This is part 2 of the two-parted furusato article. In this part, I go into detail about the furusato concept within the frame of the so-called Japanese discourses and a certain aspect stands out intensely concerning the latter.
Another representative example for a furusato landscape: Oginoshima (荻ノ島) |
In the first part, I referred to the definition of the term furusato; explained what is it about (or rather, what are the furusato concept's motives and purposes) and moreover, illustrated to which extent it has found his way to the Japanese popular culture.
So, if you didn't read part 1 yet, here you can reach it:
So, here we go to part 2: furusato in context with the Japanese discourses :
At first, what's the deal with the Japanese discourses?
The term Nihonjinron (日本人論) means Japanese theories or rather Japanese discourses. They have their roots in the Kokugaku (国学, literally meaning: national study) during the Edo period (1603-1868) and occurred rudimentary in the Meiji period (1868-1912) too; but the term Nihonjinron itself hasn't been established until the post-war era.
After the defeat in the Second World War, Japan was in a search-of-identity-related process. With that said, the Japanese theories' purpose was to work out the "uniqueness" of Japan in order to dissociate itself from the Western world.
In the following, I'm showing you a short historical overview concerning the said approach:
- 1867-87 (1945-60): Japan's unique feature is based on the simple values and institutions not being located in the "rational" Western world
- 1887-1905 (1960-1970): The unique feature of Japan doesn't seem being reflected in the previous values and institutions. They may seem to be anachronistic but they represents certain values not to be sacrificed but to be converted
- 1906-1911 (partly until 1945) (1970-?): Japan's uniqueness is considered a league by itself as well as an exemplaric model for the external world.
- --> This chronicle was extracted from: Table 16: Progress Towards Cultural Autonomy (cf. Dale, Peter N.: The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, S. 213)
Here is a little excursus: According to the anthropologist Marylin Ivy (who as a bachelor in East Asia Studies too), Japan was considered as omnipresent, nomadic and transnational while it aspired to work out distinctions from the "West". Additionally, she refers to the kinda ambivalent procedure in said discourses because the Japanese people couldn't renounced from the globalization related benefits accompanied with the modernization.
Anyways, the climax of the Nihonjinron was during the period from 1960s to 1980s, i.e. during the period of the economical super growth.
It doesn't open to me in which extent this book is supposed to create a value for the scholars of the Japanese studies |
Even within the post-war literature of the West, you can find Japanese related theories whereby the book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword - Patterns of Japanese Culture 1946 from the US-American anthropologist Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) launched in 1946 and being considered as the best example - regardless the fact that she was never in Japan all her life, thus the entire book's content is based on interviews with Japanese people.
Furthermore, within the Nihonjinron related argumentation, you can always find two sorts of aspects: On the one hand, psychological aspects (e.g. a different kind of parenting) and on the other hand, physiological aspects (e.g. a different brain).
Moreover, it is consistently referred to the group orientation and the relationship with nature of "the Japanese" either.
But critical points considering the Nihonjinron are, for instance, that the Japanese people are displayed as a homogenous nation without any differences; the Japanese uniqueness was justified by the "Japanese race" and that the Japanese people's particularity was manifested in the ahistoricity (i.e. a unalterable constant through all historic periods).
But what's the meaning of the Nihonjinron as contextualization of furusato?
Nevertheless, in terms of the relationship with nature (or rather, the harmony with the nature) of "the Japanese", in context with furusato, the interesting point is: Even urban people who ain't no familial affiliation to the rural lifestyle feel connected with the nature. As already mentions, it's a reflection of the nostalgic aspiring for nostalgic experience. During the post-war era, more and more Japanese people desired for a rural life and wanted move away from the urban areas.
Why Taki doesn't get a job although his concepts have indeed the potential to create value for Japan as entire country?! |
At the end of the movie, Your Name. Taki Tachibana has become an architect by that time but with the status as a job hunting person. In all of this job interviews, he introduces his concept how to build new houses in rural areas and how to settle people on said areas. However, he is rejected but in spite of that, it reflects the ideas occured in the real life: Various furusato concepts having been brought into being through the centuries with the purpose of making the rural life more attractive.
Conclusion: No matter if urban life or rural life, it's not about the question is not where the meadow is greener (figuratively, notabene) but the question is if you have the right attitude. There are pros and cons either way but elaborating to this would go beyond the constraints of this article. Furthermore, many green areas near the residential districts are located in Japan's urban regions either. For instance, the Yoyogi park in Tokyo or the park near the Osaka castle.
All in all, I've shown, by the correlation with the Japanese people's discourses, either that furusato should be considered as invented tradition.
In terms of Nihonjinron itself, it's honestly very far-fetched, too generalizing and moreover, concomitant with the abnegation of the Japanese history.
Hereof, as a little bonus, I also wanna refer to an interesting video concerning the Japanese discourses from the German YouTuber Kevin Capito (aka NihonGO) who produces magnificent videos everything about Japan and who brings truly a surplus value for the academic subject Japanese studies:
Nihonjinron - Theorie über die Japaner 【Japanische Kultur】 (German Video)
Here is another video about the Japanese people's true origin, also launched by the German YouTuber NihonGO:
Der Ursprung der Japaner 【Japanische Geschichte】 (German Video)
Now, I ask you: Do you prefer the urban life or the rural life? Do you consider the furusato concept a master plan for the revitalization of the rural life in general? And do you also have topic suggestions for the rubric "Culture Studies"? Don't hesitate writing it in the comment section below.
PS: Here you can go to my other articles of the rubric "Culture Studies":
PPS: The bibliographic information of the movies I've elaborated in part 1:
※Miyazaki, Hayao (1988): My Neighbor Totoro. Studio Ghibli.
※Shinkai, Makoto (2016): Your Name. Toho Co., Ltd. CoMix Wave Films.
※Takahata, Isao (1991): Only Yesterday. Studio Ghibli.
And once again, the further literature for checking out:
※Dale, Peter N. (1986): The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness. University of Oxford: Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies.
※Hecht, Roger W. (2015): Only Yesterday- Ecological and Psychological Recovery. University of Nebraska
※Ivy, Marilyn (1995): Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan. University of Chicago Press.
※Middeleer, Sawyer (2016): I Want to Go Far Away: Discover Japan and Japanese Identity Tourism in the 1970s. In: Studies in Asia, Series V, Vol. 1, No. 1.
※Robertson, Jennifer (1988): Furusato Japan: The Culture and Politics of Nostalgia. In: International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.
※Robertson, Jennifer (1995): Hegemonic Nostalgia, Tourism and Nation-Making in Japan. University of Michigan.
※Thelen, Timo (2016): Disaster and Salvation in the Japanese Periphery – ‘The Rural’ in Shinkai Makoto’s Kimi no na wa (Your Name). Kanazawa.
※Thelen, Timo (2019): Longing for the “Absolute Satoyama” – Reconsidering Nostalgia and Environmentalism in My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro). In: Lewerich, L.; Sieland, T. und Thelen, Timo (Hrsg.): Land, Natur, Nation. Japans Regionen zwischen Idylle, Verfall und Revitalisierung. Düsseldorf: Dusseldorf University Press.