「Tenbun Closing」One Year Anniversary, pt. 1: Empty Space

March 28, 2020 was Tenbun's last day of business. One year later the location of Tenbun is empty space. The red circles on the floor guide for エルくずは (Elle Kuzuha) show where Tenbun was (lot 5) and that no new shop has opened there.

The Norengai is no more (only two shops seem to have a small noren now). This shot was taken at 5:30 PM last Thursday. The renamed エルくずは is no longer a busy and popular corridor like it once was. The demise was likely caused by the refurbishment/gentrification of the area by Keihan Densha, higher rents, more chain restauraunts, the close of the pachinko parlour and finally the close of Tenbun. COVID-19 was the last nail in the coffin. In all, three shops have gone out of business and remain vacant. At least one shop seems to be at least temporarily closed.

Shuttered and closed. But not forgotten...

For more information on Tenbun and the project: 「Behind the Scenes:「Tenbun Closing」Presentation @ Anthropology of Japan in Japan Annual Meeting 2020」

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2020/12/behind-scenestenbun-closingpresentation.html

「Eat, Drink, and Stand in Japan」at Anthropology News (oneline version)

https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2021/01/08/eat-drink-and-stand-in-japan/

2021 Neighborhood Ohanami Offerings

Click here to see the VAoJ cherry blossoms through the years.

"Sakura Drone Project provides free sakura backgrounds, virtual hanami and more"

Photo and text from Japan Today, 3/24/21.

While some people may try to find socially distant ways of enjoying cherry blossoms this year, the pandemic has put the kibosh on the typically crowded hanami (flower-viewing, often while picnicking under the cherry blossoms).

Online Cherry Blossom Broadcast: March 27

But thankfully, technology now provides the means to enjoy hanami virtually.

On Saturday, Drone Entertainment Inc will hold an "Online Cherry Blossom Viewing" event on YouTube, which can be enjoyed anywhere in the world. The broadcast will weave together 4K aerial footage from the Cherry Blossom Drone Project 2020, which was featured on Japanese TV last year and became a hot topic on social media, and expertly-piloted live 4K drone views of this year's cherry blossoms.

In fact, it's already started! In preparation for March 27, the company has begun a 1,000 hours continuous live streaming of hanami videos from all over Japan, featuring beautiful images of cherry blossoms shot in 2020 at 50 locations in 40 prefectures with the cooperation of many local governments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G81kdNznvu4

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/sakura-drone-project-provides-free-sakura-backgrounds-virtual-hanami-and-more

I received some extra copies of my photo essay (Thanks Nat@AN) to give to the folks at the tachinomya along with a Japanese translation of the text. But don't tell, it's supposed to be a surprise...

For more information about Tenbun and the tachinomiya project (special multimodal bonus edition):

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2020/12/behind-scenestenbun-closingpresentation.html

To view the story online (with a different layout):

https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2021/01/08/eat-drink-and-stand-in-japan/

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

Thanks to all at the University of Findlay and all of the webinar participants.

My friend and colleague, Mark Bookman, a Ph.D. Candidate in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, also zoomed in to the presentation. He is close to finishing his dissertation on the history and politics of disability in Japanese and global contexts. Mark is an expert on the kinds of things I was talking about in Part Two of my lecture. He gave me some valuable feedback and I want to share it with the participants.

Click here to download Mark's comments.

Again, I really appreciate Mark's feedback. It is this kind of collaboration and dialogue (and frankly, good anthropology) that is important and valuable.

I welcome more feedback from anyone who is willing.

For more of this kind of collaboration and research, check out the Asian Ethnology "Disability and Japan in the Digital Age."

https://asianethnology.org/page/podcastbookmanseries

Transcript available here:

https://asianethnology.org/storage/pagefile/Transcript%20(Mark%20Bookman%20-%20Disability%20and%20Japan%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age%20series%20introduction).pdf

You can also check out Mark Bookman's work here:

https://bookmanresearch.com/

「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.

Vintage Japanese Sign Language Photos (circa 2011 & 2012)

I have been preparing for two presentations about my research with Japanese deaf communities I will be giving in March and May (stay tuned for upcoming details). I came across a couple of collages I crafted for photo exhibitions several years ago featuring facial expression use in JSL. 懐かしい!

