in good condition.

New Book Announcement: Mark Bookman's "Disability Publics: Making Accessibility in Modern Japan"

A personal note: Dr. Mark Bookman was an incredible scholar, the foremost expert on historical and contemporary disability issues in Japan, a wonderful and caring person any my good friend. He was here in Japan doing research and working on his PhD dissertation, all the while writing several articles and making many presentations. He eventually finished his degree, got a post doc at Tokyo College and then a position at Ritsumeikan University. I was very lucky to know him and benefit from his knowlwdge. At times we were able to work together, and he always found the time to watch many of my presentations (and then give me compliments and his frank and honest critiques). This is the book we have all been waiting for...

Book Description (from Oxford University Press):

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Over the last 150 years, activists and policymakers have tried to improve access to Japan's built environment, education, employment, entertainment, and medical care systems for disabled persons, but these attempts have frequently excluded as many impaired individuals as they have empowered. Their technological and legislative interventions have not only structured the everyday lives of disabled individuals, but also women, children, old people, migrant laborers, wounded veterans, and members of other vulnerable groups, by both creating and removing obstacles to social participation.

Why and how have stakeholders pursued these accessibility projects for different demographics in modern Japan? To unpack this question, this book investigates the history of Japan's "disability publics": coalitions of activists, government officials, and other interested parties who have advanced policy agendas for specific communities by responding to social, political, and economic circumstances. It demonstrates that pressures tied to macrosocial processes such as industrialization, urbanization, militarization, globalization, and population ageing have played a key role in defining Japan's disability publics. Equally influential have been international flows of information, products, and people working in the welfare sphere, which have inspired Japan's disability publics to implement domestic reforms. A final contributing factor arose from social crises and mega-events (such as the "triple disaster" at Fukushima, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics) which have provided windows of opportunity for catalyzing policy changes.

Disability Publics uses this history to intervene in current debates about inclusion and will guide future policymaking efforts by asking stakeholders to consider who has a seat at the table, how they come to be there, and what they fail to imagine when developing accessibility measures. In so doing, and by unravelling the politics of Japan's disability publics in this comprehensive way, the book outlines a path towards a more equitable society.

***

Many of our Japanese Studies colleagues will know Dr Mark Bookman's work on disability in Japan. He was trained as a modern historian, but he had many fruitful collaborations with anthropologists during his career. Over the last year, I have been honored to work with Mark's father and Professor Nagase Osamu of Ritsumeikan University to bring Mark’s UPenn dissertation to publication. Please help us sustain his legacy and buy the book at this discount, or recommend it to your library or … read it for free! OUP has happily agreed to make the manuscript open access after its publication in September 2025. (Carolyne S. Stevens, book editor)

For more information: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/disability-publics-9780198979739?cc=jp&lang=en&

Resource: The Earthquake Children Image Archive

Description (from the web site): Welcome to the Earthquake Children Image Archive. This website, containing over 500 images, serves as a companion to my book Earthquake Children: Building Resilience from the Ruins of Tokyo (Harvard University Asia Center, 2020).

The images collated in this website visually document children’s experiences of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and daily life in 1920s Tokyo. Sources range from postcards, children’s drawings and photographs, to maps, architectural drawings and memorabilia. In addition to images of and by children, the collection depicts teachers, imperial family members, government officials, policemen, doctors, nurses, foreign tourists, and other adults involved in providing relief, education and care of children in the aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake. Beginning from the eve of the earthquake, the images are organized into the following eight categories: Epicenter of Vulnerability; Earthquake & Fires; Objects of Concern; Agents of Recovery; Back to School; Earthquake Lessons; New Schools & Parks; and, Remembrance & Commemoration.

I have designed the archive primarily as a teaching and learning tool for undergraduate courses I teach at International Christian University in Tokyo. Each section includes questions intended for further discussion alongside the corresponding chapters in my book Earthquake Children. Today, as Japan marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Kantō Earthquake in September 2023, I hope your visit to this website also encourages you to review your own knowledge of what to do in the event of a future earthquake, wherever you are in the world.

