ASIAN STUDIES
NEW INSIGHTS INTO JAPANESE SOCIETY
Volume III (XIX), Issue 1 Ljubljana, June 2015
ASIAN STUDIES, Volume III (XIX), Issue 1, Ljubljana, June 2015
Editor-in-chief: Jana S. Rošker
Guest editor: Nataša Visočnik
Assistant and managing editor: Nataša Visočnik
Proof reader: Chikako Shigemori Bučar
Editorial Board: Ivana Buljan, Bart Dessein, Tamara Ditrich, Shaun Richard O'Dwyer, Raoul David Findeisen, Mark James Hudson, Ana Jelnikar, Mislav Ježic, Jeff Kingston, Mingchang Lin, Beatrix Mecsi, Tamae K. Prindle, Jana S. Rošker, Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik, Nataša Visočnik, Mitja Saje, Geir Sigur5sson, Yuriko Sunakawa, Andrej Ule, Zouli Wang
All articles are double blind peer-reviewed.
The journal is accessable online in the Open Journal System data base: http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as.
© University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, 2015. All rights reserved.
Published by: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani/Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
For: Oddelek za azijske študije/Department of Asian Studies
For the publisher: Branka Kalenic Ramšak, Dean of Faculty of Arts
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NEW insights into Japanese society/[guest editor Nataša Visočnik]. - 1st ed. - Ljubljana : Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete = University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2015. - (Asian studies, ISSN 22325131 ; vol. 3 (19), issue 1)
ISBN 978-961-237-756-4 1. Visočnik, Nataša 280361472
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Nataša VISOČNIK
New Insights into Japanese Society.........................................................................1-5
Researches in Arts and Popular Culture Raluca NICOLAE
Shaping Darkness in hyakkiyagyo emaki..............................................................9-27
Tamae K. PRINDLE
Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain (1998) as an Expository Anime..................................................................................................29-52
Violetta BRAZHNIKOVA TSYBIZOVA
A Male Transformation into a Female Character on the Noh Stage...............53-81
Stephen Robert NAGY
Japanese Martial Arts as Popular Culture: Teaching Opportunity
and Challenge......................................................................................................83-102
Discourses in Philosophical and Religious Studies HASHI Hisaki
Phenomenon of Life and Death by Dogen and Heidegger—In View of "Embodied Cognition" in Buddhist Philosophy and Phenomenology.........105-128
Kristyna VOJTlŠKOVA
The Crisis of Japanese Identity in the 21st Century and Watsuji
Tetsuro's Ethics.................................................................................................129-144
Iva LAKIC PARAC
Social Context of the fujo: Shamanism in Japan through a Female Perspective.........................................................................................................145-170
The World of Japanese Literature W^Ž/MORITOKI ŠKOF Nagisa ^M^SGft^^M^^tt^^T/Prologue to Takahashi Mutsuo's Lecture..............................................................................................173-175
^1^/TAKAHASHI Mutsuo
inBt^-3 • 11 ^^©^^/Tradition and Now—Poetry after 3/11.........177-184
iii
PW^ft^/YAMASAKI Kayoko
^M^^M/The World of Takahashi Mutsuo.......................................185-199
tg^M^/FUKUMA Kenji
0^.«W^«#^/Literature of the "dankai" Generation..........................201-221
Asian Studies in Slovenia Luka CULIBERG
Japonski jezik med nacijo in imperijem: Tokieda Motoki in aporija nacionalnega jezika...........................................................................................225-240
Klemen SENICA
Imperialna nostalgija na Japonskem: politična instrumentalizacija šintoističnega svetišča Yasukuni......................................................................241-262
Saša ISTENIČ
Poročanje o sporu glede otočja Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku v izbranih slovenskih medijih.............................................................................................263-280
Book Reviews Tea SERNELJ
Jana S. ROŠKER: The Rebirth of the Moral Self-—The Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses..........................283-287
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Introduction
New Insights into Japanese Society
Nataša VISOČNIK*
The present issue of the journal Asian Studies brings us a substantial number of selected contributions focusing on Japan, which aim to uncover different aspects of Japanese society and culture. As the articles are written by experts in Japanese studies from different parts of the world, we can find research perspectives from varied traditions, which bring us diverse, comprehensive, developing, and systematic assemblage of theories and approaches to various topics.
Among a variety of topics discussed in this volume, we first look into the world of art and popular culture in Japan. Art and especially popular culture in Japan are two of the most vibrant and rapidly changing fields of Japanese cultural activities. And especially, popular culture has a large audience among the students of Japanese society. In this section, a set of four papers is designed to bring the readers various aspects of creative art forms portraying the human world from the past and then to the future.
With the first article, we go into the darkness of the night and get to know the scary creatures wandering around our world. Raluca Nicolae in her article introduces us the yokai, the numinous creatures inhabiting the other world and sometimes entering our world as well. These creatures are manifestations of people's feeling of fear and thus are portrayed in text and image. The author presents the specific type of emaki, called hyakki yagyo, where a large variety of yokai and oni come together and wander around in the night. With the second article, we move into the contemporary world of images, anime, which is also one of the most creative forms of the 21st century. Tamae Prindle with her article on Nakamura Ryutaro's anime provides us an interesting study of so called "expository anime", which explains the diachronic story out of a synchronic aspect of a certain field of science. Anime Serial Experiments, Lain unfolds the rationales, potentials, and effects of two types of communication systems using the
* Nataša VISOČNIK, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. natasa. visocnik@guest.arnes.si
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Natasa VISOCNIK: Introduction
perceptions of the major character, a thirteen-year old girl, Rein, as well as other supporting characters. The science in it does not just punctuate a diachronic narrative; rather, it sets the major and minor plots in motion. Experiments is essentially a synchronic exposé of the digital mechanism and its impact on humans.
With the next two articles we move into the sphere of the body and its transformation and self-cultivation in the Japanese society. The first article by Violetta Brazhnikova Tsybizova explains the process of impersonating feminine roles by masculine performers, and therefore creating the masculine femininity transmitting the spirit and the state of mind in place of ordinary copies of external femininity signs. This is the basis of the actor's interpretation in the Noh theatre, similar in the case of both male and female roles. Japanese martial arts or budo, discussed by Stephen Robert Nagy in the next contribution, are very popular icons found in films, comics, video games and books. In the article, the author deals with the way of teaching Japanese budo at university level and thus questions himself about the approach to this topic. From the personal experience of teaching in a university level course about budo tradition, he tries to answer many challenges he faces during the process of teaching.
The second section brings forth some insights of philosophical and religious researchers in Japan, which are under research topics in Slovenia. Thus these articles are of great value, especially for the readers of Asian Studies in Slovenia.
First two articles deal with the philosophical discourses of ethics and phenomenon of life and death. Hashi Hisaki's article about the former topic is a discussion about principles of essential being from a comparative perspective and explores the views of two philosophers, Dogen of Japan and Martin Heidegger of Germany. Both deal with the existence of human beings and thus the goal of this comparison is to fundamentally grasp the essentiality of being, life, and recognition (jikaku S^), bound to embodied cognition in our globalized world. The second article from this part discusses the problems Japan is facing in contemporary world. Kristyna Vojtiskovâ focuses on a phenomenon that some may consider as a crisis of values. However, the article does not deal with the value system nor search for causes for the contemporaneous crisis of values in Japanese society. Rather she works on the assumption that the value crisis is present in the contemporary Japanese society and focuses on an ethical aspect of this crisis, which is the relationship between the individual and the society, the
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
major pillar of Watsuji Tetsuro's thought, which the author considers particularly topical here.
The last article in this section by Iva Lakic Parac deals with the phenomenon of shamanism in Japan with an emphasis on the female role. From the historical perspective and the notion that the women have dealt with shamanistic practices in Japan since ancient times, she tries to answer two questions. First, was the shamanism a tool that women used in order to have a small part of their authority and power acknowledged? And second, have women managed to influence their marginal position in society and in what way? Thus this study brings us a research of the shamanism from a female perspective that shows the position of the women in the rigid patriarchal social milieu.
The topic of next section is Japanese literature and it is especially dedicated to the poet, essayist and writer Takahashi Mutsuo (born in 1937, Fukuoka, Japan). He represents the world of contemporary Japanese poetry and has published more than a hundred books so far, including his anthology of poems Bara no ki, nise no koibitotachi (W^®^' t^^^^ARose Tree, False Lovers) which drew the national attention in 1964. He is a rare literary person who creates by transcending the boundaries of literary genres—i.e. new poetry, tanka, haiku, essay, and even opera and no play. Takahashi also has a profound knowledge of literature in all times and lands. His wide and original perspective provides us a fresh view different from those researchers or critics of literature. He has received a number of important literary prizes in Japan and his poems and other works have been translated into many languages. He frequently gives reading recitals around the world.
The section begins with Takahashi Mutsuo's lecture that was performed at March 27, 2014 on the Faculty of Arts, organised by the Department of Asian Studies. Our colleague Moritoki Skof Nagisa, who also helped editing this section, offers a prologue on his lecture to the poems created after the great earthquake in Tohoku of 2011, which open up new topics such as ecological catastrophes caused by nuclear energy, loss of the meaning of words in the contemporary era in which information is exchanged at a lightning speed.
The following article by Yamasaki Kayoko gives us a deeper view in the world of previously mentioned poet Takahashi Mustuo. The author particularly focuses on analysing the tree motif in his poems, from the early stages to the present day. The collection of poetry inspired by the poet's childhood, full of
3
Nataša VISOČNIK: Introduction
tragic events such as his father's premature death and his mother's abandonment of him, is interwoven by autobiographical and mythological elements in a ringlike structure. However, after the year 2000 a new creative phase in his work ensues: the poet deals with the problems facing our world such as ecological issues, disintegration of the family, terrorism, etc.
Fukuma Kenji, the author of the next contribution on Japanese literature, deals the so called dankai generation, a generation born during Japan's post-war baby boom. As consumers of culture in a society which was becoming richer, they experienced a "hot season" around 1970. Sato Yasushi's Jazzmen in Street Fighting and Sasaki Mikiro's Whip of the Dead are two pioneer works born in an undulation of political movement in the late 60s. At a certain point in the 1970s the whole scene changed. People entered a state of strange happiness with problems unsolved.
In the section "Asian Studies in Slovenia" we have three articles written in Slovene by three young Slovene researches. The section begins with Luka Culiberg's research about the Japanese national language and the modern structural linguistic's approach to understanding the language in the social contects. He focuses on the ideological overview of linguistic deliberations of Tokieda Motoki (H^ftMfB 1900-1967), who attempted to justify the colonial language policy of Japanese Empire in Taiwan and Korea. The second article by Klemen Senica exposes one of the most controversial issues in Japan's foreign relations with its neighbouring countries, particularly China and South Korea. The topic discussed is the Yasukuni Shrine and the practice of politicians, especially prime ministers, going to the shrine and paying respect to the soldiers who died for the "Japanese cause". The author looks into this topic in a broader context of imperialist nostalgia, the wave of which has been coming over Japan since the turn of the 21st century. The third article in this section is written by Saša Istenič, a Taiwan specialist, who analyzes Slovene media coverage of the dispute between Japan, China and Taiwan over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands, one of the most serious maritime territorial disputes in East Asia. The news stories on the dispute are researched by applying a combined quantitative and qualitative content analysis.
Though the authors of the present collection often hold very divergent views regarding many aspects of Japanese culture, they all share a complex intellectual culture which enables them to explore the Japanese society, bringing some new
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
insights into research. We hope that the collection before you will contribute to a deeper understanding of old and new, traditional and contemporary issues related to Japan. It is our hope that this collection would induce future investigations, point to new aspects and questions, and open new horizons for the appreciation of diversity and variety of Japanese society.
I wish all readers an enjoyable reading.
Nataša Visočnik, Guest Editor
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Researches in Arts and Popular Culture
Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
Shaping Darkness in hyakki yagyo emaki
Raluca NICOLAE*
Abstract
In Japanese culture, the yokai, the numinous creatures inhabiting the other world and, sometimes, the boundary between our world and the other, are obvious manifestations of the feeling of fear, "translated" into text and image. Among the numerous emaki in which the yokai appear, there is a specific type, called hyakki yagyo (the night parade of one hundred demons), where all sorts and sizes of monsters flock together to enjoy themselves at night, but, in the end, are scattered away by the first beams of light or by the mysterious darani no hi, the fire produced by a powerful magical invocation, used in the Buddhist sect Shingon. The nexus of this emakimono is their great number, hyakki, (one hundred demons being a generic term which encompasses a large variety of yokai and oni) as well as the night—the very time when darkness becomes flesh and blood and starts marching on the streets.
Keywords: yokai, night, parade, painted scrolls, fear Izvleček
Yokai (prikazni, demoni) so v japonski kulturi nadnaravna bitja, ki naseljuje drug svet in včasih tudi mejo med našim in drugim svetom ter so očitno manifestacija občutka strahu "prevedena" v besedila in podobe. Med številnimi slikami na zvitkih (emaki), kjer se prikazni pojavljajo, obstaja poseben tip, ki se imenuje hyakki yagyo (nočna parade stotih demonov), kjer se zberejo pošasti različne vrste in velikosti, da bi uživali v noči, vendar jih na koncu preženejo prvi žarki svetlobe ali skrivnosten darani no hi, ogenj, ki se pojavi z močnim magičnim zaklinjanje in se uporablja pri budistični sekti Shingon. Skupna vez na teh slikah na zvitkih je številčnost hyakki, (sto demonov, generičen termin, ki označuje veliko različnih prikazni in demonov), kot tudi noč - vsakič, ko tema postane meso in kri in začne korakati po ulicah.
Ključne besede: yokai, noč, parada, poslikani zvitki, strah
* Raluca NICOLAE, Associate professor, Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication, Bucharest University of Economic Studies. ralun111@yahoo.com
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Raluca NICOLAE: Shaping Darkness in hyakki yagyo emaki
Liminality and the Birth of hyakki yagyo
Human experience has always set an invisible boundary between familiar and unfamiliar space, between known and unknown. The existence of this liminal space has undoubtedly shaped our sense of reality, and, as a result, people have tried to fill in the blanks and picture the other world by means of their imagination: a realm inhabited by completely different creatures which bear only a slight remembrance of the human world (Komatsu 2003, 7). The average man can only reach the boundary between the two worlds, but a person invested with special powers is able to go beyond it. Consequently, the stories about the other world are actually tales about the liminal space between the two worlds. For instance, demons (oni A) would appear in the mountains or by the gates or bridges because such places have turned out to be portals to the other world. Moreover, the other world does not necessarily points to a certain space, but it also refers to a peculiar time. The roads on which people go back and forth in daylight can easily change into travel routes for supernatural monsters at night (Komatsu 2003, 14-15).
One of the most notable examples in this respect is hyakki yagyo HA^ÍT (the night parade of one hundred demons). The notion of hyakki yagyo (alternatively pronounced hyakki yako) provides a metaphor that transcends historical contexts and serves as a useful point of view through which to interpret many discourses (Foster 2009, 8). The idiom usually indicates a procession of numerous demons and yokai1 who flood the town streets at midnight. The term also refers to the painted scrolls (emakimono Ik^^) which depict such a nocturnal parade. It was advisable to avoid venturing out on evenings when the hyakki yagyo was known to be on the move. Such times and places represent danger: they were forbidden, unpredictable, beyond the control of human culture (Foster 2009, 9). The Rekirin mondoshü	(Collection of Discussions of
the Forest Almanac), composed by the historian Kamo Arikata (?-1444), advises people against leaving their homes between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Arikata also identifies the nights when the hyakki yagyo are likely to go out: the nights that follow the days of the first, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and eleventh
1 Yokai is often translated in English as monster, spirit, goblin, ghost, demon, phantom, specter, fantastic being, lower-order deity, or more amorphously, as any unexplainable experience or numinous occurrence. The term yokai is more like a contemporary choice; other words are also invoked such as bakemono -f^it^ (changing thing), the more childish obake fcft't, and the more academic-sounding kaii gensho	(strange phenomena). (cf. Foster 2009, 5)
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
zodiac signs. Besides washing one's hair or cutting one's nails at the wrong time on the wrong day, venturing out at certain moments of night was a common interdiction among the numerous taboos observed in ancient Japan (Lillehoj 1995, 16).
Hyakkiyagyo in Literature
The Okagami ^^ (The Great Mirror), a fictionalized history from late 11th or early 12th century, refers to an episode in which Fujiwara Morosuke2 (908-960) came across a parade of demons while traveling through Kyoto one night in his ox-drawn carriage:
I have not heard what the month was, but he lowered his carriage blinds late one night near the Nijo intersection, while he was traveling south from the Palace along Omiya Avenue. "Unyoke the ox and get the shafts down. Get the shafts down", he shouted. The puzzled attendants lowered the shafts, and the escorts and outriders came up to investigate. Morosuke lowered his inner blinds with meticulous care and prostrated himself, baton in hand, as though paying someone every possible mark of respect. "Don't put the carriage on the stand", he said. "You escorts stand to the left and right of the shafts, as close to the yoke as you can, and make your warnings loud. You attendants keep shouting too. Outriders, stay close to the carriage." He began a fervent recitation of the Sonsho Dharani. The ox had been led out of sight behind the carriage. After about an hour Morosuke raised the blinds. "Hitch up now and go on", he said. His attendants were completely at sea. I suppose he kept quiet about this incident until much later, and then spoke of it only in confidence to close friends, but a queer tale is bound to get out. (McCullough 1980, 136)
The Sonsho Darani	(San. U§ni§a Vijaya Dharani) is an incantation
praising the protective powers of the deity Butcho Sonsho {AM^^ (San. Vikirna-u§ni§a), revered as a manifestation of one of the five aspects of the Buddha's wisdom. In Japan and China, the recitation of this dharani was considered effective in warding off evil. The magic of the Sonsho Darani is narrated in a setsuwa ^ s^ from the Konjaku monogatarishu ^ ^^bh H (Collection of Tales of Times Now Past), early 12th century, according to which a young courtier named Mitsuyuki witnessed a procession of demons one night at the Shinsen-en, a large garden in Kyoto. Fortunately, Mitsuyuki's nurse had sewn a copy of the Sonsho Darani into the collar of his robe, and this saved him from the malevolent power of the nocturnal spirits (Lillehoj 1995, 16-18).
2 Minister of the Right under Emperor Murakami
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Raluca NICOLAE: Shaping Darkness in hyakki yagyo emaki
Coined at the end of Heian and the beginning of Kamakura period, the word hyakki yagyo also appeared in the setsuwa collections Uji Shui Monogatari ^m^nn (Collection of Tales from Uji), early 13th century, Kohon Setsuwashu ^ ^¡^sS^ (A Collection of Old Tales) in which demons and monsters emerge one by one in front of the travelers who dare stay overnight in a deserted temple or mansion (Komatsu 2009, 9). In Uji Shui Monogatari the oni do not come forth in the town or in the deserted temples, but gather in the mountains and partake in a banquet, as in the famous fairytale Kobu-tori oni tachi (The Demons Who Removed the Old Man's Lump) (Ikeda 1971, 503A). In the account from Uji Shui Monogatari, a monk is travelling alone through the province of Settsu (near the present-day Osaka) and he comes upon a deserted temple. He decides to stop there overnight and starts chanting an incantation to the deity Fudo. But all of a sudden, a crowd of one hundred people with torches in hands appears out of thin air, marching into the temple. When they get closer, the monk realizes that they are not actually humans, but very weird creatures, some with only one eye, or some with horns. The monk is terrified and he spends the whole night praying to Fudo to protect him. At sunrise, when the group of oni leaves, he is shocked to discover that actually the place he stopped overnight was not a temple at all. He can hardly find his way back, but, eventually, meets some travellers who inform him that he is in the province of Hizen (an area corresponding roughly to Saga and Nagasaki prefectures), miles away from Settsu (Foster 2015, 16).
According to the above examples, we can identify three types of plots within the hyakki yagyo series: the type of the nocturnal march across the streets of the capital (miyako oji koshin-gata ^^^Mt^M), the haunted house type (bake yashiki-gata fa i f^M M. M) and the type of the demonic egression in the mountains (sanchu shutsubotsu-gata PU^ffii^M) (Komatsu 2009, 13). The otogi zoshi WiM^^ (companion tales) of the Muromachi period conjured up other hyakki yagyo episodes. In the same period, about 60-70 kinds of emaki and e-hon Ik^ (illustrated books) translated into image this anthropomorphic invasion of yokai (Tokuda 2009, 29).
Multiplicity and Mutability in hyakki
The term hyakki HA, literally meaning one hundred demons, does not necessarily encompass a clear-cut number (one hundred), but it refers to a multitude of oni and ill-shaped beings called bakemono (shape shifters), including yokai (Komatsu
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2010, 8). The traditional image of a Japanese oni is that of a creature with horns, bulging muscles, skin tinted in red, blue or even green, wearing tiger-skin loincloths and carrying an iron club. The oni taking part in the hyakki yagyo in the setsuwa collections are portrayed as: beings with three hands and one foot or with one eye; fierce beast-like creatures with horse/bull/bird/deer heads; demons with two long growing horns from their heads, dancing on one leg; naked creatures of eight shaku3 high with the skin so black that it seemed coated with lacquer (Komatsu 2009, 9). In the 14th century emaki, Oeyama e-kotoba (Picture scroll of Mt. Oe)—Itsuo Museum of Art in Osaka—, the head of the terrifying oni, Shutendoji4, is being carried by several warriors.
The enormous head has, obviously, horns, many eyes and a toothy grimace that stretches from ear to ear. While the shape-shifting powers of the oni made it possible for them to take on human form, their gruesome appearance would reflect their evil dispositions, including their penchant for human flesh. (Reider 2003, 133)
Nevertheless, the word hyakki does not only refer to demons, but also applies to yokai. Oni and yokai do share certain similarities, but they are different creatures. All oni bring to life the negative human emotions such as envy, jealousy and hate and are able to materialize the strange phenomena that could be neither seen nor described by the human beings. In other words, they give substance to human anxiety. They are supposed to look frightening or aggressive (with horns, claws and fangs) because they are the very embodiments of man's worse fears. Such creatures have crystallized the negative aspects of the shadows and death, while their diversity, typology and the manner in which people perceived them showed meaningful insights into the human history, as well as into the Japanese imagination and creativity (Komatsu 2008, 125-26). Buddhist eschatology never fails to show us the image of hell (rokudo-e 7\MIk), inhabited by hordes of
3	Eight feet (about 243.84 cm)
4	Shutendoji, the chief of a band of oni, lives on Mt. Oe, abducting people, particularly maidens, enslaving them and eventually feasting on their flesh and drinking their blood. The concerned Emperor Ichijo orders the warrior hero Minamoto no Raiko and his men to stop the abductions by vanquishing Shutendoji and his followers. When he receives the imperial order, Raiko is a little alarmed because oni are known as powerful transformers who can turn into any being or thing. But the warriors disguise themselves as yamabushi (mountain ascetics) and, with some divine help, they find the oni's Iron Palace where through guile, deception, and with some divine help, they eliminate Shutendoji and his oni band. (cf. Reider 2003, 139-40)
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Raluca NICOLAE: Shaping Darkness in hyakki yagyo emaki
demons who induce even more terror and dread to the sinners5. According to Anesaki, the Japanese oni "belongs to a purely Buddhist mythology" (Anesaki et al. 1928, 283). However, oni was also the term used in onmyodo	(the way
of yin and yang) to describe any evil spirits that harm humans. In early Onmyodo doctrine, the word oni referred specifically to the invisible evil spirits that caused human infirmity (Komatsu 1999, 3). Ancient Japanese literature has assigned a number of different Chinese characters to express the term oni. Among them, the character used now is M, which in Chinese means invisible soul/spirit, both ancestral and evil, of the dead. According to the Wamyo ruijusho (Japanese names—for things—classified and annotated) (ca. 930s), a primitive Japanese encyclopedia, oni is explained as something that is hiding behind things, not wishing to appear. It is a soul/spirit of the dead (Reider 2003, 134-35). Moreover, Yutaka Tsuchihashi assumes that the word oni came from the pronunciation of on © (to hide) plus "i" (Reider 2010, 5).
On the other hand, yokai were, in the first place, called obake and they referred to tools, objects or animals animated by a spirit. As both oni and yokai lurked in the darkness, at first glance they were easily mistaken for one another and the painted scrolls depicting the yokai (yokai emaki) were commonly known as hyakki yagyo emaki6, although, in some cases, no demons appeared in the scrolls (Tokuda 2009, 26-27). From the Kamakura period onward, a prevalent concept was that of
5	The Jigoku zoshi i^M^lft (Hell scroll) and Gaki soshi	(Scrolls of the Hungry Ghosts) produced at the end of the Heian period under the influence of Buddhist thought and the belief in rokudo articulated people's fascination with the unknown and out of ordinary things as unique ways of perceiving fear. To put it simply, these paintings were guided tours of hell. In the 12th and 13th century Japanese stopped fearing hell and rokudo-e. Creatures like the ox-headed gozu or the horse-headed mezu S®, the demons that guarded the entrance to the afterlife, became mere literary characters that gave testimony for the general preference for setsuwa. Across the ages, the numinous fear was sublimated into earthly laughter and the emakimono started to be painted as a means of entertainment (Komatsu et al. 2009, 52). In pre-modern Japan people viewed the unknown world either as terrifying or surprisingly charming (Komatsu 2009, 3), but the plot in hyakki yagyo became redundant in the Edo period. The yokai were no longer perceived as characters in a contextualized story, but as wondrous "things" that are worth looking at. In the middle of the Edo period, a new field of study became prominent: the hakubutsu-gaku (lit.: museum science). This new science started to index and label almost all things in the known world, animals, plants or minerals. Illustrations were attached to the explanations to make the description true to life. A new trend started and there were even requests for paintings or drawings representing bakemono (Kagawa 2009. 45).
6	Some emaki belonging to Sufuku-ji in Gifu Prefecture (referred to as the Sufuku-ji scrolls) are thought to be the earliest surviving examples of the tsukumogami emaki genre (illustrated painted scrolls of transfigured objects), a genre that is similar to the hyakki yagyo emaki but that does not depict the tsukumogami in night parades. (cf. Lillehoj 1995, 21)
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tsukumogami	animated household objects with arms and legs. According
to Tsukumogami-ki, a Muromachi otogi zoshi, when an object reaches one hundred years, it transforms, obtaining a spirit (seirei that can deceive people's heart. The word is thought to be a play on tsukumogami, with tsukumo indicating ninety-nine and gami (kami) denoting hair; the phrase can refer to an old man's hair as an indication of old age (Foster 2009, 7). Sometimes, the tsukumogami have been placed at the crossroads between humorous and grotesque.
Taking into account the large variety of the characters in the yokai emaki— ranging from man-made objects (tsukumogami) to mammals, fish, shell fish and plants—we can pinpoint several major categories of yokai: animals (as in Choju jinbutsu giga1 or in Tawara no Todc? emaki, Konkaikomyo-ji, Kyoto); plants (the tree-like yokai painted by Kano Tan'yu in Hoshakukyo zukan9, Kyoto National Museum); objects (as in Fudo Riyaku engi emaki10, Tokyo National Museum; Tsuchigumo soshi emakin,Tokyo National Museum; Yuzu Nenbutsu engi emaki12 , The Art Institute of Chicago, first scroll/Cleveland Museum of Art, second scroll); and oni (Komatsu 2008, 166, 175-76).
The discourse of yokai is hybrid: it weaves together strands from other discourses—encyclopedic, scientific, literary, ethnographic, folkloric, visual-to create a form of its own (Foster 2009, 3).
Because history and folklore could be passed on in both written and oral form, and because people live in a multi-layered culture, the image might sometimes convey the meaning more accurately than the text13 (Komatsu 2009, 2).
7	Belonging to the Kozan temple in Kyoto, Choju-jinbutsu-giga A^A^Kffl (lit. Animal-person Caricatures; English: Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans) is a famous set of four emakimono drawn at the mid-12th century.
8	Tawara Toda	(My Lord Bag of Rice/Rice-bag Toda) is a fairy tale about a hero who kills the giant centipede Seta to help a Japanese dragon princess and is then taken to the underwater dragon palace to be rewarded with rice bags.
9	Hoshakukyo zukan Sfi^H^ (IllustratedMaharatnakuja Sutra).
10	Fudo Riyaku engi emaki ^K^LlfflS®^^ (Narrative Picture Scroll of About the Priest Shoku 's Devotion to his Master Priest in a Serious Illness) (E Museum).
11	Tsuchigumo soshi emaki	This scroll chronicles the adventures of Minamoto no Raiko, ending in the slaying of the Tsuchigumo, a monstruous spider.
12	Yuzu Nenbutsu engi emaki BiS^fAS®^^ (Illustrated Scrolls of the History of Yuzu Nenbutsu).
13	When we refer to artistic works such as Choju jinbutsu giga, we tend to place more emphasis on the visual element than on the narrative, but if we underline the importance of the text, iruibutsu ^
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Yokaika—Creating yokai
Along the ages, Japanese artists have tried to picture demons or other creatures dwelling in the Dragon Palace, in hell, or in the upper realm. At the beginning they imagined demons with growing horns, claws and tiger-skin loincloths, but, above all, merciless and dreadful. Secondly, they picked up a certain animal, be it fish or insect, and they altered its realistic depiction by adding human-like features. In the third place, the objects were painted in motion (walking, talking, dancing), as transfigured objects. The specters of the other world were regarded with a considerable amount of fear, therefore, the paintings deliberately boosted the violent aspect of yokai.
One of the visual means to stimulate fear was to paint the monster as big as possible, especially in contrast with humans (exaggerating its size and dimensions). The menacing figure would loom on helpless, tiny human beings threatening their life with its dark presence. Moreover, the notion of mutability provides an important key to the ontology of the mysterious (Foster 2009, 6). Hybridization is another method employed to wipe out the distinction(s) between species and to cause uncertainty, insecurity and anguish. For instance, by painting two eyes, a nose and a mouth on a tsunodarai ^fcbV^14 whose shape resembles a human head, the artist conjured a yokai that is both human and object or, to be more specific, that is neither human, nor tsunodarai. Or, by drawing men's heads and putting them in a tree, the humans and the fruit fuse together into the uncanny anatomy of jinmenju Affi^. This operation is called yokaika	the
transformation into yokai (Wakasugi 2009, 18-19), by means of which the traditional rules of Arithmetic and Biology are partially or totally abolished: two eyes become one, three or even multiple eyes; the head is placed on the torso or the eyes are relocated on the palm of the hand. Besides hybridization and hyperbolization, yokaika can be achieved by many other ingenious strategies such as increasing or decreasing the number of the body parts; the standard Mathematics plays tricks on the onlooker by multiplying or reducing the number of body parts. A suggestive example could be Hitotsume kozo ^o g /J^—a yokai with the appearance of a child with only one eye in the middle of the forehead, dressed in Buddhist garments. Another effective method is that of
—types of otogi zoshi depicting strange beings or phantasms—are more relevant in this respect (cf. Komatsu 2008, 234-35).
14 A two-handled keg for water
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wiping off certain body parts: the yokai Do no tsura fflffi underwent such a "operation" only to become a headless creature with the nose, eyes and mouth located on the torso. Yokaika can also reshuffle certain body parts, placing them in the most unexpected places of abnormality. As the name suggests, the yokai Tenome	, has his eyes on the palm of his hand in an original attempt to
reverse the two perceptions (sight and touch). The artist's skill can create many other yokai-like shapes by putting grotesque emphasis on certain body parts. The oni in rokudo-e have bulgy muscles or the neck of Rokurokubi	stretches
uncontrollably during sleep. There are some animals, like the cats or the dogs that walk freely on their four paws, but a biped position will push them closer to the human beings. The cat Nekomata	is famous for its biped position as
well as for its spirit that may haunt humans with visitations from their dead relatives. Needless to say, animals can easily turn into yokai if they are dressed in human-like clothes and walk on two legs. The same holds true in the case of plants (trees), which fundamentally cannot move, but, by means of yokaika, are endowed with legs to roam from one place to another (Komatsu 2008, 194-95) (as Tolkien's famous ents—middle-earth plants). Actually, the yokai in the hyakki yagyo emaki are pictured as having animal-like characteristics (dobutsuka) or demon-like features (onika) rather than being personified (Komatsu 2008, 1998).
The representations of yokai have numerous other examples in literature as well as in fine arts. Such works were indexed into three major types: the other world type (ikai emaki taipu	7°) such as Urashima Myojin emaki
ffi^l^WfiS (The Tale of Urashima) or Amewakahiko zoshi ^MBM-^16 (The Companion Tale of Amewakahiko); haunted house type17 (obake yashiki taipu) such as Tsuchigumo soshi zht^^^^ft (Picture Scroll of an Earth Spider) and one hundred demon parade type (hyakki yagyo taipu). Above all, Choju jinbutsu giga had, obviously, a major influence on hyakki yagyo emaki since the two emaki caricatured the human life style, the everyday tools, the human garments and speech (Komatsu et al. 2009, 54).
15	A type of female-yokai whose neck might stretch or even come off and fly around during sleep.
16	According to Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Amewakahiko was first sent from the Plain of High Heaven to the residence of the earth kami Okuninushi, to pacify the Central Land of Reed Plains and engage in negotiations for its transfer to the Heavenly Grandchild.
17	The obake yashiki	(haunted houses) were once places inhabited by humans and then abandoned. After that, they no longer belonged to civilization and the human realm, becoming the dwellings of yokai and oni.
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Procession and the Night (yagyo)
The procession theme is not singular in the Japanese fine arts and originated in a 12th century illustrated record of the Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192) travelling from one place to another, but maybe the most famous procession examples are Nenju gyoji emaki ^^T^Ik^ (Scroll of the Rituals in Daily Life) and Ban Dainagon ekotoba f^^l^Wls!^ (The Tale of Great Minister Ban). The image of the procession was either part of an illustrated story (monogatari-e ^nn' Ik) or an independent representation of a festival parade. In the 14th century, the image of the procession (gyoretsu-zu tT^'J®) became a well-known motif in painted scrolls, thus hyakki yagyo emaki followed the general trend of picturing such processions (Wakasugi 2009, 22-23). At the beginning, the procession had aristocratic overtones, but later on, in the Muromachi and the Momoyama periods, common people were able to take part in many festivals and to enjoy the flamboyant parades.
Text and Image—a Fading "Matrimony"
Gradually, the story behind the image became so shallow that it almost faded away, since the artist's major concern was to depict as many yokai and oni as possible in a colourful display of shapes, forms, ages and moods. The hyakki yagyo in Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library [Spencer #112] is one of the rare scrolls that still have written explanations (kotoba-gaki accompanying the drawings. The emaki opens with forty-four lines telling of a man besieged one night by a horde of demons in a deserted house east of Sujaku Avenue, south of the Central Gate in Kyoto. The house belonged to a chunagon ^IftW 18 who had abandoned it when the capital was moved to Fukuhara in the summer of 1180. Before leaving, the counselor entrusted the house to the care of an old servant.
One day, a visitor arrived at the mansion. Rejoicing in his newfound company, the old caretaker sat the visitor down and began telling him stories. He continued into the early hours of the morning. As the night deepened the old man dozed off, and at the hour of the ox [2:00 a.m.] the visitor began to sense a strange presence at the center of the house. Then, from outside, a weird creature called out in an eerie voice, "Excuse me!" "Who's there?" came the answer, and from the back of the house emerged the frightening sound of footsteps, the likes of which the visitor had never heard before. Terrifying
18 Middle counselor
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forms appeared. There were the beings who had been making the strange sounds. The creature who had called out explained, "I was living in the Omiyadono of Konoe Kawara, but with the recent move of the capital I lost my home. I wanted to find another place to live. That's why I came here." Immediately an unearthly voice answered, saying, "Welcome!" and the creatures all rolled about in delight. One had the appearance of a man, while the others had assumed all sorts of frightening forms. In fact, they were so terrifying that they took the visitor's breath away. Following the first segment of text is a painted scene of the chunagon's estate, with a garden at right and a dilapidated mansion at left. The artist has rendered the structure with tattered bamboo blinds and fukinuki yatai19, allowing us to see straight down into the room in which the visitor and the servant sit face to face. This inclusion of human figures and landscape details is another feature that makes the Spencer scroll unusual as a hyakki yako emaki. The calm of this first scene is shattered in the second scene by two bizarre creatures that rush across the threshold of the chunagon's home. (Lillehoj 1995, 11-13)
Later on, in the 19th century, we encounter another variation the night-procession in an emaki painted by Egawa Buson (1887-?), property of the Boone Collection of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (referred to as the Boone scroll [Boone #266010]). In this emaki, Buson transplanted the fantastic shapes of the creatures in earlier scrolls and arranged the demons in an original manner. The story is revealed exclusively through images, but the text no longer exists.
The first scene of the Boone scroll shows two demons speaking excitedly, perhaps about events taking place on the other side of a large red gate that seems to mark the edge of a deserted temple compound. Scene two has a pair of demons crouching behind a birch tree staring at a small spirit, which flies through the air toward an ox-drawn carriage at the far left. Dark mists well up around the carriage as it makes a mad dash to escape. Its attendants glance over their shoulders as though sensing the presence of demons approaching from the rear. Scene three reveals that the clumsy, ox-drawn carriage was too slow--the malignant spirits descend upon the carriage en masse. In scene four, a swirling sea of dark mists and smoke part to show demons completing their destructive spree amidst the last remnants of the carriage. Only when the fifth and final segment of the scroll is unrolled do we find ourselves face to face with the person who was riding in the carriage: an elegant gentleman sitting in a meadow surrounded by long, bending blades of grass and pale wild flowers. The gentleman seems quite calm. Eyes closed, he fingers a string of white prayer beads. As dawn breaks and the gloomy mists lift, only one pitiful demon remains. This petite female demon crouches on the ground clutching at her horns, with her long, dark tresses flowing onto the earth in front of her.
19 ^ttMn, A blown-away roof
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Far to the left, a sliver of the sun peaks out above a bed of clouds. Soft morning light warms the scene and sends the reassuring message that the world is now safe for its human inhabitants. (Lillehoj 1995, 14-16)
Two Polarities in the hyakki yagyo emaki
Historically speaking, the painted scrolls of hyakki yagyo came forth at the end of the Muromachi and the beginning of the Momoyama era, in a period when old literary productions were revived in form and style to compete with new works (Komatsu et al. 2009, 52-53). The above-mentioned Spencer scroll was particularly important because of the annotations about the uncanny invasion of the supernatural creatures into the human realm, but other hyakki yagyo versions could be found in Kyoto City University of Arts, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, Okura Shukokan Art Museum and Tokyo National Museum etc. Besides these painted scrolls, there are two hyakki yagyo emaki that actually made history in Japanese fine arts: Hyakki yagyo-zu (found in Shinju-an, temple Daitoku, Kyoto), and Hyakki no zu (property of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto). The Shinju-an emaki seems to be one of the oldest hyakki yagyo scrolls, even if it is a copy. The original probably dates back to the Muromachi period (Tokuda 2009, 27-28).
According to a legend about its origin, an itinerant priest decided to spend the night in a deserted temple near Fushimi.
Shocked to hear an unearthly din around midnight, the priest discovered a party of demons and ghosts entering the temple. He fled from the startling sight, shutting himself in an empty room and staying there until daybreak. At dawn he made a hasty departure, heading for the nearest village where he told the villagers of his ordeal. Soon the news reached the artist Mitsunobu, who wanted to paint a convincing likeness of the demons and went straight to the haunted temple. But, though he sat up all night, he saw nothing unusual. In the morning, however, when Mitsunobu opened the shutters, he witnessed an amazing sight: the walls of the temple were covered with an intricate array of ghoulish images. He pulled out his sketchbook and began to copy the weird figures. As he was drawing, Mitsunobu realized that the images were caused by cracks in the damp walls filled with mildew and fungi in a variety of phosphorescent hues. Although enchanting, the tale of Mitsunobu and the haunted temple is probably fictional, invented decades or centuries after the Shinju-an scroll was painted. (Lillehoj 1995, 10)
Almost in the middle of the unfolding Shinju-an emaki there is an intriguing scene that drew the researchers' attention: a huge red demon who releases the other
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yokai hidden in a crate. The previous interpretations claimed that the demon was threatening the smaller yokai locked in the box, but it is more likely that the demon was actually joining forces with the creatures, trying to take them out to parade on the streets of the town. There is also another important detail in the painted scroll: behind a screen, a few yokai-ladies were painting their teeth black, a job to be carried out inside the house. This image appears before that of the huge red demon and it clearly reveals spatial indicators, exploring the double folded space of soto and uchi: the familiar place within the house, and the untamed vastness of the outside world. In other words, the crate filled with monsters struggling to break free marks the boundary between two kinds of spaces. Outside the box, the yokai flock together into the darkness, infesting the streets of the city with terror and grotesque laughter (Tokuda 2009, 27-28). But their whimsical march comes to an end with the first beams of light. A sizzling red globe dominates the last part of the painted scroll, scattering the parading creatures and pushing them back into the darkness they came from. Some researchers interpreted the red ball of light as darani20 no hi pfeMM^A, the fire produced by the magical invocation performed in the Shingon sect, whereas other scholars saw it as the representation of the rising sun.
On the other hand, the Hyakki no zu, became the property of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in 2007, therefore it has been a relatively new hyakki yagyo "discovery". Since then, the debates about its accurate age have been going on among the scholars. For instance, Tsuji Nobuo considers that Hyakki no zu was a copy created in the Hoei period (1704-1711), but Hayakawa Monta thinks that it was drawn in the Genroku period (1688-1704). Wakasugi Junji, from Kyoto National Museum, estimated that the painted scroll had originated in the mid-17th century. This assessment makes it the second oldest version of hyakki yagyo emaki in the history of Japanese fine arts, after the Shinju-an version. Moreover, Wakasugi claims that the original work from which it was copied could be even older than the prototype from which the Shinju-an version was drawn (Komatsu 2008, 55-56).
20 Darani (dharani) were known in Japan as supernatural incantations from the early 8th century. In the exoteric Mahayana sutras, dharani are most often represented as mnemonic devices for memorizing scriptural passages and as charms for the protection of those who recite the sutras. They often contain indecipherable phonic fragments, and in Chinese scriptures, they are invariably transliterated (rather than translated) from their original Sanskrit forms. (cf. Kimbrought 2005, 4-5)
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The characters marching in Hyakki no zu play an important role in the multi-layered imagery ofyokai. In contrast with the Shinju-an emaki, in which more than half of the characters are tools and instruments (tsukumogami), the yokai in the Hyakki no zu are quite diverse and some of them seem to have descended directly from the 12th century painted scroll, Choju jinbutsu giga. The first to appear "on the stage" is a bird-headed tengu holding in hands two burning bones; he is followed by another tengu/oni with an eboshi	on his head, carrying a
halberd on his shoulder; a frog with an eboshi, riding a little dragon-headed turtle, is looking back in surprise at the oni with the halberd; a yokai with a snail on his head is pulling the dragon-headed turtle by the string; a nyoi #Pm22 that has taken on the form of a dragonfly is also looking back at the small group of riders; a little girl (probably a hamaguri23-yokai) with a shell on her head is pointing at the nyoi-dragonfly; her sazae ^^^24-headed mother is holding her by her hand; in front of them, a pair of sharp clawed-legs are sticking out from under a white piece of cloth that covers a strange yokai; a topless and furry yokai-lady, dressed in a crimson hakama ^25, is smiling widely, showing her blackened teeth and pointing her finger at the characters behind her; a baku f^26-looking pet is marching in front of the female-yokai, tied to a red string held by the strange, furry lady; a yokai with eboshi, holding in his right hand a loquat leaf and half of a shakubyoshi ^^ 27 and in his left hand the other half, is moving forward, to the left of the emaki; a masked yokai is trying to put on a wig while looking in a mirror; in the upper part of the emaki, two foxes clad in human garments are talking to each other (one wears a loincloth and an eboshi and the other has a topknot; in spite of his human appearance, the fox's tail that comes out of the white loincloth reveals his true nature); the next in line is a red demon who is trying to threaten the character in front of him; a small dragon with the body covered by a white cloth is looking back at the red oni who is closing in; nearby, a dancing tsunodarai-yokai is dipping his ladle in a yokai-vessel full of blood; the yokai-vessel is set on a small wheeled vehicle pulled by a wild boar, whipped by a black kettle-yokai; a cat
21	Originally a headdress worn to indicate a man who had passed his "coming of age" ceremony.
22	A priest's mace
23	Clam
24	Turban shell
25	Hakama is a traditional Japanese clothing resembling a shirt, but with divided legs, similar to trousers; it is narrower in the waist and looser in the leg.