手話の顔 日本映像人類学 写真展 (Sign Language Faces: A Visual Anthropology of Japan Photo Exhibition) (2011)

Link: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2011/02/sign-language-faces-visual-anthropology.html

Visual Anthropology of Japan Photo Exhibition: NPO Deaf Support Osaka GALAXY (2012)

Link: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2012/11/visual-anthropology-of-japan-photo.html

"Kyoto slammed for manga telling people not to talk at restaurants" - SAVE THE WORLD! LEARN SIGN LANGUAGE!

Image and text from Japan Today, 2/21/21.

Ever since the pandemic began, Japan has been targeting restaurants as one of the primary risk spots for infection, with the main reason being that people inevitably have to remove their masks to eat.

And while some local governments have been asking restaurants to close their doors early at 8 p.m., to prevent diners from overdoing it on booze which tends to lead to loud talking without masks, the coronavirus doesn’t just come out at night, so people are now being asked to practice mokushoku, or “silent eating”, no matter what time they eat out at a restaurant.

While this seems to make sense, seeing as COVID-19 is an airborne virus, some people have been pushing back against the idea, even in Kyoto, where the city has now introduced a four-panel manga to help promote silent eating.

1. In the first panel, a character called Isamu enters a ramen restaurant and notices it’s quiet inside, even though a family is eating there. On the wall beside them is a blue poster, with mokushoku written on it in kanji, which asks people to eat in silence. These blue posters are being used a lot these days in restaurants and they’ve been widely shared on social media.

2. While Isamu waits for his order to arrive, he sees the family communicating to each other via smiles and hand gestures to express their thoughts on how good the meal is. Two of them give each other the thumbs-up sign while the other family member puts their hands above their head to form a maru circle, a gesture used to mean “good” in Japan. Isamu thinks to himself, “So this must be silent eating. This is great!”

3. When Isamu eats his ramen, he follows the example shown to him by the family, giving the staff a thumbs up while thinking “It’s delicious!” The staff smile in return and he feels that the meal enjoyed silently is really tasty.

4. Isamu sees the family leave the restaurant and it’s only then, when they’re outside with their masks covering their faces that they talk to each other, saying that the meal was delicious and they’d like to come back again. This last panel encourages everyone to “Do what you can when you can, bit by bit”.

The panel makes things pretty straightforward, laying out step-by-step alternatives to speaking for anyone confused by what mokushoku means, and Kyoto is keen for everyone to follow these guidelines when dining out.

However, what sounds good in theory might not be so great in practice, as a surprisingly large number of people were quick to criticize the idea online...

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/national/kyoto-slammed-for-manga-telling-people-not-to-talk-at-restaurants

"Court backs Osaka high school's right to ask students to dye hair black" - Your hair is not naturally brown so paint it black...

Story from The Japan Times, 2/17/21.

Osaka District Court ruled on Tuesday that it is legitimate for a prefecture-run high school to ask its students to dye their brown hair black under school regulations and instructions.

In a lawsuit filed by a 21-year-old woman in 2017, the court, however, ordered the Osaka Prefectural Government to pay ¥330,000 to her for failing to include her name in attendance records after she stopped going school.

The woman sought some ¥2.2 million in damages from the prefectural government, claiming that she suffered mental distress as she became a truant student after she was ordered by teachers to dye her hair black. The school regulations ban brown hair.

“The school regulations are reasonable in light of conventional wisdom, and hair color instructions are based on a legitimate purpose under the school education act,” presiding Judge Noriko Yokota said.

Yokota also rejected the woman’s claim that her natural hair color is brown.

On the school failing to include her name in the attendance records when she advanced to the third year and not assigning her a seat in a classroom, the judge said that the school’s decision was extremely inappropriate, and that the school abused its discretionary power.

According to the ruling, the woman entered Osaka Prefecture Kaifukan Senior High School in Habikino in April 2015.

After she was repeatedly instructed to dye her brown hair black for violating the school regulations, she stopped attending the school in September 2016 when she was a second-year student.

The lawyer for the woman said at a news conference that the ruling is regrettable, adding that the court decision that her natural hair color is black is an unjustifiable factual error.

An official of the prefectural bureau of education said its position on school regulations and instructions was accepted. Regarding the school’s failure to include the woman’s name in the student list, the official said the bureau will work to prevent a recurrence.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/02/17/national/crime-legal/osaka-dye-hair-black/

Jalan Jalan (97): Footloose