URL: http://www.earthquakechildren.com/

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#

Bomb shots... what a great idea...

Photo and text from The Japan Times, 5/6/23.

In between talks on security and technology, the leaders of South Korea and Japan plan to unwind over a drink.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is preparing to share a "bomb shot” with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over a casual dinner Sunday. The concoction, a combination of beer with South Korea’s national spirit soju, is a mainstay in K-dramas and often shared among colleagues and friends in the country to bond.

The meal is part of an official two-day summit in Seoul — the first in 12 years — meant to strengthen ties between the U.S. allies. Seen as a chance to restore shuttle diplomacy, the visit takes place ahead of a trilateral meeting between the U.S., South Korea and Japan during the Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima later this month.

The relaxed dinner at Yoon’s presidential residence in Seoul will showcase Korean cuisine. Yoon intends to serve charcoal-grilled meat, according to people familiar with the event. Korean rice wine, called Cheongju, will be offered throughout the meal, and high-level officials from Yoon’s ruling People Power Party suggest that bomb shots are "most likely” to follow.

...

Last month, South Korea added Japan back to its "white list” of trading partners, and Japan later announced it would do the same.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/05/06/national/politics-diplomacy/kishida-yoon-summit-dinner/?utm_source=pianoDNU&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=72&tpcc=dnu&pnespid=pe_Vg5oO5qqeo.O5rU.zuKYJuh4ZqDZzylEwR1Iuo0WVLLZhY3qQBVdOnQ5Juilu4zgHNA

「Food Terrorism at Midnight: Changing Eating Patterns in Japan」@ Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference 2023 Virtual Sessions February 17/18, 2023

I am dedicating this presentation to Dr. Mark Hollstein, who passed away unexpectedly, suddenly and tragically on January 31, 2023. Mark was my friend and colleague for twenty years. We had many things in common - Japan, research, family life, politics, music and Star Trek. We talked almost every day. I was able to show Mark an early draft of this presentation and he gave me lots of good feedback. I miss him so much. Deepest condolences to his wife, son, family, friends and students. Rest in Peace.

See Mark's obituary here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/saltlaketribune/name/mark-hollstein-obituary?id=40271263

Food Terrorism at Midnight:

Changing Eating Patterns in Japan

Steven C. Fedorowicz

Asian Studies Program

Kansai Gaidai University

Abstract: In Japan, food and drink are prominent in cooking shows, travel shows, variety shows, dramas, manga, anime, books, magazines, blogs, Facebook and Instagram. The term “food porn” has been used to describe some media due to its sensual presentation intended to provide unattached pleasure or gratification for viewers. Since the 2010s, the Japanese term meshi tero (“food terrorism”) has been used with a meaning similar to “food porn.” However, food terrorism implies a deliberate attack or form of harassment that creates jealousy or resentment, causing victims to run to the kitchen or convenience store for snacks. Late-night food terror is especially insidious. Midnight has become a prime time for the television networks to air new food terrorism dramas. My research builds upon Stalker’s detailed history of the Japanese gourmet boom (2016) and Longcore’s discussion of “ethnographic culinary adventures... for the enjoyment, entertainment, and enlightenment of foodies and anthropologists alike” (2019). Food terrorism became more pronounced in 2020, when the Japanese government imposed restrictions on dining out during the COVID-19 pandemic. People now watch food terrorism with feelings of nostalgia, envy and/or hopefulness about being able to dine out again without concern. This paper examines food terrorism and changing eating patterns in Japan through multimodality (Collins et al. 2017) and sensory ethnographic methodologies (Pink 2009).