26	Looking like a tapir, baku is a yokai that is said to devour dreams and nightmares.
27	A musical instrument
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skeleton holding a gohei W^2 is dancing, following a bony character with another gohei in his hand; a five-storied pagoda dressed in red clothes with susuki #29 in his hand is accompanied by another five-storied stone pagoda, with a protruding belly; a tiger clad in priest's clothes is looking to his right, while a wolf dressed in a similar way, holding a folding fan, is looking to his left; a frog wearing an eboshi on his head, stares back half in terror, half in surprise; a red demon, screening his eyes with one hand, glances in the distance at the menacing black clouds; dark fog/smoke, blown by a huge black silhouette, covers the entire sky; the yokai are terrified by the continuously spreading cloud: a monkey-yokai is running for his life, with his eboshi slipping off his head; a rabbit dressed in human clothes is looking back in terror and a demon is desperately crawling back, trying to get away of the dark cloud. Black figures are sprouting out of the cloud, marching in a terrifying cavalcade. The wind is blowing hard in a menacing vortex that sweeps off any living creature. The dark stormy procession ends with a Satan30-like image riding a horned animal.
In the painted scroll of Hyakki no zu, the dark cloud at the end spreads over almost one third of the emakimono. All yokai, bakemono and hyakki are running desperately for their lives as the dark cloud is growing bigger and bigger, like a huge body of a dragon. Is there anything inside the black cloud that is even scarier than the yokai themselves? Whirlpools are spinning chaotically within the cloud as the lightening is striking here and there in a dreadful symphony. A tornado is almost sucking in all the yokai that dared stay nearby. At the end of the scroll a black warrior-like shape with a horned helmet is riding a horned animal (Komatsu 2008, 51). But do the yokai and oni come forth in the shadows of the night or are they the very source of this gloomy turmoil?
Kondo Yoshihiro asserts that oni were created by people's fear of the destructive power of nature, which manifests as thunder, lightning, storms and earthquakes (Kondo 1966, 14). This is probably a result of a combined visual and
28	A staff with plaited paper streamers used in Shinto
29	Japanese pampas grass
30	According to Komatsu Kazuhiko, the painted scroll of hyakki yagyo found in Shinju-an and the painted scroll in the International Research Center for Japanese Studies were, at the beginning, distinct emakimono, but they appealed to the artists so much, that they were, at a certain moment, compiled into one painted scroll. This emakimono that unifies the two painted scrolls is nowadays property of Tokyo National Museum (cf. Komatsu 2008, 7). The red globe of light is still there, to scatter the yokai procession, but on the left side, some black horned shapes linger in turbulent obscurity.
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auditory intensity of the experience, coupled with the threat of potential, instantaneous destruction. Among the natural forces, lightning is most strongly associated with the oni (Reider 2003, 141).
In Choju jinbutsu giga, some frogs, rabbits and monkeys are having a party, but in the end all the fun is spoiled by the emergence of a snake that scares and chases away the animals. The whole magic melts away in an instant and the "enchanted" partying frogs return to their usual life. Similarly, the sun or the darani no hi or a dark menacing cloud puts an end to the merry yokai procession. Even if it is not explicitly expressed in the emakimono, one can easily imagine that afterwards all the yokai taking part in hyakki yagyo resume their ordinary shape, turning back into animals and household utensils, as if the magic spell had been broken (Reider 2003, 216-17).
Night processions of demons are also found in the early paintings from China. One of the most typical examples includes the commanding figure of Zhong Kui, in Japanese Shoki MM. In China, as well as in Japan, Zhong Kui has long been revered as the Demon Queller, the vanquisher of evil beings and ghosts, able to command 80,000 demons. He is regarded as a guardian spirit and his image is painted on the gates or on the tiles on the roof of houses. Scholars believe that the original legend of Zhong Kui dates back to the Tang period (618-907). In the 8th century Wu Daozi painted Zhong Kui. Although the original painting disappeared sometime before the Ming period (1368-1644), his dramatic portrayal of the Demon Queller was imitated by generations of Chinese artists who painted a procession of demons marching at night under the command of Zhong Kui (Lillehoj 1995, 19).
The Edo scholar Yamaoka Genrin (1631-1672) explains the oni as follows:
heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, water and fire, stones and dirt, all sentient beings are yin-yang. The work of yang is called kami, and the work of yin is named oni. Since all the bad and evil belong to yin, the souls of wicked people are called oni... their [wicked] souls have nowhere to go and nobody worships them. So they linger in the air and cause various problems [to humans]. (Reider 2003, 144)
If we are to take into account Yamaoka Genrin's definition of yin-yang, then we might anticipate two possible closures in hyakki yagyo emaki. The yang type emphasizes light and its apotropaic attributes. In the Shinju-an painted scroll, the light, associated with either the sun or the darani no hi, scatters the yokai
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procession and restores the human world. On the other hand, the yin type seems to reach its highest point by bringing on a gloomier view and by conjuring black, demonic silhouettes. The yin category could also be called the Shoki-type, because, the parade is dispersed by a more powerful demon who is able subdue the other yokai. The Hyakki no zu belongs to the latter type. In this respect, both the Shinju-an version and Hyakki no zu seem emblematic because they offer different perspectives on the same phenomenon, the night procession of yokai on the streets of the capital. The polarities of yin and yang herald either the qualities of light to prevent evil, or the overwhelming demonic force that vanquishes other lesser demons and yokai, and cast them off in a whirl of growing darkness.
Night as the Locus of Creative Plurality
Night sets the yokai on the move, but daylight disperses and weakens their evil forces. When the yokai emerge in the dead of the night, the darkness is so deep that no moon and no stars can be seen up in the sky. However, in addition to the darkness of the night, there is also a different kind of darkness given off by the bodies of yokai, like a black fog. If these creatures had shown up in the middle of the day, they would have screened the sunlight with a threatening dark cloud (Kagawa 2009, 43-46).
In the painted scrolls of hyakki yagyo, the darkness becomes the nexus of all possibilities, the locus of creative plurality. The dim light favours ambiguity, and ambiguity invites open scenarios. Darkness polarizes all known elements into new forms of gloomy imagination. The branches of a tree could easily pass for the arms of a veracious monster; the roar of a nearby waterfall becomes the wail of a huge phantasm that drives away the belated travelers. Within this quixotic process of recreating reality, the imagination fills in the blanks whenever the eye fails. The glance picks up a couple of familiar elements, and the mind turns them into recreated yokai-like certainties, invested with multiplicity and substance, even with personality and feelings. Mutability and emotional distress forge the very essence of hyakki yagyo. The night parade enables us to apprehend the plurality of darkness as if staring in the distance at numberless, hazy forms that might be there or that were never there.
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(Solving the Puzzle of the Creation of the Painted Scroll of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons)." Ningen Bunka APil^-fb (Human Culture) 10: 4-17.
-, ed. 2010. Yokai emaki - Nihon no ikai o nozoku	-0	< (The
Yokai Painted Scrolls - A Glimpse of the Japanese Other World). Tokyo: Bonjinsha.
Komatsu, Kazuhiko et al. 2009. "Hyakki yagyo no sekai	- panel
discussion (The World of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: panel discussion)." Ningen Bunka APnK-fb (Human Culture) 10: 50-62.
Kondo, Yoshihiro. 1966. Nihon no oni: Nihon bunka tankyu no shikaku	0^^
-ft,^^©®^ (Japanese Oni Perspectives on the Search for Japanese Culture). Tokyo: Ofusha.
Lillehoj, Elizabeth. 1995. "Transfiguration: Man-Made Objects as Demons in Japanese Scroll." Asian Folklore Studies 54 (1): 7-34.
McCullough, Hellen Craig, trans. 1980. Okagami, the Great Mirror: Fujiwara Michinaga (966-1027) and His Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Reider, Noriko. 2003. "Transformation of the Oni, From the Frightening and Diabolical to the Cute and Sexy." Asian Folklore Studies 62(1):133-57.
-. 2010. Japanese Demon Lore: Oni, from Ancient Times to the Present. Utah: Utah
State University Press.
Tokuda, Kazuo. 2009. "Yokai no koshin	(The Procession of Yokai)." Ningen
Bunka APnK-fb (Human Culture) 10: 24-31
Wakasugi, Junji. 2009. "Bijutsu-shi no tachiba kara 'igyo irui' to 'gyoretsu' o kiwado ni
^ffiRvSMfrb-iMMMMi t r^iJj	(The Keywords of
'Grotesque/Monstrous' and 'The Parade': A History of Art Approach)." Ningen Bunka APnK-fb (Human Culture) 10: 18-23.
27
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain (1998), as an Expository Anime
Tamae K. PRINDLE* Abstract
This paper introduces Nakamura Ryutaro's anime, Serial Experiments, Lain (1998) as a new type of anime, a genre nameable as an "expository anime", for the reason that it creates a diachronic story out of a synchronic aspect of a certain field of science. The overarching topic of Experiments is electronics, focusing on the comparison between digital and analogue communication systems. Experiments unfolds the rationales, potentials, and effects of the two types of communication systems using the perceptions of the major character, a thirteen-year old girl, Rein, as well as other supporting characters.
Keywords: embodiment, analogue, digital, mind, body Izvleček
Ta članek predstavi animiran film režiserja Nakamure Ryutaroja, Serial Experiments, Lain (1998), kot novo vrsto animiranega filma, žanra, ki ga lahko imenujemo "razlagalni anime", ker ustvarja diakronično zgodbo iz sinhroničnega vidika določenega področja znanosti. Pomembna tema v Experiments je elektronika, ki se osredotoča na primerjavo med digitalnim in analognim komunikacijskim sistemom. Experiments tako razgrinja principe, potenciale in efekte teh dveh vrst komunikacijskih sistemov z uporabo percepcije glavne junakinje, trinajstletne Rein, kot tudi drugih stranskih vlog.
Ključne besede: utelešenje, analogno, digitalno, razum, telo
* Tamae K. PRINDLE, Professor of East Asian Language and Literature, East Asian Studies
Department, Colby College. Waterville, ME, USA.
tkprindl@colby.edu
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Tamae K. PRINDLE: Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain
Introduction
Animation is arguably the most creative form of the twenty-first century.... Long dismissed as merely children's entertainment, only in recent years has there been clear recognition of animation as an art, ... as a medium of universal expression embraced across the globe,
says Paul Wells, author of Animation: Genre and Authorship. (Wells 2001, 1) Meantime, and even before Wells' book, Kitano Taiitsu1 had lamented over the waning popularity of Japanese anime2. Kitano blames the loss of popularity on the shrinking community of financial sponsors, a dying out of creative artists, and a cooling off of audience's passion for action adventures (Kitano 2009, 168). More thematically, echoes Kato Mikiro, the theme of justice supported by heroism started to look archaistic. (Kato 2009a, 144)
Now that Miyazaki Hayao's Spirited Away has won the Academy Best Animated Feature Award in the United States as well as the Golden Bear Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2002, and a young artist, Shinkai Makoto, has started collecting international as well as domestic awards,3 we may venture to discredit Kitano's pessimism, save his prediction that CGA (computer graphic anime) and television serials will take over the OVA (original video animation) market. Digital composing is opening up new possibilities not only for anime but also for feature film production.
One of the new types of anime in the VGA (Video Graphic Array)4 format that could give Kitano new hope was the ambitious Serial Experiments, Lain (Nakamura 1998) (hereafter Experiments). The 104 episodes were serialized by TV Tokyo in 1998. Experiments is not about the hackneyed battle between an ego and justice, or the human versus the non-human. Neither does it neatly fit in the existing genres of cyberpunk, mecha, or fantasy. Even less conventional is that the broadcast began without a director. Nakamura Ryutaro was scouted as the director
1	All the Japanese names will be typed in the Japanese order: i.e., the family name first.
2	I am calling the animation made in Japan "anime," as versus "animation" made in other countries.
3	Shinkai's Kumo no muko, yakusoku no basho f g© C ,	(The Place Promised in Our Early Days) won The 59th Mainichi Film Contest, Animation Film Prize (M 59 0
7-^-^3^11!) in 2004, and his 5 Centimeters Per Second ( ® 5	h^J ) won the Best Anime Prize at the Asia Pacific Film Festival and the
Platinum Grand Prix at the Future Film Festival in Italy in 2007.
4	"Video Graphic Array" is a display standard for IBM PCs, with 640 x 480 pixels in 16 colors and a 4:3 aspect ratio.
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
after the third layer (Konaka 1998, 30)5 was completed. Nakamura was not6 one of the star artists of Miyazaki Hayao and Oshii Mamoru's type that Kitano wished to see emerge. This leads us to believe that Experiments deserves a new genre name, as an expository anime. The science in it does not just punctuate a diachronic narrative; rather, it sets the major and minor plots in motion. Experiments is essentially a synchronic exposé of the digital mechanism and its impact on humans.
The basic elements around which Experiments revolves are: (A) the mechanism of the human cognition system, (B) the power of electrons, and (C) the difference between analogue and digital mechanisms. Experiments knits these three threads to form a story, and this paper re-groups the multiple components to facilitate the explanation.
7
Cognition System: Eccles' Three Worlds :
material
external data
•	matter
•	energy
•	etc.
U
m a k.
sends signs as do ts
>	sound
>	shape
>	light
> distance ~r movement 'r etc.
. V
brain
«millions of nerve cells digital
• i• i ■ • »• •••••
••••••
m m m m m mm m ÖOt'«» >•• •
encoded patterns nerve impulses sends signs
World 1 (Wl)
Ecclesian Three Worlds
non-material World 3 (W3)
cultural heritage •f critical arguments ""'dictionary unit" •S memory S god
3 C
£
v5
mind
=thinking
=feeling
=consciousness
V
extracts meaning
World 2 (W2)
Figure 1: Ecclesian Three Worlds (Source: Prindle's drawing)
5	This anime groups the 104 episodes into 13 "layers."
6	Nakamura passed away in 2013.
7	Only the "encoded patterns" portion of this chart comes from Eccles (1982, 94). Prindle drew the rest in accordance with Eccles' thesis. (see Eccles and Robinson 1991, 302-3)
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Tamae K. PRINDLE: Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain
Nobel laureate physiologist Sir John Eccles conceives of the human mental activities as pulses that travel through three "worlds". Eccles' "World 1" (W1) consists of matter-energy that is not self-conscious. W1 belongs to the human "brain", which translates the energy that is sent to it by the eyes, ears, and other sense organs into digitally coded impulses. (Eccles 1982, 85-90) The activities on the surface of our neocortex,8 John Eccles and Daniel Robinson continue, would show illuminated patterns of all ranges of "openness" from dark to dim to lighter to brilliant. And this pattern would be changing in a scintillating manner from moment to moment, giving a sparkling spatiotemporal pattern of millions of modules that would appear as on a TV screen. (Eccles and Robinson 1991, 302-3) A good example of this sparkling spatiotemporal pattern appears towards the end of layer 09 of Experiments. These designs reveal the content of a character's brain rather than the natural environment that surrounds him/her. (Shaffer 1991, 280) This anime makes itself more "expository" than, say Shinkai Makoto's "animation movie" (Kato 2009b, 120)9 by prioritizing science.
Figure 2: Café Cyberia (source: Experiments)
The "mind" in Ecclesian "World 2" (W2) has no shape, weight, height, width, color, mass, velocity, or temperature (Pojman 1991, 272). Its defining characteristic is the mechanism that is "beyond scientific enquiry" (Eccles 1982, 97). It organizes the consciousness or thoughts, feelings, perceptions, desires, emotions, etc. (Shaffer 1991, 280) by dint of impulses that are sent by the brain into consciousness. If translated into images, its enormous effort to organize the
8	Neocortex is the outer layer of human brain.
9	Kato (2009b, 120) argues that Shinkai Makoto creates a new form of anime by blending his characters into their background scenes.
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
imported impulses into conscious experiences (Eccles and Robinson 1991, 303) would look something like the shot of Café Cyberia in a distant night view (L03)10 among others. The scenery is distorted by the "mind" which is trying to give shape to the pulses Eccelsian W1 is sending.
Ecclesian "World 3" (W3) is the world of "culture," which "nurtures" the mind. It is comparable to D.E. Broadbent's "dictionary unit"11 in that it holds information such as memory, personality, cultural norm, and the collective unconscious, which are the tools the "mind" uses to evaluate or to understand the incoming new impulses. Layer 05 of Experiments abounds with examples of the mind's relationship to Ecclesian World 3 and Broadbent's dictionary units. There, Rein's sister Mika melts into apraxia because her mind cannot coordinate with the "culture" that is stored in her "dictionary unit". A chain of unexplainable and unpredictable events—such as being handed a packet of promotional tissue paper on the street that says "Hell is overcrowded; the dead will have nowhere to go", seeing Rein standing still in the middle of a heavy car traffic, seeing Rein's face on a large video screen on a tall building, finding herself sitting on a heavily traveled road, seeing a group of pedestrians dissolve into ghostly smoke as they come toward her, coffee that she spills on her table moving to form the message "Fulfill the prophesy", a group of school girls in a coffee shop suddenly disappearing, the lights in the coffee shop's bathroom going on and off by themselves with a conspicuous clicking sound, writing with lipstick, "Fulfill the prophesy", appearing on an entire wall when the lights come back on, being met by another Mika in the entrance hall of her house, burst Mika's mind that tries to calibrate the busy signs against her sustained dictionary unit. The shock shatters her ability to talk or think. These subplots are animetizations of the possible activities of Ecclesian W2 and W3.
Embodiment
Important for our purposes is the concept of "embodiment", which means the "vibrant texture of our lives experienced from the inside, from feelings, emotions, and sensations" (Hayles 2004, 229) by Katherine Hayles' definition. Apparently, it
10	The capital "L" before a number stands for the "layer."
11	This is D.E. Broadbent's terminology quoted by Juan Antonio Gomez in his chapter "Neurological Correlations of Some Universal Principles" (in Eccles 1982, 213, 215.) This unit in the central nerve system restructures the signals from the outside via nerve fibers. Gomez uses this term to explain the mechanism of language acquisition, but I am expanding its function to cultural acquisitions.
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Tamae K. PRINDLE: Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain
is a synergy of the Ecclesian three worlds. This paper will focus on the "texture" of the three major characters' embodiments in Cyberspace rather than psychoanalyzing their feelings, emotions, and sensations. In a nutshell, the texture of cyber-genius Eiri Masami is digital; that of Tachibana General Lab (henceforward "the Lab"), analogue; and protagonist Iwakura Rein's12, more neutrally posthuman. Needless to say, analogue computers use the magnitudes of electric currents (or other physical entities) to represent numbers. Digital computers, on the other hand, use the mere presence or absence of such physical entities to represent various symbols. (MacKay 1980)13 The former consists of physical currents and the latter wireless pulses.
When examining the overall stage, Experiments, it is a residential town in or near Shibuya14 in Tokyo, and its conceptual stage is Cyberspace, which is characterized by Douglas Rushkoff as "not a world reducible to neat equations and pat answers, but an infinitely complex series of interdependencies where the tiniest change in a remote place can have systemwide repercussions" (Rushkoff 1994 PDF, 3)15. Katherine Hayles, who calls Rushkoff s cyberspace a posthuman world, observes that there are "no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals" (Hayles 1999, 3). The presence of a building named Cyberia Café and Club16, among others, marks the stage of Experiments as a cyberspace.
Embodiment: Analogue/The Lab
The communication network before the spread of the digital cyberspace used to be controlled by the Lab, represented by Kurosawa17. Kurosawa uses manpower for communications and computations as an interface of—so to speak—his analogue
12	There are two "rein"s in this anime. Konaka's scenario spells the name of the protagonist with the ideographic kanji (rei-in) and the other, in phonetic katakana which usually spells out words phonetically, " U^V ". This paper will spell the former as "Rein" and leave Lain as it is.
13	To quote MacKay, "In analog computer, you provide yourself with a substitute for mental effort by choosing some physical magnitude (length, or weight, or volume, or electric current strength), which you can alter and combine in ways that are analogous to the operations you want to perform on the numbers in your problem—adding, subtracting, integrating or whatever" (MacKay 1980, 44).
14	Shibuya is mentioned as the site of a traffic jam in L05.
15	Because his PDF document and the bound monograph under the same title were published in the same year, I identify the PDF file as PDF and the book as book, in my citations.
16	It is an internet café during the day and a nightclub at night.
17	His name appears in Konaka's scenario but not in the anime (Konaka 1998, 2).
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computer. Two foreigners, Karl and Tian, carry out the kind of tasks Eiri's wireless computer is programmed to do. If Kurosawa needs to talk with Rein, for instance, Karl and Tian will pick her up and drive her to Kurosawa's office. The two foreigners also do things like killing a young company executive by giving him a pressure injection in his neck.
Figure 3: Karl and Tian (Source: Expeeriments)
The two men's black suits, black car, and black goggles with a red video-eye, as well as Karl's comment to Mika, "You never saw us because we are not here now" (L04), outline their mission to see more than naked eyes can and to act without being seen by others. They are trying to be compatible with Eiri's hypertext18 the best they can. When their work is done, the duo is electrocuted by Kurosawa as if the user is shutting down his computer at the end of his project. This is how the Lab's analogue system works.
Kurosawa is a pre-Cyberian who cannot keep up with the latest electronic development technically nor conscientiously. He confesses to Rein, "I just can't work up the interest to switch over to a new Navi19" (L07). Let alone the intrusion of the digital system into his analogue system, Kurosawa fears the day when the borders between the Ecclesian worlds erode. Without the borders, the flickering signifiers will create unexpected metamorphoses, attenuations, and dispersions (Hayles 1999, 30) everywhere. The Ecclesian three worlds will start acting randomly. Not just Mika and Rein but everyone will encounter strange happenings. Kurosawa, who knows that Rein is Lain's hologram, tells Rein: "If you are here
18	Hypertext refers to the web that structures many computer programs and data libraries. (see Rushkoff 1994 book, 3)
19	"Navi" in Experiments is a multi-purpose information terminal equivalent to Internet. It is "datasphere" in Rushkoffs book (1994 book 5 and 34).
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Tamae K. PRINDLE: Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain
without a device, you know that the border between the Real World20 and the Wired21 is starting to crumble. We believe that to be dangerous" (L07). Kurosawa's mission is to guard the boundary between the human/analogue and posthuman/digital worlds.
Embodiment: Digital/Eiri
Eiri22 Masami, a computer genius, used to be the Chief Researcher at Kurosawa's Lab, but was dismissed because he inserted the codified Schuman Resonance23 into his own 7th Generation Wired Protocol24. The developed Schuman resonance principle allows the network users to consciously or unconsciously communicate without electronic devices25. Eiri's Wired is one generation beyond WELL (Whole Earth Electronic Link) which Rushkoff introduces in his Cyberia. (See Rushkoff s 1994 book, 35, 37, 249) "To enter it, one forsakes both body and place and becomes a thing of words alone" (Rushkoff 1994 book, 37). The network can override legal boundaries. One anonymous voice in the wired chat-room in Experiments distinguishes the Lab from Eiri's network: "A company as big as Tachibana Labs would not do anything illegal" (L08). Rushkoff s remark that "the implications for the legal community are an endless mire of property, privacy, and information issues, usually boiling down to one of the key conflicts between pre-and post-Cyberian mentality" (Rushkoff 1994 PDF, 28) and that the Cyberians' ability to process data being faster than the fair-use rule can be defined (Rushkoff 1994 PDF, 28) rings a bell. This is why Eiri believes that the brain and mind are better off without a "body" or the analogue system. His voice-over says: "The body is nothing but a machine. If the physical limitations of the body restrict mankind's evolution, it would be as if the fall of the species called 'man' had already been decided by God that doesn't even exist" (L12). The human body, including the brain, may as well be disposed of to let the hypertext do a better job. In the posthuman world where "there are no essential differences between bodily
20	"Real World" refers to the pre-digitalized world. The characters in Experients use the "Real World" as if it is a proper noun, although the subtitles do not capitalize it.
21	This is equivalent to Hayles' posthuman world.
22	Ei ^ in Eiri lj, among others, means "excellent", and f lj "sharp," and "profit."
23	Schuman Resonance refers to the constant resonance at a frequency of 8Hz in the space between the ionosphere and the Earth's surface according to a voice-over in L09 of the Experiments.
24	An internet protocol is a technical agreement among the users of the mechanism of information traffic through the internet. Our generation is using IPv5; the one most people in the Experiments are using is Protocol 6. (see Konaka 1998, 187)
25	See L09, for example.
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 29-52
existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals" (Hayles 1999, 3), the human bodies should step aside. Rein speaks Eiri's mind26, "I realized I had no need for a body. To die is merely to abandon the flesh" (L10). An Accela27 tripper also says, "Bodies are meaningless." (L11) It was to liberate their "minds" from their bodies that some people gave up their bodies.
Protocol 7 is the axis around which Eiri's Wired revolves. It functions as Ecclesian W3 for the Wired members. Scientist Eccles, scriptwriter Konaka, and Eiri agree on this point. As Eccles (Eccles and Robinson 1991, 295-6) has said, his W3 nurtures the "mind". Konaka says "It must not be wide of the mark to say that Eiri's Protocol works as a man-made god" (Konaka 1998, 188); Eiri tells Rein: "The information etched inside humans isn't only that which they themselves have acquired as individuals" (L12). Unlike the analogue system, Eiri's digital signals reach his receiver's minds from the position of Ecclesian W3. Worse yet, Eiri has imbedded in his protocol his own personal history, thoughts, memories, and emotions (L10), to establish himself as the God for the program users. When Rein speaks Eiri's mind, "There is only one truth. God," Eiri rejoins, "Yes, and that's me" (L09). Rein's fictive father, Mr. Iwakura, seems to have sensed Eiri's power. He tells Rein:
What flows through the Wired may not be just electrical information. I have the feeling that another world emerged concurrently with that of digital and telephone systems.... In the Wired, there may be a Deus-like embodiment. (L05) The digital system, then, is far more hegemonic than the analogue system.
As God and not as a business administrator, Eiri uses the word "prophesy" rather than "goal" or "plan". Mr. Iwakura's remark that the Deus of the Wired already has enough power to affect the world in the form of prophesy" (L06) accords with what Jenny Doll in Rein's room has said: i.e., "Nothing can come into existence unless preceded by prophesy" (L05), and also with the statement of a black Malaysian god, "History is not merely a linear collection of points that we pass
26	Konaka's scenario says that two individuals speaking the other person's mind in a dialogue style is a type of psycho therapy and is used in Tsutui Yasutaka's fiction The Kakinoki-zaka Intersection (Kakinoki-zaka Kosaten) and Daniel Waters' scenario for the film Heathers. (see Konaka 1998, 235)
27	Accela is a nano-mechanism capsule that stimulates a certain hormone. It affects not only the consciousness but also the workings of the brain itself, multiplying the brain's operational capacity by two to 12 times (L02).
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Tamae K. PRINDLE: Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain
through on a timeline; they are made to connect" (L05). These voices seem to know that Eiri has set himself up as a choreographer of history.
Figure 4: Ghost-like human bodies (source: Experiments)
Experiments leaves the borderline between Eiri's Wired and the Lab's Real World vague. Not all suiciders make a clean break from the Real World, for instance.28 And Karl's disclosure to Tian, immediately preceding the pair's death by Kurosawa, that the Lab has been going by Eiri's guidelines, further confuses the audience. Eiri's soliloquy in L13, "I'm going to quit the company that made me do crap", adds more confusion. Eiri in this back-to-the-pre-Cyberian-world scene is watching Karl and Tian in the bucket of an AWP (areal work platform) reinstall a thick power cable. Who is the ringmaster here? The following inserts of a black knotted tree-trunk-like power post that morphs into a high voltage transmission unit, then into dazzlingly tangled power lines, and finally into a transformer that is buried in another set of tangled lines that stretch behind another entangled transformer does not answer our question but indicate that the situation is infinitely complex especially for an analogue schematic, and in contrast with Eiri's digital system that encodes millions of impulses with a god-like expediency.
Embodiment: Body/City Mob
The shots of the city streets congested with pedestrians without identifiable body parts but as a wave of expressionless heads that come or go smoothly together guided by the overhead traffic signals (L05), and those bodies, which dissolve into
28 Chisa, the girl who throws herself into an incoming train, and the boy who kills himself at Cyberia are the examples Experiments gives.
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phantoms, underwrite Eiri's contempt for physicality. This shows how a silent majority live with an inactive body and insensitive brain. On the other end of the spectrum is a young Accela tripper. He buys the costly drug Accela to stimulate his brain and ends up shooting two party attendants to death. Like the digital system, the drug prevails over his mind beyond his control. Mika's interest is also carnal excitement. She is a bodied brainless human being who can do without Ecclesian W3 where Eiri's protocol is located. This is why she makes a good target for Eiri's henchmen Knights. We see her walk away, for example, from a young man she has slept with without even a "good bye" as the boy asks when they can meet again. Eiri's voice-over expresses disdain: "Not knowing what it is that drives them, the humans keep their bodies merely to satisfy the desires of the flesh ... That's all mankind is" (L05). At least Eiri is consistent about his contempt for the bodies that get in the way of a high-speed communication system. The enigmatic message on the PR tissue packageMika receives on a busy street, "The other side is overcrowded; the dead will overflow and have nowhere to go" (L05) spells out this situation. "The other side" must mean the Haylesian "human" world, and the "dead", the brainless bodies29.
Chisa seems to realize this too late. The blood that flows out of her hand and spreads on the ground—her corpse is hidden under a neon signboard—reflects the bright red, green, and blue colors of the neon sign randomly, suggestive of her view of a life beyond death. But the audience's gaze, that climbs upward toward the rooftop from where Chisa jumped off, finds a small toy duck dangling innocently but forlornly from Chisa's abandoned school bag. This sequence suggests that Chisa's spirit has not quite severed its tie with the physical world. Soon Chisa begins emailing her classmates from Wired to let them know that her mind is still alive. She tells Rein that she left the physical world wishing to be with God. (L02) In all probability, she is yet to know that the God in the Wired is Eiri. Her apparition comes to see Rein repeatedly to tell her that suicide is not an easy matter. In the case of another suicider, Rein sees the girl's black blood trickling from a power line and then showering over her train. Instead of a corpse, Rein visualizes the girl's distorted—by double exposure—devilish face just before she dives in front of an oncoming train. After suicide, the girl walks through Rein's
29 Arisu also receives the "Fulfill the prophesy" command, but hers comes on her pocket Navi—as email should—and she is spared from the series of strange happenings. The difference may be her directed personality, unwavering affection towards her school teacher, and her determination to help out Rein.
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Tamae K. PRINDLE: Nakamura Ryutaro's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain
body. Eiri's invitation to join his bodiless world may have found some followers, but their dead bodies keep drifting and "overflowing" without a place to go.
Embodiment: Knights
Neither Eiri's Wired nor Rushkoff s Cyberia is bound by the rules of a linear time line. Eiri's Wired Information Bureau may send a message, for instance, "This news report is being sent out at this moment, but please be aware that it may reach you tomorrow or possibly yesterday" (L07). Time does not flow in a chronological sequence. This is one of the reasons why the Lab disapproves of the Wired. Karl tells Rein, "The Wired shouldn't be a special world. It ought to be a field that functions as a subsystem reinforcing our world" (L10). The Lab is particularly apprehensive of a group called the Knights. It is staffed by Eiri's henchmen, or more accurately by Eiri-worshippers who legitimatize Eiri's existence as God (L10). A male voice from the Wired Information Station tells that the Knights' model is the Knights Templer30 (L10). Like its American ancestor, the Knights in Experiments are blamed for just about any newsworthy cybernetic problem. One such problem is the production of an information terminal named Psyche. Psyche interprets and distorts the original data (L03). It can dramatically increase the performance of any Navi. We hear as a rumor that the Psyche was designed by the Knights (L03). Even more harmful is the dungeon-style action computer game named "Phantom". The disc jockey at Cyberia, JJ, believes that the Knights combined two existing computer games to make Phantom (L04). The new product deprives the players of the distinction between reality and fantasy. The players are chased to a corner of a building by the phantom of a little girl and end up jumping off rooftops. The police think the boys have committed suicide. Then, there is the game called KIDS that kindergarten children play on streets. Dr. Hodgeson,31 the researcher who tried 15 years earlier to gather the Psi32 each child emits, divulges that he smashed his KIDS equipment and threw away the schematic33 so that it could never be rebuilt, but his schematic found its way onto the Wired, and
30	Wikipedia writes that "the Knights of the Lambda Calculus" is a semi-fictional organization of expert LISP and Scheme hackers. (see Wikipedia 1)
31	This Hodgeson is fictional. Konaka writes in his scenario that he must have converted Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's (1832-98) name. Dodgson is the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1872). S(see Konaka 1998, 146 and Dodgson)
32	Hodgeson explains that Psi is parapsychological ability present in most children. (L06)
33	A schematic is a diagram of a structure, especially of an electrical system.
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someone updated it even without any of the equipment he had built. Hodgeson compliments the plagiarizers—implying the Knights—for their talent.
Figure 5: Mika is framed by the Knighs (Source: Experiments)
The Knights are also to blame for Mika's aforementioned frightening experiences. The Knight's logo that incases Mika on a busy street proves who the framer is. If Karl and Tian are right, it is the Knights who set a parasite bomb34 in Rein's computer cooling system. Another example of the Knights' atrocities is their murder of Nezumi (a roaming cyberkid who begs for the Knight membership). 35 The Knights delight in taking the innocent public into an "uncharted hyper-dimensional turf'.36 Because nobody, not even Rein, knows who they are, the Knights are bodiless. The public locate them in Ecclesian W3 along with Eiri's Protocol 7.
One voice from the chat-room says, "the Knights do not physically exist but they are the thoughts themselves that occur within the Wired. They can be thought of as a religion that is spreading through the Wired" (L04). And Taro, an elementary school cyberkid says, "The Knights are users who are fighting to make the only truth there is into reality ... The truth has power because it's the truth. And it's the truth that makes it just" (L09). The bodylessness helps link the Knights with religion, truth, and even justice. An inquiry such as Nezumi's "You believe in Deus, right? I'll follow your lead. But is it true? Is God in the Wired?" (L07) does not please the Knights or Eiri; God can use only fully devoted worshippers. So they kill Nezumi. Only the sober and independent-minded few, such as Arisu,
34	This is an imaginary internet virus. (see Konaka 1998, 155)
35	Nezumi's HMD (head mount display) shows the Knights' logo to prove the murderer's identity. (07)
36	I am borrowing Rushkoffs expression from his book (1994, 5).
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would suspect that the Knights are a kind of super hacker group, who usually don't work together, nor do they work for fun or money.
The Experiments introduces three Knights who relish subversion: a young single mother who likes to play video games with her son; a fat man who lives in a messy single room apartment which apparently has never been cleaned, and an executive of a large company. Flat on his stomach in underwear, on his futon on the floor, the fat man looks at the Knights' logo on his laptop, and laughs, "That's right, you morons. I'm better than you bozos!" (L07) The view of other tall skyscrapers from his private office speaks for the company executive's high rank. A well groomed secretary—formally dressed in a yellowish suit—comes in, sits on a pink chair in front of him in an affected manner, and summons the young executive to a banquet, "It's time for the EMA Motor Consortium banquet." The EMA Motor refers to the no-fuel electric engine Edwin Gray (Konaka 1998, 1612) invented, so the importance of this banquet must be at an international level. Casting a brief but friendly smile at her, the man answers, "I'll be down in three minutes". As the secretary leaves, he clicks on the Knight's logo in his computer, smiles, and lets the long legged metal compass in the logo twirl, spread its legs apart, and finally settle it with its toes together. His uncovered smile spreads across the screen as he talks to the logo, "What game do you want to play this time?" The secretary's yellowish suit and the Knight's logo collectively hint at this man's libidinal indulgence in his work as a Knight. His priority is the "game," not the executive banquet. Arisu is right about the Knights being computer addicts who are not working for money.
The scene after the Wired Network News's report that "some party" has incapacitated the firewall of the Information Bureau's Information Control Center (L07) describes the wild joy of the Knights' computer simulated designs and color combinations. The busy lines, spots, patches of colors, English and other symbols, and what not pour in and out of the screen and dance around and line up to the tune of squeaking sound and a jazz drum among others. Katherine Hayles helps us understand that this confusion stems from the absence of a physical center; it is the joy of liberation from "the contemporary pressure towards dematerialization, understood as an epistemic shift toward pattern/randomness and away from presence/absence". (See Hayles 1999, 29) The Knights' delight must be the freedom to detach their minds (Ecclesian W2) from the Ecclesian W1 and W3.
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Eiri lets the Real World citizens enjoy the posthuman experience in order to govern the citizens of both the Wired and the Real World.
JJ and Taro are a couple of fringe members of the Knights. JJ appears to be a close friend of Lain. But, once he realizes that Rein is a different person, he gives Rein technical instructions and anonymously delivers the chips 37 that would enhance her computer to the level of the Knights'. Taro refuses to identify himself as a Knight but can explain the functions of each and all the computer parts JJ has given Rein and understands how Rein has singlehandedly set up her computer, cooling system, and the like in her room.
Embodiment: Rein
The Lab, Eiri, and Rein have a morphogenetic relationship.38 Rein is an amalgam of heterogeneous components, which undergo continuous construction and reconstruction (Hayles 1999, 3). Her embodiment is a process towards the completion of the Eccelesian three worlds and beyond. She debuts in Experiments as a "body", analogue, or more in the Haylesian line, as a "human form seen from the outside, from a cultural perspective striving to make representations that can stand in for bodies in general" (Hayles 2004, 229). She looks like a thirteen year-old girl in a school uniform and her voice is young. Her short hair with a small ponytail on the left side of her head gives her a personal touch. She is yet to complete her own set of W3. Until then, the scenery she sees is rather abstract and lacks realistic details39, her own shadow may look like smoke, schoolgirls walking in front of her may fade from her vision, and plasma may shoot out of her finger tips. Things are still unpredictably unstable because Eiri has just created her out of another girl named Lain. He divulges in L10: "You were originally born in the Wired .... The Real World's Iwakura Rein is merely a hologram of the Lain in the Wired, a homunculus40 of artificial ribosomes.41 You never had a body to begin
37	He leaves or has someone leave one in Rein's school locker or hands one to her, asking her if she had dropped it.
38	In a morphogenetic relationship, everything constantly affects everything else. (see Rushkoff 1994, 60)
39	It is nearly monochrome with red speckles over a black patch of shadows and the cloudless sky is populated by black electric wires and transformers.
40	A homunculus is an artificial human created by a chemist in a flask. (see Konaka 1998, 256)
41	The ribosome is a large complex molecule which is responsible for catalyzing the formation of proteins from individual amino acids using messenger RNA as a template. This process is known as translation. Ribosomes are found in all living cells. (see Konaka 1998, 256)
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with" (L10). The initial ignorance and insecurity make Rein quiet and withdrawn, and confused. At a loss about her own identity, she runs a "memory check" program in hypertext in Navi, and sees two unknown men bring a girl, who resembles Rein, to the Iwakura house. Mr. Iwakura brings the girl to Rein's room. This memory check does not help, for the girl's answer to Rein's question, "Who are those people" is "I'm you, so I don't know what you don't know" (L09). Rein on her first day in the "Real World" knows little beyond the basic geography around her house and her school. Probably because Eiri has tampered with Arisu's memory units, at least one classmate assumes the role of Rein's good friend. Rein is clueless when Arisu talks about their classmate Chisa's suicide, which their homeroom teacher had announced a week before Rein joined the class. It is Chisa's posthumous email that tells Rein that Chisa knows her: How are you Rein? I walked home with you just once. Do you remember? I have given up my body. But I'm still alive (L01). Rein lives in the same town and goes to the same school with Chisa, but has no recollection of seeing her. The newborn Rein lapses tongue-tied when the police interrogate her as a witness of a murder in the nightclub Cyberia. It takes Arisu's apology for bringing her to Cyberia for Rein to slowly recall Arisu's name "A ri su" (L03).
Although born in the "Real World," Rein is always tangentially moored to the Wired. One of such indications is her utterance, "What a racket! Can't you be quiet?" on a train. The "racket" is not something other silent passengers have been hearing. Surprised, they swing their gazes toward her. The anime audience hears the "racket" via Rein's ears immediately prior to her complaint. Rein's heckling at electric wires, "Shut up!", recurs in Layer 11 as she walks alone on a quiet road under a mesh of electric wires, but this yelling does not necessarily mean Rein is a priori averse to the sounds from Wired. Far from it, Rein supports Arisu's view that daily emails are the underlining foundation to social alchemies (Casalegno 2010, 124), and starts building her own powerful computer and network at home. By the sixth Layer, she becomes a "Netpal" of the voices from the Wired.
Rein fills her W3 with the knowhow of electronics. Her ultimate goal is to pin down the author of the general "dictionary" in W3. She embarks on the project with interviews of the spirits of her Jenny doll, a Malaysian god, and her fictive parents. Each informant floats in the air, facing Rein, who sits in Japanese style. The Jenny Doll tells Rein that every happening is predicated on a prophesy; the Malaysian god claims that each prophesy must be fulfilled to connect each point in
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history to form a linear sequence; Mrs. Iwakura reveals that physical reality is nothing but a hologram projected by the synapses in the human brain. These informants clam up when Rein asks, "Who makes the prophesies", "Who connects the historical points", and "Are you my real Mama?" respectively. Mr. Iwakura intimates that there may be a sort of Deus-like embodiment in the Wired, and that Deus may have already developed the power to affect the Real World in the form of prophesy. (L05) This Q&A session gives Rein a rough outline of the makeup of the Wired.
Figure 6: Plasma shooting out of Rein's finger tips (Source: Experiments)
Rein's interest in the evolution of Cyberspace is fired by a couple of kindergarten children who raise their hands high towards the sky to conjure Rein's image from behind the clouds. However briefly, Rein, Arisu, and others see the radiant holograph of naked Rein in the sky. Annoyed by this, Rein marches into the Wired and talks with Professor Hodgeson's hologram, and goes on to meet him in person at his convalescent home.42 This is where Hodgeson reveals his understanding that the Knights appropriated his original research.
Experiments summarizes the rest of Rein's discoveries, on the audience's behalf, in a newsreel format without her intervention. Vannevar Bush's (18901974) Memex43 is a large box that stored an enormous number of microfilms that were sorted and indexed. This is the precursor of the analogue hypertext as well as the concept of information-sharing that Eiri idealizes. Then there was the unbelievable news of an extra-terrestrial aircraft crashing in the desert in New Mexico in 1947. One such alien visits Rein in her room and Rein learns to turn
42	See: footnote 30.
43	The name "Memex" stands for "memory and index" or "memory and extender", published in 1945 in The Atlantic Monthly according to Wikipedia "Memex." (see Wikipedia 2)
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herself into one. Rein's searching eyes do not overlook the dubious MJ-12 Document about a pact a secret committee of twelve members—who were answerable only to President Truman—concluded with the extraterrestrials in 1947. The dubious document surfaced in 1984. Around this time, John Lilly (1915-2001) began studying the human unconscious, using isolation tanks, psychedelic drugs, and dolphins. Lilly's reports of the CCC (Cosmic Coincidence Control), the SSCU (Solar System Control Unit), and the ECCO (Earth Coincidence Control Office),44 may well have inspired Eiri to build his Wired. A natural offshoot of Bush and Lily's inquiries was Ted Nelson's mind-blowing information system named Xanadu, a giant electronic library disseminated through satellites. It was linked to the World Wide Web in 2014. This Wikipedia-like system may have been another item in Eiri's wish-list, judging by his favorite saying that information should be shared.
The Schumann Resonance theory elaborated by Winfried Otto Schumann (1888-1974) helps Rein understand Eiri's propaganda, "everything is connected". What Eiri tries to achieve digitally, is what the earth can do eletcromagnetically with the help of the ionosphere film around the earth. The ionosphere film bounces back the electromagnetic signals emitted from various spots on the earth to broader areas of the earth. Eiri is not the only one to see the earth as a giant biological organism. Rushkoff summarizes what James Lovelock brands the Gaia
hypothesis45:
The planet is thought to maintain conditions for sustaining life through a complex series of feedbacks and iterations. A population of ocean microorganisms, for example, may regulate the weather by controlling how much moisture is released into the atmosphere. The Cyberians in Rushkoff s Cyberia believe that Gaia is becoming conscious and human beings serve as Gaia's brain cells:
Each human being is an individual neuron, but unaware of his connection to the global organism as a whole. Evolution, then, depends on humanity's ability to link up to one another and become a global consciousness. (Rushkoff 1994 book, 82)
This reminds us of the Ecclesian map as well as Eiri's wish to unify and control his Wired without interruption by mindless bodies.