Keywords: visual anthropology, ethnographic photography, food porn, food terrorism, Japan

Session: V1-408
Contemporary Japanese and Korean Society
Friday, February 17, 2023, 8:00-9:30 PM (EST)
Saturday, February 18, 2023, 10:00-11:30 AM (Japan time)

For registration and information about the conference: https://www.asianstudies.org/conference/register2023/#

New Resource: Digital Humanities Japan

Announcement from Paula R. Curtis via H-Japan:

The Digital Humanities Japan initiative is pleased to formally announce the launch of our website and its associated content. This includes a mailing list and a resource wiki.

Our wiki contains (among other things):

Scholars Directory - A submission form where you can list yourself a DH Japan scholar, including your current projects, skill sets, and contact information. We hope this will enhance everyone's ability to find collaborators and find new and fascinating work in the field.

Publications - An open-access google doc where you can list your publications or the publications of others related to the intersection of DH/Japan, whether informational blog posts or peer-reviewed writing.

DH Tools - A list of Japan-specific digital tools, as well as a database of broader DH Tools, separated by category.

There is much more on the wiki, and we hope that the present resources will help facilitate more work on the intersection of Japan and Digital Studies. We encourage contributions from the community to help our resources grow. Contact information is available on the DHJ site for those with any questions.

Mission Statement (from the website): Digital Humanities Japan is an international and interdisciplinary community of scholars and professionals interested in working with digital methods, tools, and resources for Japanese Studies. As a collective, we aim to foster collaboration between those with similar interests by promoting scholarly dialogue, holding workshops to develop technical skills and project ideas, and creating a central platform for the sharing of resources related to digital methods.

URL: http://dhjapan.org/

"A Japanese Photographer’s View of Life in His Family’s One-Room Home"

Image and text borrowed from The New Yorker, 6/9/18.

Thanks to GW via EASIANTH for the heads-up on this great piece.

The Yamamoto family values were forged in small spaces,” the Japanese photographer Masaki Yamamoto told me recently. For eighteen years, his family of seven coexisted in a one-room apartment in Kobe. His father drove trucks, and his mother worked as a cashier in a supermarket. They and their five children all slept in the same space, a room the size of six tatami mats, limbs overlapping amid a pile of ever-multiplying junk. When you looked up, you couldn’t avoid meeting the eyes of someone else, Yamamoto, the second-oldest of his siblings, said, adding, “The one place you could be alone was the bathtub.” “Guts,” his new photography book, is a celebration of his family’s everyday existence in these close quarters.

In the West, Japan is often characterized as an island of loneliness—of family-renting industries, of sexless youth, of the unwanted elderly shoplifting out of a longing for the social comforts of prison. At first glance, Yamamoto’s photographs might seem to provide further evidence of a claustrophobic solitude. In one image, his sister sits in the bathtub, her thin knees folded close to her chest, a Rodin immersed in a tiny tub filled with milky water. It is a sombre scene, until we read the caption and find that she had jokingly drawn her knees up so that she would look like she had huge breasts.

Read more and see more of Yamamoto's photos.

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-japanese-photographers-view-of-life-in-his-familys-one-room-home

Some recent interesting and brief videos to introduce Japan

One of the challenges of teaching courses about contemporary Japanese culture at my university is that my students come from a variety of countries, backgrounds, majors and areas of knowledge. I cannot assume all of my international (and local) students are anthropology majors and/or have knowledge about the social sciences, cultural studies and/or Japanese studies. To bring my students up to speed at the beginning of the semester I usually recommend that they read An Introduction to Japanese Society by Japanese sociologist Yoshio Sugimoto. Now in its 4th edition (2014, Cambridge University Press) I find the chapters on "The Japan Phenomenon and the Social Sciences" and "Geographical and Generational Variations" to be especially useful as an introduction to Japan. But these days I have to wonder if my students actually do such recommended readings... Perhaps another way to introduce Japan might be through the use of popular YouTube videos. With this thought in mind I offer the following as a starting point for the exploration of Japan and its cultures. They are not perfect as there are a few small errors here and there, some bias problems and they might appear too pop in style for academics, which is why I still strongly recommend Sugimoto...

Geography Now! Japan



History of Japan (Bill Wurtz)



[360°VR] JAPAN - Where tradition meets the future (VisitJapan)



Why Japan Has No Mass Shootings (act.tv)



Initial information and motivation from Japan Today, 2/17/18: https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/informative-video-condenses-everything-about-japan-into-16-minutes-of-pure-gold

"Ken Domon and the artistry of real life"

Text and photo from The Japan Times, 4/16/17.

By 1957, photographer Ken Domon had reached the peak of his creative powers. A picture taken that year in Hiroshima, which he was visiting for the first time to chronicle the lingering effect of the bomb, shows him supremely confident: ram-rod straight on a stool, tripod in one hand, he casts a sideway glance at the viewer. His brow is lightly furrowed; his lips display a slight pout reminiscent of a kabuki actor adopting a mie pose. What we see is an intense, tenacious and uncompromising mind.

Two years later, Domon suffered the first of three brain hemorrhages that marked the beginning of a long, slow and painful decline. In an image from 1979, on a photo shoot near Nara, he is in a wheelchair, his shoulders slumped, his cheeks a bit hollow. We can still notice a glimmer of passion in his eyes, but his gaze is distant. Not long after that, he was back in the hospital, in the coma in which he remained until his death in 1990.

Domon was a prolific artist who produced almost 70,000 photographs over a career that spanned more than four decades. And yet, much like Japanese photography as a whole, he was until recently almost completely unknown outside his homeland. In fact, the first museum exhibition entirely dedicated to his work was organized only last year, in Rome, and the accompanying catalogue, which will be published in English by Skira in June, is the first full monograph on his life and work to appear in that language. Late in coming, this recognition is long overdue.

The son of a nurse and office worker, Domon was born in 1909, in the city of Sakata, on Japan’s snowy northeastern coast of Yamagata Prefecture, where the Ken Domon Museum of Photography is located today. He moved to Tokyo when he was 7 and while still in his teens, he developed a passion for painting — he exhibited his first canvas at 17 and promptly sold it for ¥30. However, he never succeeded in making a living out of painting, so in 1933 he followed his mother’s advice and joined a photography studio as an apprentice. This turned out to be a great move: two years later, he was working for Yonosuke Natori, the founder of Nippon Kobo, one of the most important publishing agencies of that era, and an influential force in the development of photojournalism in Japan. Domon had found his calling.

The period that followed the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when Domon came of age, was a time of great social ferment, when Japan was undergoing rapid and, at times, chaotic change. Artists engaged in bold experiments and moved beyond the mere imitation of Western modes of expression that had previously been prevalent. Graphic magazines and photo supplements were established, and these helped disseminate a new aesthetics. By the early 1930s, photographers were also learning how to use their cameras to critically draw attention to the country’s social ills.

By the later years of that decade, however, the atmosphere had changed. With the Pacific War in full swing, censorship became stifling. Like many of his peers, Domon produced propaganda images for a while, but he became disillusioned, even critical of the government’s attitude toward art, and he struggled to find ways to do work that remained meaningful.

In 1939, he visited Nara’s Muroji Temple for the first time — he would return over and over again — and this became a turning point. In the words of Rossella Menegazzo, a professor at the University of Milan and the co-curator of the Rome exhibition as well as the co-editor of the catalogue, it marked the beginning of “the greatest effort of reportage of his life.” Domon then spent much of the following five years photographing Japan’s cultural and architectural heritage. His widely hailed series on bunraku (puppet theater), which by 1943 totaled 7,000 images, dates from that period.

The postwar years, particularly the 1950s, marked the climax of Domon’s influence as a photographer and public intellectual. He went freelance in 1945 and began collaborating with a broad range of publications. He also became a judge for amateur competitions, wrote essays and became one of the leading exponents of a social-realist approach to photography.

In an email interview, Menegazzo explained that what mattered most for Domon was “to show the pure reality” in front of his eyes.