44	Wikipedia has supplied some of the details.
45	Rushkoff notes that it is "the now well-supported notion that planet Earth is itself a giant, biological organism." (see Rushkoff 1994 book, 81)
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The unravelling of the mystery of Ecclesian W3 helps Rein find her way into the Wired without legal authorization, or without reducing herself into a body part in the way most other members must (as only a mouth, one eye, one arm, one ear, or simply a voice), to visit JJ without physically being there, to shatter Karl's goggle by shouting from her upstairs window, "Go away!", to visit Arisu in the shape of an alien, to upload the emulator46 of Navi into her own brain, and to erase people's memories. In short, she becomes cybernetically and biologically posthuman who can manoeuver all of the Ecclesian three worlds. She also learns that Eiri is the mastermind of his Wired, which some call Cyberia, and others, Gaia.
Embodiment: Lain
Still unanswered are the questions as to why Eiri made Rein out of Lain, and how perfect can Eiri's digital Wired/Cyberia/Gaia is. Lain has made JJ believe that Rein was Lain, let Taro know when Lain slunk into Rein's body, made the Accela tripper pay for his murder of two party participants by standing in Rein's place, and made Eiri say things like, "You are just a hologram of Lain" (L08), and "Lain is not another you; she is real you" (L10). Worse yet, Lain has led Arisu and the entire school to misunderstand Rein's personality. For Rein no confusion equals in magnitude to the identity crisis caused by Lain. Psychedelic art dramatizes Rein's bursting agony of being accused by the entire school for peeking at Arisu's affair with her schoolteacher and having the news spread throughout the Wired. Rein learns about it because she also receives the message that says "Rein47 is a peeping Tom". All her classmates and her teacher stare straight at Rein, and so do other students outside the classroom. The hallway Rein escapes to fades into pale green, with diagonal white lines shooting from windows at her face. Rein collapses on her knees, embracing her pocket Navi and calling "Arisu!" endlessly. Suddenly, a windowpane cracks and bright red, blue, yellow, and pink patches of colors confront her. As a dark blue color swallows the brighter ones, Lain's grin flashes across the screen. Rein runs up to the rooftop and cries, cradling her head in her arms that rest on her knees, "What's the other me doing?" Soon the gym behind her explodes. The background changes to a combination of yellow and orange, through which Rein walks slowly, her eyes downcast. At night, Rein watches with
46	An emulator translates a certain format of digital information into another.
47	The English subtitle, that does not differentiate Lain from Rain in spelling, uses the spelling "Lain" in this scene, but the screen shows Rein in Kanji.
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tear-drowned eyes lightening zipping with sparkling sounds along the power lines outside her bedroom window. Following the images of the mirror ball in Cyberia, a traffic light, and additional lightening comes a fuzzy image of Rein herself in her bear pyjamas. The Teddy Bear-like being floats in the waves of a score of colored swinging ribbons and a red, gray, and purple splotched tide. The background music is annoyingly mechanical. All of this is soon replaced by the image of Rein in her bear pyjamas hanging onto the power line outdoors, as if the innocent girl is desperately hanging onto the analogue system. Momentarily, a black background closes in on her, to scorch her into a small pink body with gray burns; her eyes are wide open but paralyzed; her hair as a patch of red and black flecks swings in a heat wave. This image of her scalded body returns when Rein pronounces that she has nothing to do with Lain. However firm may her own awareness be, Rein's identity is razed by Lain, and the psychedelic art reveals the explosion inside Rein's brain in the way the laser beams create holograms. The digital art, and the digital world, make Rein's pain greater than her body can take.
Rein and Lain converse only twice. The first time, Rein yells at Lain for making Arisu's relations with her teacher public in Rein's name. Lain's laughing off of Rein's attempt at strangling her, "I'm committing suicide!" (L08), and the human-like warmth of Lain's body make Rein recoil. Rein cannot bring herself to kill a biological body, although she can reprogram a digital entity. Lain makes a move to pool her resources with Rein only at the end of the Experiments. Unlike how she had been, Lain tries to pull Rein out of her despair of having lost all her friends (L13), reminding her that it was Rein's own decision to delete herself from everyone's memory, that Eiri has never been God, that his understanding of the Wired being an upper layer of the world is wrong, that Wired is just a field through which information travels, that no digital space is big enough to contain everyone's memories, that Rein is God, that it is easier to be a god than to be a human, and proposes that she and Rein should start together afresh. She does not seem to be Eiri's fan. Lain disappears for good when Rein flatly refuses to work with her. This shows Rein's decision to be a true Cyberian who does not follow another's rules. (cf. Rushkoff 1994 book, 205) But who was Lain? Dan Kottle48 would answer that she was a part of Rein's consciousness. Kottle has told Rushkoff that consciousness is essentially digital, hence binary. A digital
48 Kottle is one of the original Apple engineers who is now an independent computer graphic designer. (See Rushkoff 1994 book, 26)
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computer evaluates each matter by a series of yes or no, dot or dash49. Lain in Rein's digitalized brain acted as the negative of the binary factor. Rein's refusal to make room for Lain's input is tantamount to her preference for the analogue system.
Embodiment: Arisu
The character that helps Rein confront Eiri's second contention is Arisu. Arisu is the most conscientious of Rein's friends and she is the most sensitive to physical contact. She is tightly holding Rein's hands when Rein slowly pronounces Arisu's name at the police station. At school also, she holds Rein's hands and calls her a friend when Rein needs help. The warmth of Arisu's hands spellbounds Rein. At home, Arisu enjoys her teacher's body heat in her imagination. For her, physical warmth equals spiritual warmth. This analogue-type girl is the only one to visit Rein in her dark paint-smeared house even after her fictive family has abandoned Rein. Rein pulls herself up from under a mesh of computer wires, many still attached to her body. Arisu feels Rein's cheeks to ascertain that Rein is still alive and puts Rein's hands on her own throbbing heart. Eiri comes down from nowhere to explain why Arisu's heart is throbbing, "it is because she is afraid of losing her body." Eiri fears that Arisu may have hacked Rein's brain and offers to "debug" Rein. Bereft of the argument against Rein's disapproval of Eiri as God, Eiri resorts to a physical force, building his body up with the collection of Rein's computer parts in her room. Rein is quick to point out the inconsistency between Eiri's body-abolition propaganda and his helter-skelter assemblage of an extemporaneous body, "A body doesn't mean anything to you, right?" Her sarcasm knocks Eiri down as fatally as Rein's refusal to work together smites Lain.
The warmth of Arisu's body and soul keeps Rein from suicide. In fact, one of her sad memories is about when she became invisible to her classmates and teacher. Her desk had disappeared, too. This is why Chisa, the other girl who killed herself by jumping in front of a train, the Accela tripper, Cheshire Cat, and many other phantoms put on one shape or another to come to talk with Rein. True, Rein did say that "everyone is just an application" and "You don't need bodies" at one point (L12), but that was before Arisu's heartbeat restored humanity back in Rein's memory.
49 For detail, see Rushkoff 1994 book, 28.
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Conclusion: Digital and Analogue
In one way or another, Lain and Eiri have proven that digital minds can be more harmful than can analogue-like ineffective bodies. Rein has protected herself from Lain and Eiri by wiping them out of her Ecclesian W3, and has deleted the memory of herself from people's memories, under the banner of "What isn't remembered never happened" (L13). Her new mental abode is now clean and peaceful. But too soon, Rein finds herself assaulted by a new uneasiness of not knowing where to locate herself in her own mind if not in others' also. The lack of identity torments her as much as Lain's existence did. But to Rein's, and the anime audience's surprise, Mr. Iwakura—father of the fictive Iwakura family of so many years ago—returns. It may be that his name, rock (^ iwa) and warehouse (^ kura), has kept him safe from any of the changes that took place in the three Ecclesian worlds. He fishes Rein up from the bottom of her well of despair and greets her like the yellow sunlight he appears in. The way Rein calls him "Dad", and the tears she sheds at his warm words restore human warmth in Rein's desiccated heart. His suggestion to have tea with Madeleine cookies shows his understanding of Rein's craving for physical and spiritual warmth. Madeleine, as we know, is a cookie that opens up a panorama of the narrator's memories in the "Swan's Way" chapter of Marcel Proust's novel A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) (Proust 1928). An implied message is that memories connect people and balance the global organism.
The anime audience have learned through Rein's experiments that the digital mechanism can replace human intelligence, but it is the analogue system that makes joy felt. It is ironical that highly articulate computer graphics help articulate the characters' struggling emotions. Either way, it is the expository approach that has unfolded the dynamics of human cognition systems and their effects. Experiments prompts us to wave a flag in support of Paul Wells' remark about anime's creative power.
References
Baudrillard, Jean. 1997. Simulacra and Simulation, translated by Shiela Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Casalegno, Federico. 2010. "Thought on the Convergence of Digital Media, Memory, and Social and Urban Spaces." In The New Media and Cybercultures Anthology, edited by Pramod K. Nayar, 117-27. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge. Accessed January 15, 2015. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Dodgson. html.
Eccles, John, ed. 1982. "The Human Brain and the Human Person." In Mind and Brain: The Many-Faceted Problems, 81-98. Washington: Paragon House.
Eccles, John, and Daniel Robinson. 1991. "A Contemporary Defense of Dualism." In
Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, edited by Louis P. Pojman, 291-305. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Gomez, Juan Antonio, 1982. "C3 Neurological Correlation of Some Universal Principles."
In Mind and Brain: The Many-Faceted Problems, edited by John Eccles, 207-19. Washington: Paragon House.
Hayles, N. Katherine. 1999. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
-. 2004. "Flesh and Metal: Reconfiguring the Mindbody in Virtual Environments." In
Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information, edited by Robert Mitchel and Phillip Thurtle, 229-47. New York: Routledge.
Katö, Mikirö	. 2009a. Animation no eiga-gaku	i^a^
(Cinematography of Animation). Kyoto: Rinsen Shoten.
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kuraudosukeipu tM^Mfe: WMW.7— ^ay^If^
(The Cloudscapes in Makoto Shinkai's Animation-movies)." In <Bijuaru bunka shirizu> Animation no eiga-gaku	/^^-f ^
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Kyoto: Rinsen Shoten.
Kitano, Taiitsu	1998. Nihon Anime shigaku kenkyü josetsu [TH^T — ^^^
W^ff^J (Introduction to the Study of Japanese Anime History). Tokyo: Hachiman Shoten.
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Nakamura, Ryütarö ^^fl^^ßß. 1998. Shiriaru ekusuperimentsu rein f^VY^^^ ^ ■^V/yy-U^y^ (Serial Experiments, Lain). Tokyo: Pioneer LDC, DVD.
Pojman, Louis. 1991. Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Proust, Marcel. 1928. Swann's Way, translated by C.K. Scott Monscrieff. New York: Modern Library.
Rushkoff, Douglas. 1994. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace. San Francisco: Flamingo (book).
http://www. google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1 &gs_mss=cyberia%20li&cp=20&gs_id=11g
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&xhr=t&q=cyberia+life+in+the+trenches+of+hyperspace&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=cyberia+life+in+the+&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp =793ef4bddd24371e&biw=1383&bih=791, 3. (PDF)
Shaffer, Jerome. 1991. "Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem." In Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, edited by Louis P. Pojman, 27989. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Wells, Paul. 2002. Animation: Genre and Authorship. London: A Wallflower Paperback.
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A Male Transformation into a Female Character on the Noh Stage
Violetta BRAZHNIKOVA TSYBIZOVA*
Abstract
Femininity and the feminine figure itself in Noh theatre plays an important role, though nowadays the interpreter is fundamentally masculine. The central aim of impersonating feminine roles by masculine performers, and therefore creating the masculine femininity consists of transmitting the spirit and the state of mind in place of ordinary copies of external femininity signs. That is the basis of the work of interpretation of the actor in the Noh theatre, similar in the case of both male and female roles. However, this paper will examine the technique in both occasions, and the difference in the event that there is a difference.
Keywords: Noh stage, impersonating, masculine femininity, feminine figure, Zeami
Izvleček
Ženskost in ženske figure same po sebi imajo v gledališču no pomembno vlogo, čeprav so danes izvajalci v osnovi moški. Osnovni cilj poosebljanja ženskih vlog moških izvajalcev in tako ustvarjanja moške ženskosti je sestavljen iz prenašanja duha in stanja miselnosti na mesto navadne kopije zunanjih znakov ženskosti. To je temelj dela interpretacije igralca v gledališču no, ki je podobno v primeru tako moških in ženskih vlog. Ta članek bo tako preučil tehinke v obeh primerih in razlike, v primeru, da se pojavljajo.
Ključne besede: gledališče no, moška ženskost, ženske figure, Zeami
* Violetta BRAZHNIKOVA TSYBIZOVA, Research Associate, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. b.sumire@gmail.com
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Violetta BRAZHNIKOVA TSYBIZOVA: A Male Transformation into a Female Character Introduction
The feminine figure holds a significant place in the Noh theatre, being one of the five Noh play categories dedicated entirely to women. In a great number of plays the main character is the feminine one, with a wide spectrum of ages, emotions, social statuses and principal purposes of the roles for the protagonist. Unlike Kabuki, where the male interpreter tries to imitate women, Noh offers a radically different approach, using the same interpretative technique for both masculine and feminine roles. Actually, not to imitate, but to transmit the spirit, and not to copy, but to capture the state of mind is the basis of the interpretation by the actor in the Noh theatre. In Noh theatre, it is more of an aesthetic than psychological procedure. ("Algunos Shite típicos...")
According to the Noh system, the primary objective of performance consists of transmitting the feminine spirit, through the tight control of energy that the actor uses according to each role, and with the total avoidance of the naturalist procedure. The femininity in Noh is transmitted through external tangible signs such as the mask, wig, and costume, and supported by the signs of a different nature as the rhythm and the energy of the movement. Although contemporary theory has already made a great incursion in the Noh dramatic literature, the internal process of the interpreter, the reasons, and the results of the masculine attempt to temporarily become a woman on the Noh stage remain insufficiently studied. This paper focuses on how the actor adopts the feminine spirit without losing his masculine essence, and will highlight the procedures of this unique method based on the intellectual agreement with the public.
On the other hand, it must be noted that the whole study refers to Noh theatre, and in no case will analyze Nohgaku, which is the compilation of Noh and Kyogen.
Masculinity and Femininity in Japanese Society
Obviously, the concept of femininity was altering over time according to social reforms and changes. The ideal submissive woman of the Edo period (1603-1868) differs in a great manner from the Noh characters mainly composed following the aesthetic standards of femininity in the Heian (794-1159) or Muromachi (13371573) period. The capricious Ono-no Komachi from Kayoi Komachi, the jealous Rokujo-no Miyasudokoro from Aoi no Ue, and the dancer girl from Dojoji, terrible in her passion, do not show any sign of submission to the terrestrial man. Only
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praying and the fear of the spiritual and physical punishment in hell can reduce them. On the other hand, submission is also present through the characters' behaviour, as one of the signs of the ultimate femininity even in these ancient times. For instance, Yuya, from the play of the same title, is a supreme example of the obedient and delicate woman. Whereupon, even changing the femininity signs over time, the main one is the obedience and submission to the male predominating force to some extent to the present day. According to Hofstede's research (1980, 288), modern Japanese society is still associated with the dominant masculine factor and the massive feminine submission as main aspects of traditional gender role ideology. However, the 20th century had introduced in the masculine/feminine relationship such innovations as laws that should regulate their correlation in both the domestic and professional sphere, though the following study will highlight to what extent these laws are used in practice.
The concept of "masculinity and femininity" within the context of this article means mainly the handling of tolerance/intolerance. Throughout the history of world culture it can refer to religious and/or territorial causes, causes of sex (opposition woman/man), etc. However, it almost always insinuates to be inside or to be outside some established system, in other words to be able to represent the other, or of being represented by the other. Also, the one that is outside the system is the "other", or the weak one. Hierarchies arise as a result of the recognition of differences, creating the exclusion of the "other" and nostalgia of the one where this one is free to decide the fate of others. This confrontation can be expressed by different words in a variety of contexts:
body/soul irrational/rational matter/form male/female, etc.
The confrontation of the last two polarities is still a pending subject even in the Western world, which fails to overcome a significant amount of prejudice that emphasizes male superiority in society, and has become increasingly alarming in the world inevitably referred to as "Oriental". This fact cannot be omitted entirely as a decisive impact on the development of the so-called traditional Japanese theatre where the main performer even nowadays is still the male one. Though currently Noh theatre admits the creation of the feminine troupes, it should not be
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forgotten that the value of such performances is considered quite low among the Japanese Noh researchers. On the other hand, Kabuki theatre suffers from the official government ban on female presence from 1629, and still no actress is on the Kabuki professional stage, though the Meiji government (1868-1912) had removed the ban two hundred and fifty years later. Traditionally, the Japanese woman lived behind closed doors during the eight centuries of military rule, and is seen as the negative, the passive, the weak, and the submissive member of the society, corresponding to her role of yin in the Chinese duality system of the world. Femininity in the Middle Age is associated with the jealousy too, and therefore even nowadays the traditional feminine wedding costume includes tsunokakushi ^ISL ("a piece of fabric that hides the horns any woman is supposed to have"). Abandoning her ego by the act of the wedding, the woman agrees to be an obedient wife. Thus, obedience, passiveness, and jealousy are the main signs of traditional Japanese femininity, widely represented on the Noh stage, though this image largely differs from the image of the modern Japanese woman. Therefore, while Edo period shows some important changes in the image of women, at least on Kabuki stage and on the social stage of Japanese society, even more can be expected from the contemporary times. Usually, in the old days a woman dedicated her entire life to ie M- ("the family/home"), meanwhile the man, whose role is strong, active and bright in accordance with yang, lived for the state. The male function within the family is similar to the one that shogun holds towards the state. In other words, shogun/man is the head of the state/family according to neo-Confucian doctrine, being this peculiar relationship between state/family practically unchanged until the end of World War II. The next brief list of important achievements in the emancipation of Japanese women throughout the twentieth century displays the contribution to the change of the image of women in the contemporary world:
1900: the first women's college was founded.
1911-1916: Hiratsuka Raicho1	1886-1971) founded a literary
organization called "Seito sha"	She published a magazine, Seito
1 Mizoguchi Kenji	1898-1956), author of eighty-five films (today only thirty-one are
conserved), in Joyu Sumako no Koi	The Love of the Actress Sumako, 1947) and
Waga Koi wa Moenu (fc^'^ttlifi, My Love Burns, 1949) portrays Matsui Sumako -f, 1886-1919) and Kageyama Hideko (^lll^^, 1865-1927), Japanese pioneers in feminism and advocacy respectively.
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W®, "Bluestocking", in which only women could write. She stressed the liberation of women.
1920-1922: Hiratsuko Raicho and Ichikawa Fusae	founded Shin
fujin kyokai ffiMWA^ (The New Japan Women's Association,)
1946: Under the new Constitution, women's right was achieved.2
In modern times, social changes are also due to changes in the political landscape. The current family law was approved in 1948 after Japan's defeat in World War II. The law is based on basic human rights, human dignity, equality of sexes, and followed the footsteps of the Japanese Constitution promulgated in 1947. The main objective of this law was to reform the law of the Meiji Era family. Liberals demanded the abolition of ie, because they believed it was violating both human dignity and equality of the sexes, while conservatives were in favour of continuing ie. Finally, a law that insisted that the family should be a core consisting of parents and minor children was approved. Furthermore, it stated that family members could take any of two surnames, either the husband's or the wife's surname. Practically, however, the surname of the husband is generally the one that continues to be the name of a new family. (1948 Family Register Law 2015)
After the war, Japan quickly recovered its economic capacity, and thus household consumption increased significantly. Traditional shopping rushes of appliances occur. Husbands "get marred" with the company and work day and night, and meanwhile, the wives are behind doors again dedicating their time to raising children and being engaged in housework. Thus, with economic success, the division of labour is accentuated once again. Companies have replaced the ancient clans, employees thereof have replaced bushi, and Western suits have replaced traditional Japanese clothes. Fidelity to the clan has disappeared, and become the giri S3 ("debt") to the company. Labour reputation of the individual, important since the days of yore, has not lost its relevance today, and with it comes the concept of social death, which is a personal disgrace and therefore the entire company's problem, so it is avoided at all costs. (Pérez García-Valdecasas 2015)
Following the economic crisis caused by the rising of oil prices in 1973 and 1978, the transformation of the manufacturing industry intensified. Women were
2 During the Taisho era (^E, 1912-1925), in 1925 the Law of the right to vote to all adult male citizens is approved.
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leaving home more often. In fact, in 1975 one out of two women employees got married. Women were frequently hired as part-time workers. For the woman herself, her work complemented the family income, but in no case constituted a profession. She considered home the most important thing because there she had the authority and control over the money, including the husband's income. Working conditions and taxation did not favour the work of the housewife outside the home. On the other hand, the responsibility for the administration of the house fell on housewives, even when they had outside employment. In short, the economic prosperity of Japan was achieved in a relatively short time thanks to a sharp division of labour, with the total dedication of the man to paid work, fulfilling his social commitments to the job environment and subsequent absence from home. The marriage was seen as teamwork, with no equal male-female relationship. The husband-wife relationship was replaced by the mother-children relationship, because the mother was responsible for the upbringing and education of the children. (Briton 1993, 12)
In 1975, the International Women's Year was declared with the aim of improving the status of women. In 1979, The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was issued by the United Nations General Assembly. Japan took time to ratify it. In doing so in 1985, Japan was committed to review both the legal system and customs. As a result, in 1985 the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) was promulgated, and came into force the next year. As a conservative response to the law, working conditions for women worsened. In Japan today, there are still areas where the law does not apply, for example, in the area of traditional arts. Nonetheless, perhaps the reason is that the ancient arts, once their form was stabilized in an almost perfect condition, do not need the female presence at all, having survived without it during the passage of time.
In recent times, there have been other legal improvements such as the right to use the maiden name at work after marriage, the use of different surnames between the couple and the heritage that favors the wife. Because of the declining birth rate, in 1991 the Child-Care Leave Law to support working mothers was approved. (Introduction to the Revised Child Care 2015)
In 1999 the Basic Law on the Cooperative Participation of Men and Women in Society was enacted. Because of this law, equal participation in social activities by both sexes was promoted for the first time, and legal remedies were available to
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correct inequalities. The sixth article refers to the family, and states that both participants must carry all household activities equally. Moreover, despite all the legal changes affecting Japanese society, partly gained from feminist movements, partly promoted by some NGOs concerned with discrimination, the current situation is as follows: the birth rate has declined since the 1970s. The current average is 1.39 children per woman throughout her lifetime. A couple has on average no more than 2.2 children. The main causes are similar to those of other developed countries: the devaluation of wages, rising prices, increasing parental age, growth in the number of divorces, hedonism, dysfunctional family where the couple does not speak or have a relationship, the strengthening of the parent-child relationship and consequently their coexistence in the same household to a ripe age of the latter.
In short, Japan's traditional family has lost all value in the eyes of the modern population, and the image of women has evolved greatly, becoming almost opposite to the femininity of the Middle Ages, and with a certain access to political activities that was previously closed to women. From the 1980s families constituting one person have appeared. The family model is constantly evolving and hardly lends itself to a definition due to the increasing variety of forms and content. As for the present concept of femininity, certainly the delicacy, the sweetness, the gentleness, and the cuteness, especially for females below age 30, are on the top of the list. However, the gender role model had changed in such a manner that the current Japanese woman chooses her professional career again and again at the expense of her private life. Active, hardworking, independent and highly influenced by the Western feminine ideal perceived in films and other sources, the modern-day Japanese woman studies foreign languages, travels frequently and makes direct contact with Western culture, absorbing its ideas of the place of the woman in modern-day society.
Regarding the traditional theatre, however, the woman's place is still the same as in the past, being the labor reforms completely ignored. Meanwhile in Kabuki the onnagata was obliged to follow the rules established for the female members of Japanese society during the Edo period,3 while the woman in Noh theatre was
3 Once the feminine presence had been banned by the bakufu, Kabuki theatre was in necessity to survive. One of the main points of the new Kabuki production was the appearance of the male interpreters responsible for the impersonation of the female characters. The term that defines this category of actors is onnagata . In the past the onnagata were forced to carry the life
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simply completely absent. The idea of the female interpreter on the Noh stage is so outstanding even nowadays, that important magazines or newspapers will discuss it.4 The circumstance that the female interpreters are still not allowed on the Noh professional stage on a regular basis is due to the above-mentioned relationship between the tolerance and intolerance to a certain extent, though it can be also debated that the aesthetic significance of the transformation of masculine in feminine also plays an important role in preserving the conception of the traditional Noh production. Definitely, the main artistic and technique pattern, created by Zeami in his dissertations, is written by the male performer for the male interpreter's body and spirit.5 Even so, many of the Japanese traditional arts like tea ceremony or ikebana, initially introduced by the male master, with time have developed into arts shared by both men and women. In some cases, some of these arts have almost entirely become the female prerogative. Noh theatre has its own path, as Kyogen, Bunraku and Kabuki do, with the gender-related licenses and prohibitions, and in the same manner these three kinds of dramatic art leave aside the female presence on the stage. Once the technique of female-character impersonation by the male interpreter was established, both actors and the conservative public have rejected the innovation/reintroduction of the female performer that could destroy—in their opinion—the ideal composition originated hundreds of years ago. In no case does it mean that female interpreters have never accessed the Noh stage. On the contrary, the feminine presence was quite
characteristic to the Japanese woman even offstage: dressing, sewing in their spare time, celebrating the women events, wearing makeup, varnishing nails with a special brush, blushing the cheeks with red, painting on top of the forehead a subtle eyebrows using a small brush, etc. Their voice changed slowly. Without becoming falsetto, it resembled the chirping bird. On the street the onnagata were a step behind the tachiyaku	("actor in Kabuki theatre playing the role of husband or lover").
This was integrated into the anti-naturalistic lines of Kabuki theatre. Unlike Noh actors, the onnagata from childhood were devoted to study the personality of a woman, her gestures, her nature, her manners, and charms just to impersonate her better than a real woman would reach it, and play a female character with greater refinement than any actress would do. The purpose was of becoming a woman, but a perfect traditional woman, seen through the eyes of man, a woman that exists only in the male imagination.
4	"Women in Noh", by Eric Prideaux, published in The Japan Times is a good example of it. The author states that the Noh stage is still dominated by the male performer, and explains the start of the modest access of the woman to the Noh stage as a hobby only in the early 20th century. Nowadays, a very small number of female interpreters is admitted to the professional Noh stage, though they have to struggle with numerous prohibits because of their condition as women. The feminine discrimination in the Noh world is not referred only to the stage. The backstage is also still a male world, and their members such as costume designers, for example, mainly continue living in the feudal ie in their private lives even today.
5	In case of female interpreters, when they play male roles, they adjust their voices and their movements to achieve the highest resemblance to the man.
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important during the early days of Noh history. After the Noh world was established, with an absolutely masculine production environment, the woman took her position on the stage as a character only, once again manifesting the signs of classical Japanese femininity: passiveness, delicacy, submission, weakness, jealousy, ego, and sometimes obedience. Of course, it could be argued that the same characteristics can also appear in the masculine character in Noh, or even on the European stage, as universal human features. Nevertheless, those are always special features of an isolated character under certain conditions, and in no case can serve as gender characteristics regardless of socio-economic, educational, or religious conditions of its members, as it happened in traditional Japan to the feminine figure, conditioned by her image built and impersonated by man on the Noh stage during the last 600 years.
Methods: Mask
Regarding masculinity and femininity in Japanese society, several logical questions arise: How is the male performer able to reproduce traditional Japanese femininity on the Noh stage? What kinds of techniques are in his hands for the precise sex shifting on stage? Is it really feasible to convincingly convey the essence of the opposite sex during performance? Is it supportable to consider the naturalistic method of transmission of femininity by the male interpreter as the most suitable one? In fact, does the male interpreter transform into a female character realistically in the Noh play? Who, when and where is the transformation into a female character on the Noh stage, if at all? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to assume that the public observes only the outward signs adopted during the performance, that do not detract at all from the actor's masculinity? Perhaps there is absolutely no authentic change, but only a sample of external signs of the transformation.
Actually, femininity components, seen through the eyes of man, are successfully distributed in the total Noh mise-en-scène. Dance, mask, wig, and costume that are in use during the performance, the instrumental music produced by hayashi, the vocal music produced by jiutai and the interpreter, and the acting technique of the performer are responsible for the correct expression of the feminine character on the stage. All the above-enumerated constituents of the Noh performance draw attention to the simplicity as one of the main features of the Noh theatre. Simple props, masks, and tsukurimono ffî Vffi ("set pieces")
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emphasize the complexity of the costumes, the only constituent that stands out for its voluptuousness and majesty among other tangible items. Furthermore, these elements underline the message of the play. The mask, on the other hand, has a colossal supremacy in the whole mise-en-scene. Even the finishing of both the reverse and the front of the mask is significant. The back can smooth or obstruct the use of the mask, and therefore, can restrict the performance quality. Additionally, an inadequate resonance of the mask can collapse the interpretation, and hinder the advent of hana ffi. Thereby, the mask can be considered one of the musical instruments in Noh, according to Udaka Michishige (2010, 104). With regard to the choice of the facial expression of the mask, it can add a completely new tone to the interpretation of the character. Beyond the costume, the wig, and the movements, the female mask with its delicate lines and round eyeholes 6 intensifies the symbolic image of the character. Thus, the mask is not just a prop, but also a defining integrant of the performance with its great stage presence. The shite role performer chooses the mask in advance, months before the performance, according to his individual interpretation of the character (Udaka 2010, 34). The mask itself, a priori, has a neutral appearance as a heritage of the first Noh masks made originally by copying the faces of the dead. This notion is known as chukan hyojo.7 It is considered as an essential component of the Noh performance, being one of the main characteristics of the Noh technique used by actors and all the Noh staff without mask, like musicians, chorus, and even koken	The so-called
"neutral beauty" of the mask allows the actor to deliberately fill the stage with the sorrow or the joy that is dominating the character by using a different angle of the inclination of the mask. The elusiveness of the usually vaguely asymmetrical mask that is smaller than the interpreter's face itself, especially in case of the female mask, does not create any feature of the character, but evokes yugen S ("mysterious beauty").8 The subtle and precise kata, the appropriately chosen fan,
6	Masculine masks tend to have squarer eyehole. Actually, the shape of the eyes for both sexes reflects the natural body lines. As for female characters, these should have curves, while the masculine characters have more angles.
7	Chukan hyojo	is an important aesthetic notion that encloses "an ambiguous expression neither definitively joyful nor sad" (Udaka 2010, 44).
8	The complex concept of yugen, which literally means "the hidden and dark" and which originally was referred to the hidden meaning of sutras, is the most important term of the medieval aesthetics. Yugen can be understood as the highest form of harmonic and subtle spiritual beauty. Poetry, music, and singing "open the ears" of the public, meanwhile "the interpretation and dance" open their eyes. Therefore, the hidden beauty of the character will be manifested visibly, and will cause the audience a sense of empathy, or according to the terminology of Zen Buddhism, a kind of "enlightenment".
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and the stage costume and wig must complete the emotional picture of the main character. There is something else to consider when evaluating the mask. According to Udaka Michishige as regards, shite-kata and mask maker,
Noh's true uniqueness lies in the way it eschews any portrayal or visible reality, instead expressing the inner workings of the protagonist's heart and mind through a bare minimum of movements and chanting to aid the narrative progression, with musical accompaniment adding further dramatic color (2010, 146).
Although in this passage Udaka Michishige refers to the interpretative technique, it can be used when analyzing the mask in Noh.9 The "visible reality" of the Japanese, both nowadays and in the époque when the Noh theatre was established, has nothing in common with the mask's expression. The mask is just an idea that the actor should fill with emotions.
As is well known, Noh plays can be divided into five categories, and gobandate	("the day's program") is divided into five groups as well,
both codified during Edo era (1603-1868):
a)	shin # ("god")
b)	nan % ("man")
c)	nyo ^ ("woman")
d)	kyo ("madness")
e)	ki % ("demon")
Each of these categories is called wakinoh-mono ^fe^, shura-mono ^Mffi, kazura-mono M^,10 kurui-mono	or zatsunoh ^fe, respectively, and they
are performed in this order. However, in modern Japan the usual Noh program consists of two Noh plays and Kyogen in between. All the play categories have corresponding masks: onna ^ ("female masks"), otoko % ("male masks"), jo
"Enlightenment" as a result of a long-term training process of Zen Buddhists was closely related to the similarly long-term training process that Zeami had drawn in his treatises. Nine levels of the actor's training, in other words "Way of Noh", were called to lead him to a supreme level of his art, that could be compared with the religious "enlightenment". (Reimer 1984, xxi)
9	In should be noted that a number of plays do not make use of masks for shite character (hitamen mono MM^M ("maskless pieces")), but only in case of male character.
10	The number of the female masks increased rapidly thanks to the extension of the repertory in Zeami's times. They transmit all emotions characteristic to the medieval femininity image: from the classical quiet beauty of ko-omote to the highest expression of jealousy of the golden-eyed deigan.
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("elderly characters' masks"), okina m ("aged deities' masks"),11 kijin12 and kishin masks used for supernatural characters, and onryo ("spirits of the living or dead characters") masks. However, it is important to recall that in a number of Noh plays, divided into two parts, the main character suffers a dramatic transformation that involves a change of the costume and the mask. Mae-shite M ^y^T, the protagonist of the first half, is generally responsible for the introduction of some legendary character to the travelling waki V ^ ("supporting character in Noh performance"), while nochi-shite	habitually reveals the authentic
personality of the main character during the second half of the performance that usually corresponds to the night dream of waki. The appearance of the main character is completely transformed at the kagami-no-ma,13 while ai-kyogen m ("folk character") relates the story of the first half of the performance in a simple and accessible language. In addition to the traditional ways of the mask change, there are those that endanger the health of the performer. Of course, in respect to the vision, regardless of the gender of the character, there is a longstanding technique in Noh to orient oneself using the pillars, but in the case of Dojoji, the technique goes even further because of the actor's work with a very reduced vision that the mae-shite mask offers to him during the first half of the play, and the quick and dangerous change that follows. The timing of getting under the bell, which falls from the ceiling at the end of the first part of the performance, requires accurate calculation of the space and excellent physical condition of the performer. As the actor enters under the bell, a change of mask from one of the onna-men ^ffi ("female masks used in Noh performance") to shinja,14 costume, and wig, all of a female character, starts on the stage, unlike a usual mise-en-scene.
11	The ancient ceremony of okina traditionally is designated to the pray for the longevity and a rich harvest. When Sarugaku was established, Okina was the opening play of the program, followed by several Noh plays.
12	Kijin (demon), kishin (god). This kanji is characterized by a double reading. Depending on the context and pronunciation, the meaning of the term changes, signifying "kishin" a good god,
meanwhile "kijin" meaning "an evil spirit".
13	Kagami-no-ma	is a room with a large mirror separated from the stage by the colourful curtain. It is the space where the character is mainly created by the actor moments before the start of the performance.
14	Shinja M^, feminine ghost mask, characterized by jealousy and a desire for revenge. Used mainly by the nochi-shite in the second half of Dojoji.
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Thus, as noted in the above examples, the mask is one of the stage components that emphasize the femininity of the character and communicates a wide range of emotions with the support of other stage elements. Nonetheless, it is not enough to only put on a mask in kagami-no-ma before arriving to the stage. Yet another factor confirms that the mask is not just part of the props. Unless the costume and wig are put on in the dressing room, the merging of the actor and character through the mask occurs in kagami-no-ma. Situated between the dressing room and the stage, the "mirror room", or sometimes called maku-no-ma	(the
"curtain room"), is a sacred space where shite sits down in front of the mirror, concentrates mentally and physically on the role, and finishes the creating of the character by putting on the mask and transforming into the protagonist. Udaka Michishige points out that "this is the moment when he pours all his emotions into the mask, and simultaneously, a sacred interlude in which the role he is about to play fills him (Udaka 2010, 127).
As already mentioned, a deep understanding of the role is absolutely vital. This understanding is required not only from the actor, but also from the mask maker. Both of them must be able to interpret the Noh story and the character's state of mind and be immersed in the character. Even a slight error of the mask maker can transmit a mistaken message to the audience.
Stage Costume and Wig
The angular silhouette of the costume, besides its aesthetic purpose, allows the actor to make the kata correctly, though the mask with its eyeholes cannot be adjusted exactly to the performer's eyes, and restricts the vision and the whole body control. Actually, the costume, the wig, and the mask are used with the purpose of overriding the actor's body, unexciting to the public in its individuality. The mask, for instance, serves to first negate the individual features and the language of the facial expression of the actor, with the complete annulation of the existence of the mask within the conciseness of the interpreter as the next step. The actor is annulled because of his main aim to serve as the mediator between the kami # ("gods") and the human beings, as it was the purpose of the original Noh performances in Kan'ami and Zeami times. However, currently Noh is not a religious experience anymore but a stage art based on an encounter between man and man. The costume, on the other hand, is denying the actor the individual features too, but calls the attention of the public in case of shite, whose robe is
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always bright in contrast with the dark and simple costume of waki, especially in plays of the third group. Being the central point of the character, the costume can symbolize many notions, for example, surihaku	("white under robe")
represents a woman's skin. On the other hand, iroiri ^A^ ("presence of the red colour in the costume") can indicate the young age of the female character, while ironashi fe^L ("absence of the red colour") suggests that the heroine is not young anymore, though generally the costumes are just sophisticated versions of the medieval Japanese costumes.
According to P.G. O'Neill, all of the participants of the Noh play are responsible for the creation of the female character. Even musicians with their intricate melodies are creating the atmosphere characteristic of a play with a feminine protagonist (O'Neill 2001, 55). The creator of the stage costume, in this case, is a figure with exceptional importance. As it is known, the Noh-stage costume makers follow the rules of working in guilds. The organization of working in groups and the main terminology of this system, with the transmission of the skills from one generation to the next, is known in Japan since the appearance of the first Buddhist sects, and was adopted by Gagaku families within the arts around the beginning of the eighth century. P.G. O'Neill states that
These families specialized in the playing of one or other of the musical instruments used, or in the dancing; skills were passed on from one generation to the next or, in the case of especially secret techniques, from a father to one son only; no divergence from the traditional style of performance was allowed; and one family of Kyoto performers even had a monopoly of certain dances (2001, 16).
The cited transmission system does not differ from the one Zeami spread, or better put, used six centuries later, being its two main characteristics of the monopoly and secret transmission.15 This practice successfully demonstrates its vigor and longevity, having been used by the Sarugaku groups from the fourteenth century, and being applied to some extent even nowadays. Protection of the shrines and temples permits Sarugaku za ffi ("groups"), which enclose all of the interpreters, including musicians, and perform both Noh and Kyogen in the province of
15 The Gagaku monopoly system disappears "with the establishment of the Gagaku Bureau of the Imperial Household Ministry in the early years of the Meiji period, since when they have maintained no more than their particular associations with musical instruments or dancing" (O'Neill 2001, 16). As for the Noh world, the system continues being quite hermetic even nowadays with strict access selection of the new members from the families, traditionally linked to the Noh production.
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Yamato, to establish four lines that reach modern times: Kanze, Hosho, Kongo, Konparu. Having the dramatic structure of Sarugaku Noh already completed with song, dance, and music in 1246, the actors though did not have the opportunity to regularly share stage experience, being dispersed throughout Japan. Therefore, they were forced to cultivate an individual performing style. Around the seventeenth century the four main Noh lines had disintegrated according to their professional specialization, creating new groups and schools with the hereditary succession to iemoto ^^ ("headship"), hiden	("secret transmission") of
traditional teaching, a permit system of becoming a professional member of the group, hierarchical organization, and "a strong sense of duty and obligation within a school" (O'Neill 2001, 18-20), and all those features currently in force.
The Noh costume maker families, like the Yamaguchi dynasty, vehemently preserve the ancient rules of costume production and the above-stated characteristics of the group routine. Even nowadays the main work of the costume production is the prerogative of the masculine master according to the ancient conception of the Japanese society gender division. Female family members may particpate in the production of fabrics or during dyeing process. However, there is no indication that the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) works in this traditional sphere. Even admitted within production process, women frequently have access only to its lower echelons.
The present-day head of the Yamaguchi lineage, Yamaguchi Akira, is the founder of the Yamaguchi Noh Costume Research Center and the Azai Noh Gallery of Art in Shiga Prefecture, and son of the legendary Nishijin textile master Yamaguchi Yasujiro (1904-2010). The producing of the Noh costumes starts from the very beginning of the process—the planting of mulberry trees. After a number of steps on the way, Yamaguchi Akira chooses the correct colours of the future costumes, manufactures them and dedicates his time also to their maintenance. Besides that, the actual Yamaguchi master spreads the Noh-costume-production knowledge all over the world through lectures and participation in various Noh activities, reserving the right to tell the secret details of the fabricarion of the Noh costumes only to his heir, as the tradition requires.16
The scenic costumes in the ancient times were usually the property of the powerful patrons of the Noh groups. Until the Edo period the practice of throwing
16 Interview with Yamaguchi Akira, Kyoto, 7.8.2010.
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clothes on the stage was common. It was even customary to return the clothes the next day in exchange for a gift of money. During the Meiji Restoration (1868), the protectors like the Tokugawa administration had disappeared, following the head of the Kanze school and his patron, the last Tokugawa shogun, upon his retirement in Shizuoka. The Noh schools had lost most of the stage costumes, which had been sold, in their struggle to survive in the changing world. However, some of these stage robes still belong to the Noh schools and are treated as treasures. The Yamaguchi master keeps those costumes in perfect condition not only to exhibit, but also for the continued use on stage. As for the relationship with the main client, the Noh actor, Yamaguchi Akira helps to choose the adequate costume for the next play during full of yugen meetings at his headquarters. The Noh tempo is the protagonist of such meetings, during which the actor and the costume master analyze the way in which the silk threads are carefully woven. Every single stitch, even being invisible from the stalls, composes the whole, and that whole must correspond to the picture the actor has in mind. Both the Noh interpreter and the costume master possess a deep knowledge of the play that is being prepared. The process does not finish once the actor choses the costume. On numerous occasions the costume master or his heir come to see the performance to determine whether the costume is really in harmony with the character the interpreter is creating. On the other hand, the actor through the costume and other stage elements must fulfill the following requirements: transmit the character's internal state of mind and evoke emotions in the public, which is guided to react emotionally, not intellectually to the Noh experience.
Regarding the wig importance, it is necessary to remember that the third group name is kazura-noh. Of course, male characters also use the wig in the other groups' plays, but only the woman pieces are denominated as "wig plays". The central figure of the play17 is dressed in a wig and a lavish robe, and is characterized by high lyrical quality, delicacy, yugen, and elegant dances. The place of the "wig pieces" corresponds to the second part, ha in jo-ha-kyu system, in other words, the development/climax part, and occupies the most important place in the whole Noh program according to Zeami (Inoura 1971, 123). However, some of the female characters are also within the fourth and fifth groups, and even in their madness or in the form of a fabulous animal amazes the viewers with the beauty of their costumes and wigs.
17 All the analysis of the female character is referred to shite. Waki is always a male character.
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According to the character's age and status, there is a wide spectrum of wigs. Usually, they have long hair and are attached to a small piece of fabric and tied on the performer's head. The wigs specifically accompany corresponding masks. That is the case of white hair uba-katsura ^M ("old woman's wig") used for the aged Komachi character and accompanied by a uba mask. However, costumes, wigs and masks can be generally combined in many different ways and create a number of different characters.
Techniques: Impersonation
Training
The Noh actor usually starts to rehearse from a very young age. According to Zeami's theoretical works, the ideal age to start the Noh actor's career is seven, with the total freedom to perform the way the young interpreter wills. 18 Nonetheless, nowadays different schools offer opportunities for younger age performers, bearing in mind that each age of the performer's career has its dramatic advantage. In each of the Noh schools, the young interpreter can choose to enter still preserves slight alterations in the text and both elements of physicalization—kamae and kata,19 full of inaudible and quiet tension—from one school to another. During the early training process, the young interpreter absorbs Noh texts and movements, gets familiar with the fan as the main object on the stage due to its multiple uses by the interpreter, and even tries to build tsukurimono. Moreover, the little actor learns to play Noh instruments and in some cases to make the masks.
18	Zeami trusts the natural talent of the child at this age, starting to endure the training only little by little at the age of twelve. There are two next reasons for that: "Firstly, as he still has appearance of a child, whatever he does will have grace and subtle elegance. Secondly, his voice will carry well. Because of these two conditions, his weak points will be hidden, and his strong points will seem all the more splendid." (Zeami 2006, 64) At the age of seventeen, nevertheless, the young interpreter will loose his first hana, achieving the true hana only at the age of forty-five in case of assiduous work and tireless training.
19	M. Bethe and K. Brazell do not distinguish between female and male kata in their study that concentrates on a different classification because of initial lack of such dissimilarity in the patterns. Both authors work with "the concept of ground (ji) and design (mon)" (Bethe and Brazell 1982, 3) rather than adopted by the Noh masters system of patterns with meaning and patterns without meaning. Their study reveals once again that there is no major difference in scenic patterns between male and female characters. The most important difference observed from their study is the one that refers to the speed and the width of the movement, and the energy used to make it.
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Training as a professional actor implies complete dedication to the ancient art, full of cross-gender experience and with no specialization. According to Kamei Yuji, shite from Hosho school, a child born in the Noh family is not aware of any important event, no responsibility when he is brought for the first time to the Noh stage. He perceives all the elements that surround him as a game, especially dressing up in costumes of the past centuries. Once the performance is over, the young interpreter receives a lot of gifts and becomes the center of attention. Both serve as a stimulus for the further gradual introduction of the small actor on a professional stage. Little by little the individual rehearsals of the future shite or waki start and are held alone with the master who in some cases is the father of the young interpreter. Family and school secrets of the traditional art are passed down from generation to generation and are stored with the utmost reverence, avoiding abrupt changes or new interpretations, according to Kamei Yuji. Whether or not the young performer becomes a professional actor depends on himself. Will his hana bloom one day or not is a matter of his individual talent and dedication. Nobody will force him to learn the ancient technique. At the age of thirteen or fourteen a lot of kokata leave the Noh stage and associate their adulthood with other professions. Young interpreters who are loyal to the Noh stage make an effort both at school and at regular lessons with the Noh master. In the case of Kamei Yuji, who graduated from the Tokyo University of Dramatic Art, his learning was not limited to only the master's lessons. A turning point came when the actor had to go to live under the Noh theatre roof to penetrate the theatre spirit at a much higher degree than in the long years of training. However, the Noh system always leaves the performers ways to withdraw, though this only occurs at a certain point. Once defined and professionally consciously embarked on the Noh path, the actor has no choice but to perfect his art and cultivate hana.
The training includes some mandatory postures and movements that come from Zeami's treaties, or even from the medieval Buddhist statuary of the seventh century like an asymmetrical bent-knee position. This posture appears to be the perfect one for gathering energy and/or breath, with the focus in the lower abdomen, and is used in different activities as sports. The kuse ft ("static scene"), simple and easy to accomplish in the sight of an inexperienced foreigner, requires a great use of concentration and energy, achieving the actor's heartbeat of 180 beats per minute during this mute transmission of deep emotion. The absence of
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the visible movement increases the tension of expression of the character's state of mind even more. (Brandon 1997, 4)
The strict long exercise process of abstract kata and suriashi ^^ S ("gliding walk"), that differ in the emotion, energy and texture from one Noh play to another, is of a physical nature. Also, it has a practical use, not only the visual expression of the character' s feeling. As discussed above, the camp of vision is severely reduced by the mask. Therefore, the sliding walk helps the actor to control his energy and weight, though in case of a female role the actor has to keep the feet closer than for a male role, which makes it even more difficult to maintain balance. In addition to the mask, other obstacles such as a rigid costume, a very simple staging, or the permanently inclined torso position, make the actor concentrate on overcoming them with the use of the Noh interpretative technique characterized by a long-term learning and a great control developed during this period. However, the physicality of the training and of the performance itself, "based on the tension between opposites, which can be traced in part to the in-yo (yin-yang) concept of the harmony of dark-light, hard-soft, female-male", according to James R. Brandon, still does not guarantee the achievement of the hana to the actor (1997, 4). Udaka Michishige, who started his career at a very late age of twelve, indicates in his book The Secrets of Noh Masks that even a rehearsal does not provide the actor with the ability to get "inside the head of a character" using the established kata, simple in their shape and full ofyugen (2010, 7). After eleven years living at the house of his master, Kongo Iwao II, Udaka could start what the Westerners could call a freelance career. Actually, once the period of living under his master's roof ends, the young actor could only hone his craft on the stage of the same Kongo school. Having started a parallel career as a mask maker at the age of eighteen, he realized that he could create and express the character's emotion with the use of the mask, a sacred element on the stage from prehistoric times.20 Once and again, on the pages of his book, Udaka demands the actor capture the mental state of the character through a deep relationship with the mask that, due to its expression, determines all of the features of the character (2010, 28). The mask on the stage reveals the character by the correct use of the accent on the right side of the mask in the first half of the play and emphasizes the
20 Labour reforms like the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) did not impact the traditional flow of the mask creation by the male masters. The professional world of mask production remains closed to women.
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left side in the second. Udaka Michishige explains the secret of this use of the mask this way:
Because the shite in the first half is a wandering spirit unable to rest in peace, the right side features an eye that looks downturned, as if to express this state of limbo. In the second half of the play the character's soul is cleansed by the offering of a memorial service, resulting in a calmer countenance: a left eye gazes upward, a fuller cheek, and a corner of the mouth curved upward. (Udaka 2010, 154)
Adopted from Chinese dramatic pieces during the Nara period (710-794), the popular entertainment of Sangaku, lately known as Sarugaku-no Noh or simply Noh, with its dance, song, conjuring, music, acrobatics, and magic, successfully found its niche opposite the aristocratic genre of Gagaku, adding the national Japanese amusements to the original performance. Unlike the monopoly system known in later centuries, the new genre established gakuko ^^ ("official schools"),21 which were "set up to teach the various types of sarugaku and to provide players when required," states P.G. O'Neill (2001, 29). Correlated with gigaku and bugaku genres, later Noh inherited the gaku dance and jo-ha-kyu
("introduction, development, climax") system of the play construction, intensified by Zeami and applied to the Noh mise-en-scene in the movement, voice and music performance. Once the new solemn entertainment of Noh had developed and had received protection from the temples, shrines and the ruling military class, the actors- usually coming from the low strata of society--adopted the za system with a hereditary headship, and were quite free during the year, except the special occasions in which they were expected to execute the duty performance. The absence could mean the cancellation of the protection. During the same time the Noh interpreters settled the mise-en-scene emphasizing singing, dancing, and monomane ffiMM "mimicry or imitating things"). Zeami argued that the imitation, though being performed with the use of highly symbolic movements, had to achieve such a state when the actor was completely identifying himself with the essence of the character and was not conscious anymore of his imitation of one of the three basic roles--old man, woman, or warrior--or a role
21 The official schools of Sarugaku are abolished during the Heian period (794-1192), dividing the existing performers into two groups: the first one is attached to the Imperial Department of Music, and the second and the bigger one, consisting of the interpreters who became free and in necessity of some protection like the powerful temples or shrines. This division had driven the emergence of za with the monopoly of performance in the area of the temple or shrine to which they were attached.
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derived from those.22 The third group plays were indicated for the young shite who had to observe the ladies with every detail of their behavior and dressing to achieve the utmost detailed imitation. While "it should be a truly easy matter to perform the roles of simple ordinary women, since" the young performers were "used to seeing them every day" (Zeami 2006, 72), the access to the court ladies was restricted, and the shite performer had to contrive to research them. However, if the protagonist of the play was a noble lady or a simple countrywoman, the interpreter had to act the "general essence of a woman" (Zeami 2006, 72) in a "delicate, feminine manner". (Zeami 2006, 73) The third group plays were the most challenging for the male performers because of their physical condition,23 but also due to the necessity to imagine themselves involved in the female experience creating the
ultimate beauty in a state of kotan (refined simplicity), wabi (subdued elegance), and sabi (unadorned beauty), a kind of beauty going beyond the ethereal elegance of yugen, which can be expressed by a flower blossoming on a withered bough. This is the essence of the symbolic beauty of Noh. (Komparu 1983, 15)
Another intangible element was the music. Music, Dance, and Song
In the close-to-Noh performance genre of Kusemai, women in the male costumes, men and boys were accentuating the music at the expense of dance. Those interpreters were organized in groups dedicated to the independent Kusemai performance, disappearing from the capital area around 1430. However, Kan'ami, a Yusaki-za M^ffi actor of Yamato sarugaku, who had learned Kusemai from
22	In other words, "the purpose is not a matter of thoughtful expression, but of emptying the mind of ego or self and taking on the true intent of the character being represented" (Zeami 2006, 17). Actually, Zeami insists in the imitation "something in its entirety" with "different nuances and degrees according to the situation" (2006, 71), However, he warns against too realistic imitation of the low things that in any case should be avoided "in front of members of the upper classes, who would find them ignoble and uninteresting" (2006, 72).
23	While the usual Noh initial pose consists of the bent knees and the torso leaning forward, for the female character Zeami suggests to maintain straight knees, the pliant body, and to avoid excessive strength to hold the head. Also he pays much attention to the robe that should hide the man's body. The most important spot of his teaching about the female character impersonation is the appearance. "This being so, if you take care over your appearance, you should be able to portray womanly aspects well. No matter what sort of role you are playing, your appearance should never be poor; appearance is especially fundamental in woman's roles" (Zeami 2006, 73).
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1368 to 1374 from Otozuru, a female performer from Hyakuman school,24 had already included the Kusemai style of music into Sarugaku performance with emphasis on mimicry and certain refinement.25 Both musical styles--the ancient melodic Kouta /h UX, and the new dynamic Kusemai ft M —had merged promoting a new interpretative style. Moreover, the Kusemai texts became a great source for the Noh stories and quotations, and the Kusemai item itself became the main point of the Noh plays. Currently, dance sequences can be divided into hataraki ("actions") and mai-bataraki MM^ ("dance actions"). Hataraki depicts the character with the use of portrayal actions and mimicry, corresponding to the iroe	("coloration") type with the elegant atmosphere of the female
role. What is regarded as dance today, however, was in the original Noh a sequence of movements that were accompanying the kaiwa geki ^ s^ J$\ ("dialogue drama"). Actually, the primitive dialogue was not danced and was closer in its form to the medieval European drama than contemporary Noh. As for the female performers on the Noh and Kyogen stage during the Muromachi period, their presence could not surprise anyone until the Edo period, when they were banned from the Kabuki stage, and therefore at the same time were excluded from other main performing arts.
Regarding the singing styles, on the other hand, two varieties can be observed:
a) Tsuyo-gin ffi^ ("strong") and a vivid style of the gods' and warriors' plays;
24	Female performers were quite usual on the stage in this time. Miko Sarugaku Noh, at Kasuga Shrine, was expressly played by the virgins who were on service of shrines throughout the country. They were trained in Sarugaku Noh song and dance with the accompaniment of kotsuzumi ("small drum"), commonly used in the Noh play.
25	Starting from Heian period the refinement was as must for the small-scale dialogues used as a punishment during the poetry contests at the Imperial Court. The loser was obliged to imitate the already existing plays of zae-no onoko, "plays of highly dramatic nature, with much dialogue, solid in structure, and rich in variety of content, particularly conflict", that could be considered as the prototypes of Noh, according to Inoura (1971, 47). Other genres like Dengaku with its supernatural inclination, songs, dance, and use of small drum and flute, Shugen Noh with its masks, drums, and flute, and ceremonial, ritual, comic or warrior's dances performed by priests of Shugendo, or Ennen Noh also could be considered as a preliminary model of the future Noh. The singers were in charge of singing the songs while the usually masked silent character was dancing in Shugen Noh. Dances, songs, and imitative acts with the further assimilation of masks and other dramatic arts characterized ritualistic banquet of Ennon Noh which usually was accompanying the Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies. Ennen Noh in the early years of the twelfth century, in Yamato Province, the subjects were quite close to the future Noh subjects, and were related to the historical tales of Japan, China, and India, avoiding the contemporary stories.
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b) Yowa-gin M^n ("weak") and a melodic style conventional for the plays with the main female role, characterized by a more intricate scale system and melodic variety to express the emotion spectrum of the protagonist in the third and fourth groups of plays.
Besides, one of the important characteristics of the male impersonation of the female character in Noh consists of avoiding the imitation of the feminine voice. The male performers only sing in a higher key, differentiating in this point from the Kabuki interpreters. The actor and the jiutai generally perform the semi-chanting without any attempt of realistically reproducing the individual female character's voice.
The dance, on the other side, can transmit the character's sex through precise movements based on exquisiteness of form, especially seeking to transmit the portrayal characteristics in case of the female role. As a general rule, the third category plays, dedicated to the living or dead beautiful women or spirits of plants, involve the beauty of the texts and the quietness of the performer's execution. To accompany the slow tempo jo-no-mai	("dance widely used in the third
category plays"),26 the drummers play a kotsuzumi, otsuzumi ^ M ("the side drum"), flute,27 and in some cases a taiko ^^ ("stick drum"), the biggest drum in the Noh orchestra (Goff 1991, 46). Other types of female dance can be performed according to the rank of the character. For example, chu-no-mai corresponds to an ordinary female character in the third group play. Besides, any female dance will transmit a sense of stillness and will be introduced with a different speed compared to the male characters'. With regard to the existence of the dance performed on the Noh stage by female characters in relationship with historical medieval Japanese society, Janet Goff in her study of the Japanese medieval literature mentions that these dances
could claim no such precedent in the Genji, where well-born women were expected to remain discreetly out of sight. [...] The presentation of most of
26	Chu-no-mai ^ ® M dances have a strong presence in all Noh-play categories, and are characterized by a more quick tempo than jo-no-mai, though the instruments the orchestra plays in both cases are mainly the same.
27	The flute is believed to be one of the elements that create the adequate bodily tension. The combination of the movement, or its absence, and the flute music create the quiet and controlled energy in the actor. Meanwhile, other visual elements could be adopted by the Western staging, the energy control observed in Noh appears due to a long-term training, and could not be easily implemented by the foreign performers.
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the women's plays as a dream, however, gives the female characters' dance in
front of the waki a certain plausibility. (Goff 1991, 50)
Therefore, the dream on the Noh stage is used as a vehicle of artistic expression of an idealized alive or dead woman, deity, or spirit of plant, breaking up the historical veracity of the woman's day-to-day existence. As for the women's plays, besides the masks' and therefore plays' classification, kurai fi ("the Tokugawa period ranking of plays") is also known and is still in use, recognizing the difficulty of the third group plays by giving to this category the highest rank.
It must be noted that the Noh performance is based on the central figure of the main character with an unchallenged position stated by Zeami. All other interpreters, stage components and koken are intended to support the interpretation of the protagonist, though the Western public would immediately notice the lack of the mandatory element in the West: dramatic lighting. Such a unique position of the main character allows him to wear the mask and to be the sole performer of the dance, accompanied by the singing of the jiutai, music, and words according to the school style standard. Since all members of the performance are working within the same style, the previous rehearsals roughly are not considered to be necessary. On the other hand, a small number of rehearsals, or the very first meeting of all the interpreters maintained in the dressing room just before going on stage, is observed due to the lack of time of the main role performers who are forced to teach instead of practice themselves because of economic necessity. Thus, there should be no place for the comparison of the quality of performance of ancient generations, concentrated only in the perfection of their art, with contemporary Noh, where it is not uncommon to detect mistakes in the text or the movement. Nevertheless, Noh as a living creature is constantly developing, and despite the strict training actors receive, there are no two identical impersonations, bringing every actor his own performing signature.
Conclusion
The laws like the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) do not work at all in the area of traditional arts like Noh production. The mainly male Noh professional world does not allow the possibility of giving the opportunity of more active participation in the Noh production to the female participants. Thus, the Noh professional circle remains purely masculine despite the remarkable progress in other traditional arts.
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On the other hand, Noh, as a theatre of sublime tragedy, does not pursue the aim of introducing a story in a dramatic manner and avoids any sign of naturalism. Rather, it attempts to generate a mood to represent the character's inner state characterized by a spiritual beauty. Consequently, when the male interpreter transforms into a female character, it is more appropriate to consider his on-stage process as an attempt to abstract an intellectual approach to the female spirit, not to her physical image. This overlapping of the two genders happens on a rational level in a kind of arrangement between the audience and the masculine performer. The theatre of conscious convention exists since the time of Thespis' horse-drawn wagon, and is fully developed by theatre masters like Vsevolod Meyerhold (18741940). Most of the plays of the Spanish Golden Age are based on this concept, as does La Commedia dell'Arte or other types of popular theatre. Nevertheless, another traditional performing arts forms like Kabuki or the Beijing Opera pursue the complete metamorphosis of masculine to feminine through the use of the aesthetic procedures close to annulment of the own male nature thus approaching the earliest method of another Russian theatre master Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938). Meanwhile, Noh performers break all illusion because neither voice nor suriashi or kata intend to deceive the audience. The stalls and the interpreters enter into a game without ever forgetting that this is a conscious deal between them, and that there is a masculine interpreter who represents a female character. This technique of conscious convention plays a much more important role in building the character, than a true and realistic reproduction of feminine gestures, way of walking, and voice pattern, while wig, mask and costume are present only to support the mentioned agreement. There is a constant fight against illusion, though it cannot be stated that this was the initial purpose of Zeami. Nevertheless, to modern eyes of the audience, familiar with the method of conscious convention, the unintended application of this technique is more than evident. The movements of the actor make the dispensable stage set and excessive characterization. Therefore, no obvious or realistic element will appear on stage, being replaced by delicacy and suggestion. And precisely for this reason, the female roles will be introduced without the male voice modification or a mincing walk. The male performer will use the same acting technique for all roles, but simply restraining while impersonating the female character. Only the mask and the costume that are already widely analyzed by numerous researchers will clearly indicate that the character is the female one. The construction of the right atmosphere follows the jo-ha-kyu principle, collected from the Indian musical tradition, used in Bugaku
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composition, and developed by Zeami in his papers. Though only two or three plays compound the current Noh program, they are presented in the order established by Zeami, starting the program with the god plays, and finishing with the devil plays. Actually, it is important to remember that before Zeami's arrival to the Noh stage, the main structure of the play and the program itself were already established by the preceding Sarugaku Noh performers. His great merit consists of polishing the texts, creating the production mode and supporting the interpreter's work with the treatises.28
The mask is used as the central point of the play. Through its use the shite creates the right emotional atmosphere on the stage and in the stalls without trying to play femininity. To achieve this purpose, the performer chooses the mask carefully among analogous masks considering that the same one can be used in different plays to depict similar characters. In case the protagonist does not use the mask on the stage, even then he maintains the intermediate expression of his face just as the rest of the interpreters. The mask is even considered to be a live element in the polytheistic Japanese tradition, with its own nature the actor is called to portray. The performer merges with the spirit of his role while he is observing his masked reflection in the mirror at kagami-no-ma before the performance starts, with the purpose of becoming one with the mask.
The male performer is in charge of expressing the character's inner state in a very complex way. The Noh conception allows him to do it on three different levels: interpreter, woman, and in the case of Izutsu play even the male ghost that represents the spirit of the dead husband who possesses the woman (Brandon 1997, 202). In simpler plays the male performer's task has fewer levels, though they are not plain at all: the male performer transforms into a woman.
28 Inoura (1971, 85) suggests the following Noh development analysis: the period of consolidation, the period of change, and the period of stabilization. The first period could be divided into three phases: a) 1351-1384; Kanze Kan'ami Kiyotsugu; theories ofyugen and monomane; transition from Sarugaku Noh to Nohgaku; b) 1384-1443; Kanze Zeami Motokiyo; treaties of Noh principles; importance to song and dance; nyotai onna-mai ^^^^("dances in form of women"), c) last years of Zeami-1470; Kanze Onnami (1398-1467) and Konparu Zenchiku (1405-1468?); brilliant Noh style by Onnami, and metaphysical Noh by Zenchiku; establishment of the Noh program: Okina ceremony, three Noh plays with Kyogen plays in between; development of Nyobo Sarugaku performing the women the roles composed for male interpreters. The latter two periods reflect numerous changes in the Noh development after Zenchiku's death.
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The widely known aesthetic concept of yugen,29 character development, and the understanding of the message of the play are achieved through bodily practice. Thus, the actors do not analyze the aesthetic or physicalization of their art, avoiding any unnecessary verbalization in Noh theatre. The theoretical and/or intellectual understanding of yugen itself, 30 widely developed by Komparu Zenchiku in his essays, in no case can be considered the main purpose of the Noh performers engaged in practical use of both aesthetic and physicalization. The Noh technique of building a character is in confrontation with one of the most important performing techniques in the West, the Stanislavsky method. Though the Russian director and dramaturgist suggests the interpreters to create the character's internal life with a deep analysis of their own interior world, Zeami chooses an opposite procedure. He encourages the performers to look around and to "(learn techniques of dance and song), then bring that experience inside (apply song and dance to the character), and finally express it outwardly again (perform the internal essence of the character with yugen)" (Brandon 1997, 9). Nowadays, yugen is both part of non-intellectual knowledge of Noh and the trained Japanese audience accustomed to the nonverbal communication on the stage. Regarding the public proficiency during Edo period, due to the limited Noh repertoire and numerous established rules, the audience could achieve the same level of understanding Noh as the performers. As a result, once this relationship between the two groups of connoisseurs was established, the onstage team stopped to consider the explanation of the difficult points of the play to the observing team, maintaining this tradition even nowadays. However, the gap between both factions of members of the performance had increased with the fall of the shogunate regime. The understanding of the non-realistic Noh performance and the acceptance of the ancient performing art as a route towards "enlightenment" had become a forbidden land for the greater part of the contemporary Japanese
29	Borrowed from China, where it was strongly connected to the Buddhism, the concept of yugen has greatly influenced classical Japanese culture. There may be mentioned the aesthetic quality in waka and renga, as an example, both of them paving the way for the creation of the atmosphere on the Noh stage. Nevertheless, Noh yugen rejects the pure or "raw" beauty, and pursues the hidden, deep, and elevated one as an expression of the highest art. It is considered to have reached its greatest splendor during the early years of Muromachi period. (Nose 1981, 202-4, 286)
30	Two theatre men, Zeami and Zenchiku defend contrary views on the yugen perspective. "Whereas Zeami had defined yugen in terms of stage effect- that is, from the perspective of the audience-Zenchiku looks upon yugen as a mental realm of the performer" (Brandon 1997, 45). Both define the way the actor develops a character. Yugen by Zeami was mostly referred to the chant and dance, and was specific for any acting technique of every group of the plays with the purpose to make even an ugly character beautiful.
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audience, particularly very young one, mostly unfamiliar with the medieval suggestion, subtle and profound style, high spirit, and deep meaning of the action full of insinuation and conventions.31 On the other hand, foreign public especially lacks the tools to understand the hidden meaning of Yugen during Noh theatre touring abroad. Nevertheless, even at present, the instructed and prepared audiences still can participate in the ceremony unfolded before their eyes, which especially impacts with the art of the interpreters and its great dramatic tension.
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Nose, Asaji	1981. Yugenron (ffi^) (A Theory of Yugen), Vol.2. ^^
W^. Medievel Literature Research. Kyoto: Shinbunkaku Shuppan.
31 According to Nose, Zeami considers the skill to comprehend yugen as a natural feature of the Japanese national character, being the public able to distinguish between the vile beauty and the beauty full of yugen, that in case of women role should be similar to the ideal beauty of the Heian period noble ladies, in nosakusho hk^* (Nose 1981, 327, 330). Furthermore, Zeami stresses that the bushi tea ceremony possesses a comparable sense of beauty as Noh yugen, in kakyo fáM (Nose 1981, 327, 330). On the other hand, yugen should be invisible, but strong enough as to dominate the whole mise-en-scène, and the voice, suriashi, movements, and other elements building a character (Nose 1981, 331).
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O'Neill, P.G. 2001. "Collected Writings of P.G. O'Neill." In The Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan, Vol. 4. Edition Synapse. Tokyo: Japan Library.
Pérez García-Valdecasas, Joaquín. 2010. "El milagro japonés. Eumed.net." Observatorio Iberoamericano de la Economía y la Sociedad del Japón 2 (7) (enero). Accessed February 26, 2015. http://www.eumed.net/rev/japon/07/jpgv.htm.
Personal interview with Kamei Yüji (Hosho school), Tokyo, 2012.
Personal presence of the author during the meetings of Mikawa Izumi and Imai Yasuo, both from Hosho school, with Yamaguchi Akira, Kyoto, 2010.
Personal interview with Yamaguchi Akira, Kyoto, 7.8.2010.
Prideaux, Eric. Apr.11, 2004. "Women in Noh." Accessed March 4, 2015.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2004/04/11/to-be-sorted/women-in-noh/#.VPbEBh Z2dFI.
Reimer, J.Thomas. 1984. On the Art of the No Drama. The Major Treatises of Zeami, translated by J.Thomas Reimer and Masakazu Yamazaki. Princeton Library of Asian Translations, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Udaka, Michishige. 2010. The Secrets of Noh Masks. Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International.
Zeami. 2006. The Flowering Spirit (Füshikaden). Classic Teaching on the Art of No, translated by William Scott Wilson. Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International.
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Japanese Martial Arts as Popular Culture: Teaching Opportunity and Challenge
Stephen Robert NAGY*1
Abstract
Japanese martial arts, here after Japanese budo, are popular cultural icons that are found in films, comics, video games and books. Teaching Japanese budo at university offers a novel way to teach about East Asian and in particular Japanese culture, history, and philosophy while including ideas about the globalization and the localization of culture. Question though remains as to how and what should we teach about the popular culture of Japanese budo at the university level? This paper found that a comprehensive approach to teaching about budo was effective. By using many kinds of materials and the incorporation of opportunities to experience budo and to try budo, students were better able to grasp the historical, cultural and religious characteristics of budo.
Keywords: Japanese culture, pedagogy, budo, martial arts
Izvleček
Japonske borilne veščine, od zdaj naprej budo, so popularne kulturne ikone, ki jih najdemo v filmih, stripih, video igrah in knjigah. Učenje japonskega budoja na univerzi ponuja nov način učenja o Vzhodni Aziji in še posebej v japonski kulturi, zgodovini in filozofiji, saj vključuje ideje o globalizaciji in lokalizaciji kulture. Kljub temu pa ostaja vprašanje, kako in kaj se naj poučuje o popularni kulturi japonskega budoja na univerzitetni stopnji. V tem članku pride avtor do spoznanja, da je k učenju budoja učinkovit vsetranski pristop. Z uporabo raznovrstnega materiala, z izkustvom in poskusi budoja, so lahko študentje bolje doumeli zgodovinske, kulturne in religiozne značilnosti budoja.
Ključne besede: japonska kultura, pedagogika, budo, borilne veščine
* Stephen Robert NAGY, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies
International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo, Japan.
nagy@icu.ac.jp
1 I would like to express my sincere thanks to the reviewers for their constructive comments.
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Introduction
Japanese martial arts, here after Japanese budo, are popular cultural icons that are found in films, comics, video games, books, sports and even in our neighborhoods where we live. Studying and teaching Japanese budo at university offers a novel way to teach about East Asian and in particular Japanese culture, history, and philosophy while including ideas about the globalization and the localization of culture. Question though remains as to how and what should we teach about the popular culture of Japanese budo at the university level?
Scholars have broached this conundrum from many different points of view. For instance, Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports (NIFI) has advocated teaching Japanese modern budo such as kendo, naginata and judo in educational institutions to convey, preserve and pass on Japanese cultural traditions (Maesaka 2008, 45). In Maesaka's analysis on the initiatives of NIFI, he found that teaching Japanese budo is not linked to teaching popular culture, rather it stresses inculcating the cultural traditions associated with Japanese budo. In this sense, NIFI is attaching national identity to the practice and study of Japanese budo with a domestic agenda of strengthening the indigenous nature of Japanese budo rather than linking it to previous academic research.
Other scholars such as Callan have investigated Japanese budo education in the UK and the difficulties that educators have in transmitting some of the philosophical and cultural characteristics of Japanese budo in a non-Japanese setting, region or country. Specific impediments to teaching were associated with attaching meaning and significance to the key components of Japanese budo, etiquette and decorum.
In September 2010, I began teaching a university level course entitled "Japanese Budo Tradition and Transformation from the Edo Period to Today" for the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Department of Japanese Studies. My experience echoed much of the hurdles Callan faced in the UK. Moreover, teaching a new course at university is always fraught with challenges, especially regarding course contents and pedagogical approaches to learning. Particular questions that arise in terms of teaching a course on budo include but are not exclusive to the following:
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1.	How to design a reading list that encompasses historical, cultural and
technical development of budo? This is especially a challenge in terms of
finding English sources for non-Japanese language readers.
2.	What is the appropriate level of academic rigor for a course on budo?
3.	Where to begin our historical examination of budo?
4.	What is the best way to introduce budo to non-Japanese majors? That is
students with no knowledge of Japanese language, culture or history?
5.	Is there an appropriate way to introduce budo practice in the classroom and
link that with classroom lectures on culture and history?
6.	How to teach student's "whose cup is already full"?
This study makes no attempt to theorize about popular culture. Instead, it is a pedagogical investigation that aims to address some of the above questions, at least from my perspective as a scholar and practitioner of kendo and iaido. Through introducing and discussing the teaching of Japanese budo at a university, I hope to shed light on teaching possibilities and novel approaches to a more rigorous yet interesting way of learning and teaching the popular culture of budo. This qualitative study employed participant observation, questionnaires and repeated structured interviews over a four-month period from September to December 2010. Questionnaires were distributed to first-year and third-year Japanese studies major students and to students of the Japanese budo class that I taught. Ten students were interviewed repeatedly through the semester. Each interview was no more than 30 minutes. The interviews were conducted in English and in the classroom after or before class. Participant observation was twofold. First, as the instructor for the course and second as the teacher of the tutorials in which students were taught several kendo exercises called kata ("shape" or "form").
As part of the structure of this paper, I will divide my discussion into six sections representing the questions raised in the introduction. Each section will be subtitled with the question posed in the introduction. These questions represent what I feel to be the most pertinent results of this study but they are by no means exhaustive. I recognize that some of my conclusions drawn in this paper would be different in different cultural and national settings. That being said, this paper aims to contribute to the teaching of popular culture at the university level by providing a reflective example of teaching popular culture in a non-North American setting.
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How to Design a Reading List that Encompasses Historical, Cultural and Technical Development of budo?
When I initially proposed this course to the Japanese Studies Department at CUHK, I experienced both enthusiasm and skepticism. Enthusiasm for the course was based on the interests of students who have up to now had interest in learning more about Japanese budo and martial arts culture but had no one to learn from. My proposal to meld classroom lectures with visits to local dojos and some practical training also was attractive as it linked theory, culture and history with the opportunity to actually experience the culture of budo, both through kendo kata and speaking with local teachers and practitioners. Lastly, the course was attractive to my colleagues as it intended to discuss budo using contemporary academic frameworks such as globalization, localization and modernization of culture (See course introduction below) and relate them to Japan's closed past and contemporary inclination to export Japanese culture under the rubric of "Soft Power" or "International Culture Understanding."
JAS 2710
Japanese Martial Arts (BUDO): Tradition and Transformation from the Tokugawa Period to Present
Course description: This course is intended to introduce and broaden the understanding of the development of Japanese Martial Arts (BUDO) from the early Tokugawa period (1603-1868) to today. Students will examine the development of BUDO by studying it within its historical context, identifying its cultural influences, and transmission patterns. Utilizing an assortment of readings, lectures, and multi-media outlets such as film and on-line documentaries, students will engage in a multidisciplinary analysis of the development of BUDO and its impact on contemporary Japanese society. Complementing this multi-disciplinary approach will be opportunities to experience Japanese martial arts and its key components such as etiquette and philosophical approaches to techniques through a hands-on introduction to the art of kendo and visiting local Japanese martial art schools. Lastly, in an era of rapid globalization it is also crucial that students will examine the influence of Japanese Budo abroad. Through comparisons with the martial arts of neighboring countries such as Korea, China and well as others, students will also gain a better understanding of aspects of modernization, that is the convergence and localization of culture as it is transformed through the movement of people.
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From the standpoint of the deliberate inculcation of experience-based learning to further the student's ability to grasp the material being introduced, it could be said that my approach resonates with Maesaka's advocacy of a culture-based learning and teaching process when teaching Japanese budo (2008, 45). Moreover, the comprehensive approach to teaching Japanese budo that included not only history but also culture, philosophy, sociology and practical training resembled the approaches of other budo practitioners. For example, Wojciech J. Cynarksi and Kazimierz Obodynski argue that "it is also easier to show the realization of 'k"on the example of the master whose attributes are excellent skills of concentration, motor coordination and perfect technique coupled with strong will, control of pain etc., than to give accurate definition" (2005, 1).
On the other hand, some of my colleagues were concerned about the possibility of offering a course that was not only interesting to students but also had academic rigor, that was well founded in previous research and well tested books related to budo. In fact, the perceptions of martial arts may have entrenched imageries in popular culture. For example, Stuart Fischoff, Ana Franco, Elaine Gram, Angela Hernendez and James Parker's study of "Offensive Ethnic Clichés in Movies: Drugs, Sex, and Servility" highlighted the association of martial arts with potentially "offensive" stereotypes (1999, 8).
In this sense, their concern was somewhat justified as when I conducted an initial survey of books, articles and papers related to budo. I found that articles fell into four categories: first, sports or sports related; second, historical/cultural articles on the development of budo; third, articles concerning the "meaning of budo"; and fourth, articles or journals written by non-academics but budo practitioners.
The last category of articles and books, although interesting and noteworthy in many cases, lack the thorough attentiveness to detail and solid foundations in archival sources in Japanese. The anecdotal experiences of fellow budoka (budo practitioners) provide individual, personalized interpretations of their experiences discovering budo that give us important hints to how we change through the practice of budo but in many cases tended to be volumes legitimizing one particular school of budo or interpretation.
The sports related articles and books ranged from those related to sports performance and sports-medicine, i.e. articles related to bandaging techniques for
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judo athletes (Yamamoto, Kigawa and Xu 1993, 110-12), and Asian Martial Arts and Approaches of Instruction in Physical Education (Theeboom and De Knop 1999, 146-61). These articles focus on conceptualizing budo related topics in terms of Western education and science paradigms bringing different perspectives and understandings to age old traditions.
In the case of historical/cultural studies numerous books and papers have been written on budo such as Budo Perspectives Vol. 1 edited by Alexander Bennett, the Classic three volume set of Classical Bujutsu (1973a), Classical Budo (1973b) and Modern Bujutsu and Budo (1974) by Donn Draeger, Hurst, G. Cameron's Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmen and Archery (1998), and Kiyota Minoru's Kendo: Its Philosophy, History and Means to Personal Growth (1995). Each provides well researched and interesting historical, cultural and philosophical writings on Japanese budo that helps the reader weave together an understanding of budo. Draeger does this by trifurcating his historical study into classical bujutsu (the military/martial arts), classical budo and its modern incantations, whereas Bennett's volume gathers a group of well respected budo scholars and practitioners to provide insight on the internationalization of budo, its marquis characteristics, its role in education and about its practitioners. Employing his extensive experience in Buddhism, Kiyota on the other hand delves into the impact of Buddhist thought on the development of swordsmanship. Each author in their own way delves into budo's complex history, synthesizing a narrative that is multi-dimensional.
In contrast to cultural and historical approaches, the authors that focus on the "meaning of budo" tend to place their discussions in particular eras, denoting the evolving meaning of budo depending on the cultural, historic and government milieu of the times. Dependent on the zeitgeist, budo seemed to take on different significances. For example, Yamamoto Reiko (2008) examined the "Budo values of the Greater Japan Martial Virtue Association in the WW II" period. Sasaki Taketo, on the other hand, employs kata as his prism to understand budo (Sasaki 2008, 46-49). He has also examined the meaning and relevance of budo in education (Sasaki 2006, 11-14). Stressing the possibilities of spiritual development through the practicing of kata and budo, Sasaki argues that budo's contemporary relevance has transformed from a vehicle to preserve culture and develop strength towards a practice that can contribute to developing thoughtful and productive members of society. Still other authors offer insightful narratives
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as to the meaning of budo and its relationship with WW II Japanese militarism and feminism (Ikeda 2010, 537-52).
In short, we see that scholarship, both that of professional and lay writers, encompass a multitude of perspectives and orientations that as a whole can contribute to understanding budo. Through examining budo through various frameworks such as the three put forward above, perhaps we can shed light on budo's labyrinthine nature.
What is the Appropriate Level of Academic Rigor for a Course on budo?
This question plagued me during my initial planning stages of this course for a plethora of reasons. First, dependent on the students they will have different degrees of familiarity and understanding about Japanese and Chinese history, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, and Taoism. This was evidenced in the one-month survey comment by one of my exchange students.
Figure 1. Ryan learning kendo kata as part of his studies2
The hands-on tutorial is very helpful in understanding theoretical concepts. The lectures, historical periods are sometimes hard to follow without specific knowledge (background) of Japanese history because I have to draw a connection from one to another. (Ryan, Age 20, American exchange student)
Second, in the Orientalism tradition, students, particularly from North America hold "Hollywood-type" understandings of the samurai, bushido and Japanese and Chinese cultures. Peering through the lens of the Karate Kid's "Mr. Miyage",
2 Photos courtesy of Ms. Helen Chan.
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David Carradine's "Kung Fu" or Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon", North American students (and perhaps most Westerners) hold conflated images and views concerning the philosophies and culture of budo. The same is equally true though of students from Asia. Where they diverge is their romanticization of the samurai, bushido and Japan. This is particularly noticeable when teaching students from Mainland China where the samurai and bushido ethos is mistakenly construed to be synonymous for the aggressive militarism, violence and cruelty undertaken by the Japanese military in China. In this sense, for Chinese but also other nations, samurai and bushido ethos have been recursively constructed by and through interactions with the modern imperialist/nationalist 19th century world.
Figure 2: Hai Xia learning kendo kata
The contents of the lectures are very helpful for us to understand Japanese budo. Especially it is very exciting that the tutorial lessons allow us to participate a real kendo practice. Through this good form we can get to know Japanese martial arts better. (Hai Xia, M.Phil student from China)
It is easy to understand why different nationalities have responded differently to Japanese budo and its connection to the sword. Simply, these emotive responses arise from complicated historical contextualization and interpretations of martial arts, both in the West and in Asia. Paul Yoon's study of film representations provides the example of Bruce Lee movies where the protagonist confronts a Japanese judo master for portraying China as the "Sick Man of Asia" (2009, 109). But at the same time, perceptions and interpretations of symbolisms may also be powerful instruments for peace as they can be used as tools for foreign diplomacy, for example, the historical inclusion of judo as a form of direct diplomacy in Anglo-Japanese friendship that Kuwayama Takami pointed out in his study (1998,
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24). The ambiguous role of the symbolism of martial arts continues to be debated and interpreted.
Upon consideration of these "contextualization and interpretations of martial arts" and in particular those related to Japan, I decided that creating a legitimate course on budo required students to approach their studies through readings, small group discussions, presentations and a multi-faceted experiential approach that linked readings to experience and lectures to observations. Importantly, their assessment included written reflections, a formal oral presentation, a couple of field trips and actual training in kendo kata.
Where to Begin our Historical Examination of budo?
Examining the history of any country as old as Japan is challenging. The difficulty is compounded by students with language and cultural differences. With these factors in mind and through a bit of trial and error, I tried to organize a curriculum that delves into the following themes:
1.	Transformation from bujutsu to budo
2.	Budo in the Tokugawa period and its social context
3.	Lineage, Transmission, and Legitimacy
4.	Buddhism in Japanese budo
5.	Modernity and the Invention of Traditions
6.	Globalization and Japanese martial arts: Convergence and localization
Using these themes, I scurried the university's library, my own library and electronic search engines for readings, articles, books, and dissertations related to budo. In that search, I made the decision to divide the course into the above categories which examine budo's historical inception, evolution, cultural infusions, changes in accordance with governance and contemporary relevance. Students in particular learn about the Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist principles inculcated in budo, how the calcified class system of the Tokugawa period provided the impetus for samurai to seek meaning in their lives through budo. Linking these discussions to historical time periods such as Japan's 250 year sakoku period when it was mostly closed to the outside world, the massive Westernization of the Meiji Period, Kano Jigoro's enthusiasm for the development of a sport for all, Japanese militarism, the occupation and post-WW II reconstruction, students are able to
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peer through various lens to see how domestic, regional and global currents effected the development and meaning of budo.
From the standpoint of academia, it was also important to disconnect budo and its study from the position of a Latin-like, dead language, cultural oddity and connect it to the students' living understanding of history. Above and beyond this connection, approaching the study of budo through concepts such as modernization theory, the dialectic of convergence and divergence of culture, and globalization allowed students to connect budo's history and development to contemporary issues that revolve around culture preservation, modernization and development.
What is the Best Way to Introduce budo to Non-Japanese Majors? That is, Students with No Knowledge of Japanese Language, Culture or History?
Introducing budo to students who are non-Japanese study majors was unexpectedly easier than I expected. Non-majors of course have language barriers and knowledge gaps that impede their initial learning. These are not easy to overcome but interest in the topic, a willingness to engage in the course and curiosity propels these students forward through their exploration of budo's tradition and transformation.
In fact, it was the major students, those mostly interested in popular Japanese culture that seemed to be the least interested in studying Japanese traditional culture such as budo. The study of budo, whether it be first year or third year students, was quite divorced from major students' interest and often seen as hard, difficult and irrelevant to the study of Japan or in the job hunting process. Indeed, the attractiveness of budo, especially when it is seen in this light makes J-pop, Cosplay, Anime and Manga infinitely more interesting and digestible.
Although not entirely effective in attracting students, teaching about budo culture from the standpoint of its lingering impact on the Japanese work ethic, attention to detail, consciousness of hierarchy, learning through prolonged engagement in a single activity, loyalty to one's company, class structure, etc., students begin to glean an understanding that budo's cultural influence is widespread in Japanese society and that modern sub-cultures, although superficially different, employ similar ways of thinking.
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Is There an Appropriate Way to Introduce budo Practice in the Classroom and Link that with Classroom Lectures on Culture and History?
In teaching university level course related to budo, we are bound by professional considerations to abide by academic standards, a certain level of academic rigour and the design and presentation of a topic, in this case budo. The challenge of teaching a course on budo is that as you leave the realm of discussing the historical development of budo and its relationship to Japanese society, you need to also convey to students less tangible concepts that do not necessarily lend themselves to textbooks. For instance, how to convey the ideas of rei |L (bow/greeting), kamae (posture), seme ^ft (attack), sen no sen	(pre-emptive strike),
zanshin ^^ (remaining spirit/heart), metsuke	(engagement distance),
maai fs^^V^ (eye control), yugen (suggestiveness, tranquility, elegance), and miyabi ft (courtliness and refinement) and other nebulous budo concepts? What about understanding the nature of kata in training and refining one's self? Is it possible to convey the meaning behind rei, the principles of the sword in the case of kendo, the infinite complexity in waza S (techniques)?
Figure 3: Introducing kendo kata in classroom
In the planning of the course on Japanese budo that I taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I opined over how to teach students not only the history of budo but also convey to them some of the more enigmatic and abstruse aspects of budo mentioned in the questions above. In that process I decided that I would
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combine lectures with field trips to local dojos to watch, visit with and experience budo. This included the Shoujinkan Kendo3/iaido dojo led by Kendo 7 dan renshi, Mr. Kishikawa Roberto and the Hong Kong Judo Kan4 founded by Judo 7 dan Iwami Takeo sensei.
Figure 4. Iwami sensei at the Hong Kong Judo Kan, February 24 2010, Tomonokai
Omochitsuki Event
On 30 October 2010, ten students accompanied me to Kishikawa sensei's kendo dojo in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, to watch practice. My students were able to watch firsthand how a kendo keiko (training) occurs from start to end. We practiced in our normal fashion, beginning our normal rei, followed by Kishikawa sensei's dojo precepts, kendo kata and then keiko.