“In a society profoundly scarred by war and defeat, Domon refused to make beautiful photos,” she added. “This is particularly evident in the Hiroshima series, which was shocking and therefore criticized by many, but it also significantly changed the consciousness of people in Japan after the war.”

In those days, there were few commercial galleries focusing on photography and so the main medium to spread knowledge of one’s work was through books. Some of Domon’s volumes sold as many as 100,000 copies.

The “devil of photo-reportage,” as he came to be known, had little interest for the world beyond Japan. Except for a brief sojourn in China during the war years, he never traveled overseas. This partly explains why international recognition was so long in coming. But another reason is the sheer diversity of his work. As Menegazzo puts it, “It is not simple to assess the legacy of an artist who produced so much and continuously changed the subject of his work.”

And so today, Domon is mostly remembered for his series, on Hiroshima, or on children, those of Koto Ward in Tokyo and of Chikuho in Kyushu, or for his portraits, smaller sub-sets of his oeuvre that are easier to digest.

Domon did not purposefully aim to create beautiful images, but through patient and painstaking efforts, he captured the beauty of everyday life and culture in Japan. This alone ensures he will retain his place as one of the most important Japanese photographers of the postwar era.

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/04/16/arts/ken-domon-artistry-real-life/

"Prosecutors seek fine for 'vagina kayak' artist at obscenity trial"

From Japan Today, 2/1/16:

Prosecutors sought a fine of 800,000 yen Monday at the Tokyo District Court from an artist charged with obscenity after distributing 3D scans of her own genitals.

Megumi Igarashi, 43, who works under the pseudonym “Rokudenashi-ko” (good-for-nothing girl), maintained her innocence on the charges of distributing obscene objects through the Internet in return for money, arguing that her artwork uses female genitalia as its subject but is not of a salacious nature.

In her final statement, Igarashi called for an impartial judgment by the court. “Having created works that defy the (existing) image associated with genitalia, I cannot agree with my arrest,” she said.

The court is expected to hand down its decision on May 9.

To support her plea of not guilty, Igarashi’s lawyer said in closing arguments that she distributed the data “as part of her creative activities, with the aim that her supporters would use it to create new works.”

A prosecutor said Igarashi “carries great criminal responsibility” as she sent out the data regardless of the possibility that recipients might create obscene objects.

In a past hearing, a university professor specializing in art history testified in Igarashi’s defense that the works “do not appear to be obscene (materials) that cause sexual arousal.”

Igarashi told a press conference after her initial arrest in July 2014 that she sent the data to those who donated more than 3,000 yen to a campaign to fund her creation of a kayak also modeled on the 3D scans.

According to the indictment, Igarashi distributed data over the Internet that could be used to make 3D reproductions of her genitals in October 2013 and March 2014, and in July 2014 exhibited vagina-shaped plaster artwork at an adult shop in Tokyo.

Japan’s Penal Code prescribes a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 2.5 million yen for distributing obscene objects.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/prosecutors-seek-fine-for-vagina-kayak-artist-at-obscenity-trial

Click here for previous VAOJ coverage.

"Prosecutors indict vagina artist on obscenity charges"

Text from Japan Today, 12/25/14:

Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday charged a feminist artist who makes objects shaped like her own vagina with distributing “obscene” data, according to her lawyer, in a case that has sparked accusations that authorities are out of touch.

The charges follow Megumi Igarashi’s arrest this month after she raised funds online to pay for a genital-shaped kayak which she made on a 3D printer.

“We don’t agree with the prosecutors’ contention at all,” Takeshi Sumi, one of Igarashi’s lawyers, told AFP Wednesday.

“We will continue pleading not guilty on behalf of Igarashi, who argues her works are not anything obscene,” Sumi said.

Read the whole article: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/prosecutors-indict-vagina-artist-on-obscenity-charges

Click here for past VAOJ coverage.

"Vagina kayak artist (re)arrested in Japan"

Photo and text from Japan Today, 12/4/14.