Figure 5. Kishikawa sensei's Shoujinkan kendo dojo, Hong Kong
3	See Shoujinkan Kendo's homepage at http://kendohk.wordpress.com/.
4	See Hong Kong Judo Kan's homepage at http://www.hongkongjudokan.com/index.shtml.
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Various students had different ideas about the practice but they noticed and felt many of the key concepts that we had been talking about in our class. Comments included:
The tour is enjoyable. It helps me understand more about the traditional culture of Japan. I wish I can try the training when I go to Japan next year. (Keith, Hong Kong Japanese Studies major student)
This is my first time to see the whole process of practicing kendo and all the ten kendo kata. Kendo is very physically challenging and has fast-movement training. Kiai is really important to show the spirit. Everyone in the dojo respects their partners. (Helen, Hong Kong Research Assistant)
This is my first time to see such a traditional activity of Japan. People bowing their heads to each other and the order of introducing yourself from the youngest to the most experienced one gave me a very deep impression. I was thinking about all the manners and Japanese sempai-kohai system when watching kendo. (Queenie, Hong Kong Japanese Studies major student)
It was great to have seen people practicing kendo outside Japan, so perhaps I will just quote Confucius's saying to thank your kendo sensei for his efforts of teaching kendo in Hong Kong: "M^^A" (The Way of the Tao is Never Far, ^SAta^^T). (Rosemary, Hong Kong Japanese Studies major student)
Students, even first timers noticed kendo and budo's more esoteric ideas such as rei, kiai (explosive scream), sempai-kohai (juniors and seniors) relationships, and that notions that kendo has is religious but in its practice not-religious. One student even commented on the Taoist principles infused deeply in the practice of kendo.
This was a good start in terms how enabling students to digest so many of the intangibles found in budo. They were beginning to point out and identify the qualities and characteristics of budo. Moreover, they could identify the differences between Japanese budo, in this case kendo and their own indigenous martial art systems.
The next step was to enhance my students' direct experience with budo. In order to do that, in the first several classes of the semester, I demonstrated iaido to allow students see their "professor" walk the talk. Here they had a chance to see a hakama (pleated pants), torei (sword greeting), touch a sword and watch an enbu (demonstration).
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The iaido demonstration was preceded in the following week by a kendo demonstration which included both kendo kata and keiko. On this occasion students could experience a different budo, ideas like ki-ken-tai-ichi (spirit, sword and body as one), the importance of partners working together as well as the rigidness of both the kata and the keiko motions. My partner, skillfully demonstrated kendo and budo's principles to the students and staff who attended the demonstration.
Figure 6: Iaido (Japanese swordsmanship) demonstration
After the demonstration, students and staff were encouraged to share their impressions, thoughts and ideas. This sharing session raised many interesting questions, especially related to cultural differences, the meaning of kiai, the rigid forms and attention to fine detail. The practicality of the techniques was rightfully questioned and allowed us to engage in a thoughtful discussion of kendo's tenets and what Draeger (1973b, 52-53) calls mastery of the kata or physical koans {k'M (paradoxical questions), the act of solving the physical koan filled kata ffi which are metaphors for conundrums and situations that evoke crisis which are prominent training methodologies in Zen Buddhism.
Interestingly but not atypically, attendees found it difficult to delink the presence of the sword, an opponent and the warrior like yells from a path of cultivation. It seemed inconceivable to some students, that kendo was anything but violence and a physical set of techniques related to fighting that was formalized into a hobby.
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Lastly, to help dispel that violent impression and as part of our tutorial, students themselves have been learning and practicing kendo kata on a weekly basis.
Figure 7. Students bowing to the kamidana
In the tutorial itself, we borrowed Irie Kohei's (Professor Emeritus from Tsukuba University) to introduce, discuss and understand the kendo kata and budo. In particular we focused on: (1) the combative characteristic; (2) the religious characteristic; (3) the aesthetic characteristic; (4) the educational characteristic; and (5) the competitive characteristic (Irie 2005, 155-69). The usefulness of these broad categories really helps students to break down the kata into digestible and relevant components. For example, through practicing kata, we begin by introducing the concept of rei. Students learn to turn to the symbolic kamidana (a miniature shrine to the patron saint of the dojo) and bow followed by bowing to each other. Based on Irie's ideas, we can introduce the religious significance of the bow, why we bow to the kamidana, the cultural narrative of the sword bearing a deity or being sacred. Bowing to each other prior to beginning kendo kata practice also reemphasizes the idea that kendo begins and ends with rei. It allowed the students to better understand how rei is based upon Confucian principles which make a clear distinction between the self and others, and also demonstrates the will to maintain harmonious relationships. It is a socially established pattern of contact (Irie 2005, 155-69). The weekly practice of kata gave students the chance to experience, although in a limited fashion rei in terms of Buddhist ideas of disciplining the mind through shugyo (ascetic practices) (Irie 2005, 155-69).
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Figure 8: Explaining kendo kata to students
Importantly, the physical practice of kendo kata allows the student to experience what Christmas Humphreys (in Suziki 1977) articulates as "the intellect only being able to toy with the concept and what only intuition can understand". Simply, through the physical practice of kendo kata, students developed an understanding, albeit non-intellectual understanding of the more esoteric aspects of kendo kata. For instance, students gain insight into the idea of ki-ken-tai-ichi, as they try to make the bokuto (wooden swords) a physical extension of themselves in order to "press" their partner/opponent into moving according to the prescribed kata patterns.
Another example is the embodiment of yugen (suggestiveness, tranquility, elegance) or miyabi (courtliness and refinement) when doing kata. Simply explaining these abstractions would certainly not do them justice in terms of their deeper meaning neither would they help students of kendo imbue the basic tenets of kendo. By watching a more experienced kendo-ka (kendo practitioner) perform kata, through visiting the Shoujinkan, and through practice, in a matter of weeks students actually go through a process of refinement of their motions, starting to carry themselves differently when they perform kata and they begin to demonstrate a certain level of tranquility when performing the kata. The transformation is interesting to see, even if it is just two or three months of practice.
Lastly, through weekly practice students experienced Irie's educational characteristics (kyoiku-sei) of budo. This became clear when I explained to students that merely performing the kata in a physical way divorced the kata from its ability to cultivate and forge discipline, courtesy and sincerity. It is the manner
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in which we perform the kata that makes it budo and allows budo to be practiced by men, women, the young and the old. Virtues of sincerity, courtesy, compassion and discipline conveyed through correct practice of budo is what distinguishes budo from bujutsu and makes it possible to be a lifetime pursuit or way.
How to Fill a Cup That Is Already Full?
A particularly interesting challenge while eaching about budo in a Chinese context is breaking through the "historical glaze" that seems to tint some students' views of budo, kendo and the samurai tradition. The resistance to learning about budo includes: (1) an association with violence; (2) ethnocentricity; and (3) resistance to a non-Asian teaching Asians about Japanese culture.
In the first case, it is always interesting to note how some of my Chinese students continue to see budo through the prism of violence, the kamikaze and the horrible events that took place in China during World War II in the name of bushido or at least using the representative weapon of the samurai, the katana (Japanese sword). For example, as part of my efforts to introduce budo culture in the classroom, I gave both iaido and kendo demonstrations (kata and keiko). One student had difficulties in seeing through the sword and training of the principles of the sword. After some discussions and actually experiencing kendo kata, especially understanding the training principles and connection with Zen and Confucian ideas of learning, this student has grown to comprehend kendo's principles.
Ethnocentricity showed its face when discussing budo and training, especially from students who had historically different understandings of Japan and China. Some students and cultures still tend to see Japan as a little brother, an off-shoot of Chinese civilization, a shadow of China's rich and long history. In this second case, it was important to demonstrate the independent nature of budo, how it shared many ideas with its Chinese influences, but how it has branched off to become an independent and unique cultural practice of Japan. This was and continues to be challenging when teaching budo because ethnocentricity colours one's interpretations of virtues, manners to communicate, ways to cultivate oneself, and what the cultivation of self actually means.
In the last case, resistance to a non-Asian teaching Asians about Japanese culture reminded me of Nihonjinron (theories/discussions about the Japanese)-type
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arguments that only Japanese could truly understand Japanese culture. For many students and students who were born and raised in Asia, it was and is initially difficult to image a non-Asian teaching Asians about their own culture. In practice, of course it is different. By demonstrating budo in several forms, preparing materials and organizing lectures that engaged students about budo from historical, cultural, religious and theories of modernization, students could quickly get past their initial stereotypes.
Conclusion
The development, initiation and teaching of a university level course on budo have been a significant undertaking to say the least. From finding good sources to integrating and articulating practical training, I have been challenged to find novel ways to teach less than concrete ideas. Through that process I have been able to learn a tremendous amount about budo, teaching and training. I have had to reflect on my own experience learning budo in Canada, Japan and Hong Kong. I have had to adjust to different interpretations and cultural milieus while attempting to preserve the teachings of my teachers. Importantly, this course has compelled me to more deeply examine the Confusion and Zen aspects of budo and their intuitive learning approaches.
What is the best way to teach a university level course about budo? Although, I can give you some hints, frankly I am still experimenting with what works and does not work. What I can share is that you need to take a comprehensive approach, use many kinds of materials, and incorporate opportunities to experience budo and to try budo. Through this course I discovered that Western students have slightly different needs than students from North East Asia (China, Korea and Japan). Students who could not read kanji (Chinese characters) also needed tools to help them understand many of the principles of budo that are conveyed through kanji. In contrast, students from Asian countries required further explanations about the principles of budo and bushido in order to separate bushido and budo from militarism and militarism from the Japanese. Lastly, based on my experience, I believe strongly that students need to actually train in a budo through the duration of the course. In my case, students trained in kendo kata and the kata proved to be a wonderful instrument to teach about kendo and budo, incorporate the historical, cultural and religious characteristics of budo.
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References
Bennett, Alex ed. 2005. Budo Perspectives. Vol. 1. New Zealand: Kendo World.
Callan, Mike. 2008. "The Internationalization of Judo and the Attention for Etiquette
Focusing on the UK." International Budo Symposium: The Mind of Martial Arts Rules of Decorum. National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya Department of Traditional Budo & Sport Culture. 7 Dec. Accessed November 21, 2013. http://budo2008.nifs-k.ac.jp/pdf/callan_e.pdf.
Cynarski, Wojciech J., and Kazimierz Obodynski. 2005. "Slavic Soul and Philosophy of Martial Arts." International Journal of Eastern Sports & Physical Education 3 (1), October: 1-6. Accessed November 21, 2013. http://www.isdy.net/pdf/eng/22.pdf.
Draeger, Donn F. 1973a. Classical Bujutsu: The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan. Vol. 1. New York, Tokyo: Weatherhill.
-. 1973b. Classical Budo: The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan. Vol. 2. New York,
Tokyo: Weatherhill.
-. 1974. Modern Bujutsu & Budo: The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan. Vol. 3. New
York: Weatherhill.
Fischoff, Stuart et al. 1999. "Offensive Ethnic Clichés in Movies: Drugs, Sex, and
Servility." Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. Boston. 21 August. Accessed November 10, 2013. http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/ OffenseJMP.pdf.
Hong Kong Judo Kan's Homepage. Accessed November 2, 2013. http://www.hongkongjudokan.com/index.shtml.
Hurst, G. Cameron. 1998. Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ikeda, Keiko. 2010. "Ryösai-kembo, Liberal Education and Maternal Feminism under Fascism: Women and Sport in Modern Japan." The International Journal of the History of Sport 27 (3), March: 537-52.
Irie, Köhei. 2005. "Budo as a Concept: An Analysis of Budo's Characteristics." Budo Perspectives, Vol. 1, edited by Alex Bennett, 155-69. New Zealand: Kendo World.
Kiyota, Minoru. 1995. Kendo: Its Philosophy, History and Means to Personal Growth. New York: Colombia University Press.
Kuwayama, Takami. 1998. "Representations of Japan in American Textbooks of
Anthropology: Focusing on the Use of Photographs." Europe Japan Research Centre, Oxford Brookes University, 15 Jun. Accessed November 3, 2013. http://www.social-sciences.brookes.ac.uk/research/centres/ejrc/downloads/Kuwayama_final.pdf.
Maesaka, Shigeki. 2008. "The Philosophy of Budo Education & FD Activities of Budo Teaching Staff at NIFS." International Budo Symposium: The Mind of Martial Arts Rules of Decorum, National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya Department of
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Traditional Budo & Sport Culture. 7 Dec. Accessed November 5, 2013. http://budo2008.nifs-k.ac.jp/pdf/maesaka_e.pdf.
Sasaki, Taketo. 2006. "The Meaning and Role of Budo (The Martial Arts) in School Education in Japan." Archives of Budo 2: 11-14.
-. 2008. "Budo (The Martial Arts) as Japanese Culture. The Outlook on the Techniques
and the Outlook on the Human Being." Archives of Budo 4: 46-49.
Shoujinkan Kendo's Homepage. Accessed http://kendohk.wordpress.com/.
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. 1977. An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, edited by Christmas Humphreys, with a foreword by C. G. Jung. London: Rider.
Theeboom, Marc, and Paul De Knop. 1999. "Asian Martial Arts and Approaches of Instruction in Physical Education." European Journal of Physical Education 4 (2): 146-61.
Yamamoto, Reiko. 2008. Beikoku tai Nichi senryo seisaku to budo kyoiku: Dai Nihon Butokukai no kobo (American Occupation Policy Toward Japan and Martial Arts Education: the Rise and Fall of the Greater Japan Martial Virtue Association). Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Senta.
Yamamoto, T., A. Kigawa, and T. Xu. 1993. "Effectiveness of Functional Ankle Taping for Judo Athletes: A Comparison between Judo Bandaging and Taping." British Journal of Sports Medicine 27 (2): 110-12.
Yoon, Paul J. 2009. "Asian Masculinities and Parodic Possibility in Odaiko Solos and Filmic Representations." Asian Music 40 (1): 100-30.
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Discourses in Philosophical and Religious Studies
Asian Studies III (XIV), 1 (2015), pp. 105-128
Phenomenon of Life and Death by Dogen and Heidegger—In View of "Embodied Cognition" in Buddhist Philosophy and Phenomenology
HASHI Hisaki1*
Abstract
Contrary to occidental philosophy, which is to grasp and solidify the principles of essential being (ontos on), Buddhism seeks to understand the existence of human beings and the significance of suffering in human life. In the East Asian languages human beings are described as "inter-beings" in that they are enveloped by the topos of life and death. From breath to breath, our life is bound to the moments of emerging and vanishing, being and non-being in an essential unity. Dogen's philosophical thinking integrated this conception with the embodied cognition of both the thinking and the acting self. In the phenomenological point of view, Heidegger, in his early work, emphasizes that being is bound to a fundamental substantiality, which borders on the Abgrund, falling into nothingness. With Dogen, the unity-within-contrast of life and death is exemplified in our breathing because it achieves a unity of body and cognition which can be called "corpus". In perfect contrast, the essential reflection for Heidegger is that of grasping the fundament of being in the world, which represents the actualization of a thinking-being-unity. The goal of this comparison is to fundamentally grasp what is the essentiality of being, life, and recognition (jikaku	bound to embodied cognition in our globalized world.
Keywords: embodied cognition, Dogen, Heidegger, comparative reflection, philosophy in life
Izvleček
V nasprotju z zahodno filozofijo, usmerjeno v razumevanje in strnjevanje principov osnovnega bivanja (ontos on), budizem išče razumevanje eksistence človeškega bitja in pomenljivost trpljenja v človekovem življenju. V vzhodnoazijskih jezikih so človeška bitja opisana kot »med-bitja«, s tem da so obdana s toposom življenja in smrti. Od diha do diha je naše življenje omejeno s trenutkom pojavljanja in izginjanja, bivanjem in nebivanjem v bistveni enoti. Dogen je s svojim filozofskim razmišljanjem vključil ta koncept z
* HASHI Hisaki, Dr. phil., durch Habilitation authorized Professor for full areas of philosophy at the
Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria.
hisaki.hashi@univie.ac.at
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utelešenim znanjem tako razmišljanja kot samodelovanja. Iz vidika fenomenologije Heidegger v svojih zgodnjih delih poudarja, da je bivanje omejeno s fundamentalno bitnostjo, ki meji na Abgrund, padanje v neobstoj. Z Dogenom je unikatnost znotraj kontrasta življenja in smrti ponazorjena v našem dihanju, ker dosega enost telesa in poznavanja, ki ga lahko poimenujemo »corpus«. V popolnem kontrastu je za Heideggerja esencialna refleksija doumevanje temelj bivanja v svetu, ki predstavlja oživitev enote razmišljanja in obstoja. Cilj te primerjave je v osnovi doumeti bistvenost obstoja, življenja in spoznanja (jikaku § omejenih z utelešenim spoznanjem v našem globaliziranem svetu
Ključne besede: utelešeno spoznanje, Dogen, Heidegger, primerjalna refleksija, filozofija v življenju
Introduction: The Historical Position of Dogen as the Zen Thinker
Dogen (Dogen Kigen	born in Kyoto 1200, died in Kyoto, Japan, in
1253, originated from a famous aristocrat family Kuga ^^ with the childhood name "Monju" ^W, lost his father in the early childhood, and also the mother at the age of 7. He was adopted into the residence of his uncle. Nothing was lacking in his material life in this circumstance, but he tended to melancholy in reflecting the life of phenomenal world in which suffering, depression or despair cannot be eradicated completely. At the age of 12 he left spontaneously the residence of the uncle. Transmitted by one of his relation who was a Buddhist monk, the young "Monju" entered into the monastery Hieizan-Enryaku-ji	of the
Tendai ^^ Buddhism in Kyoto, one of the great Mahayana Buddhist Schools in East Asia. He was ordinated to monk at the age of 13 with the dharma name "Dogen" M^, met in the next year 1214 Monk Eisai (Myoan Eisai E^^^M, 1141-1215), one of the greatest Zen Buddhists who widely introduced in Japan the Zen Buddhism from China. Eisai established the original Zen tradition from China in Japan, the Rinzai-School. Influenced by Eisai, Dogen went to China (in the Era of Song in 1223 at the age of 23. Visiting and staying at various Chinese Zen monasteries he met the Zen master, Tiendong Rujing/Tendo Nyojo (1162-1227) one of the most relevant Zen monks in China. In his finishing period of intensive Zen study, Dogen was requested by his Zen master Nyoj o to stay in China. In reconsideration of various circumstances, Dogen came back to Japan at
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the age of 27 (1227), tried to establish a new school from the original Chinese Zen tradition, the Soto School	in Japan. Though constantly getting jealous
rivals against the new school, Dogen's own tradition grew continuously. However, there were always a number of problems against many rivals of other Buddhist schools. The established enormous organization had also connections to several politicians in the government and was involved in institutional political struggles against some groups of Tendai Buddhism, Dogen decided to go out from the capital Kyoto into a provincial region. In the guidance of Hatano Yoshishige
one of the most trusted supporters of Dogen, Dogen's community established a complete new monastery in the province of north-western Japan; today's Great Monastery Eihei-ji ^^^ in the prefecture Fukui. Dogen's main work Shobo genzo (Reflections of True dharma EfeBB^; dharma, "The world of universal truth" of Buddhism) in 75 volumes and several appendix (selected volumes by Dogen, some "secret volumes" etc.), was completed from year to year and finished in this monastery. After the death of Dogen at the age of 53 (1253), his school and his works gradually received from generation to generation intensified acknowledgment in various areas in public and societies.—Today, the Great Monastery Eihei-ji is valid as one of the most relevant centers of Zen Buddhism in Japan, East Asia and in the globalized world.
The Position of Embodied Truth
Dogen's main work, Shobo genzo (1980; 1993; 2004-2008)2 (Reflections of the True dharma of Buddha), is composed in the style of typical Zen language, syntax and semantics. Thanks to Dogen's knowledge of classic Japanese and Chinese literature, as well as his understanding of everyday conversation in China and Japan at that time, the original position of Dogen's Zen thought has given rise to a unique philosophy, embodying truth in life. This characteristic differs widely from the genealogy of Aristotle's philosophia prima in the occidental world. For example, Aristotle maintained that philosophia is to grasp the causality of phenomena and being. Things which are experienced should not remain experiences only, but should be subjected to analysis: "Why does this particular phenomenon appear? From which causality has it been realized?" The things mainly questioned by Aristotle in his philosophia prima are not the experience of
2 For a biography of Dogen in historic scientific research see Imaeda 1994.
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truth per se, but analytical thinking which is to clarify the causality of a certain phenomenon and the principle by which the phenomenon is constructed as a logical scheme. (Aristotle 1987) The theoria for viewing an absolute truth must be realized through the logos, stating general truth in logical language. (Klein 2005, Chs. 8 and 3) Quite the opposite is the principle of Buddhist philosophy, which is positioned always in the topos of a "phenomenon of experience in life". The most important thing is not the process to establish a statement by logos, but grasping, acknowledging and demonstrating the universal truth in depending on one's own life, based on bodily existence. In short, the "cognition" of Buddhist philosophy has a principal preposition which should not be omitted or ignored in that knowledge. And its cognition of every kind is focused in the middle of one's own life, in relation to real circumstances, a real environment, and also to the "practice" of daily life. 3
Not only Zen practice but life, too, comprise a wealth of experiences, to grasp a universal, irrefutable truth, which is practiced and manifested day by day. Cognition, reached through the confrontations of daily life, is bound to the main aspects of the "experience of an irrefutable, undividable truth". It must be experienced and actualized through one's own bodily existence. The "complex system of truth" is always constructed in an integration of one's own life, one's own action of thinking and acting, so that the bodily self within the real and the intellectual world overlaps with the construction of a dimensional truth in daily life. (Hashi 2014a)
The Tangent of Analytical Philosophy and Buddhist Philosophy
Cognition in pure analytical thought is executed in a dimension in which the subjective self, its feelings, emotions, sense of bodily existence etc. are consciously omitted. These factors are, first of all, filtered through analytical consciousness, to divide everything into categories which can be evaluated and verified as positive, analytically correct scientific data. Buddhist thinkers acknowledge the relevance of analytical categories, and value the significance of analytical thinking. However, Buddhist philosophy, knowing this kind of analytical filtering very consciously, and independently from this, because the
3 The full context of Dogen Shobo genzo states this fundamental position. See especially Vols. Shinjin gakudo	(The Way of djarma Studies through the Unity of Body and Mind), Genjo
koan ^^^^ (The Actualizing of Essential Questions in Life), Bussho ffitt (Buddha Nature).
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analytical filtering of every problem to divide what is analyzable and what is not, results at last in tightening and limiting the thinking and acting dimensions. In natural science, an analyzable problem arises from observation and analysis of a problematical fact (Pietschmann 2003). In a preparatory operation, the minimal parts are defined, of which a larger entity can be reconstructed. Even if the collected parts can be reconstructed, showing a functional unity in a system of natural science, the solution to any problem is found only in a selected part of the whole phenomenon, out of which new problems may arise unexpectedly. Buddhism focuses just on this point that the analyzed factors are reconstructed in a way as to open a whole dimension of truth which should be applied to life in the real world. Yet, analytical philosophy leaves many parts which cannot be clearly analyzed; the latter is therefore omitted from analytical thinking. According to Pietschmann (forthcoming), one half of the world is neglected, whereas the other half—analyzed under the best conditions—can dominate the whole universe. Moritz Schlick, who occupied a prominent position in the Vienna Circle, stated that the self, soul, psyche etc. which build up the metaphysical problem could be proved only by concrete positive, natural scientific facts, for example, in mutual communication and in the knowledge of persons in accordance (coherence) with the recognition of several data, A, B, C and so on. Under these conditions "acknowledging only the positive, scientifically verifiable facts" is right, but there is something which has been neglected in this discourse of criticizing and omitting "idealism", "metaphysics", "religious intuition" etc. This shows us a further aspect which should be cautiously reviewed by self-critical reflection. The unity of this "judging self", who criticizes and isolates others, is seen in Buddhist philosophy as the most important problem. Here the object of a self-critical view is the "self per se"; at the same time, this "object" is the main "subject" of our thinking and of cautiously recognizing causal relationships. (Schlick 1986, Chs. 21, 22)
The Phenomenon of "Suffering"
A position like that of Schlick is not valid in Buddhist philosophy because the latter envisages the phenomenon of suffering of every kind. The reason is quite evident: Buddhist philosophy works primarily with the questions "What is suffering?", "How can we overcome our own suffering?" Suffering is not only physical pain, it does not only imply injuries of the body or psychic trauma. It is better to describe it in another way, for example: The term "suffering" in Buddhist
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philosophy includes all phenomena of dynamic change in every being, phenomena of one's self and its circumstances, the dynamic change of the things between stability and non-stability. All are topics in the life world, in which everyone experiences also the transformation of one's own mind, one's own body and one's own connection to other beings in the environment. The total phenomenon of dynamic change includes one's own life, its bodily and psychic circumstances. They produce the causality of "duhkha", the suffering of various kinds, the complete phenomena of the problems of humans and other beings in reality. (Takasaki and Hayashima 1993)
If we define "suffering" by physical pain, the experience of suffering is hard for the sufferer, who will try to come out of this phenomenon of suffering. At the same time, the "suffering from that particular pain" for all other persons is "not real". A physician, due to his medical knowledge, may imagine how intensive this pain is for a given part of the body. But generally the suffering of other persons, other beings, cannot be experienced by someone else in the same way, at the same time, by the same causality, at the same level or in the same psychic situation. Ludwig Wittgenstein problematized this point in his "Philosophical Investigations", that the pain of one subject cannot be clarified at all, even if we have possibilities to describe and define it in analytical philosophy. (Wittgenstein 1958)4 Physicians, too, can only form analogous conclusions as to what kind of pain the patient is suffering from. This circumstance that one can experience one's own "suffering" exclusively within one's own self, is the basic principle in Buddhist philosophy where all other problems are focused. The main principle is that our life is bound to end at a "terminal", namely, death. No one can experience the death of someone else. It causes a psychic confrontation and suffering, which in Buddhist philosophy must be treated as the duhkha, the form and contents of the changing phenomenon at any time, any space, under any circumstances and in any situation in real life and in intellectual activity.
With regard to one's suffering, we can see the following general phenomenon: If physical pain is correctly diagnosed and treated, the pain will be reduced; it vanishes at a given point of time. If this is true, the sufferer cannot be suffering any longer because the causality of suffering (the dynamis of the pain, in terms of Aristotle) fades, and the "substantial unity" of the painful part of the body
4 A similar problem of the relation of an experience of feeling and knowledge is treated in the article of Thomas Nagel 1974.
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(energeia, the realizing, in terms of Aristotle) and the relation linked to its causality do not exist any more. The suffering has vanished: It is hard to substantialize what the suffering is, especially in the midst of experiencing it. Physiologically, the overstimulated nerve in that part of the body transmits the information about a danger threatening in this situation as a series of electron signals from the damaged part to the central nerve system and to the cerebral cortex. This process is very fast, causing a drastic change in the mental and physical conditions. In psychic injury and trauma, this situation of subjectivity can be intensified: Only the person whose psyche was injured suffers his/her own trauma. If it is treated properly, the phenomenon of the trauma will become obsolete in the memory and vanish. Pain and suffering cannot be definitively substantialized; even if this phenomenon is painstakingly defined in medical and physiological terms, the struggle of overcoming pain and suffering will always be part of a person's own experience5: A thing or a phenomenon is executed completely and vanishes in time and space without any "substance". The "substantiality" has been interpreted in occidental philosophy as a remaining entity to actualize every changing phenomenon which is acknowledged as an "eternal truth". In Buddhist philosophy the remaining entity is dharma, the universal truth which is experienced, recognized and actualized in our bodily life. "Dharma" as the "eternal truth" cannot "remain" substantial in reality because the phenomenon including our self and our environment is always transformed from one state to another one. (Hashi 2011a and b) In this sense, Buddhist philosophy is not positioned on a level of mysticism; its entity is without enthusiasm, esoteric features or irrationality. Since Buddhist and Zen practice was first introduced in Europe under the slogan of "Zen and the Mysticism of Christianity", this connotation has been widely disseminated via the mass media. We should, however, bear in mind that Buddhism as a philosophy shows rational thinking in immediate relation to our real life.
Buddhist Philosophy and Phenomenology
Let us view the characteristics of Buddhist philosophy as compared to phenomenology in occidental philosophy. Contrary to analytical philosophy, it is
5 Morita Masatake, in his "Morita Therapy", stated this relation of reducing and eliminatng "suffering" found in neuro-psychic symptoms, with the purpose of an effective support to strengthen the self-healing capacity of a patient. (in Tashiro 2005)
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evident that Buddhism and phenomenology present several similar basic ideas of thinking. One of these similarities is that they are based on phenomena. In contrast to the transcendental philosophy of Kant, they question primarily what "quid facti" is, but not what "quid juris" is. (Kant 1990, 84-85, 116-17)
Cognition in Buddhist philosophy is never separated from the phenomena of real things in the empirical world. This point of view enables us to compare Dogen and Heidegger. Heidegger postulates that phenomenology is a method of investigation which shows itself openly, and which is obvious in itself. His phenomenology expresses a maxim, pointing "to the things themselves!" (Heidegger 1993, 27, 50)
Instead of a speculative deduction of categories, his thought in Phenomeno-Logos (Heidegger 1993, 27; 1962, 49-50) goes on to reflect what is the essential being hidden in the background of the phenomena. Even if Heidegger defines that his thought is a phenomenological analysis of being, this way of thinking grasps the essential being in view of the whole problematical phenomena. If the analysis of an "anxiety" is executed, the anxiety is not only an analyzable category, but is also in focus of the phenomenon of the human being who feels the anxiety. (Heidegger 1993, 266; 1962, 311) The "feeling thinking", one of the well-known terms of Heidegger 6 , surely shows an introduction to understanding the phenomena of the Buddhist and East Asian philosophies in which the levels of "feeling" and "thinking" are integrated without dichotomy.
Let us view Buddhist thinking: For Dogen, reflection leads primarily to transparent cognition, transcending our self and the limit of our knowledge (in the terms of Dogen: todatsu	(Dogen 1981, Zenki), in which we see the
fundamental causality of our suffering and the confusion or the problems of our tangible life. For Dogen, the ultimate purpose of thinking is to use it as a means of transcending our reliance on thinking in order to more fully harmonize with eternal truth (dharma). Independent from speculation, the Buddhist law of eternal truth, dharma, is to grasp the phenomenon of tangible life. Sensory perception is not secondary, but attached to cognition, because knowledge—as cognition integrated into bodily existence—is the primary source in Buddhist philosophy of the thinking-recognizing-acting-system of dharma—eternal truth viewed from an
6 Fühlendes Denken, Problem der Angst in Heidegger 1993, § 29, § 40, § 38, §46; 1962, §53, § 62, § 67, § 68.
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extended spectrum of historical and contemporary thought in critical and self-critical reflections.
As Heidegger said, "To the things themselves!" (1993, 27; 192, 50), the reviewer approaches things, grasps and construes the basic way of being in Phenomeno-Logos. The method is oriented to collecting things from phenomena and exhibiting them in the language of logos (legein).7 The viewer is primarily the thinking one who is able to state what is the fundamental principle of being throughout all phenomena.
With Dogen, a viewer is a thinking and an acting person in daily life. Life is a phenomenon where we seek to grasp what truth is.
Let us summarize the relation of phenomenology and Buddhist philosophy. Buddhist philosophy has a tangent to cognitive science to clarify that what is pain; on the other hand, it has a tangent to philosophical anthropology to clarify what is the self and self-subjectivity and what is suffering. The main stream of Buddhist philosophy is that it strives for a system, a complex system of knowledge by which our experiences in life and in the intellectual world are always integrated. (Hashi 2014a and b) In the aspect of the firm connection of philosophical knowledge to the phenomena of the world, Buddhist philosophy occupies a position highly similar to phenomenology or phenomenological ontology.
Phenomenology and Buddhist Philosophy—Via the Comparative Thinking Method
In the philosophy of both Heidegger and Dogen, the nucleus is the phenomenon of the world, especially with Dogen, "life" in time and space is surrounded by all things in the environment. For this reason, Heidegger and East Asian thinking including Buddhist philosophy have often been regarded as being similar in outlook. As distinguished from analytical philosophy, Buddhist philosophy as well as other East Asian thought systems were interpreted by occidental philosophers in view of their similarity to Heidegger. This was surely the most important step in the development of intercultural philosophy in Europe from 1980 onwards, but in
7 Heidegger discussed the relevance of the "legein" especially in Complete Works (1997, Ch. 13).
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the effort to link Heidegger to Buddhist philosophy several questions should be reconsidered, mostly in the view of comparative philosophy.
One of the questioning points is that in Buddhist philosophy the close connection of knowledge and its actualization in real human life is the most relevant principle. Thinking is an intellectual part of the actualization of life. The topos of thinking and acting as the actus intellectualis is always accompanied by objectivity with the aim to overcome/transcend one's own subjectivity. This is a basic principle for understanding Buddhism, of what cognition and knowledge means in this philosophy. Experience and knowledge are incorporated into one's mentality, bodily existence and the thinking system of the one who experiences: Our personal self is a corpus seen as a dimensional body into which we can transfer our cognition, which is applied and actualized in contacts made by the self with others, by the self with its environment. Without this close connection between intellectuality and acting in a "Life World", it is not cognition in the sense of Buddhist philosophy. Embodied cognition is the principle which strives for establishing an intelligible self in a life world. This is the core of Buddhist philosophy.9
Thus, the characteristic of Buddhist philosophy is that "cognition" must be "embodied", to be distinguished terminologically from that of pure analytical thought.
Formal Similarity—"Lightening and Hiding", "Er-eignis", "Gelassenheit"
Let us view some important points of a comparative reflection of Dogen and Heidegger.
Heidegger has shown the relevance of feeling thinking in "Sein und Zeit". The "Lightening and Hiding" (Heidegger 1962 and 2007) could be in accordance with the theory of the relationship of ym and yang. The "Gelassenheit/calmness/ equanimity" in his late work, "where thinking stops in its border, the true thinking begins" could be accompanied by the Taoist thought of Laozi and others. (Heidegger 1960) Surely, several phrases of the late Heidegger hint to a connection with Buddhist philosophy. There is an opportunity to further research,
8	For potential harmony, similarity and unity see Ohashi and Stenger 2013. Several problems arising from this similarity are remarkable in the light of comparative philosophy (Hashi 2012).
9	For this position in accordance with the terms of "actus intellctualis", "corpus" see Hashi 2012.
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if and how far the thoughts of Heidegger and Zen Buddhism are in a harmonious equality.
The most important aspect to clarify is the semantic research that their original thinking systems are construed through quite different perspectives, from different viewpoints, and, first of all, based on different principles of the subject-object-construction of logic. (Izutsu 1986, Ch. I.4)
The basis of Dogen's thinking is 1) the experience observed in the cautious, self-critical view of the experiencing self, 2) grasping universal truth and 3) actualization of this truth through one's bodily existence in life. In experiencing a self perceives and comprehends the dimensional world of truth step by step, viewing the phenomena encountered by it in its life circumstances and environment. The problem is intensified specifically with regard to the questions: "What is our self?", "What is truth in our world of empirical life?", "How can we express and actualize universal truth in a real world?".
Heidegger sees the main principle of approaching dimensional truth through the experience of daily life from another position: He wants to understand 'What is Being/das Sein at all?" For example, Heidegger in his late work looks cautiously at the aspect of the "Er-eignis" (Heidegger 1990), the occasion, a special happening in the empirical phenomenon in which Being per se arises very intensively. "Man" (German for: one, someone) becomes aware of grasping the fundamental ground of "Being/das Sein". Other moments in which "Being/das Sein" is not enlightened are not considered. The Sein, the essential being, goes on into the phenomenon of "hiding" (Verbergung). In the early Heidegger it is mentioned as "VerfalF (downfall) and "Zerstreuung" (dissipation) of the essential cognition into the phenomenon of the triviality of daily life. (Heidegger 1962, § 68, c) and 1977, 458, 459) The main focus is directed to the clarification of the concept of the essential being, "Sein". Even if the concept of the "Er-eignis" concerns the occasion of the arising and encountering of the fundamental ground of being, the embodying of the recognized thing did not become a special topic of his phenomenology.10
10 Compare with Hashi 2004, 386f; 2001/2004, 68; 2012, 7.
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The "Self", the Recognition, Awareness and Actualization of Experienced Truth
Heidegger maintained a critical distance to Kant's transcendental category of the "Ich denke/I think", as a pure formality of the thinking activity of a self, primarily because "being in the world" in the phenomenon of a person, his/her temporality and feeling etc. were not treated. (Heidegger 1993, §64) Instead of the abstract transcendentality of the „I think", Heidegger stated the necessity of the concretization of "I think something" (Ich denke etwas). (Heidegger 1993, §64; 1977, 425) This kind of concretization appears in the whole Being and Time; thus a similarity of Heidegger and Buddhism arises. But, reviewing cautiously, the following aspect distinguishes the "phenomenological daseinsanalysis" of Heidegger and Dogen's "Zen Buddhist Philosophy of Life": Heidegger's setting and concretizing of the problem is "the viewing of the whole phenomenon"" (sometimes also including the life world) from the methodological position of Daseinsanalyse. It builds up a unique position of phenomenological ontology, but it is not in the position of the awakening of the self in bodily life, the transcendation of its own limit of knowledge, its achievement of the transcending cognition for an intelligible self.
For example, "man" for Heidegger is a person who is found in a phenomenon of the world. (Heidegger 1993, §25-§27) It is focused from Heidegger's cautious observer's point as a phenomenological thinker and analyst of Dasein, but not in the general position of Dogen and Buddhist thinkers: the latter approach the problem from the "middle of experiencing the things in a life of the bodily self", just within the topos of the "experiencing one"", the experiencing self with the purpose of recognition in a cautious view, far from any subjectivity, whereas the recognized truth has to be actualized as an embodied cognition in a life world.
Some Principles in the Buddhist Ontology—Towards the System of Philosophy in a Life World
I have shown the fundamental difference of the thinking principles of Heidegger and Dogen. As a third point, I would like to discuss the different principles to grasp "Being" and "Non-Being": The central point is that in East Asian Buddhist philosophy it is not a fundamental principle to define "Being" as a substantial,
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eternal fundamental truth in thinking and acting.11 The negation of being, i.e. non-being, nothingness, emptiness (sunyata) (Nagarjuna 2013, Chs. 15, 25, 23, 21, 3, 2 ), absolute nothingness, the mu and so on (Izutsu 1977; Hashi 2009), construct an enveloped principle of eternal truth: God as creator is not a topic in Buddhist philosophy. Dharma, the invisible system of the metaphysical and empirical orders, is understood as an absolute one, but it is a system of order and its relations, which can be described only through many predicates in addition to the subject, "dharma" as a non-personalized absolute per se. It is remarkable that Buddhist philosophy focuses always on reality in an environment. Time and space are always bound to situations in which various relations are in interaction and coexistence and relationship.12 Time always goes forward, it does not turn back; an occasion which happened in the past is not reversible. Nothing is reversible in reality, time is bound to space in which humans execute various karman (logical order of the causality and result of one thing which is found in a relationship with another thing). Everything changes dynamically and does not continue forever; this is anitya, the negation of an eternal substantial being and its consistency, the main principle in Buddhist philosophy. Nothing remains substantial in reality; this is the principle which is not changeable. Paradoxically, Buddhist philosophy places this principle of anitya, the principle of inconsistency, a negation of eternal being in a reality, first in its metaphysical and empirical ontology. (Dharma remains consistent, but it is shown or manifested always through a human or being who, inherently, is never in consistence.)
11	The being ^ does not correspond to the absolute truth. Furthermore, it is used constantly together with its contradiction and negation (non-being): being and non-being, bhava and abhava are coupled in the terminology of Buddhist philosophy. Neither bhava nor abhava alone show the eternal truth of dharma: Both are bound to the phenomenon of dharma, whereas being and non-being are both in a relationship. (Nagarjuna 2013, Ch. 15) In this fundamental position the equivalent position of the absolute truth which is bound to "being"/"Sein" is a irrefutable principle for Aristotle or Heidegger etc., but it is hardly found in Buddhist philosophy. (Aristotle 1987, 1003a-1012b; Heidegger 1993, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4; Complete Works, Vols. 9, 13, 14, 69 etc.)
12	For a philosophical reflection, these aspects are central for the understanding of what Buddhism is and to distinguish it from other Asian religions, even if in the sutras of early Buddhism (samyutta nikaya, digha nikaya, mahjjima nikaya) there were not concrete technical terms to define what anitya, duhkha or anatman is (Steinkellner 2002; see also Saigusa 1986, 142ff; see the concept of "dharma modana" in Takasaki and Hayashima 1993)
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The Problem of Life and Death
The Relation of "Life and Death" for Heidegger—Being and Time
With Heidegger, the key concept of being there for death is the focal point of his discourse. He states that after the end of our lives there will be a dimension of death. There is a linear, finite development inherent to life, necessary for us to reach the totality of our existence in the world. The terminal point is death. Death appears as the loss of being. Even if the focus on the "Ab-grund" or "nothingness" (Heidegger 1993, § 47; 1962, 280-8113) in the recognition of passing time seems to be similar to the Buddhist cognition of anitya, it is made clear by Heidegger that time, being and self are bound to the substantial existence associated with eternal cognition.
Is our existence in the world, as Heidegger asserts, a constant journey towards death in a finite series of "not yet" moments? Is death a termination of existence, and is being in life something incomplete? Heidegger discusses these problems and shows that our existence is a "not-yef' to death. For Heidegger, death is still beyond all phenomena; it has not yet been integrated into the problem of being. Heidegger indicates a successive coming-into-being to arrive at the end; the impending death of our being. The problem of death (for Heidegger) is integrated into existence. Being thrown into the field of imminent death causes fear. Fear of death is integrated into being-in-the-world. Since the subject of fear is present even in our being-in-the-world, we might say: "Angst angstet sich"/(fear fears itself). (Heidegger 1993, § 53, 266)
Heidegger is concerned with the question of to what extent this nameless fear can be overcome. In his early works, such as Being and Time, he arrives at the conclusion that through encountering the void-ness of the existential Ab-grund, one tries to overcome existential "fear" and creates the possibility of finally becoming oneself, primarily through "an impassioned freedom towards death" having finally broken away from the illusions of self and factuality, whereas fear and anxiety could not be completely eliminated. He emphasizes the recognition of our being in a decisive view that this life is not necessarily independent of "anxiety". This position shows a confrontation with the dichotomy of life and
13 Cf. The statement of Heidegger: "Da-sein heißt: Hineingehaltenheit in das Nichts" ("The Being there is enclosed in the Nothingness"), in Heidegger 1943.
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death and a resolve to further that confrontation, in that one is to savour the depths of being, in contrast to its end and in the opening up of existence.
The Relationship of "Time-Space-Consciousness" of Heidegger and Dogen
At the beginning of a comparative reflection in any kind, I have to remark on the most relevant aspect. In regarding and thinking in Comparative Philosophy— especially in case of treating different thinkers from different cultures, it is generally expected and also noteworthy that readers must come out from a frame of historical interpretation of established thinkers just in purpose to be free of any preposition and prejudice which was built in a long history of a certain culture. Here in this article it is valid especially for Heideggerians who are specialized in Heidegger's thinking. If one would ignore this starting position, every discourse goes into a labyrinth in which readers or interpreters presuppose and prejudge a certain thinker from another background of another culture by their fixed preposition based exceptionally on their own culture. The Comparative Philosophy offers to set a new ground to reflect on basic principles and prepositions which are prerequisite and bound to one's own culture and thinking method. Just in this purpose, thinkers and readers are invited to an open court for a new common ground in thinking and reflecting about philosophical questions in an "Inter-Action" of invisible kind. (If one will ignore this starting point he/she will enter into a "Field of Isolation" in a philosophy of a globalized world.) In executing this InterAction one can enter into a productive "Field of Intra-Relation".
The principles of the relevance of reality and the empirical world of life, the principle of negation of a substantial being, the focusing of life and death, as seen by Dogen, are fundamentally different to Heidegger's point of view. Heidegger treated the problems of "Nichts/nothingsness" in his first lecture at the University of Heidelberg 'Was ist Metaphysik?", in which the core of the questioning can be summarized as follows:
Nothingness is hidden or ignored in occidental philosophy, but it is remarkable in the world. Where the category of being shows a border of its possibility of consistency, there occurs an unknown dimension of Nichts/downfall into nothingness. (Cf. Heidegger 1943)
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In Sein und Zeit Heidegger shows that our life is bound to a temporality in which everything is limited by the passing time. At a point of time, things fall into an Abgrund, into an underground of negated being. Only the cognition of being can resist against this constant falling down into nothingness. (Heidegger 1993, § 47, § 30, § 53) It is remarkable that Heidegger reviewed time and space as a basic category of esse/Being/Sein, which in the whole history of occidental philosophy has been quite ignored as to deducing what it is." (Heidegger 1993, §1; 1977) The "Sein" is positioned as a category or concept which remains eternal and exists eternally. Life is temporary, with moments of ups and downs, moving into Grund und Ab-grund, to the fundamental ground and anti-ground/non-ground. But death is a forthcoming issue in an unknown future. Life presupposes this possibility, and "man" (one) shows a resistance against the unknown future through the cognition of Being and its continuity and its consistency. (Heidegger 1993, §62; see also §47, §30, §53) In this structure we see a fundamental difference between Dogen and Heidegger. Dogen, as a Buddhist thinker, accepts the dynamic change of time/space in the principle of anitya/inconsistence and dynamic change of being and non-being without relying on any substantiality. Since this dynamic change without a fixation on substantiality is the basic principle of eternal truth in Buddhist philosophy (dharma), "time" is neither a subject nor an object which can be treated in separation from our self. For Dogen, "time" is not a category but an indivisible part of our existence as life-and-death. "Space" is the same, because our bodily existence is spontaneous, a dimensional space in the middle of uncertain dynamically changing phenomena. (Dogen 1980)14 This approach to time-space-self without a dualistic objectification between the "self' and "timespace" is basic also in the philosophy of Nishida: One of his main theses, "Contradictory Identity of Time-Space-Self', is based on the acceptance of what is "contradictory" (Heidegger 1997, vol. 11, 254, 348), as a high-level integration of opposite categories, and has its roots in Buddhist philosophy.
Let us summarize. Both Heidegger and Dogen elaborate on the same topics: the relationship between life and death, our existence that carries the potential of
14 This thought is actualized especially in Vols. Uji ^^ and Zenki ^ffi. In view of some experts of Heideggerian thinking it is necessary to accent, that Dogen explains "Life and Death", "Being and Non-Being" as one "principle" which cannot be divided into dualistic separated phenomena. According to Dogen, the nirvana is the self-overcoming position which embodies "Life-Death" as an indivisible continuum in our self from breath to breath. The overcoming of suffering is a powerful self-confrontation which has its goal in the "acceptance" of the oneness of "Life-Death" as a continuum.
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death, and the confrontation with, and the solution of, the problems arising in this connection. The results of some comparative reflections may be summarized as follows: The marked difference between Dogen and Heidegger becomes obvious in Heidegger's positioning of death at the end of being in time, i.e., as the absolute opposite to being. Even though death at any time will be immanent with regard to being, there is a dual split between being and death. Even though in Heidegger's late work Sein und Zeit (and in the proceedings of the Zollikon Seminar) where "Lichtung und Verbergung/clearing and hiding" are mentioned (Hiedegger 1962 in 2007), the discourse is based nevertheless on existing time, in connection with original being; and therefore clearing and hiding remain in ever present subsistence.
With Dogen, this is different because of the paramount principle of the Buddhist dynamic of being: anitya. What remains ever present is not being, neither non-being nor nothingness, but anitya, the constant appearing, lingering, and vanishing of this moment (kshana bhangha)15 and all distinctions within it, which exist in space, in their dynamic change from being to non-being. "'Mari" (one) is the term Heidegger uses to suggest a persistent being destined for death. Its being in itself implies the inevitable loss of being; and out of this arises the problem of abstract fear. In contrast to this, Dogen's conception of life-death, as encompassing being and non-being, is integrated as an indivisible pair of opposites, where even our clearest example of life in actuality expresses the full dimension of life-death. Holding/retaining (hajü ffifi or hajo ffi^)16 in Zen recognition is constantly accompanied by the opposite, i.e., releasing/letting go (hogyo ^ÍT).
Life-Death as a Contradictory Unity—An Intelligible Self as the "Corpus"
Thus, for Dogen it is evident that life and death are a phenomenon coupling two in one11, which is inherent in us from our birth to an unknown future. In Buddhist thinking and its culture it is not postulated that we have to keep our "Seinserkenntnis/cognition of being" as an inherent factor. If we do so, Dogen warns, it is only half of the phenomena of life: either life or death in dualistic
15	kshana bhangha, setsuna-metsu	(Takasaki and Hayashima 1993, 261ff).
16	hajö-högyö ffi^ • Wtt/hajü-högyö. ffift - Äff. See Iriya and Koga 1991.
17	Dogen, Shöbö genzö: This concept is explained in the secret vol.	(Dogen 1993)
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separation.18 For Dogen, life-death are coupled, in one word, in every moment, at any time and in any situation. Every moment it emerges, stays and vanishes at the same time. There is nowhere a consistent continuity forever (out of dharma. Dharma is eternal, but it is embodied and manifested only in a being which is inconsistent). Dogen thinks that the life moment and the death moment arise always linked to each other, accompanied by our breathing. A linear progression of time is not Dogen's main issue.19 Time emerges, stays and vanishes: this coupling goes on forever with mathematical precision. But the time before and after the present is always all in one, just at this moment of here and now. The three-dimensional world passes through (present-past-future). The wide circle of our past lives in our memory (like Plato's anamnesis), as well as the unknown future, both are visions of our self-consciousness. In Zen thought the moment of the absolute presence here and now has an absolute existence forever, even if this moment of here and now becomes past and vanishes. This absolute moment of here and now is contradictory, vanishing at every moment and existing at the same time forever in "cognition embodied in dharma", the universal order of truth. A contradiction seems to be that we, in our limited and inconsistent bodily human existence, strive for "cognition embodied in irrefutable truth".
In the acknowledgement and the acceptance of this contradiction in our thinking and acting, we participate in the absolute truth, which is an unlimited truth. In the problem of the "life-death contradiction", the position of Dogen also includes this philosophical contradiction. Breathing from moment to moment, our life is a dying life, life-death, even if we are in the middle of the living life.
When we live the moment of death, death is not a dying but a living death. The fact of death at the end of life is the completed life, life-death as oneness. This death is not a brief death, but falling into nothingness. It is life-death executed in a completed phenomenon. If we see the dualistic phenomena of life against death as two contradictory opposites, we cannot grasp and experience that what nirvana
18	Even if the originality of the "secret volume" is questionable according to philologists, the basic concept is present also in vol. Zenki found in the statement: Sho ya zenki-gen, shi ya zenki-gen ^^
(The Life is to experience a fulfilled life as a complete dimensional one. The death is also for experiencing of a fulfilled death as a complete dimensional one.) The "life and death" shows in this context not only a limited meaning of a physical life and death. Furthermore this pair of concepts marks up the "moment of arising" and the "moment to fall down" for experience of human in every kind.
19	Dogen, Shobo genzo, vol. Uji W^.
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means: It means a deep understanding of the above-mentioned whole truth in bodily existence, in life in the real world and in the intellectual world: "Life and death as oneness, from our birth onwards, are always in us. This oneness is inherent as a contradictory self-identity of our human self, including the vanishing moment of our life and the completion of life-death in dharma, the universal eternal truth." The cognition of life-death as a couple transcends our bodily existence, in the immanence of the world. The deeply inherent/immanent moment of life-death in the phenomena real-life is to be recognized in our careful breathing, aware of what is actually here and now. And the highly transcendent identity of life-death in our bodily life is grasped in the intellectual thinking-acting in every activity in life; human life develops in accordance with this contradiction, in completing our own life and our relationships to others day by day. 20 Here the construction of one's own life as an irreversible occasion is described in Zen Buddhism as follows: "Once in encounter, once in a life time." Everything, every occasion day by day is an encounter of our self with things in relation to it. Every occasion can be encountered only once. No experience is the same, because our self and the circumstances are always changing in time and space. Therefore nothing is the same; everything is an encounter made only once in a lifetime. The focus is directed to the centre of the life phenomenon and to the acting/thinking/ breathing self as one of the highest dignity. I call this unit of the self which is responsible for experiencing, recognizing and actualizing truth by the special term of "corpus":21 1) the bodily existence as a physical volume, 2) its ability for acknowledging essential truth, 3) its manifestation of recognized truth in relationship with other beings. In view of Plato's understanding of 1)x hedra, 2)x
20	Dogen, Shobo genzo, the secret volume	(Dogen 1993; Hashi 2011b)
21	The term of corpus in Hashi 2012, III. 16. There, the corpus is explained as a bodily bearer of cognitions in sense of a self-critical and self-referential observer to cognitive scientific knowledge. On the other hand, the corpus is a bearer of problematics to execute what is the real truth "ontos on" in the Metaphysics and Ontology which was worked over and over since Aristotle's Metaphysics. This aspect was once explained by Robert Reininger (1869-1955, University of Vienna), giving that the bodily existence of one' s self is the bearer of an "Urerlebnis" (original experience) that allows the experience of a whole dimension of the "real truth". In the following continuum of self-consciousness the experienced things are reflected and treated over and over until the next "Urerlebnis" (original experience). Corpus as a bearer and critical observer of cognitive scientific knowledge and corpus as an executer of the metaphysic/ontological truth--herewith the difference to a phenomenological approach is clear. And also, the aspect of "embodying knowledge" as a wisdom and self-transcending cognition integrated in one's own life—which has been treated in the long history of Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy in East Asia and also in today's global world—builds a remarkable core of this term.
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topos, 3)x xora, this explanation of the corpus will have another reference, continuing the comparative reflections on the philosophy of the global world.22 The main focus expressed by Plato is "to hen" (the one) as a being of universal truth. The focus of the corpus is also on the oneness of universal truth in real activity, finding the general base of the existence of our self among life and death. The correspondence of points 2) and 2)x are consequent in recognizing this main difference. The correspondence of 3) to 3)x becomes obvious if we regard the main focus of both, 3) to 3)x, in the "recognition of the networks of the various relations of the principles of truth.
In our time of globalization, many of packets of information flow around the clock. Activities of any kind are promoted sometimes only to receive various data for finding the shortest way to get the maximal profit. On the other hand, another kind of "activities", diecting and creating something from a full dimension of bodily existence of real human, is less acknowledged. In regard to this aspect, getting more and more information without reflecting, without directing and creating seems to be a "passivity of decadence" in scattering in a virtual field. The "corpus" strives for establishing another way—in opposite to the above mentioned "passivity of decadence". Its final purpose is to achieve an integration of [1)-2)-3)] and [1)x-2)x-3)x], i.e. based on the long history of philosophy we try to express a truth by our bodily existence in life in a real and intellectual world day by day. It has a basic background in:
a) philosophical histories and cultures (especially those of East and West),
P) philosophy as thinking and acting in an intellectual world: "actus intellctualis",
y) philosophy for life in expressing wisdom and compassion in awakening to the universal truth. This modus has its backbone and the causality in various thinking traditions of East Asian philosophy—influenced especially from the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism.
The significance of the term "corpus" has therefore another approach and another conceptual significance against a similar term which is treated in phenomenologist thinking. Just in short, one of the most compact and nearest mind of this "corpus" was manifested by Hisamatsu Shin'ichi (1889-1980), one of the
22 Nishida himself mentioned this kind of developing philosophy in possible comparison to Plato and Hegel (Nishida 1965, 73; see also Hashi 2005, 101-3).
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leading thinkers in the Philosophy of Kyoto School specialized in Modern Zen Philosophy: "The Formless Self of All Mankind in Super Historical History", for short "FAS". As a philosopher in the following generation in the 21st century I will accent this mind which is not only "sectionalized" for a few knower of Zen Buddhism and its Philosophy. Furthermore, its "Philosophy of Mind" must be grasped by cosmopolitan intellectuals and friends in a world in which a philosophy as thinking and acting and realizing a universal and eternal truth should be found and manifested without ideological binding to any political party.
Let us summarize the most relevant aspects of the topic:
Life vs. death is a constantly changing phenomenon. In overcoming this dualistic struggle a human being achieves transcendence, nirvana in a world immanency—the calm, transparent insight, the profound dimension of cognition integrated into dying/completing life, as visualized by Dogen.
In the firm grasping of cognition, "Erschlossenheit des Daseins"/the definite clear significance of existence, one has overcome the anxiety of death according to Heidegger: Going forward to this life in "impassioned freedom" towards the unknown death.23 This cognition of the phenomeno-logos shows us the "veritas transcendentalis". (Heidegger 1993, § 7, 38; 1962, 62)
Cognition as "Veritas Transcendentalis" or Cognition as "Corpus"?—Towards Embodied Cognition in the Dialogue of Philosophy
In the above philosophical comparisons an important question is raised: Do we hold, as does Heidegger, the problem of death to be a prelude to the abyss of nothingness or do we accept Dogen's view of a dynamic principle of humanity and all beings within the transparency and tranquility of what can be construed as a single, great action, a single great mind? The problem of "Zeitigung/temporalizing" is important for visualizing the moment of being-in-the-world by Heidegger. With Dogen, "uji" refers to an opposite interpretation, that time is in us and that it
23 "We may now summarize our characterization of authentic Being-towards-Death as we have projected it existentially: "anticipation reveals to Dasein its lostness in the they-self, and brings it face to face with the possibility of being itself, primarily unsupported by concernful solicitude, but of being itself, rather, in an impassioned freedom towards death-- a freedom which has been released from the illusions of the 'they', and which is factual, certain of itself, and anxious." (Heidegger 1993, §53, 266; 1962, 311)
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passes and disappears from one moment to the next, reflecting our existence here and now. Yet, this moment is always there, enabling us to create and collect
24
manifold karman. Both ways of thinking concentrate on the essence of time: Dogen urges us to realize the eternal truth to be recognized and actualized through reality, in empirical life; Heidegger thinks in phenomenological terms: "Being is nothing but transcendence;" "The transcendence of being is excellent insofar as it allows for the possibility and necessity of the most radical individuation. Any opening up of being as transcendence is a phenomenological truth as Veritas transcendentalis ."(Heidegger 1993, §7, 38; Cf. Hashi 2014b)
Conclusion
The following provisional balance can be struck between the views presented in this article: Dogen's principle is how far the real empirical self, by totally accepting and manifesting its true nature, can grasp and embody dharma awareness. I call this corpus, a body with the unlimited capability of opening dharma, in other words, an insistent and conscious manifestation of our true self in daily life. Consideration of Dogen's Zen prompts a re-evaluation of Heidegger's view insofar as the opening of "being-in-the-world" does not remain, only transcendens, but also it may point to a return of the world immanence to life in the direction of embodied cognition. This will produce a number of opportunities for a dialogue between Buddhist and occidental philosophy in our globalized world.
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Nishida, Kitaro. 1965. Complete Works, vol 11. Tokyo: Iwanami.
Ohashi, Ryosuke, and Georg Stenger, eds. 2013. Heidegger und Ostasiatisches Denken, München: Verlag Karl Alber.
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The Crisis of Japanese Identity in the 21st Century and Watsuji Tetsuro's Ethics
Kristyna VOJTlŠKOVA* Abstract
According to some thinkers, in the 21st century, the Japanese society is facing a crisis of values. The postmodern approach to the individual and society may be one of the causes of this problem. In this point of view, an inadequate grasp of the relationship between the individual and the society seems to play an important role. The problem of this relationship was elaborated by the early 20th century philosopher Watsuji Tetsuro who endeavoured to re-define the role of an individual in the society. This paper attempts to examine the contemporary problem of Japanese identity from the perspective of Watsuji's conception of interpersonal relationships.
Keywords: ethics in Japan, contemporary Japanese society, individual and society, emptiness, betweenness
Izvleček
Po mnenju nekaterih mislecov se japonska družba v 21. stoletju sooča s krizo vrednot. Postmodernistični pristop do posameznika in družbe je lahko eden izmed razlogov za ta problem. V tem vidiku neustrezen pristop k odnosom med posameznikom in družbo igra pomembno vlogo. O problemu tega odnosa je razpravljal Watsuji Tetsuro, filozof iz zgodnjega 20. stoletja, ki si je prizadeval, da bi redefiniral vlogo posameznika v družbi. Ta članek tako raziskuje sodobne probleme japonske identitete iz perspektive Watsujijevega pojmovanja medosebnih odnosov.
Ključne besede: etika na Japonskem, sodobna japonska družba, posameznik in družba, praznost, vmesnost
* Kristyna VOJTISKOVA, PhD student, Charles University, Praga, Czech Republic. kr.vojtiskova@gmail.com
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Foreword1
In the 21st century, it seems that Japanese society is facing a phenomenon that some may consider as a crisis of values. Some scholars would argue that it emerged from a postmodern approach to the individual and the society. It is arguable if it is the major cause for the contempory crisis of values in Japanese society. There is an on-going public debate on the value system of the Japanese in mass media. However, the debate itself is not of my concern in this paper. I am working on the assumption that the value crisis is present in the contemporary Japanese society and I will solely focus on an ethical aspect of this crisis. By an ethical aspect I mean the relationship between the individual and the society, a major pillar of Watsuji Tetsuro's thought, which I consider particularly topical here. The findings of my paper are predominantly based on a qualitative textual analysis of Watsuji's work Ethics which points to a crucial aspect of the problem of Japanese identity from a philosophical perspective which I consider to be up to date in many ways.
Causes, Symptoms and Consequences
Since the postwar period, the emphasis of the Japanese value system successively shifted from communitarianism to individualism (Oyama 1990). The individualism in the original sense of the word is based on a balance between individual rights for liberty, equality, and public responsibilities. However, in the case of Japan, it seems that in the postwar pursuit of denouncing the totalitarianism, the Japanese over-emphasized freedom and right of self-determination of the individual and equality.
This kind of individualistic approach was accompanied with the neoliberalism focused rather on the individual, and the society was regarded as derived. However, that approach proved to be non-functional, because it ended in overemphasizing the individual's definition of his own values at the expense of social ones. Instead of the integration of the individual into the society, it apparently led to a disintegration of social solidarity and weakened an affinity with the community, which was considered as secondary to the autonomy of
1 This paper is partially based on remarks originally presented at the 5th International Symposium of Young Researchers held at the Autonomous University of Barcelona on 4th July 2014. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Blai Guarne Cabello for discussion about some relevant points of Watsuji Tetsuro's ethical thought and the identity of Japanese.
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independent and free individuals who are brought together conditionally on their own terms. Accordingly, the community was regarded as a hindrance in living as one sees fit and the individual was regarded as the one who independently decided his preference to remain or not to remain within its framework. As a result, the individualism and neoliberalism tended to be misunderstood, leading to a misconception that individuals are free to do almost anything as long as it does not violate a law or offend others (Kobayashi 2000).
However, it should be definitely mentioned that the inclination to this kind of individualism that became rampant in Japanese society found its expression on the right of self-determination and development of political participation as well, as evident especially in the 60's and 70's. Nevertheless, this rather positive transition was accompanied with the aggressive asserting of egoistic interests, the gradual dissolution of local communities, the increasing number of nuclear families, single-parent families and divorces in a way remarkably similar to Europe and the United States, not to mention the feeling of alienation from the society (e.g. hikikomori 3 ¡9 ) and the alarming number of violent misbehaviour cases at Japanese schools.
Furthermore, during the 60's and 70's in Japan, there was a substantial increase of the so-called new religions which continues until the present day (Kisala 2006). This social phenomenon is one of the significant responses to the crisis of spiritual identity. The new religions such as Buddhist-based Soka Gakkai Ct'Jfffi^^), Rissho Koseikai (^EU^^), or Bussho Gonenkai Kyodan fi^^^ffl) aspire to saturate the contemporary search for values with the resurrection of past assurances in the context of present-day social issues by means of attempting to draw upon tradition and yet remain relevant and to date. Although they share a certain stress on identification with the community, they deal with the identity of the individual, at the same time.
The membership in community is critically important to the individual in Japan (Carter 2013, 138). The individual tends to be seen as having no importance outside his group or community identifications. However, given that a group or society that does not provide individual with assurance and sense of security, not to mention self-realization and self-fulfillment, there is no way to guarantee good-working social relations.
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Generally speaking, the social constraints imposed on individuals by the traditional structures were liberated and obviously, the Japanese, traditionally profoundly influenced by the principle of self-restraint and dissolving the ego into the group, are inclined to lose a sense of devotion to the social structures to which they belong, as elsewhere in other modern societies. The contradiction between individual and social interests imposes an excessive strain on every individual and, naturally, the whole society. I assume that this kind of conception of interpersonal relationships hinders the awareness of a person's identity and also the adequate ethical relationships. The confusion of approach to other people is a timeless issue which certainly cannot be definitively untangled. However, for those who are engaged in contemporary Japanese society research, Watsuji's conception brings a very inspirational outlook which may open new perspectives on variety of issues related to Japanese identity.
Watsuji's View of Human and Social Relations
Watsuji Tetsuro (fP^^^, 1889-1960), together with Nishida Kitaro ^, 1870-1945) were the two most seminal thinkers of a reflective phase of Japanese philosophy. Both of them were strongly influenced by phenomenology and well versed in various writings of Western philosophers. To a great extent, both of them, like many other Japanese intellectuals at that time, had tried to develop and articulate a synthesis of Eastern and Western thought. While Nishida is credited with having introduced phenomenology to Japan, Watsuji contributed to the intercultural dialogue by elaborating phenomenology into a systematic study of ethics.2 His quest for a phenomenology, Buddhism, Confucianism and Shinto-based interpretation of Japanese society is accompanied with a harsh criticism of Western individualism, that has become predominant at that time in Japan.
Watsuji's philosophy strives to articulate a more comprehensive view of humanity and the human relations grounded in the grasp of contradiction between the individual and the society. In his point of view, the individuality of human cannot be considered alone, isolated from sociality, because any individuality is inevitably immersed in the world, which is always shared, whether as a shared time or as a shared space. The individual isolated from the context of society or
2 Whereas Nishida employed phenomenology to elaborate the original concept of pure experience (junsui keiken	Watsuji applied phenomenology to ontology and Japanese intellectual
tradition-based ethical system.
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community of other individuals, is actually a non-existing abstraction. That is because such a consideration of human is only temporal, but not spatial as well. Provided that people are mere individuals, the ethics would also be only a matter of individual consciousness. However, since there is no nakama (ft)3 to relate to ethically, then there is nothing ethical there in Japanese sense of the word:
The locus of ethical problems lies not in the consciousness of the isolated individual, but precisely in the in-betweenness of person and person. Because of this, ethics is the study of ningen. (Watsuji 2007, 20)
Since Watsuji radically disapproves a purely individualistic assumption of social human being of Western individualism and expresses his viewpoint on humans as essentially social, his ethics is sometimes labelled as communitarian. However, such a sweeping generalisation is the very source of misconceptions about Watsuji's ethical system. In fact, his ethical system is not communitarian as it is not liberal.
Communitarian social theory contends that the identity of individual is not independent of society and must be understood within a given social context. The individual independence and autonomy, then, is not a social concern. To this extent Watsuji's viewpoint could be considered communitarian, but here should be mentioned that Watsuji also draws on Buddhist metaphysics manifested in the Japanese language. Specifically, it is his understanding of humanity as the so-called "movement of double negation".4 Since we, human beings, are both individuals and yet we are involved in groups or communities to fulfil our individual role in fact means to negate our social involvement. On the other hand, to fulfil our social role means to renounce a great part of our individuality in order to emphasize and confirm our group membership.
Emptiness
Such an act of double distancing either from our individuality or our sociality, is, simply put, the negation of negation or the movement of double negation. In the movement of double negation, the distance between self and other disappears and
3	Nakama (ft'^t) originally meant "companion", "fellow", and "circle of friends". It is the initial character of compound word rinri (ft®) which means "ethics" or "morals". (see Watsuji 2007, 21)
4	The society emerges from negating the individual and consequently the individual emerges from negating the society. This movement of double negation establishes provisionally (until another act of negation) both the society and the individual.
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their mutual negation results in absolute emptiness. The term "emptiness" (sunyata, ku ) implies that neither the individual nor the society has actual intrinsic identity. The identity exists only potentially. Instead of identity, there is just pure potentiality. This way the emptiness could be conceived as an empty space open to any imposition, any possibility. The moment that the choice is made or imposition is realized, a myriad of other possibilities no longer exists and a myriad of new possibilities emerges.
As Robert E. Carter explains in the English translation of Ethics (Rinrigaku ft 3^), according to Buddhist teaching, "everything is deprived of its substantiality, nothing exists independently, everything is related to everything else, nothing ranks as a first cause, and even the self is but a delusory construction" (Carter 1996, 350). Even the emptiness itself is empty, which means that it lacks a concrete identity. The emptiness has no distinctive features, it has no attributes, it changes persistently into countless alterations. It is impossible even to define the emptiness as a "summary" of both the negation of the individual and the negation of the society. Every effort to define the emptiness fails because rationality is unable to describe something utterly irrational. However, the negation of what originally is negative gives rise to the provisional identity or also, to be precise, the non-identity, which is ever-changing by means of contradiction. In other words, since the emptiness is the very foundation of our individual and social identity, the identity itself is finally self-contradictory (Carter 1996, 348).
In a purely Buddhist approach, from the dualistic nature of human being, from our intrinsic emptiness, a constant tension emerges. The tension between individuality and sociality establishes impermanent and changeable character of human being. Ignoring or denying this dharma only leads to attachment (e.g. to things or life) and suffering. The ever-changing character of human being is underlied by the emptiness as the matrix that grounds all distinctions. The emptiness here serves as the background to all foregrounds (Miyagawa 2008, 2089). In everydayness of life, such a feature is represented by the so called "betweenness" (aidagara P^ffi) between us, a permanently emptying relational space in which both good and evil only exist as possibilities. In other words, the emptiness represented by betweenness between us is itself empty, yet it makes possible all kinds of social relationships and distinctive features of these as well.
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Betweenness
Watsuji's Ethics, published in several volumes from 1937 to 1949, to a great extent challenges inherently Western conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the society. In the first part of the book Watsuji focuses on rethinking the ontological foundation of human existence. Beginning with a critique of modern ethics as a "problem of individual consciousness only" (Watsuji 2007, 9), he asserts that the concept of the individual is but "one moment of human existence" and therefore should not be understood as "totality of human" (Watsuji 2007, 19). Furthermore, he considers the individuality of humans to be merely an abstracted view of the human nature as an isolated ego. Similarly, sociality, as well as individuality, is merely one aspect of human being. However, society is only a society when comprising of individuals. Neither the individual nor the community is able to exist independently (Watsuji 2007, 154). On the other hand, the individual is only an individual in relation to other individuals recognizing his otherness. Generally speaking, neither the individual nor the society exists separated from the other. Ultimately, a human consists of individuality and sociality, so he necessarily cannot be independent of interpersonal relationships in society. Ethics, then, is the study of human interactions with others.
According to Watsuji, humanity is constituted neither by individuals nor by society, but rather in the dialectical movement between the two. The existence of the individual is embedded within the social web of betweenness. When referring to actual human being, betweenness is the network of relationships that embeds humanity in sociality. It embeds human in his social meaning (such as being an inhabitant of a certain state or a member of a certain church). However, as already mentioned above, it must be asserted again, that the crux of betweenness as a foundation of both the individual and the social character of human being is not just an obligation to the community, but a "double negation", of both the individual and the society. Betweenness within society becomes evident in language as a means of communication and general sharing (Watsuji 2007, 58). Living in the same betweenness ensures us that when we come into conflict, we share the same desire to reach a compromising solution (Carter 2013, 142). To a great extent, the betweenness determines the everyday being in the world as a common sense, but also is determined by the people within it. Betweenness as a
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common sense is an expression of social climate, which reciprocally determines and is determined by history and environmental conditions (Watsuji 2007, 78).5
Movement of Double Negation
As individuals, no matter how we try to extricate from it, we are never separated from social relationships. We share a common language, tools, a cultural heritage. We are even born in this world already within a network of relationships as family members. And last but not least, we become members of various groups on our own initiative. We attend lectures at schools, work in companies and we join sports clubs. As individuals, we voluntarily attend the group and this way negate our individuality or negate the group by choosing not to attend them.
This is precisely the notion of movement of double negation put into practice of everydayness. For example, one personally, as an individual, dislikes a big family party, but since one is not only an individual, but a brother, mother-in-law, nephew or granddaughter, attends the party and shares a festive time with his relatives. When one, for example, loses touch with his family or his job, insisting on an assumption that he is an independent individual, he renounces a very important part of his social bonds. On the other hand, when one as a member of society neglects his own creativity and blindly supports viewpoints and deeds of others, one renounces individuality. This is precisely the moment when dialectics between the individual and the society is instantly stuck and ceases. The individualism interrupts and this way prevents the individual from being an active part of the whole which is based on active individuals. In a broad sense not only individualism, but also the other extreme, totalitarianism, interrupts dialectic of mutual negation, and ultimately silences the dialogue between the individual and the society. That is why it must be emphasized again and again that neither social relationships nor individuality is superior to the other.
Such an utterly Buddhist idea of middle path void of all extremes is, according to Watsuji, the very essence of humanity, which is selfless, empty and embedded within the social web of betweenness. The more relationships we make, the more the space between extends. On one hand, our social aspect unfolds, on the other hand, our individual aspect unfolds as well. To be a human means constantly to shift between being an individual and being a member of the greater whole such as
5 For further reference see Watsuji 2011.
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family, community, church, or state (Watsuji 2007, 138-9). The individuality does not exist without the whole from which it separates and against which it demarcates itself. And conversely, the society does not exist without being consisted of active individuals. The individuality emerges from negating the totality and vice versa.
Self, Other, and (non-)Duality
The basis of real unity is neither the community, nor the individual, it is the mutual relation between them. The more the individual fulfills himself in the society, the more can the society achieve an ethical unity (Couteau 2006, 283). This works on an assumption that the betweenness is the very foundation of human relationships and that the structure of human (ningen APhI) is equally individual and social. It is expressed in the original meaning of compound ningen as "being individual" (hito A) and "being between" (aida fs^) in conjunction. Thus, ningen refers to the social orientation of a human being and consequently to the individuality of human being. Hence, the above mentioned clearly shows that the "between" is not a space between two mutually independent entities, which belong to certain hierarchy, but ultimately is the space of mutual relationship (Mochizuki 2006, 48).
There is another very important remark on the space between individual and social being that should be pointed out here. The space is also an arena of interacting with others and as such, it both joins and separates us. In the mutual interaction, the community on one hand and the individuality on the other takes its shape. On one hand, in a community, the identity of self disappears, on the other, as individuality, social impositions disappear. Both the social and individual identity as separate entities fade away, both subsume into the non-duality. In the space of non-duality, there is no distance between self and other and the betweenness shrinks to nothingness. As a result of this non-duality, the most distinctive characteristic of human beings is benevolence.
However, the fact that being human means being benevolent does not mean that there should not appear problems and contradictions in our mutual relationships. On the contrary, there is a myriad of problems in interpersonal relationships we have to deal with. The problems that unavoidably arise when one human relates to another, require at least a decent sense of appropriate attitude.
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Along with the sense of appropriate attitude, there are also expectations and principles that are required for human beings living in any community.
As the space of betweenness persistently shrinks and extends, the ethics of relationships emerging between people develops accordingly. A human renouncing social relationships, in this regard, is not considered as an individual, it is not even a human being. It is because since there is no space to relate to other humans and there is no way for him to engage in the dialectic of his own individual and social aspects which evolves and cultivates not only his sociality, but also his individuality. That person is not a complex being, he lacks the crucial aspects of humanity, so he is—in simple terms—inhumane. Any community (e.g. a family or a church) as a whole develops together with its elements, the individuals, whose relationships give rise to it. This way continual disintegration of community (as a whole) leads to its subsequent restoration. In other words, duality brings about non-duality and non-duality brings about duality. Hence, true ethics, according to Watsuji, is a return to an authentic unity through an initial contradiction within the self, and between the self and the other in the betweenness. The awareness of the mutual interconnection of everything blurs the borderlines of separation and former duality of self-other disappears in non-duality. Here becomes clear how significant the dialogue between the individual and the society is. An incessant movement of the dialectic between the individual and the society returns humans back to themselves (Mochizuki, 2006, 49-50).
An Interpretation of Watsuji's Ethics in the Context of Value Crisis of Japanese Society
The afore mentioned outline of relation between humanity, betweenness and emptiness implies that, in Watsuji's terms, the dialogue between individuality and sociality, that is supposed to occur incessantly in betweenness, falls silent. Or, to be more illustrative, the individual unable to put up with a social pressure to integrate into society who finally resigns on himself or the society, brings about the cessation of dialogue (Couteau 2006, 285-6). The society composed of resigned individuals certainly is unwilling to comply with common interest and also ends silent towards the individual. Without even a slightest hint of a response, there is no relationship. In Watsuji's point of view, the ethical system, establishing itself in dialogue, is a fundamental law of human existence. What is more, for him it is the very quintessence of human existence in the world (Watsuji 2007, 22).
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That is why our attitude to this principle matters when attempting to find our own identity and restore the disintegrated relationships in society.
In ethical social relations, the crucial value is a responsibility, whereas an individualistic approach (which, according to Watsuji, barely has anything to do with humanity) asserts freedom and right to self-determination. To establish harmony (wa fp) between those is presumably a solid basis for functional social relationships. Even though the crucial individual and social values are contradictory, yet in a dynamic nature of their mutual negation, in the "space" of emptiness, the dialectic relationship emerges. After all, to paraphrase Watsuji, the ethics is all about the dialogue between the individual and the society. Dialogue progresses only in dialectic and vice versa.
Following the red thread running through the ethical system of Watsuji, we come to figure out that his way of grasping the ethics is far from examining whether the Japanese act ethically or not. Rather, he analyses their way of thinking and acting and reveals their ethical characteristics. Hence, Watsuji's study of ethics does not concern the ethical "ought" as frequently seen in the 'Western" approach, but the actual way of thinking and acting. His ethics refers to a system of relations that are important for a proper interpersonal association, including some sense of the appropriate attitudes to embody in dealing with others. Watsuji's ethical thought as a complex synthesis of Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism, is not interested in theoretical ethical ideals or individual moral consciousness. The sphere of interest for Watsuji was the actual subjective way of human existence (Miyagawa 2008, 222). That is also why he tried to examine the conditions of human being in the network of betweenness and did not separate the individual and social aspect of human being.
Presently it may seem to us that there comes a time when "ought" becomes required to some extent. The crisis of values is the cardinal problem of any postmodern society worldwide and Japan is not an exception. However, when trying to deal with the problem, no matter how large scale it is, we should always keep in mind that what works in a certain milieu, it might not necessarily work in another one. It surely does not mean that the principles and rules of community and society have been forgotten and left for good and the Japanese are unable to bring them back or recreate them without any imperative. On the contrary, if Watsuji's deductions of ontological foundation of human being were true, then the
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appropriate individual and social settings must be able to reset at anytime and any place.
As we have already become acquainted with the crucial point of Watsuji's ethics, which is that neither individuality nor social relationships is superior to the other, we should be aware of what the actual ethical conduct means for him. The true ethical conduct primarily aims to the achievement of relative harmony. Harmony is the key achievement of community in shintoistic point of view. Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, is based on harmony, a spirit of thankfulness and sincere effort. To lack any of these qualities is unacceptable and shameful. To lack these qualities means to risk losing face in front of the whole community one belongs to, and for Japanese, that is the worst failure of all. The key to achieving harmony lies in humans themselves, in their ability to be trustworthy and truthful (Couteau 2006, 286). However, this is impossible without having a kokoro which is a crucial personality trait in Japanese society. The word kokoro is usually translated as "heart and mind". It implies that the mind and heart (body) are united. To put it starkly, notion of kokoro suggests, on one hand, that human reason should be compassionate and, on the other hand, that human feelings should be reasonable. A person who expresses his own kokoro is trustworthy and truthful, he is a person with whom another person does not have to hesitate to enter into an intimate relationship. A person with kokoro is someone with no ulterior motive who displays a unity of his acting and feeling, reason and feeling and, naturally, body and mind.
Trust and truth that serve as a root to benevolence in human kokoro, have the critical importance in all positive ethical human relationships. The virtue of sincerity (makoto M) serves as the foundation of trustworthiness, truthfulness and honesty. To be sincere means that a person will act as he says he will act. Hence, that person is perceived as one that can be counted on to deliver to his word. Furhermore, it connotes a recognition of one's intrinsic agenda that one attempts to express in one's behaviour and acting. In any community and society, sincerity reveals an attitude of mutual trust as an integral part of what is already embedded in the betweenness of interpersonal relationships (Carter 2013, 145-6).
The betweenness is not only the space where human beings meet each other, it is an apparent empty space profoundly etched by cultural tradition. As we are born into the world, we are not tabula rasa, for we have already been influenced by
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climate and culture through the experience of our mothers. As we grow old, we encounter our family, other relatives, schoolmates, weather changes, cultural customs and many other stimuli. The exposure which occurs in such an encounter teaches us much about relationship strategy, drawing on the centuries of previous experience which is inevitably included in the betweenness. To be aware of the betweenness between humans and the mistakes that we made in our past relationships, helps us to figure out possibilities for resolving current issues with others as they arise (Carter 2013, 143).
Conclusion
Watsuji's ethical system, even though it is very complex and profoundly elaborated, harbours some very important contradictions that every interpreter of his work should pay attention to and that should be definitely mentioned here. Undoubtedly, Watsuji's work defends Japanese culture as well as the emperor so it is not surprising that he is frequently criticized as a reactionary. Thinkers such as Sakai Naoki harshly criticize Watsuji's concept of "being on good terms (nakayoshi ft^t)" within the society: "Watsuji proposes a kind of ethics whose central guiding principle is to be 'on good terms' with others: It is a kind of ethics that permits one to neglect other social and ethical concerns in order to remain on good terms with others." (Sakai 1991, 175) Also, Watsuji seems to underline the social aspect of existence to an extent that he considers a nation to be the apex of ethical being (Y oshizawa 2006, 373-4).
Moreover, he seems to overemphasize confidence in the community or the society as a whole, in spite of the fact that it does not consist solely of ethically acting persons. Behind the cover-up of so called "public welfare", there could be a hidden manipulation. In any society, there is always a threat of abuse of authority under the false pretext of "socially convenient" that results in an unethical acting. Also, Watsuji seems to underestimate the problem of responsibility. In words of Jeffrey Wu: "... In the end, Watsuji seems to have been oblivious to the possibility that the community could also betray the individual, which was the case for many in the context of total war." (Wu 2001, 101)6
6 For further reference considering critical views on Watsuji see Bellah 1965; Bernier 2006; La Fleur 2001; Mayeda 2006; Nagami 1981; Sakai 1991.
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Despite the fact that Watsuji never promoted or defended totalitarianism, his reliance on nakayoshi, self-sacrifice and social unity as ethical values remarkably resonates with the official rhetoric that was used in Japan of thirties. However, we should be very careful when attempting to interpret Watsuji's ethical system in term of politics. It would also be short-sighted to denounce it as a whole because of that.
From a philosophical perspective, Watsuji's ethics is an inspirational contribution to find a new intellectual ground of self-comprehension and redefinition of social and individual identity in Japanese society. It is a theoretical challenge to understand oneself better and to set conditions of new initiation of dialogue based on the middle path between the liberal and the communitarian attitude, between the individualism and the totalitarianism. Nevertheless, the actual application depends purely on the individuals who consciously decide to apply such a middle path of benevolence, trustworthiness, truthfulness and sincerity. In other words, it requires kokoro displaying the humanity and reflecting the humanity of others in betweenness (Couteau 2006, 287).
In the end, Watsuji's thought is imbued with the Buddhist notion of emptiness and maintainance of harmony between individuality and sociality. There certainly is no room for the egoistic approach or pure altruism in the betweenness between humans. The emptiness provides humans with empty selves that fills in mutual interaction and then empty again and again. Now, in a disagreement or argument, there are no selves to be offended. The striving to win in a quarrel or humiliating our opponent in a fight is only a matter of ego. In the relationships, the individual ego should be suspended because it hinders the achievement of consensus or agreement. Without any consensus or agreement, there is no way to become a functional and effective community and society.
As we share the same betweenness, it is in our interest to strive for a positive resolution of our conflicts, disagreements and quarrels without passion for winning at all cost. The sincere display of kokoro consolidates our truthfulness and trustworthiness in the eyes of others and ourselves. This sincerity leads to group harmony. Trustworthiness and truthfulness are not mere theoretical demands, but are to be found in the actual actions through and by which they are connected to one another. Even those who act in such a way as to seemingly reject the truthfulness or trustworthiness, those who lie, offend, break promises, and do harm to others nevertheless inevitably rely on the expectation that others act truthfully
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and do not figure out their hidden intention. So in the end, every social interaction is based on the trusting relationships that we can rely on (Yoshizawa 2006, 218). A group, community or society (on a larger scale) which provides its members with a strong sense of belonging by means of trusting relationships on one hand and a forum for self-realization and personal fulfilment of kokoro on the other, is supposed to meet the needs of anyone anywhere in the world.
References
Bellah, Robert N. 1965. "Japan's Cultural Identity: Some Reflections on the Work of Watsuji Tetsuro." In The Journal of Asian Studies 24 (4): 573-94. Accessed January 17, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2051106.
Bernier, Bernad. 2006. "National Communion: Watsuji Tetsuro's Concept of Ethics, Power and the Japanese Imperial State." In Philosophy East and West 56 (1): 84-105. Accessed September 10, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488002.
Carter, Robert E. 1996. "Interpretive Essay: Strands of Influence." In Watsuji Tetsuro's Rinrigaku, edited by Robert E. Carter, 325-54. Albany: State University of New York Press.
-. 2013. "Watsuji Tetsuro." In The Kyoto School: An Introduction, edited by Robert E.
Carter, 125-53. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Couteau, Pauline. 2006. "Watsuji Tetsuro's Ethics of Milieu." In Frontiers in Japanese Philosophy, edited by James Heisig, 269-90. Nagoya: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.
Kisala, Robert. 2006. "Contemporary Religion and Social Crisis in Japan." Accessed December 22, 2014. http://www.kosei-shuppan.co.jp/english/text/mag/2006/06_ 456_8.html.
Kobayashi, Yotaro. 2000. "Japan's Individualism in Globalization Trends." Accessed September 18, 2013. http://glocom.org/opinions/essays/200012_kobayashi_jp_ individ/index.html.
La Fleur, William R. 2001. "Reasons for the Rubble: Watsuji Tetsuro's Position in Japan's Postwar Debate about Rationality." In Philosophy East and West 51 (1): 1-25. Accessed May 4, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1400033.
Mayeda, Graham. 2006. Time, Space and Ethics in the Philosophy of Watsuji Tetsuro, Kuki Shuzo, and Martin Heidegger. New York: Routledge.
Miyagawa, Keishi	2008. Watsuji Tetsuro: Jinkaku kara aidagara e iP^^fiR
P^ffi^ (From Individuality to Betweenness). Tokyo: Kodansha.
Mochizuki, Taro. 2006. "Climate and Ethics: Ethical Implications of Watsuji Tetsuro's Concepts: 'Climate' and 'Climaticity'." Philosophia Osaka 1: 43-55. Accessed May 3, 2014. http://ir.library.osaka-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/11094/12799/1/po_01_043.pdf.
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Nagami, Isamu. 1981. "The Ontological Foundation in Tetsuro Watsuji's Philosophy: Ku and Human Existence." Philosophy East and West 31: 279-96. Accessed May 16, 2014. http://www.j stor.org/stable/1398575.
Oyama, Nao. 1990. "Some Recent Trends in Japanese Values: Beyond the Individual-Collective Dimension." International Sociology 5: 445-59.
Sakai, Naoki. 1991. "Return to the West/Return to the East: Watsuji Tetsuro's
Anthropology and Discussions of Authenticity." Japan and the World 28: 157-90. Accessed April 22, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/303208.
Watsuji, Tetsuro iP^^fi^. 2007. Rinrigaku	(Ethics). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
-. 2011. Fudo: Ningengakuteki kosatsu S,±	(Climate and Culture: A
Philosophical Study). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
Wu, Jeffrey. 2001. "The Philosophy of As-Is: The Ethics of Watsuji Tetsuro." Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs 1: 96-102. Accessed April 22, 2014. http://www. stanford.edu/group/sj eaa/journal1/j apan2.pdf.