An artist who made a kayak modeled on her own vagina was arrested in Japan on Wednesday, police said, in a case that has sparked accusations of censorship.

Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokude Nashiko—offensive slang which loosely translates as “reprobate child”—was arrested in July for trying to raise funds online to pay for the construction of a kayak, using a 3D printer, inspired by her genitals.

She was released days later following a legal appeal and after thousands of people signed a petition demanding her freedom.

But on Wednesday, Igarashi was re-arrested on suspicion of sending a link “that shows her plan to create a boat using three-dimensional obscene data to a large number of people,” a Tokyo police spokeswoman told AFP.

She “tried to have those people who were willing to finance her plan download the 3D obscene data” in October last year, the spokeswoman said.

Igarashi also allegedly sold CD-ROMs containing similar data during a May exhibition in Tokyo.

“I don’t believe my vagina is anything obscene,” Igarashi said in a July press conference after her release, adding: “I was determined I would never yield to police power.”

Sex toy shop manager Minori Watanabe, 44, was also arrested for “displaying obscene goods in her shop window in collusion with Igarashi” from around October last year until July, police said.

Japan has a notoriously vibrant pornography industry that caters to a vast array of tastes.

However, its obscenity laws still forbid the depiction of actual genitalia, which usually appear censored or pixellated in images and videos.

If convicted of distributing, or holding obscene materials for the purpose of selling, Igarashi could receive up to two years in jail and/or a fine of as much as 2.5 million yen.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/vagina-kayak-artist-arrested-in-japan

See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yowahgv1ShI (in Japanese).

UPDATE! (from Japan Today, 12/9/14):

"Sex shop owner freed; vagina artist still held"

A sex shop owner arrested along with a artist who makes objects shaped like her own vagina has been released from Japanese police custody, lawyers said Monday, after the courts refused to extend her detention.

In a case which sparked accusations that Tokyo’s police are overbearing and out of touch, Minori Watanabe, 44, also a writer and feminist activist, was freed after prosecutors failed to persuade a judge to sanction extended questioning.

Watanabe, whose boutique is aimed at women, was arrested last week for “displaying obscene goods in her shop window”.

Her lawyer Ichiro Muraki said she was freed on Saturday after two days’ detention, in a rare case of a court siding with a suspect.

Detectives arrested Watanabe—who is known in Japan under the nom-de-plume Minori Kitahara—on the same day as they took artist Megumi Igarashi into custody for the second time this year on charges relating to a genital-shaped kayak she made on a 3D printer.

Igarashi was still being held on Monday, with her defense lawyers waiting for judges to rule on whether she should remain behind bars.

“She is banned from receiving visits except from her lawyers,” her attorney Takeshi Sumi said.

“She is being accused of different but similar counts from the last time, which all date back before her previous arrest” in July, he said. “It is baffling why police had to arrest her again.”

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/sex-shop-owner-freed-vagina-artist-still-held

ONLINE COURSE: Visualizing Japan

Announcement from H-NET Notifications:

Harvard-MIT MOOC: Visualizing Japan (1850s-1930s): Westernization, Protest, Modernity

Seminar Date: 2014-09-03 Now open for registration. Free!

A first-time MIT/Harvard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), Visualizing Japan opens windows on Japan’s transition into the modern world through the historical visual record. Teachers include John Dower (MIT), Andrew Gordon (Harvard), and Gennifer Weisenfeld (Duke).

This co-taught course looks at Japanese history and the skills and questions involved in reading history through images now accessible in digital formats. The course is based on the MIT "Visualizing Cultures" website devoted to image-driven research on Japan and China since the 19th century (visualizingcultures.mit.edu). The introductory module considers methodologies historians use to “visualize” the past, followed by three modules that explore the themes of Westernization, in Commodore Perry’s 1853-54 expedition to Japan; social protest, in Tokyo’s 1905 Hibiya Riot; and modernity, as seen in the archives of the major Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido.