Yoshizawa, Denzaburo ^K^SH^. 2006. Watsuji Tetsuro no menmoku (Watsuji Tetsuro's Honour).Tokyo: Heibonsha.
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Social Context of the fujo: Shamanism in Japan through a Female Perspective
Iva LAKIC PARAC*
Abstract
This study deals with the phenomenon of shamanism in Japan with the emphasis on the female perspective and the fact that women, in the first place, have dealt with shamanistic practices in Japan since ancient times. Could we say that shamanism was a tool that women used in order to have a small part of their authority and power acknowledged? Have they managed to influence their marginal position in society and in what way? Considering the phenomenon from the historical perspective, we will try to individualize some forms in which shamanism in Japan adjusted to the given cultural and social frameworks.
Keywords: Japanese shamaness, fujo, ogamisama, kamisama, New religious movements Izvleček
Ta študija se ukvarja s fenomenom šamanizma na Japonskem s poudarkom na ženskem vidiku in z dejstvom, da so se ženske že od vsega začetka ukvarjale s šamanskimi praksami na Japonskem. Ali lahko rečemo, da je bil šamanizem orodje, ki so ga ženske uporabljale, da bi le imele priznano majhno vlogo njihove avtoritete in moči? Ali jim je uspelo na takšen način vplivati na njihovo marginalno pozicijo v družbi? S preučevanjem tega fenomena iz zgodovinske perspektive bomo poskusili individualizirati nekatere oblike, v katerih se je šamanizem na Japonskem prilagodil na dane kulturne in družbene okvirje.
Ključne besede: japonska šamanka, fujo, ogamisama, kamisama, nova religiozna gibanja
* Iva LAKIC PARAC, Department for Indology and Far East Studies, Japanology Department, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. iva_lakic @yahoo.it
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Iva LAKIC PARAC: Social Context of the fujo Introduction
Shamanism, as a societal and social phenomenon, has become an important topic of anthropological and religious studies in the past decades. This has also been affected by an interest in new religious movements which find inspiration in these ancient shamanistic practices and beliefs. Actually, shamanism has shown a surprising power of adjustment to the new urban contexts worldwide (Morris 2006, 14). Many contemporary new age practices in Europe include elements of shamanism into their beliefs and rituals. In a similar way, new religions in Japan, which will be dealt with in this study, often resort to the imaginaries of the local shamanistic practices and beliefs.
Before the introduction of Buddhism from the Asian continent, mediums had taken the central place in the religious world of the Japanese. They belonged to a separate, honourable class, and ordinary people acted according to their prophecies and advice (see Nakamura 2012). This continues today, especially in the less accessible rural areas where social changes throughout history have been accepted and assimilated less easily (see Lakic Parac 2013). Today, Japan is one of the most technologically developed countries in the world, but sorcery and prophecies (somehow more easily assimilated to the under-developed and poor societies) or something similar, are still popular.
Since the time of prehistoric hunting societies of the Upper Palaeolithic period, shamanism has existed on the Asian continent as a form of belief which endowed particular individuals with the gift of magical powers and of dealing with evil spirits, and as such, it appears in old Japanese folk beliefs. That is why the terms "shaman" and "shamanism" are often used in Japan for describing some characteristics of autochthonous beliefs (Matsumura 2006, 136). However, the active presence of Japanese pre-Buddhist folk beliefs in modern Japan is the evidence of new religious movements, a few of which have typical shamanistic characteristics. Many of them appeared after the Second World War as a response to the state and social crisis which followed the defeat and occupation. It was a period when old religions did not manage to satisfy spiritual needs of Japanese people anymore.
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This study deals with the phenomenon of shamanism in Japan. The emphasis will be on the female perspective of the phenomenon and the fact that women, in the first place, have dealt with shamanistic practices in Japan since ancient times, having in mind the rigid patriarchal social milieu where women, even today, do not have equal status with men. It is significant that a general term in the Japanese language for a shamaness is "miko", while for shamans this specific term does not exist (Hori 1968, 181). The term fujo	consists of an ideograph fu ^
("shaman") and jo ^ ("woman", "female") and it literally means "a female shaman", while miko or M^) consists of ideographs mi and ko and means "a child of kamf' and "a child shaman". Even though in Japan not only women, but also men (although in smaller number), dealt with non-institutional religious-magical practices, both terms refer to women, i.e. she- shamans.
Could we say that shamanism was a tool that women used in order to have a small part of their authority and power acknowledged? Have they managed to influence their marginal position in society and in what way? Considering the phenomenon from the historical perspective, we will try to individualize some forms in which shamanism in Japan adjusted to the given cultural and social frameworks.
Definitions of Shamans and Shamanism
The word shaman originally belongs to the language of the Evenkis, the people from the east part of Siberia, and it represents a person (medium) who communicates with spirits (saman). It is assumed that the word is derived from the root of an Indo-European verb sa or "know" (like samana in Pali language or sapere in Italian). Shamanism implies believing in spirits who reside in different objects or natural occurrences. They are imagined as "human beings or persons" in a particular context. Spirits appear and manifest themselves in people's dreams in an animal or bird form, as masked dancers, or are embodied in objects like talismans, trinkets, and similar figures. A shaman or a medium perpetuates a liaison between the world of people and the world of spirits, and the communication takes place when he enters different "alternative states of mind", ecstatic states like trances, ecstasies or "out-of-body" experience1. Lewis defines a
'Astral projections and translocations of a subjective spiritual person without the use of the physical body. (see Vukelic 2012, 168)
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shaman "an inspired prophet or leader, a charismatic religious figure with the power to control the spirits, usually incarnating them" (as quoted in Lewis 1986, 88). Many say that shamanism is as old as the humankind because it springs from the ancient human quest "for existential meaning" (Morris 2006, 16). Therefore, it has always helped people to face and solve serious existential problems. It exists in order to "establish interaction with the world of spirits, with the aim of realizing benefits in the material world" (Morris 2006, 17).
The first description of a shamanistic séance can be found in the writings of a Franciscan priest who visited the Mongolian court in the 13 th century (Morris 2006, 17), but even older testimonies are found in the Chinese historiography Wo-jenchuan from the 3rd century and in the Japanese novel Genji monogatari from the 11th century. Later (European) testimonies are usually written by Russian missionaries and travellers in the 18 th and 19th centuries, which is why Siberian shamanism became the subject of European imaginaries, and the shamanic figure was portrayed in various ways: as a daemon, sorcerer, wizard, etc. However, today we know that shamanism is not limited only to Siberia and Eurasian context, but it is a phenomenon spread throughout the world, from North and South America to South-east and Far East Asia, Oceania and Africa. However, we should keep in mind that there are different definitions of shamanism, so the aforementioned interpretation depends on the definition we are using. The prevailing opinion among the theoreticians of shamanism is that its main characteristic is ecstasy, which implies a specific psychical and physical state (trance) which is achieved by means of elaborating implementation of special techniques, cosmic events of which the existence is explained by culturally and mythically based interpretations, occur during the ecstatic state, when the soul of the shaman, according to the belief, deserts his body and goes to the sky or the underworld (Eliade 1985, 30-31; Dubois 2009, 109; Hultkrantz 1997, 37, 42; Winkelman 1999, 394, 402, 411).
The most famous attempt in analysing the phenomenon was made by Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) in his cult book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (1964). Eliade approached the issues of shamanism in a phenomenological way, failing to relate it to outer sociological and psychological factors, and in this way, isolating it from the cultural context and the historical moment. He claimed that the attempt to understand the meaning and the essence of religious moments by relating them to sociology and psychology cannot be wrong and limiting. However, many criticize the way he preferred his own "limiting" psychological approach in
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the analysis of shamanism, and the fact that he spent a lot of energy on explaining the examples of "alternative states of mind", differences between the ecstasy (or trance), out-of-body experience (soul flight) and spirit possession (see Morris 2006).
Eliade explained it in this way:
Ecstasy always involves a trance, whether symbolic or pretended or real, and the trance is interpreted as temporary abandonment of the body by the soul of the shaman. During ecstasy, the soul of the shaman is thought to ascend to Heaven, or to descend to the other world (netherworld) or to travel far away into space... Since the ecstasy (trance, losing one's soul, losing consciousness) seems to form an integral part of the human condition, just like anxiety, dream, imagination, etc., we do not deem it necessary to look for its origin in a particular culture or in a particular historical movement. As an experience, ecstasy is a non-historical phenomenon; it is a primordial phenomenon in the sense that it is coextensive with human nature. Only the religious interpretation given to ecstasy and the techniques designed to prepare it or facilitate it are historically conditioned. That is to say, they are dependent on various cultural context, and they change in the course of history. (Eliade in Hori 1968, 185)
Not everyone can become a shaman:
In Central and North-East Asia the chief methods of recruiting shamans are: (1) hereditary transmission of the shamanic profession and (2) spontaneous vocation (call or election). There are also cases of individuals who become shamans of their own free will. or by the will of the clan. However selected, a shaman is not recognized as such until after he has received two kinds of teachings: (1) ecstatic (dreams, trances, etc.) and (2) traditional (shamanic techniques, names and functions of the spirits, mythology and genealogy of the clan, secret language, etc.). (Eliade in Hori 1968, 184)
In his book Ecstatic Religion Ioan Lewis offers a sociological interpretation of shamanism in the manner of structural-functional tradition which still, according to his interpretation, must not exclude the social and historical context. As he explains, his aim is "to isolate the particular social and other conditions which encourage the development of an ecstatic emphasis in religion" (Lewis in Morris 2006, 22). Accepting the structural-functional methods and not forgetting the social context, he concludes that the analyses which treat religion as "a thing in itself and with its own life" are equal to the theological perspective and the modern interest in the occult (Lewis in Morris 2006, 22).
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On the basis of his field research in Africa (Somalia, Kenya), Lewis (2003) concluded that altered states of mind, like a trans or an ecstasy, appear in different social contexts, secular and religious alike, and are not always related to spirit possession of the body, but can be interpreted in various ways. He gives an example of African warriors who fall into trances in particular occasions, and such behaviour is interpreted as a culturally conditioned response to the dangers and anxieties they are exposed to, with no mystical interpretation whatsoever. On the other hand, in many social contexts spirit possession does not include altered states of mind, and Lewis gives an example of an Indian shaman who, having been invited to establish communication with a local deity, consciously answers all the questions referred to him, even though he should be in the state of trance. Therefore, the questions which should be asked, and which we will try to answer in this study, consider the way events and specific things in everyday life and perception are interpreted and conceptualized in a particular social and cultural context. To put it more precisely, the present paper considers what shamanistic practices mean for women in Japan and what enabled them to carry them out in the past and nowadays, and could we say that female shamanism is a culturally conditioned response to a marginal social status of women in the distant and recent past.
Shamanism and Buddhism
Japanese shamanism was mixed with Buddhism and Shintoism, but it was never institutionalized in the true sense of the word. At the time when Buddhism was introduced in Japan in the 6th century, it had to have a certain shamanistic character so as to spread among people, since in that time shamanistic religious ways were influential. Because of that, some Buddhist sects compromised with shamanistic tendencies and received approval. The most prominent phenomenon in this initial phase of Buddhism was a relatively larger number of nuns compared to monks, which can be explained by the influence female mediums had among people (see Nakamura 2012).
It is interesting how Buddhism modified during its first introduction in Japan under the influence of a specific religious form such as shamanism. Nakamura (2012, 313-14) emphasizes that the orthodox Buddhism generally rejected shamanistic tendencies like magic and incantation (let us recall that the early Buddhism denied spiritual powers characteristic of Brahmans who performed
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rituals for exorcising ghosts). What is more, it was required that a Buddhist must not believe in dream interpretation, palm reading, horoscopes, and predictions from the calls of birds and beasts. On the other hand, Buddhism could not spread among the lower strata of the Japanese, who maintained old shamanistic tendencies without significant change. As pointed out by the author, in every critical moment in Japan when the ruling class was losing control over peasants, primitive or shamanistic tendencies, which lie dormant from the earlier times, emerged in the foreground (Nakamura 2012, 313-14).
How Japanese Buddhism adjusted to the already present people's beliefs on its way of assimilation among wide masses, can be illustrated on the example of believing in evil spirits or goryo which appeared at the end of the 8th century. It was propagated by popular shamanesses, and in the beginning, it consisted of a belief that a spirit of a person who died as a victim of political conspiracy can haunt their living opponents2. The monks of the two largest Buddhist sects of that time, Shingon and Tendai, famous for esoteric principles and religious strictness taught only to the chosen ones, practiced exorcism of the very goryo spirits as one of their most prominent practices. By popularizing this belief in the next decades, possibility of emerging of a single vengeful and dangerous spirit spread among common people. Therefore, the relations between the popular shamanesses and Buddhist monks and ascetics grew stronger, so in the medieval Japan, almost all Buddhist priests had a shamaness or her replacement by their side, whom they used during their exorcist rituals as a medium through which the vengeful spirit spoke and sent messages (Hori 1968, 200). In these circumstances, as explained by Hori, the character and the function of Japanese shamanesses changed in many ways and developed through history: ultimately, some of them became professional mediums connected with the sect Shugendo3 famous for mountain
2 Such evil spirit was, e.g. Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), a famous poet and a politician who filled numerous significant posts on the court and who participated in making a decision about the abortion of sending ambassadorial mission to China during Tang dynasty in 894. He was very influential, but, due to political turmoil, he was persecuted and degraded, and he died in isolation. After that, the royal family and the capital were afflicted with numerous calamities: plague, severe weather conditions, floods--all was attributed to his vengeful spirit. In order to appease it, he was posthumously proclaimed Tenjin-sama or a deity of learning; a temple in Kyoto was dedicated to him, as well as many other Shinto temples throughout Japan.
3Shugendo is a sect of mountain hermits associated with kannabi shinko, i.e. beliefs that spirits of the dead, and spirits related to agriculture live in mountains, shamanistic beliefs and practices, Japanese Animism, Chinese Daoism and yin-yang philosophy, and the rituals of esoteric (tantric) Buddhism (Bocking 1996, 184).
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asceticism; some became entertainers, singers or dancers, narrators of famous ballads and epic poems in public, which were some of the popular forms of entertainment of all social classes in medieval Japan; some became kuchiyose-miko, independent mediums who established communication with the souls of the dead.
Fujo and Its Categories
The father of Japanese ethnology—its founder Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962)—was the first one who wrote about Japanese shamanesses in his study Fujoko, in the first volume of the magazine Kyodo kenkyu (Rural Studies). He claims that in pre-Buddhist Japan there was a belief that kamf can possess a chaste maiden (virgin) so that she, consequently, can deliver a child of a kami (Jap, miko). Yanagita believed that this belief from Nara period (710-794) resulted in the focus on two kami: the god, Hachiman-daijin and the goddess, Hime-gami. He also claimed that later transformation resulted in the formation of two roles--that of a central god Hachiman and the woman through whom he speaks, who is his mediator— shamaness (Hori 1975, 234). He also states that in Japanese classics we can find the term tama yori hime, composed of the words, tama (Jap, "soul, spirit"), yoru (Jap, "enter"), and hime (Jap, "a respectful young woman") (Hori 1975, 234)5. Therefore, the term denotes a woman selected by a kami.
Historical facts testify that 1500 years ago there was a system of women sovereigns in Japan, who relied on magical charisma, which means that these women were believed to have special powers and to communicate with deities. Later, this system was replaced by a bureaucratic administration derived from Confucianism and Buddhism, but nevertheless, shamanistic practices did not die out and they were transferred from the centre of power to the province, where they kept on serving common people. Hori (1975, 284) argues that the reason for this is the fact that in the psychology of common Japanese people there is a deep-rooted sense of trust in such women, so strong, that it makes them see ancient magical
4	The precise definition of the term "kami" was offered by a famous Japanese theoretician and restorer of Shintoism, Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801): "The word 'kami' refers, in the most general sense, to all divine beings of heaven and earth that appear in the classics. More particulary, the kami are the spirits that abide in and are worshipped at the shrines. In principle human beings, birds, animals, trees, plants, mountains, oceans--all may be kami. According to ancient usage, whatever seemed strikingly impressive, possessed the quality of excellence, or inspired a feeling of awe was called kami." (Tamaru and Reid 1996, 35)
5	Translated by Lakic Parac.
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charisma in them, and follow their instructions. Even today, says Hori, people from Tohoku area address female shamans when they are supposed to make an important decision. When asked why they do it, they say: "Although it all seems illogical, I am restless, if I don't consult miko." (Hori 1975, 284)
In his interpretation, Hori follows the great authority Yanagita who claims that a woman has a natural inclination towards spirit possession and that it has been her characteristic since ancient times, so the belief in "female power", i.e. "female spiritual power" in Japan has always been widespread, which is testified by many legends of such women which were talked about as real facts. We should keep in mind that Yanagita, developing his theory about shamanesses, did not collect his information in field research, but mostly worked with written historical documents, analysing texts about folk customs. Ultimately, he concluded that a woman becomes a shaman because of "all general psychological and emotional dispositions and character". This interpretation of shamanism in Japan very much influenced next generations of Japanese ethnologists who dealt with this topic. However, when Yanagita describes that people feared and avoided them due to their powers, he does not ask the crucial question as to why a woman alone (or more precisely, her blood) was considered impure in Japanese culture (Jap, kegare) and what were people actually "afraid of'. In other words, Yanagita neglects to consider what he calls "the origin of divine possession" in relation to the social and societal context of these women (see Kawamura 2003, 258).
According to a detailed classification created by Nakamura Taro in his study Nihon fujo-shi (1930) or History of Japanese Shamanesses (Hori 1975, 235) Japanese shamanesses are divided in two groups. The first group is called kan-nagi where miko belongs, and it is associated with Shinto shrines. These shamanesses perform many functions only in certain formal Shinto ceremonies and they lost most of their former functions and techniques. The second group is called kuchiyose6 and these are shamanesses who are associated with rural areas. They
6 Hori writes that they can be recognized under which names kuchiyose-miko in Japan and points out the term ichiko and its many variations: itako (on the northeast of Honshu), ichijo (on the island of Kyushu), ita (in the south part of central Honshu) and yuta (islands of Ryukyu and Amami). Stating the claims of Aribe Takashi that the origin of these terms has some etymological similarities and historical links with the terms udagan, utygan, iduan, udege, which denote a shaman in Altai-Kyrgyz area, he concludes that one of the obvious links with the continent could be the fact that Japanese shamanesses use a bow with one string, called azusa (hence their name azusa-miko or "a shamaness who uses a bow as a special instrument for entering the state of trance") which is the case in Central Asia (Hori 1968, 201).
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usually live in a certain village or they migrate form one village to another, according to the needs of their residents. They preserved the so-called ancient shamanistic techniques such as sooth saying, trance, communication with the deities and the dead. Shamanesses from the first group are known under the name miko or jinja-miko ("shamans of Shinto shrines"), and the ones from the second group are known under the name ichiko or sato-miko ("city or village shamans"). Shamanesses of these two categories are semi-institutionalized figures: jinja-miko is usually selected from a family in which Shinto traditions are hereditary, while sato-miko becomes a shamaness through certain initiatory trials and trainings under the guidance of their masters (Hori 1968, 182-83).
Kawamura (2003) offered a very elaborate theory about categories of Japanese shamanesses on the example of Tohoku region in the north-east of Japan. Since every category has a different name depending on the prefecture where it is present 7 , the author chose the categorisation present in Miyagi prefecture: ogamisama and kamisama. Shamanesses from the first category are blind by rule and they deal with the invocation of spirits of the dead (hotoke oroshi)8 who speak through them (kuchiyose)9, while the ones from the second category have normal sight and they deal with exorcism. In other words, first ones deal with the invocation of spirits of the dead, and the second ones with the invocation of deities, but in reality, practices of these two categories are sometimes mixed. However, the important thing is the journey of becoming a fujo, which is clearly different in these two categories.
Ogamisama were not chosen as a medium by a spirit or a deity, but they were, by their own free will or not, chosen by older shamanesses who taught them everything about "the call". A characteristic of Tohoku regions is that almost all shamanesses are blind, and it seems that blind girls were predestined for this "vocation". Namely, in order to become ichininmae or "a full-fledged member of society", they had to earn their living. Their education consists of trainings of different disciplines, like pouring cold water over themselves, fasts, purifications, abstinence, and respecting various taboos. Older teachers teach them trance techniques, communication with other-worldly beings and spirits of the dead,
7	Fujo is called itako in Tohoku region of Aomori prefecture, ogamisama in Miyagi prefecture, onakata in Yamagata prefecture and waka in Fukushima prefecture (see Kawamura 2003).
8	Hotoke oroshi, hotoke Jap, "spirit"; oriru Jap, "descend" (translated by ILP).
9	Kuchiyose, kuchi Jap, "mouth", yoseru Jap, "draw (closer)" (translated by ILP).
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soothsaying, but also prayers, magic formulas and liturgies, reciting ballads and stories. After three to five years of apprenticeship, successful overcoming of all temptations and the closing ceremony of initiation which includes symbols of death and rebirth, the apprentice becomes a full-blooded shamaness (Hori 1968, 203-4). In this way she acquires "a profession" by which she can sustain herself, but also contribute to her community.
None of the kamisama did not decide to become fujo in her maiden days, they were all already married and in their twenties, even thirties or older. They all say that kami chose them for this profession. In addition, before becoming a kamisama, they all went through a difficult situation or a crisis, whether it was a particular illness or a psychosomatic disorder10, a conflict with her husband, mother-in-law, problems with raising children, poverty, exhausting working conditions, husband's or children's disease. The most common situation is a woman in her thirties or forties, married and a mother, who, besides taking full care of the household, her husband and children, works in the field, engages in a sort of a family business and, actually, actively earns her salary.
When in crisis, these women will first seek help in various medical institutions, but it is very possible that, at the same time, they will try alternative treatment, for example, acupuncture, massage or folk remedies. If nothing gives any result or the situation does not improve, they will turn to local spiritual guides who will treat their problems as a consequence of a malign spirit or a kami whom they will try to appease or exorcise by means of various prayers, memorial rituals or practices of exorcism. However, sometimes even these will not give desired results. In that case, the religious impulse towards a kami or Buddha will intensify, and the person will completely surrender to it, in the sense that she will completely neglect former duties toward her children and husband, household and work, and she will replace her everyday life with the world of faith. Such person will very soon become a subject of mockery and ridicule. She will also be named a lazy one because of neglecting her duties, and people will despise her (Kawamura 2003, 269).
If the woman has stayed faithful to her former family duties and fulfilled them despite visits to the temple or spiritual guides, she will be said to be a woman "of deep faith". However, if she leaves her obligations, her activities will be
10 In medical literature these are defined as "mental and behavioral factors related to disorders and diseases classified at another place" or "psychological factors which affect the health (physical) condition, and they are related to disorders and diseases classified elsewhere" (Koic, Elvira, lect.).
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considered as deviant, and she will slowly be isolated from the rest of the family and the community. "Punished" in this way, a woman feels misunderstood and lonely, and she seeks refuge in faith. This is when the kami possession happens. The woman starts to pronounce peculiar formulas, prophesies and to act in an unusual way. She says that a deity sends messages of salvation of the humanity through her, and that her duty is to transmit those messages. However, if she wants to gain recognition for her new role, she must give evidence to the community that her story is authentic. She can do that by curing someone, by correct predictions of a future event of pointing to the place of a lost item. The fundamental difference between an ogamisama and a kamisama is that the first one does not need such evidence, and, after gaining knowledge through ascetic trainings and spiritual practices, she undergoes initiation in form of rituals (kamitsuke) and officially becomes a fujo, while the latter one will have to prove to the people the strength of the being that possessed her, and in that way gain their trust. (Kawamura 2003, 271)
The first possession by a kami is the most important event in the life of both ogamisama and kamisama. The first time ogamisama is possessed is during the initiation ritual kamitsuke. After she had rejected food for twenty-one days and went through various rituals of bathing in cold water, during the kamitsuke ritual the woman is in the state of extreme mental and physical exhaustion. Accompanied by her older teacher and other assistants, as well as the sounds of ritual instruments, like drums, bells, cymbals and the like, the woman starts to utter prayers and texts from sutras. In the atmosphere of huge excitement and great expectations, the woman starts to communicate with Buddha or a kami, who is usually famous at national or local level, or is a patron of, for example, a place where she lives or is celebrated in a nearby shrine or temple. Anyhow, a deity gets in touch with her thanks to her active sacrifice, prayers and the power of faith and, during the ritual, everyone around her makes sure of that. The initiation process of an ogamisama consists of learning prayers and sutras by heart and mastering techniques for invoking spirits, while possession techniques are not learned. Her rituals consist of reciting holy texts and prayers, and thr possession in the shape of kamitsuki does not happen during her shamanistic ritual (Kawamura 2003, 27374). Since ancient times, there is a widespread belief in Japan that prayers and sutras intrinsically have magical power and a kind of spiritual strength. Such belief
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suits an ogamisama in the sense that she does not have to behave in a different way than usual.
As for kamisama is concerned, the possession happens suddenly. A woman who prays devotedly for someone's healing or a solution to a problem, visits temples and shrines and deepens her ascetic trainings, at one moment perceives a deity who takes a very important place in her life and is strongly attached to her. Her first possession is sudden and heteronomous, and from that moment her behaviour and speech become "strange", although before the initiation she will undergo various psychosomatic problems which will result in the announcement of "the call". However, in order to be recognized by the community for her complete devotion to faith, she has to show the power of deity which possess her through a specific action, by predicting an important event, by solving someone's problem, finding a lost object, etc. Gradually, the word of her activities will spread and she will start to win the community's trust (Kawamura 2003, 280). In that process her personal psychosomatic problems will slowly disappear and she will, by overcoming those problems and helping others, actually help herself primarily. By attributing her deviant personal and social behaviour to a supernatural effect, she will actually justify it and gain acceptance by the others.
The two categories of fujo do not only differ in circumstances which lead to the initiation into a shamaness, but also in deities which possess them and their relationship with them.
"The job" of ogamisama is hotoke oroshi (invoking spirits of the dead, also called kuchiyose) and harugito (invoking the kami or kami oroshi). In the case of kuchiyose, a spirit of a recently deceased person is invoked or a ritual takes place during the higan (spring equinox) when a spirit of an important ancestor is invoked. In these rituals fujo invites the spirit of the dead person (hotoke) to possess her and talk through her. Therefore, the words she speaks are not hers, but hotoke's. In these rituals, her personal patron deity (who possessed her during kamitsuke) does not participate (Kawamura 2003, 275).
"The job" of kamisama is invoking various deities, exorcism, prophecies and the like. She does not deal neither with hotoke oroshi nor harugito. However, as a consequence of a recent great interest in memorial rituals mizuko kuyo, kamisama
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started perfoming kuchiyose for mizuko.11 As a rule, in her shamanistic séances kamisama invites her patron saint who puts his powers to her disposal. Even when she invokes the spirit of the dead who are believed to suffer "on the other side" because they committed a sin during their life, and when she helps them relieve their suffering and achieve bliss (Buddhahood), kamisama invokes her patron saint and maintains their bond strong (Kawamura 2003, 275).
The deity which possessed ogamisama during the initiation ritual will become her personal patron saint, but he will not appear nor participate in her shamanistic séances anymore, while the deity which possessed kamisama will actively partake in her activities.
New Religious Movements in Japan—kamisama Nakayama Miki
Popularity of Japanese folk pre-Buddhist beliefs in modern Japan is evidenced by new religious movements12, few of which have typical shamanistic characteristics. Throughout history they regularly appeared as a response to crisis which would follow big social changes, when old religions which supported the former regime and value system could not satisfy spiritual needs of the Japanese anymore. It is remarkable that many leaders of new religious movements found their inspiration exactly in charismatic figures of shamans, and even more often, shamanesses. We will analyse the example of Nakayama Miki (1798-1887), the founder of Tenrikyo movement.
Miki was born in the family of a village elder (Jap, shôya) and married at the age of 13, also to the family of a village elder. When she was 20, her husband Zenbei's concubine tried to kill her and take her place, which Miki interpreted as a
11	Memorial rituals devoted to spontaneously or intentionally aborted human embryos, prematurely born fetuses, babies who died of natural causes immediately after birth, and babies who are victims of infanticide. More details about this topic will be presented later in the text.
12	Explaining Japanese new religious movements, and comparing them with messianic cults among American Indians and cargo cults of New Guinea, an anthropologist, H. Neil McFarland says: "These cults are examples of socio-religious phenomenon which, for over a half-century, has been reasonably well understood by anthropologists. Among such cults, wherever they have been discovered, there is a remarkably standard pattern of developement in which at least five factors are recurrent: (1) social crisis intensified by an intrusive culture; (2) a charismatic leader; (3) apocalyptic signs and wonders; (4) ecstatic behavior; and (5) syncretic doctrine. The milieu from which they arise, described in the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead, is the 'ferment of half-abandoned old and half-understood new'." (Hori 1968, 220)
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heavenly sign. Raised by the principles of a Buddhist school Pure Land13 (Jap, Jodoshu), she was a fervent practitioner of nenbutsu (reciting names of Buddha Amida and the main religious practice of this school). She lived in Tanba region where Shugendo tradition was very strong, so Miki strongly associated herself with their temple.
Motherhood was the biggest motif of Miki's life. She gave birth to six children, five of which were daughters. While she was breastfeeding, she had so much milk, that she could feed children whose mothers could not breastfeed. In 1828 she started taking care of a neighbour's child who got smallpox and almost died. A legend says that Miki begged her two daughters to be sacrificed for the life of this child; the child survived, and her two daughters died (1830 and 1835).
In 1838, when she was 41, her only son contracted a serious disease. Miki prayed to Kobo Daishi, the founder of a large Buddhist school Shingon14, and she went on a hundred day's pilgrimage barefoot to the shrine of a local patron saint. Her association with the Shingon school brought her to the centre Isonokami Shugendo, where she met a highly ranked priest, Ichibei. Under his guidance, she started a ten years' religious training which, among else, included mastering shamanistic practices and rituals (Hardacre 1997, 45).
Miki herself witnessed many shamanistic rituals which Ichibei and his miko partner Soyo did for the recovery of her son. Once, while Soyo was absent, Miki took her place. Instead of the prophecy about the sufferings of her son, she addressed her husband, Zenbei, and, on behalf of the deity which possessed her, she said: "I want Miki to become a temple of my residence" (Jap, Miki o kami no
13 The belief in Buddha Amida ("The Buddha of Infinite Light"), whose merit can be transferred to people, so that a man, if he truly and honestly believes, could be reborn in his heaven. In this process, honest invoking of Buddha's name, nenbutsu, will be helpful: "Namu Amida Butsu" or "Long live Buddha Amida". Amidism has its origins in India; it reached China in the 4th, and Japan in the 9th century. Today, this is the most popular sect in Japan, and it is very popular in other East Asian countries. The legend says that Buddha Amida, while he was still a monk, vowed that, if he becomes Buddha, he will create heaven for all who honestly believe in him and who will, due to the depth of their faith, be reborn there after death and worldly life.
14Shingon belongs to the esoteric and secret (revealed) school of Buddhism which emphasizes the importance of verbal formulas--mantras, and oral transmission of the doctrine from the teacher to the student. Since only the chosen ones who have went through initiation can enter the core of the doctrine, it is called "the secret Buddhism". The philosophy of esoteric Buddhism has its roots in India in the 1st and the 2nd century. It deals with the idea that Buddha Dainichi Nyorai ("Buddha Great Sun") has two aspects: the real body (a man—Sakyamuni) and the absolute body. However, the phenomenon and the transcendental body are two aspects, two manifestations, same realities of the same principle. These ideas came to China in the 8th, and to Japan in the 9th century.
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yashiro ni morai uketai). On no account could the exorcist exorcise the spirit from her body, so Miki remained possessed for three days during which she sometimes sat still and sometimes shook uncontrollably and threw herself to the floor, uttering various messages in a low, male voice. Her messages were clear: by becoming the temple of the God Tenrio no Mikoto, she would desert all her duties of the mother and the wife that she used to have in the Nakayama family. Realizing that the spirit does not intend to leave her body, Zenbei agreed to all conditions. Thereby, the possessed state stopped and Tenrikyo movement dates from that day.
A little is known about this woman's life from that day to 1854, when she was proclaimed a living God—kamisama. She was very poor and it seems that she did not have any followers except her family. However, things changed while she was helping her daughter in labours in 1854. She shook her stomach three times, and after that she delivered her baby unusually easily and quickly. When a woman from the neighbourhood heard what happened, she asked for the same treatment, but she got fever which lasted for 30 days after giving birth. When she asked Miki for the reason, the answer was that she made a mistake of sticking to traditional taboos of food and drinks, which meant she doubted her methods. This doubt caused fever. When the same woman got pregnant again the next year, she strictly followed her instructions and avoided food taboos. Consequently, she had an easy childbirth and a quick recovery, which she attributed to Miki's treatment. After that the word spread that Miki was a living God who ensured a safe childbirth. The number of her clients rose rapidly, and consequently, her financial gains, too.
Nakayama Miko found her first followers among women whom she taught the techniques of safe childbirth. By rejecting the taboos related to particular food, tying the stomach, separate hearths and building separate cottages (Jap, obiya) where women stayed during menstruation, she offered her alternative views of these rituals and beliefs.
In fact, the female sexuality and reproduction have always been the "taboo" zone in Japan15 as in other countries of the world. Purity is the main concern in
15 This is evidenced by a Japanese myth about the creation of the world (Japan), where the first attempt of creation is a miscarriage in the true sense of the word. The child is born malformed because it is the fruit of mistake committed by its mother, Goddess Izanami. Namely, she initiated the act of love, which she was not allowed to do—because it is a male role. Because of this, Izanami and Izanagi had to repeat the act of love in the proper way, following the rules of "appropriate" behavior, which approves of male power. This is when a proper conception and life forming can
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Shintoism and most of the rituals are devoted to purification. Taboo happens when people or things are contaminated by negative forces like death or diseases. Menstruation, childbirth and other states of a female body require elaborate rituals of purification as well. Pregnancy and childbirth have been ritual topics since ancient times, but most data about their ritualization refer to Edo period (16001868). As stated by Hardacre (1997, 20), the birth of the first child represented a ritual which brought the woman to the world of completely adult people, to the company of adult women with the knowledge about sexuality. Besides that, the birth of the first child raised her status in the new family and fixed her membership in it. In such context, the figure of midwife16 had religious connotations, because she was the one who led the woman (but also a child) through this transition. However, since midwives were not associated with religious institutions, their figure was considered half-religious. She acted in the zone of an outstanding pollution, in the culture which considered everything related to reproduction and woman sexuality as extremely impure. But, at the same time, a pregnant woman who gave birth was a symbol of power, strength, and life. The new religious movement, founded by Nakayama Miki at the end of Edo period will make its own trademark out of this paradox, and offer an alternative way of ritualizing pregnancy and childbirth.
In medieval Japan, midwives were mostly women who had had experience of several childbirths and who lived in the same village as women whom they served, so usually, they did not travel nor deliver babies outside of their region. Due to the belief that childbirth represents transition of the soul from the world of gods into the world of people, a midwife was considered a leader of the soul which transits from a liminal state of inside the womb to a full-fledged member of a human community. The phrase futari de umu "give birth in pair" referred exactly to the central role of a midwife in the process of delivering a child (Hardacre 1997, 22).
happen—islands which form the Japanese archipelago. It is no coincidence that soon after, Goddess Izanami will go to the afterlife and stay and rule there, while God Izanagi will stay in this world (Raveri 2006, 312). On the other hand, a Buddhist doctrine condemns emotions and sentimentality because they represent the main reason of a person's attachment to existence and the illusion of his or her own self. A woman, too, is condemned, as well as the seductive power of her sexuality, which hinders and alienates a man from his road to meditative path of liberation. Even in old Buddhist texts female sexuality is samsara, the world of existential suffering, the world of desire which keeps beings in captivity in an infinite cycle of rebirth. Female sexual energy is the root of illusion and evil which must be defeated at all costs (Raveri 2006, 313).
16 Toriagebaasan or torihikibaasan: "an old woman who pulls out" (toru, Jap "take", in this case "deliver") and give a child (to the mother) (ageru, Jap, "give"). (Translated by ILP)
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A woman's first pregnancy was marked by a ritual which "connected" her to her midwife who would help her deliver the baby. The midwife would tie a broad band (Jap, iwata obi) around the woman's stomach in the fourth or the fifth month of pregnancy, which was accompanied by a big feast in the midwife's honour where she was treated as a guest of honour. A talisman would be tied for the band to ensure a safe childbirth. This talisman was very different in different regions, but it usually contained a part of the husband's clothes. From that moment on, the woman had to respect taboos related to a particular type of food which was forbidden to her (also with many regional differences), as well as to tie the band firmly in order to "prevent the foetus from becoming too big" (Hardacre 1997, 22). In addition, she had to renounce visits to shrines and temples, so that she would not dishonour their deities with her appearance. Religious institutions considered pregnancy and childbirth a private sphere which is of no concern to public interest, and as such, they do not have place in the ethic map of their reflections. However, due to the blood present at childbirth, the mother and the new-born child are marked as impure, as well as the father and fellow villagers, and it was suggested that they refrain from visiting sacred places during days immediately after the childbirth. Men of certain group, like fishermen and lumberjacks even stopped working during that period (Hardacre 1997, 22-26).
It is interesting to pay attention to the moment of woman's pregnancy subjected to the ritual. It is not "the moment of conception"; in medieval Japan it does not draw attention neither in the ritual nor in the ideological sense. Tying an iwata obi represents the moment when pregnancy becomes visible to others, and only since that moment, the woman gets the status of ninpu, "an expectant mother". Additionally, in this moment the fruit of her womb becomes recognized, which can be seen from many names for the foetus which contain ideographs ko or ji, which make it human (Hardacre 1997, 23).
Miki, determined to offer to women an alternative realization of pregnancy and childbirth, opposite to the common practice, travelled to many distant villages practicing her methods on expectant mothers and women in labour. In this way she created a community of women interconnected by a common belief. For example, she demanded that an expectant mother should wear a simple obi, not a special one worn only during pregnancy. Her approach to pregnancy and giving birth was called obiya yurushi, which means "leaving the separate cottage". Instead of such traditional beliefs and treatments, she promised a safe delivery of a baby as a result
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of believing in her and her actions. She treated childbirth as a natural event which does not require the expectant mother to be isolated because of her impure state. She said that a woman could continue with her normal social life immediately after the delivery, and not wait for 75 days, as was the common practice.
In order to reject the generally accepted and strong concept of pollution after birth, Miki dealt with raising doubts about the idea that women were impure because of menstruation: She used to say:
Look at the pumpkins and eggplants. They bear large fruit because their flowers have bloomed. Without the blooming of flowers, there can be no fruit. Remember that. People say that women are polluted (fujo), but they are not at all. Insofar as women and men are both children of god, there is no difference between them. Women must bear children, and it is a hardship. Women's menstruation is a flower, and without that flower, there can be no fruit. (Hardacre 1997, 47)
By describing menstruation and childbirth with these metaphors and associating them with blossoming flowers which is a prelude to fruit creation, Miki dissociated them from the category of the sacred and put them in the category of the common (Hardacre 1997, 47)17.
Even though she did not affect a big number of women with her alternative approach to the topics of pregnancy and childbirth, the religious significance of her innovative approach cannot be denied. With her alternative attitudes, Miki announced changes in relationships between sexes, which she ultimately demonstrated through her own example. We could assume that future alternative ways of ritualization of reproductive experience will be in favour of mediating the
17 Buddhism will adapt the already rooted attitude toward a female body and giving birth, and this is best illustrated by Bussetsu daizoshokyo ketsubonkyo (The Buddha correct sutra on the bowl of blood, or in short Ketsubonkyo, "Menstruation sutra") from, most probably, Muromachi period—a sutra which describes a road to salvation of women who, because of their menstrual blood which dishonours soil and water, end up in Hell by default. I chose two comments from the beginning of the 19th century, which explain its contents in this way:
"Because they were born as women, their aspirations to Buddhahood are weak, and their jealousy and evil character are strong. These sins compounded become menstrual blood, which flows in two streams each month, polluting not only the earth god but all the other deities as well. Thus after death they will certainly fall into this Hell, where they will undergo unlimited suffering." "All women, even those who are the children of high families, have no faith and conduct no practices, but rather have strong feelings of avarice and jealousy. These sins are thus compounded and become menstrual blood, and every month this flows out, polluting the god of the earth in addition to the spirits of the mountains and rivers. In retribution for this women are condemned to the Blood Pool Hell." (Takemi 1983, 7)
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relationship between a man and a woman, but we will see that it will not always favour women.
Itako or ogamisama in Tohoku Region
Wandering shamanesses had been a common sight until the beginning of the twentieth century. They visited villages in groups of 5 to 6, especially in the time before the autumn harvest. Their duties were the following: communication with spirits, gods and souls of the dead; predicting future by means of the trance, prayers to heal the diseased; purification of new buildings, wells, hearths and stoves (Hori 1968, 202-3). Although, it seems that these wandering shamanesses almost disappeared in modern Japan, their trace can be found even today in Tohoku region.
Beside the service in their villages, shamanesses gather once a year in various places throughout Japan18 during the Buddhist celebration Jizo bon19. One of the most famous locations is the mountain Osore, an inactive volcano, which has been believed to be the habitat of spirits and the world of the dead since ancient times. On the day of Bodhisattva Jizo, on the 24th of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, elderly men and women from the surrounding villages start climbing the mountain, carrying special rice balls which they lay by the statues and other representations of Jizo placed along the way. Since Muromachi period there is the belief that the spirits of dead children build stupa20 from pebbles, and this activity ensures them good karma for entering heaven. This is especially true for very small children who have not managed to accumulate enough good deeds by serving their parents and community. Every woman who has lost a child builds stupa from pebbles and in that way helps her child deserve admission to heaven (Hori 1968, 208).
18	There are a few holly mountains and temples in the north of Honshu, like the mountain Osore, Jizo chamber in Kanagimachi in Aomori prefecture, and Hachiyo temple in Fukushima prefecture (mountains Tateyama, Hakusan, Kinpu and Nachi).
19	Jizo bon is a celebration encompassing the belief in the Bodhisattva Jizo and O-bon festival, the most famous annual Japanese Buddhist celebration devoted to the spirits of the dead. In Tohoku region O-bon festival takes place from the 13th to 15th of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, while Jizo bon takes place on the day of Bodhisattva Jizo in the sixth month of the lunar calendar. Jizo is believed to be the patron of the souls of the dead, especially children, and he has been popular in Japan since the tenth century (Hori 1968, 207-8).
20	The word stupa (Skt) originally meant a grave-mound over the remains of Buddha and Buddhist holy people, and later hemispherical buildings, main monuments of Buddhist sacral architecture. They are also symbols related to important events in Buddha's life or they symbolize holly texts and other things (Jezic et al. 2001, 123).
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Some Japanese people still believe that the spirits of the small or unborn children (Jap. mizuko) are somewhat malign, since they failed to accumulate their good karma. For some reason they act as goryo, the evil spirits; they cause diseases, mental difficulties, family quarrels, etc., so the ritual mizuko kuyo has the role of mollifying them21. As much as there are warnings that mizuko kuyo understood in this way is not in the spirit of Buddhism because the purpose of the rite is to ease one's soul and accept Buddha's mercy, Smith writes that while he was investigating the background of mizuko kuyo in Japan, he was astonished to realize the extent to which blaming the spirit of mizoko for eventual accidents is widespread among Japanese women (especially those who had experienced abortion in their life). Life troubles are often experienced as a punishment of an evil spell (Jap, tatari) of an aborted child (Smith 1988, 15).
During Jizo bon celebration, more than thirty shamanesses set off to the main entrance of a Buddhist temple on Mount Osore. They are approached by women who have lost their husbands, children or grandchildren with questions related to commemoration and establishing communication with their souls. They sit in a circle around a shamaness and listen to what the dead say through her mouth. Itako answers every question separately, falling into a trance from the morning to the evening. Naturally, she charges money for that, but the prices are not unaffordable to general public—as stated by Hori (1968, 211), they range from a few cents to several tens of US dollars. On a regular day every trance lasts an hour or more on the average, while on the festivals, it lasts only five to ten minutes.