This MOOC will be followed by Visualizing Postwar Tokyo by Shunya Yoshimi of the University of Tokyo.

REGISTER FROM THE edX COURSE SITE: https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx-mitx/harvardx-mitx-vjx-visualizing-japan-2331

"Arrest of Tokyo vagina artist sparks free expression protest"

Here's an article about Japan's laws related to the visual (especially those deemed "obscene")... From Japan Today, July 16, 2014:

Japanese police have arrested a Tokyo artist on obscenity charges for distributing data that allowed recipients to make 3D prints of her vagina, sparking protests over what supporters said was an attack on free expression.

Megumi Igarashi, 42, who calls herself Rokude Nashiko which roughly translates as “bastard kid”, had been trying to raise funds online to pay for the construction of a kayak, using a 3D printer, modeled on the shape of her genitals.

Japan has a notoriously vibrant pornography industry that caters to a vast array of tastes. But obscenity laws still forbid the depiction of actual genitalia, which usually appear censored or pixellated in images and videos.

The artist—who has created other genital-inspired artworks—was arrested Saturday for “distributing data that could create an obscene shape through a 3D printer,” a police spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

Before her arrest, Igarashi—who remained in detention on Tuesday—had collected about one million yen through an Internet crowd funding site.

In exchange for donations, she supplied data to supporters that would let them create 3D prints of her genitals.

Igarashi’s supporters said they were shocked by what they described as the police’s unusually broad use of Japan’s obscenity laws in this case.

Activist Minori Kitahara said police raided Igarashi’s office and seized 20 of her artworks.

“Japan is still a society where those who try to express women’s sexuality are suppressed, while men’s sexuality is overly tolerated,” she said.

Japan’s pornography industry is predominantly targeted at men and the country only last month made the possession of child pornography illegal.

The ban excludes “manga” comics—those aimed at adults as well as children, “anime” video and computer-generated graphics, following calls to protect freedom of expression.

Campaigners had long urged Japan to toughen its stance on child pornography, complaining it was a major source of the material for global markets.

If convicted, Igarashi could receive up to two years in jail or a fine of as much as 2.5 million yen, according to her lawyer.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/arrest-of-tokyo-vagina-artist-sparks-free-expression-protest

UPDATE! Check out how The Huffington Post covered the story (thanks to MH for the reference): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/vagina-artist-arrest-japan_n_5588664.html

"NHK ordered to pay damages to indigenous Taiwanese woman for defaming her"

From Japan Today, 11/30/13:

A Japanese court has ordered public broadcaster NHK to pay damages to an indigenous Taiwanese woman for defaming her by using the term “human zoo” in a program, officials said Friday.

Overturning a lower court ruling, the Tokyo High Court ordered NHK to pay 1 million yen to the woman, with presiding judge Noriaki Sudo reportedly saying the broadcaster used a term that had a “serious discriminatory meaning”.

The program looked at the “Japan-Britain Exhibition” held in London in 1910 to which Japan took several members of Taiwan’s aboriginal population, including the father of the woman, as exotic exhibits, Jiji Press and Kyodo News reported.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony at the time, and the practice of exhibiting the little-known peoples of far-flung territories was a common one among Western imperial powers.

Historians say Japan, which had emerged from self-imposed isolation just half a century earlier, joined in partly as an attempt to establish itself as an imperial power and mitigate the perceived risk of being colonised itself.

In the ruling, Sudo said NHK “repeatedly used the term without giving consideration to its discriminatory meaning,” which implied the people of the Paiwan—Taiwan’s indigenous population—were uncivilized, the Tokyo Shimbun reported.

Some of those who took part did so earnestly, and not as mere curiosities, the judge said, according to the paper.

In a statement sent to AFP on Friday, NHK said: “We are sorry that our argument was not taken up. We will decide how to deal with the issue after studying closely the court’s verdict.”

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/nhk-ordered-to-pay-damages-to-indigenous-taiwanese-woman-for-defaming-her