Reasons why people come to these settings are numerous: a yearning for remembrance, comfort from grief, psychological problems or simply a desire for advice or reassurance. When she is given specific information such as a name, the medium begins keening in a singsong voice to initiate a trance. Sometimes her
21 The tradition of mizuko kuyo, whose main patron is Jizo has existed in Japan for around two hundred years. Mizuko or mizugo (Jap, ko, "a child"; Jap, mizu, "water") is a term which since Edo period (1603-1868) has denoted spontaneously or intentionally aborted human embryos, prematurely born foetuses, babies died of natural causes immediately after birth and babies victims of infanticide. Kuyo is a Buddhist term which first meant giving alms to a priest for the benefit of the deceased; today it means worshipping of the dead in general. The term literally means "to offer and to heal" (Smith 1988: 10), i.e. offer prayers for healing the soul of the dead as well as the recovery of an injured soul, primarily of a mother, but also of other family members. The rite may be performed once, but also a few times, depending on the temple where it is performed. It is often performed on anniversaries of deaths, when people can ask for a private rite, but usually, the rite is devoted to all mizuko. The custom is that the family should offer presents to the temple, which are mostly some arbitrary sums of money (see Lakic Parac 2013 for more about this topic).
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voice abruptly changes or her pattern of moving shifts, indicating that spirit contact has been made. Even though the messages form the spirits are relayed in a dialect which even natives have difficulty understanding, many people leave Mount Osore satisfied that they have indeed reached the spirit of dead spouses or children (Ross 1996, 19).
When the hectic festival is over, the itako return to their village homes, where they continue to be quietly consulted throughout the year on tasks ranging from calling down household gods to healing the sick. If a person falls ill she attempts to identify the spirit that is causing the sickness and if she is successful, she rids the body of the intruder, thus curing the patient of the disease (Ross 1996, 20).
Conclusion
In his book Lewis (2003) analyses "possession" and shamanism as a social (and political), and not exclusively cultural phenomenon, investigating which social groups are the most sensitive to spirits and what are social consequences of it. By explaining different types and functions of mystical experience, he divides them into main (central) and marginal (peripheral), emphasizing the difference between powerful cults of possession dominated by men whose aim is to maintain the well-established morale and order, and marginal, heretic forms of ecstasy created as an expression of the protest of the oppressed, especially women. The main difference between these two categories is not their therapeutic (or medical) effect, but the types of spirits who inspire them: on one side we have spirits who directly support public morale and order (hotoke in Japan), and on the other hand the ones who are their threat (goryo and mizuko in Japan).
Lewis concluded that the purpose of exorcism is the control over women, especially in gender-biased, rigid, patriarchal and traditional cultures. He gave an example of a famous Japanese novel from the 11th century, Genji monogatari, in which Murasaki Shikibu describes a few episodes of spirit possession (Jap, mono-noke) among court ladies. In ancient patriarchal, polygamous Japanese society, mononoke was "a feminine weapon" which women used to resist incest offences and unwanted attention from male nobility. These tendencies did not develop into a strong independent female cult in ancient Japan, but they were kept under control by exorcist practices usually by male clergy (Lewis 2003, 16).
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It is true that in the past Japanese female mediums had an important role in the religious life of the Japanese, but they were always semi-institutionalized figures. In medieval Japan almost all Buddhist priests had a shamaness or her substitute by their side, whom they used in their exorcist rituals as a medium through which a vengeful spirit spoke and sent his messages. However, the character and the function of Japanese shamanesses has developed and changed through history, and finally resulted in the appearance of a few trends, the most important being: shamanesses are thus professional mediums associated with a Buddhist sect or a Shinto temple (jinjamiko), sato-miko who become shamanesses through a series of special initiation temptations and trainings administered by their masters, and jussha or gyoja who are associated with modern religious phenomena or new religious movements such as, for example, Tenrikyo of a charismatic Nakayama Miki.
Miki was determined to offer to women an alternative realization of pregnancy and childbirth, opposite to the common practice, and in doing so she created a community of women interconnected by a common belief. Instead of traditional beliefs and treatments, she promised a safe delivery of a baby as a result of believing in her and her actions. She treated childbirth as a natural event which does not require the expectant mother to be isolated because of her impure state, encouraging the women to continue with their normal social life. With her alternative attitudes, Miki announced changes in relationships between sexes, which she ultimately demonstrated through her own marriage and relationship with her husband.
Therefore, we see that historically speaking, in Japan, female mediums in the past served only as means through which a spirit or a deity who possessed the victim spoke, but their role changed through time and transformed from a passive to an active one.
What is crucial is that some very specific circumstances in the lives of these women made them become shamanesses. When itako in the north-east of Japan is considered, the total or partial blindness defined their lives. Immediately after the birth of a blind girl, or if blindness occurred later (the ideal time was before the
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Iva LAKIC PARAC: Social Context of the fujo
first menstruation, i.e. before a girl "became a woman"22), the parents knew that they would give her to an older ogamisama for training. This is how they ensured a secure future for the girl and a job as a full-fledged member of the community after they passed away. Since they were not able to become full-fledged work force, they were exposed to physical and social discrimination (they were given a pejorative nickname mekura or "dark eyes"). This social component of blindness is actually a prerequisite for a woman to become a shamaness and to start doing this "job" (the community, but also they themselves, called this job mekura's business). The practice of giving a blind woman a social position of ogamisama and, in this way, accepting her as a full-fledged member of a community gradually became an institutionalized custom of a local community.
Kamisama begins her fujo life by special psychosomatic problems which she cannot control at first. People in her surrounding proclaim her sick; her behaviour is deviant because it does not let her function normally in her family and society; she demonstrates some outstanding extremes in her behaviour which, from very shy and depressive, gradually becomes extremely extrovert and rapturous. In a short time her behaviour starts being interpreted as a consequence of spirit possession, and she starts associating her psychosomatic states with the effects of positive (kami) and negative (hotoke) powers. Over time, after she has mastered shamanistic techniques of possession and becomes experienced in her "job", she will learn to control her own psychosomatic states. She will associate positive states of her soul with the effects of positive powers and negative states with the effects of negative powers. In this way she will re-interpret the existing folk beliefs for her own benefit.
Ogamisama and kamisama are figures who, by helping others each in her own way, actually help themselves the most. Former ones as blind people, and latter ones as people suffering from psychosomatic disorders, they affect their marginal social position by applying the existing cultural imaginaries which gives them the role of a social mediator. Women, who would otherwise be on the margins of society, rejected and isolated because they do not contribute to the community, managed to position themselves between the worlds of the living and the dead, the
22 In pre-war Japan with their first menstruation girls became women in the sense that they went from their homes to serve in other households, got married and started actively participating in hard agricultural work (Kawamura 2003, 263).
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worlds of people and deities. In that way they made their role in society not only important, but also crucial for the community.
References
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Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 24 (1-2): 121-43.
Blacker, Carmen. 1999. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. Tokyo: Japan Library.
Bocking, Brian. 1996. A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Brooks, Anne Page. 1981. "Mizuko kuyö and Japanese Buddhism." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 8 (3-4): 119-47.
Dubois, Thomas A. 2009. An Introduction to Shamanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eliade, Mircea. (1964) 1985. Samanizam i arhajske tehnike ekstaze (Le Chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l'extase). Novi Sad: Matica Srpska.
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Lakic Parac, Iva. 2013. "Sinkreticke religijske prakse na podrucju Yamagate (Japan) (Syncretic Religious Practices in Case of Yamagata, Japan)." Studia Ethnologica Croatica 25: 253-81.
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Werblowsky, Zwi R.J. 1991. "Mizuko kuyö - Notulae on the Most Important 'New Religion' in Japan." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18 (4): 295-354.
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MORITOKI ŠKOF Nagisa: Prologue to Takahashi Mutsuo's Lecture
Prologue to Takahashi Mutsuo's Lecture
MORITOKI ŠKOF Nagisa*
I would like to introduce the manusctript of a lecture by Mutsuo Takahashi that was held at the Faculty of Arts, the University of Ljubljana, on March 27, 2014. Although the manuscript has been already published in the literary journal [f^f^ (Gendaishi techo) in November 2014, it is republished in this academic journal Asian Studies with the kind permission of the Shinchosha Publishing Company. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Shinchosha and the speaker, Mr. Takahashi.
The lecture discusses the Japanese poetry and tradition, with illustration of the speaker's personal experiences. Historically the verse form choka (long poem) was formed in ancient Japan with repeating five and seven syllables, and the verse form tanka (short poem) was formed with five phrases of 5-7-5 and 7-7 syllables, which came to represent waka (Japanese poem). The contemporary Japanese poetry comprises of three different form: the tanka, which has been the mainstream of Japanese poetry from the middle age, the haiku, developed by a poet Basho in the 16th century and the shintaishi (newly formed poem) arisen due to the influence of European poetry in the 19th century after Japan's opening the country to the world.
Generally, a poet creates in only one form: haiku, tanka or shintaishi. However, Takahashi's works transcend all these genres. Why? Takahashi answers the question saying that each phenomenon commands its own form of expression. He reached this conception through two incidents: the September 11th attacks on the U.S. in 2001, and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. At the first incident, he created many tankas, but no other forms. On the second, many haikus, but no other forms. Shintaishi, a poetry form of European style, would have too many words to express in both incidents. After the stunning happening in which more than twenty thousand people died and were missed for a moment, only haiku,
* MORITOKI ŠKOF, Nagisa, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts,
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
nagisa.moritoki@guest.arnes.si
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Asian Studies III (XIV), 1 (2015), pp. 105-128
which has the shortest verse form of 5-7-5 syllables, managed to express the poet's soul.
Besides, Takahashi points out the common future between haiku and no play: the silence. According to him, the literary forms of both haiku and no play are deeply related to death. A writer has to listen to the voice of death and therefore, the acestors' knowledge by means of the seasonal word in haiku which has been used for hundreds of years, and the dreaming no form	mugen-no) in
which the protagonist plays the role of a ghost or a supernatural entity. His remark makes us aware of his sincere attitude in which, he says, that a poet is not a subject but a mere recipient in front of poetry, which is his solid belief supporting his future productive force.
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World of Takahashi Mutsuo
tJWift^/YAMASAKI Kayoko*
(1995) Iw^rnLfco	2000 ii^^S.iiil.lSlI, XPft^©^
Abstract
This paper presents the poetry of Mutsuo Takahashi, one of the most important contemporary Japanese poets. We particularly focus on analysing the tree motif in the poems created since the poets' early stages to the present day. The collection of poetry Sister's Islands (1995), inspired by the poet's childhood, full of tragic events such as his father's premature death and his mother's abandonment of him, interweaves autobiographical and mythological elements in a ringlike structure. However, after the year 2000 a new creative phase in his work ensued, wherein the poet deals with the problems facing our world such as ecological issues, disintegration of the family, terrorism, etc. The poems created after the great earthquake in Tohoku in 2011 open up new topics such as the ecological catastrophe caused by nuclear energy, loss of the meaning of words in the contemporary era, when information is exchanged at a lightning speed.
Keywords: Mutsuo Takahashi, contemporary Japanese poetry, paradoxical rhetoric, lyrical intellectual poetry, tree motif
yamasakikayoko@gmail.com
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Muraki, Sawako ^fA^inA. 2008. "Takahashi Mutsuo	j In Gendai shijin
daijiten [T^Af^AASfAJ (The Dictionary of Modern Poets). Tokyo: Sanseido.
Mm,
Takahashi, Mutsuo ^fSli^. 1969. TakahashiMutsuo shishu (Takahashi Mutsuo Poetry Anthology). Tokyo: Shichosha.
-. 1970. Juni no enkei	(Twelve Views from a Distance). Tokyo: Chuo
koronsha. ^^ ^AAfnA
-. 1979. Khushihen: Sasurai toiu na no chi nite ITWf^M ¿tb^t^^^©!^
"Cj (Old Psalms: in the Land of Wondering). Tokyo: Shoshi yamada.
A
-. 1995a. Zoku, Takahashi Mutsuo shishu [Tl%	(Takahashi Mutsuo
Poetry Anthology II). Tokyo: Shichosha.
-. 1995b. Ane no shima	(Sister's Island). Tokyo: Shueisha.
-. 2001. Kaifukuki IT'K^fflJ (Convalescence). Tokyo: Shoshi yamada.
-. 2002. Koeda o motte ITA^^^oTj (With a Small Branch). Tokyo: Shoshi
yamada.	.
-. 2004. Okiagaru hito ITS^A^SAJ (Man Rises). Tokyo: Shoshi yamada. ^^
-. 2009. Eien made ITA^Ai (Until Eternity). Tokyo: Shichosha.
-. 2011a. Doko e ITA^^J (Where to?). Tokyo: Shoshi yamada.	.
-. 2011b. Shigokoro nisennen	(Two Thousand Years of Poetic Spirit).
Tokyo: Iwanami shoten. ^An
197
-. 2012a. "Anotoki kara/Genshiryoku jidai no koibitotachi r
©^Afe ^J (From that Moment/Lovers in the Age of Nuclear Power)." Gendaishi techo	(Modern Poetry Notebook). Tokyo: Shichosha.
ft.
-. 2012b. "Imawa	fij (Now)." Gendaishi techo	(Modern
Poetry Notebook) . Tokyo: Shichosha.
-. 2013. Waon radoku RP^^fftJ (A Japanese Poet Reads Latin Literature). Tokyo:
Genki shobo. ^^ ^MWM.
-. 2015. Zoku zoku, Takahashi Mutsuo Shishu
^fSSi^MJ (Takahashi
Mutsuo Poetry Anthology III). Tokyo: Shichosha. Summary
Takahashi Mutsuo is one of the most important poets of contemporary Japan. In the course of his childhood, he experienced his father's premature death and was abandoned by his mother. These experiences contributed to the formation of Takahashi's poetics, which sheds light on the point of contact between this world and the netherworld, the link between the land of the living and the land of the dead. The early period of his life proved inspirational to the poet, who wrote an autobiographical novel entitled Twelve Views from a Distance (1975). The collection of poetry Sister's Islands was also inspired by his childhood. This collection interweaves mythological stories and autobiographical elements, real and unreal time and space, creating a ringlike structure.
However, his poems written after the year 2000, during the course of his travels, mark a new creative phase in his work. Freed from autobiographical elements, these poems deal with the social issues of the contemporary era such as ecological problems, violence, disintegration of the family and terrorism. This phase is marked by a number of collections of poems, among them Convalescence and Man Rises. Within the framework of Japanese poetry, which has no tradition of socially engaged poetry, Mutsuo Takahashi has created intellectually challenging poetry, wherein the poet uses paradox as a rhetorical device. His thought-provoking poems are full of lyrism and polysemy.
The poems created after the great earthquake in Tohoku in 2011 open up new topics such as ecological catastrophe caused by nuclear energy, loss of the meaning of words in the contemporary era when information is exchanged at a lightning speed. It is especially the poems "From Now On: Lovers in the Time of Nuclear Energy" and "Now" that are indicative of his new poetics. 198
Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 185-199
The point connecting this side and the other side, life and death, which the poet observed as a small boy, sheds light on a new problem: the possibility of mankind's disappearance from this planet. The poet's pondering over the question "Where do I come from?", which we encountered in the collection Sister's Islands, gives rise to a new question: 'Where are we going?"
199
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SM^^f^^^^/Literature of the "dankaV Generation
tg^^^/FUKUMA Kenji*
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fn^feSo 1970 Abstract
The generation born during Japan's post-war baby boom are called the "dankai" generation. Appearing as consumers of culture in a society which was becoming richer, they experienced a "hot season" around 1970. Sato Yasushi's Jazzmen in Street Fighting and Sasaki Mikiro's Whip of the Dead are two pioneer works born in an undulation from the political movement in the late 60s. At a certain point in the 1970s the whole scene changed. People were entering a state of strange happiness with problems unsolved. A kind of uneasiness haunting there is a part of characteristics of poetry then.
Keywords: the "dankai" generation, "hot season", the dream of "revolution", struggle, uneasiness
bluehousefm@gmail.com
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Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 201-221
^hX^X
v^« bbmzhžtz.
(fölll 2QQ1, 6S3)
(fölll 200K 6S6) y bñkbfr< k LT, í^lo^it^?^	So
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(1935 — ) , ^A-WMMvttM (1924-2012)
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A^îttt, 1959 ïmt^m^mi,	1960
fwmmm^mi r^ioiij re^^sj
£ 1967	VK^Ítfc*
— h^Xo^pf^-LtóV^A M^^L^è^ 5 ft
1971	r^©^
t^i^^tsxyt^ r	fmJ (M 1971)
íiSftt^ot <E>	iOÜ^ofelß^ofcl^j ¿Lt,
g^ g # ttê ^fà tt, žbfrft^ r^j	rgsMj
AïiHiftx 1957	1959
Ac0	1967	/Vj ft, 1960
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(1949—) (1925-1970)
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fr^J (1965) ^	(1971) ¿^ofc^älftfrtt*^®
Ufe.	(1968)
i960ft,	1
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1970 ^ti^fcxyt^t, ^APiK®
rit«,	^©ittè,
è^ot^ot^SAtfeÇ, f^tiot^otlo^t^SAÍi,
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^^^ •	5	• ^^t — P—■xb 9, r^-rV
SMJ LT r^^j	^	AWHfè-
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, m^M (1954—) ¿^ofc r|g|gj ^^-^©gitfeofc. ftfrX*
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t^fc^ü^^üí (1947—) ©s^öt,
1977
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196Q 216
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i960 W^b 1970	AUf^W^ entait L
ri960^ftiAjro^t ^Tfcs^tóMft, ê^^tfr^feotr©
l^ftxM^^MJ (1967)	\y0ry0T%mä\ ¿fftf^^ff i960
fitfcŽtl^Ptl^^t LAc ^fco tc
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218
Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 185-199
•f^&kbMtc 2001, 51)
y-^^tt, r^^Lj ftiíont^fflofcftti^o^^^Aofci
ft^hy ^Älftft
1970
1970lüAIfc^tt
Arakawa, Yoji ^JI 1982. Arakawa Yöji Shishû IT^JI	(Poems of
Arakawa Yoji). Tokyo: Shichosha.
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Yoji). Tokyo: Shichosha.
Fukuma, Kenji fe^ft—. 2014. Sato Yasushi. Sokoni kare wa ita ife-MMM-^^ i^® fi^^J (Sato Yasushi: He Was There). Tokyo: Kawadeshobo shinsha.
Jinzai, Takashi	0. 1970. Oime aruiwa soboku toiu koto	b
J (About a Sense of Guilt or Simplicity) . Mokuji vol. 1. Tokyo: Mokuji
hakkosho.
Oe, Kenzaburo A^^H^. 1959. Warera nojidai ffofcb	(Our Times).
Tokyo: Chuokoronsha.
-. 1967. Man 'en gannen no futtoboru
^-/vj (The Silent Cry).
Tokyo: Kodansha.
Sakaiya, Taichi ^MA^. 1976. Dankai no sedai ITI3M© WAJ (The Dankai Generation). Tokyo: Kodansha.
Sasaki, Mikiro	1970. Shisha no muchi	(Whip of the Dead).
Tokyo: Kozosha.
-. 1982. Sasaki Mikiro Shishu	(Poems of Sasaki Mikiro). Tokyo:
Shichosha.
Sato, Yasushi fe^^jfe. 1971. Nihon shunka-ko ron	(On "A
Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs") . Mokuji vol.5. Tokyo: Mokuji hakkosho.
-. 1991. Nyu Refuto IT—^ — U7hJ(New Left) . Jiraiya vol.6. Tokyo: Jiraiya
henshushitsu.
-. 2007. Sato Yasushi Sakuhinshu	(Selected Works of Sato
Yasushi). Tokyo: Crane.
-. 2011. Mohitotsu no asa. Sato Yasushi shoki sakuhinshu
jS^ffl^m^J (Another Morning: Early Works of Sato Yasushi). Tokyo: Kawadeshobo shinsha.
Suzuki, Shiroyasu i^^Sfi^. 1969. Suzuki Shiroyasu Shishu (Poems of Suzuki Shiroyasu). Tokyo: Shichosha.
-. 1980. Shinsen Suzuki Shiroyasu Shishu	(New Selected
Poems of Suzuki Shiroyasu). Tokyo: Shichosha.
Yoshimoto, Takaaki	1965. Gengo ni totte bi towa nanika [TWHoi^^ ot|
b fi^t (What Beauty Means to Language). Tokyo: Keisoshobo.
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Kawadeshobo shinsha.
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Summary
The generation born during Japan's post-war baby boom are called the "dankai" generation. Sometimes they are also called the "Zenkyoto" generation or "Beatles" generation. They experienced a "hot season" around 1970.
In the 1960s this generation appeared as consumers of culture and became youth in a society characterized by having many youths. Sato Yasushi's Jazzmen in Street Fighting and Sasaki Mikiro's Whip of the Dead are two pioneer works born in an undulation from the political movement in late 60s. There were struggles against the Japan-U.S Treaty then and the situation had some power acting poetically in their works. It was generally related to the dream of "revolution".
Oshima Nagisa, Oe Kenzaburo and Yoshimoto Takaaki were the leading people who influenced the young generation around the dream.
At a certain time in the 1970s the dream faded away and the whole scene changed. People were entering a state of strange happiness with problems unsolved. A kind of uneasiness haunting there is part of characteristics of the works by Shiroyasu Suzuki who is among the "60s poets" and Arakawa Yoji who is among newcomers belonging to the "dankai" generation.
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Asian Studies in Slovenia
Asian Studies III (XIX), 1 (2015), pp. 185-199
Japonski jezik med nacijo in imperijem: Tokieda Motoki in aporija nacionalnega jezika
Luka CULIBERG*
Izvleček
Predvsem strukturalistična veja jezikoslovja je poskušala zavreči vse jeziku na videz zunanje aspekte in se mu posvetiti v njegovi »čisti« ali abstraktni pojavnosti. Na drugi strani so se vzpostavile tudi jezikoslovne smeri, ki so jezik poskušale razumeti z vidika družbenega konteksta. Vendar pa jezik tako v strukturalnem jezikoslovju kakor v družbeno naravnanih jezikoslovnih teorijah lahko ostane ideološki pojem, če te teorije ne razvijejo tudi ustrezne kritike družbe oziroma družbenih odnosov, iz katerih izhajajo vsakokratne predstave o jeziku oziroma jezikovni praksi. V pričujoči razpravi pokažemo ta ideološki spregled na primeru jezikoslovnih razmišljanj Tokiede Motokija	1900-1967),
ki je s svojo jezikoslovno teorijo utemeljeval kolonialno jezikovno politiko Japonskega imperija na Tajvanu in v Koreji.
Ključne besede: nacionalni jezik, lingvistika, ideologija, družbeno dejstvo, kokugo, nihongo
Abstract
Modern structural linguistics attempted to approach language in its "pure" or abstract form by discarding all elements perceived as external to language itself. On the other hand, linguistic schools attempting to understand language in the social context have also been formed. However, in all those language theories language itself can remain an ideological notion if those theories fail to engage in the necessary critique of social relations that generate representations about language or, more precisely, about language practice. This paper wishes to point out this kind of ideological overlook in the case of linguistic deliberations of Tokieda Motoki (B^^fMB 1900-1967), who attempted to justify the colonial language policy of Japanese Empire in Taiwan and Korea.
Keywords: national language, linguistics, ideology, social fact, kokugo, nihongo
* Luka Culiberg, Asistent z doktoratom, Oddelek za azijske študije, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenia. luka.culiberg @hotmail .com
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Jezikoslovje med znanostjo in ideologijo
V klasični disciplinarni delitvi moderne univerze proučevanje jezika prvenstveno pripada polju splošne lingvistike, podobno kakor so na drugi strani, na primer, družbeni odnosi in institucije stvar sociologije, pretekli človeški dogodki pa v domeni zgodovinopisja. Humanistično in družboslovno polje se danes cepi že na skoraj nepregledno množico disciplin in pod-disciplin, ki si vsaka zase prilaščajo in tudi ljubosumno varujejo svoj legitimni objekt proučevanja, hkrati pa jih to disciplinarno drobljenje sili v preseganje ozkih meja svoje discipline s poskusi interdisciplinarnega povezovanja.
Drobljenje disciplin, ki sledi spontani logiki prepoznavanja vselej novih predmetov proučevanja, je ideološki proces, ti spontano prepoznani objekti znanosti pa ostajajo na ravni ideoloških predstav in ne postanejo teoretsko proizvedeni znanstveni objekti. Pred pastjo ideologizacije svojega predmeta proučevanja nikakor niso varne niti ustaljene discipline, kakrše so sociologija, zgodovinopisje ali jezikoslovje. Vse preveč pogosto se dogaja, da, na primer, akademsko zgodovinopisje ostaja ujeto v historično naracijo nacionalne zgodovine, ki določeno sodobno nacionalno entiteto ahistorično pojasnjuje na zgodovinski osi skozi ideološko obzorje svojega časa, da torej v dojemanju nacionalne zgodovine deli »iluzijo epohe«. Nič drugače se ni pogosto dogajalo z jezikoslovjem, ki je proučevalo »nacionalne jezike« kot zgodovinsko realno obstoječe predmete, namesto da bi jih prepoznalo kot ideološke kategorije »zamišljenih« jezikovnih skupnosti.
Tudi v slovenskem prostoru je v nekaterih akademskih krogih še vedno prisotna predstava, da lahko govorimo o nekakšnem realno obstoječem »slovenskem jeziku«, ki je od Brižinskih spomenikov do Toporišičeve slovnice doživel sicer veliko jezikovnih sprememb, ne pa tudi spremembe svoje »biti«, namreč biti kot »slovenski jezik«. Ko znanstvena disciplina, kakršna je jezikoslovje, enkrat prevzame ideološko pojmovanje svojega predmeta, pa s svojo znanstveno dejavnostjo ne opravlja več teoretskega dela, temveč postane ideološki podpornik prevladujočega diskurza, v tem primeru diskurza »nacionalne identitete«, in s tem potencialno tudi politično orodje. To seveda v ničemer ni slovenska posebnost in v pričujoči kratki razpravi bi radi pokazali, kako je jezikoslovna znanost z dojemanjem »jezika« skozi prizmo dominantne ideologije pomagala legitimirati politične jezikovne politke v okviru imperialne ekspanzije,
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kakor se je to zgodilo v primeru japonske kolonialne politike v Koreji in na Tajvanu.
Poglejmo si v ta namen na kratko in v grobih očrtih položaj znanstvenega jezikoslovja v prvi polovici dvajsetega stoletja. Tradicionalna področja znotraj jezikoslovja so predpostavljala obstoj »jezika« kot strukturiranega sistema vokalno-avditorne komunikacije z uporabo konvencionalnih znakov sestavljenih iz arbitrarno kombiniranih zvočnih enot (Davis in Taylor 1990). A četudi se zdi, da v splošnem jezikoslovje ni dvomilo v »jezik« kot realno obstoječi objekt znanstvene kontemplacije, pa je na drugi strani jasno, da znotraj samega jezikoslovja še zdaleč ni bilo konsenza glede tega, kaj je oziroma kaj ni del tega znanstvenega predmeta, ki ga lingvistika imenuje »jezik«. Težnja po formalizaciji objekta proučevanja je v jezikoslovju dvajsetega stoletja izhajala predvsem iz dveh, sicer različnih šol: Saussura v Evropi in Bloomfielda v Ameriki (Benveniste 1988, 17).1 Kljub različnosti pa sta oba, kakor ugotavlja Benveniste (1988, 17), stala na načelu, da ima lingvistika za edini in resnični objekt »jezik na sebi in za sebe«, zaradi česar mora biti avtonomna veda. Zaradi želje po znanstvenosti in zaradi poskusa, da bi zgradila svoj teoretski aparat neposredno na predmetu, ki ga imenuje jezik, je lingvistika posegala po matematičnih ali deduktivnih disciplinah, ki popolnoma racionalizirajo svoj predmet, tako da ga zvedejo na skupek objektivnih lastnosti s konstantnimi definicijami (Benveniste 1988, 18).
Ta racionalizacija in objektivizacija »jezika« kot predmeta lingvistike je znotraj discipline v veliki meri in pri številnih jezikoslovcih zameglila dejstvo, da celote družbene prakse, ki jo v vsakdanjih predstavah pojmujemo kot »jezik«, ne moremo obravnavati zunaj družbenega konteksta in v okviru ene discipline, ki jezik že vnaprej predpostavi kot svoj objekt proučevanja. Jezik moramo onkraj na prvi pogled vidne materialnosti fonoloških in sintaktičnih struktur namreč predpostaviti v prvi vrsti kot družbeno dejstvo, se pravi, kot matrialno pojavnost, ki svojo obliko in pomen dobi šele v medsebojni interakciji subjektov jezikovne dejavnosti, ti subjekti pa imajo o tej dejavnosti določene predstave, se pravi, določeno »ideologijo«. Kakor vsako družbeno dejstvo, je jezik oziroma jezikovna praksa (saj se jezik udejanja le v praksi) celota družbenih razmerij med ljudmi in predstav, ki jih ti ljudje gojijo o teh razmerjih. Zato mora jezikoslovje vselej v prvi
1 Tu velja opomniti, da so se kljub prevladujočemu vplivu strukturalne lingvistike, tako Saussurove v Evropi kakor Bloomfieldove v ZDA, že v prvi polovici dvajsetega stoletja pojavile tudi alternativne jezikoslovne raziskave, ki so jezik konceptualizirale prav skozi kritično teorijo ideologije, kakor, na primer, Bahtinove jezikoslovne raziskave in spisi Valentina Vološinova.
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vrsti najprej izhajati iz kritike samega koncepta jezika onkraj konceptualizacije saussurovske govorice (langage), ki jo vselej sestavljata že sinhroni sistem (langue) manifestiran v vsakokratnem diahronem in živem govoru (parole).
Namreč le »ideološka« analiza jezika lahko pojasni, kako so izreki racionalizirani v kulturno razumljivih terminih kot družbena refleksija samih akterjev. Kakšna oblika racionalizacije stoji za doktrinami »pravilnosti« in »nepravilnosti« v jezikovni rabi? Kako so povezane z doktrinami inherentne moči, lepote, izraznosti etc. jezika? (Silverstein 1985, 223)
Jezik kot družbeno dejstvo
Jezik moramo torej v prvi vrsti razumeti kot »celostno družbeno dejstvo« (fait social total), če si sposodimo koncept, ki ga je formuliral Marcel Mauss, in kot tak lahko razumemo jezik kot ireduktibilno dialektičen v svoji naravi, kakor ugotavlja Silverstein (1985). Jezik je nestabilna medsebojna interakcija pomenskih znakovnih oblik, kontekstualiziranih glede na situacijo zainteresirane človeške rabe, posredovane z dejstvom kulturne ideologije. Jezikovno dejstvo je ireduktibilno dialektično ne glede na to, ali nanj gledamo kot na sinhrono rabo ali kot na tako imenovano diahrono spremembo. Gre za sinhrono-diahrono totaliteto, ki jo lahko - če ostanemo znotraj okvirov tradicionalnih avtonomnih delitev raziskovalnih perspektiv - obravnavamo s stališč jezikovne strukture, kontekstualizirane rabe in jezikovnih ideologij (Silverstein 1985, 220).
Strukturalno jezikoslovje pa se je poskušalo vzpostaviti kot izključno teoretska disciplina, ki proučuje jezik v njegovi abstrakciji, jezik kot univerzalno lastnost človeških bitij, lastnost, ki jo moramo raziskovati ločeno od konkretnih manifestacij tega abstraktnega sistema v naravnih (ali umetnih) jezikih. To je verjetno nazadnje pripeljalo do posebne disciplinarne delitve dela, ki na moderni univerzi poleg kateder za jezikoslovje pozna tudi katedre za posamezne konkretne jezike, najprej za sam »nacionalni jezik«, kakor, na primer, Katedra za slovenski knjižni jezik in stilistiko v slovenskem primeru ali katedre za proučevanje japonskega nacionalnega jezika (kokugogaku Hln^) v primeru Japonske, poleg tega pa si na večjih univerzah ponavadi priborijo svoje katedre največji oziroma najprestižnejši jeziki, kakor na primer katedre za angleški, španski, francoski, nemški in druge jezike.
Sama disciplina jezikoslovja je bila tako v temelju zaznamovana s Saussurovim ustanovnim dejanjem, s katerim je ločil »zunanje« elemente
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jezikoslovja od »notranjih«, ki so postali edini predmet »jezikoslovja«, s čimer so bila iz discipline odstranjena vsa razmerja med jezikom in družbo, razmerja, ki naj ne bi ničesar doprinesla k razumevanju »jezika«, samega na sebi (Bourdieu 1992, 33). Kljub razvoju jezikoslovja, ki je preseglo začetna strukturalna izhodišča in razvilo teorije, ki so zaznamovale drugo polovico dvajsetega stoletja, od Chomskyjeve generativno transformativne slovnice do Hallidayevega sistemsko funkcionalnega jezikoslovja, je jezik v svoji historični kontingenci kot »nacionalni jezik« ostal objekt jezikoslovnih disciplin tako na fakultetnih katedrah kakor na jezikoslovnih inštitutih.
Določene moderne jezikoslovne šole na Japonskem so svoj pristop k jeziku zasnovale na izhodiščih, ki bi jih lahko poimenovali sociolingvistična in za katere velja prepričanje, da so se razvile samostojno in ločeno od zahodnih vplivov. Glavna zanimanja japonske sociolingvistike se zgoščajo v raziskovanju regionalnih jezikovnih raznolikosti (»dialektologija«) in govornega vedenja v vsakdanjem življenju (gengo seikatsu	(Ide 1986, 281). Začetek tega
pristopa Ide (1986) postavlja v leto 1949, ko je bil ustanovljen Nacionalni institut za raziskovanje japonskega jezika (Kokuritsu kokugo kenkyujo z namenom »znanstvenega raziskovanja japonskega jezika in govornega vedenja v vsakdanjem življenju japonskega ljudstva, kakor tudi vzpostaviti trdno osnovo za izboljšanje japonskega jezika« (Ide 1986, 281). Že tu moramo biti pozorni na izhodiščno predpostavko, ki kaže, da je »znanstveno« proučevanje jezika tudi po drugi svetovni vojni ostajalo na ideološki premisi »izboljševanja« jezika.
Po drugi strani pa Ide Sachiko (1986) ugotavlja, da naj bi bila razlika med »zahodnim« in »japonskim« pristopom v izhodišču posledica različnega razumevanja jezika: medtem ko je zahodni, na strukturalnem razumevanju temelječ pogled jezik razumel kot avtonomen objekt, ki ga lahko raziskuje neodvisno od družbe, naj bi bil jezik na Japonskem razumljen kot del človeškega socialnega vedenja (Ide 1986, 283). To se zdi spodbudno za teoretsko integracijo jezikovne prakse v družbeni kontekst in konceptualizacijo jezika kot celostnega družbenega dejstva. Toda hkrati s to družbeno orientacijo pri razumevanju jezika naj bi bila za japonsko sociolingvistiko značilna na drugi strani odsotnost teoretske orientacije. Po mnenju Ide (1986, 284) raziskave nimajo nikakršnega teoretskega okvira ali modela, saj namen raziskovalcev niso kakšni splošni zaključki in teoretski modeli, temveč preprosta klasifikacija in katalogiziranje.
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Luka CULIBERG: Japonski jezik med nacijo in imperijem
Če zaupamo ugotovitvam, ki jih Ide (1986) navaja v svojem prispevku o ozadju japonske sociolingvistike, lahko sklenemo, da je bila povojna sociolingvistika na Japonskem dejansko utemeljena prav na ključnih premisah moderne znanstvene paradigme s poudarkom na znanstveni nevtralnosti (ločitev med znanstvenim raziskovanjem in praktično aplikacijo znanstvenih ugotovitev) in empirizmu (odsotnost teoretskih modelov in vztrajanje na »znanstvenosti« empiričnih klasifikacij).
Tudi če privzamemo omenjeno tezo, da se je japonska sociolingvistika vzpostavila na podlagi drugačnega razumevanja jezika, ki za razliko od »zahodnega« pogleda ne predpostavlja radikalne ločenosti med subjektom in objektom proučevanja, in ki jezika ne dojema kot avtonomni objekt, temveč izhaja iz njegove inherentne družbenosti, ostaja dejstvo, da tudi tak pristop še ni dovolj za teoretski preboj in konceptualizacijo jezika, kot teoretskega koncepta. Nasprotno, brez uspešnega epistemološkega reza in teorije ideološke narave jezika, tak pristop za razliko od lingvistike, ki se osredotoča samo na materialnost jezikovne materije (s proučevanjem, na primer, fonologije ali sintakse), lahko še veliko globlje zabrede v ideološkost svojega raziskovanja, saj prav zaradi vpetosti v družbenost ostaja podvrženo ideološkim predstavam o »jeziku«, ki izhajajo iz vsakokratnih družbenih razmer. Kakor že rečeno, taka znanost o jeziku v vsaki zgodovinski epohi namreč »deli iluzijo te epohe«.
Kokuritsu kokugo kenkyujo je bil vzpostavljen z namenom »znanstvenega raziskovanja nacionalnega jezika in jezikovnega življenja naroda«, pri čemer so v formulaciji uporabili koncept »jezikovno življenje« (gengo seikatsu) (Konoshima 1976, 135). V predvojnem obdobju naj bi namreč tudi proučevanje nacionalnega jezika (kokugogaku) dojemalo nacionalni jezik statično, analitično in historično, po vojni pa naj bi postal močnejši trend, ki dejansko jezikovno življenje razume na dinamičen način. Iz te ideje proučevanja »jezikovnega življenja« je izhajal tudi Tokieda Motoki, katerega znanstveno izhodišče v japonistiki je bila tako imenovana »teorija jezikovega procesa« (gengo katei setsu ^ nn' m s m) (Konoshima 1976, 135).
Za Tokieda je bila zgodovina nacionalnega jezika ne le elementarno proučevanje fonemov, besedišča, slovnice in njihovih navidezno samostojnih spremeb v času, temveč zgodovina jezikovnega življenja naroda, s čimer je zgodovino jezika lahko povezal s proučevanjem zgodovine politke, ekonomije in družbe (Konoshima 1976, 135-36). Tokieda je poskušal vzpostaviti jezikoslovno
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teorijo, ki bi za razliko od strukturalizma jezik vpela neposredno v njegov družbeni kontekst. Toda, ker hkrati s teorijo jezika ni vzpostavil tudi teorije družbenih razmerij, je njegova teorija jezika nujno ostala odvisna od vsakokratnih ideoloških predstav o teh družbenih razmerjih, kar je pri Tokiedu, ki je deloval v času velikih sprememb v prvi polovici dvajsetega stoletja, še toliko bolj opazno.
Kokugo, nihongo in Tokiedov jezik kot proces
Začetnik japonskega jezikoslovja in japonistike, Ueda Kazutoshi, je v sebi združeval nasprotujoči ideološki zahtevi ideologije nacionalnega jezika: bil je velik zagovornik »ohranjanja japonskega jezika« (kokugo aigo 0 S ni ) in hkrati idejni oče »reforme japonskega jezika« (kokugo kairyo Hbh^,^), v čemer ni videl nikakršnega protislovja (Yamaguchi 1989, 34). Ueda je študiral indoevropsko primerjalno jezikoslovje v Nemčiji, ki je bila takrat v objemu jezikovnega nacionalizma, na Japonsko pa se je vrnil prav v času kitajsko-japonske vojne (1894-1895), torej na vrhuncu nacionalistične vznesenosti na Japonskem (Yamaguchi 1989, 34). »Ohranjanje z reformiranjem« je bila ideološka rešitev protislovja ideje nacionalnega jezika, se pravi, jezika, ki vselej že obstaja, a ga je hkrati treba šele vzpostaviti. K odpravi protislovja je pripomogla tudi razcepljena narava japonskega jezika, ki se je lahko udejanjala v abstraktnejši podobi nacionalnega jezika (kokugo H fn ), ali v bolj konkretni varianti zgodovinske »japonščine« (nihongo BAnn).
Kakor ugotavlja tudi Koyasu (2003), sta tako kokugo kakor nihongo koncepta, ki izvirata iz zgodovinskega procesa moderne Japonske in politizacije jezika. Ko se je pojavila potreba po revidiranju koncepta kokugo, ki mu je bilo v novih zgodovinskih in političih okoliščinah treba pripisati novo konsistentnost, je nastopil koncept nihongo (Koyasu 2003, 71). V zgodovinskem kontekstu moderne Japonske se problem kokugo/nihongo umešča v čas priključitve Tajvana in Koreje, ko so bile v Japonski imperij vključene nove jezikovne skupnosti, in v čas izgradnje Območja vzajemne blaginje Velike vzhodne Azije (Daitoa kyoeiken A pod okriljem Japonske, s čimer se je vzpostavil problem nove definicije nacionalnega jezika in vprašanje širjenja japonščine na celotnem ozemlju imperija.
Tokieda Motoki (H^ftMfB, 1900-1967), po Uedu Kazutoshiju in Hashimotu Shinkichiju (f^A^^, 1882-1945) tretji profesor na Oddelku za nacionalni
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(japonski) jezik Tokijske univerze, je imel v drugačnih zgodovinskih okoliščinah drugačne poglede na jezik od svojih učiteljev, kljub temu, da je bil Uedov in Hashimotov učenec. Od proučevanja japonščine v okviru lingvistike (hakugengaku	se je načeloma obrnil k »študiju nacionalnega jezika«
(kokugogaku Hfn^) in s tem postal začetnik ločitve med japonistiko in splošnim jezikoslovjem (Yamaguchi 1989, 34). Kakor piše Lee (2010), odnos med jezikoslovjem in kokugogaku ni predstavljal le teoretskega konflikta med dvema disciplinarnima področjema, temveč je hkrati simboliziral odnos med Japonsko in Evropo, ki je kot odnos »tradicije« in »modernosti« težil sodobno japonsko zavest (Lee 2010, 127). Tokiedov obrat k šoli kokugaku (H^) kot domorodni znanstveni praksi pomeni ideološki proces oblikovanja nove jezikoslovne »tradicije«. Ta jezikoslovna ideologija je v moderni lingvistiki prepoznala ogrožujoč zunanji vpliv Zahoda, zato se je obrnila k stari praksi, ki pa ji je retrogradno pripisala prav lastnosti tistega, čemur je želela ubežati, se pravi, lastnosti »znanstvene« prakse, kakršne si pripisuje moderna lingvistika. 2 Tokieda je v okviru svoje jezikovne ideologije razvil lastno jezikovno teorijo, ki jo je poimenoval teorija jezikovnega procesa (gengo katei setsu	in v kateri je prav na podlagi kritike
Saussurovega objektivističnega jezikoslovja poskušal v jezikovno teorijo vrniti subjekt. Jezik je razumel kot dejavnost, kot proces, ki ga je formaliziral v trikotni shemi, katere trije konstitutivni elementi so producirajoči subjekt (shutai družbeni kontekst (bamen	ki vključuje tudi naslovljenca, in posredovana
vsebina sporočila (sozai
Tokiedova štiri obdobja »vprašanja japonskega jezika«
Tokieda je »vprašanje japonskega jezika« (kokugo mondai HbhPr^M) historično razdelil na štiri obdobja. Prvo obdobje naj bi se končalo v začetku tretjega desetletja obdobja Meiji (konec osemdesetih let 19. stoletja), ko se je v času
2 V svojih spominih Watashi no eranda gakumon (Disciplina, ki sem jo izbral) Tokieda piše takole: »Ko sem začel s študijem kokugogaku na univerzi ... sem slišal in bral, da bi morali biti raziskovalne metode in raziskovalna področja zahodne lingvistike vodilna načela tudi za kokugogaku. Gotovo je bila to prava smer raziskovanja glede na tedanje starejše kolege na tem področju, ki so bili vsi izobraženi kot jezikoslovci, na primer, profesorji Shinmura, Kindaichi in Hashimoto. ... Eden od razlogov, zakaj sem jaz postal skeptičen do modernega jezikoslovja, je izšel iz starejših raziskav o kokugoju, ki sem jih začel prebirati v tistem času. Narava tistih raziskav in pogledov na jezik, ki so jih te raziskave vsebovale, je bila radikalno drugačna, kar me je izjemno fasciniralo. Mislim, da je bil to čas, ko sem se začel obračati stran od modernega jezikoslovja na splošno, misleč da evropska znansost ni edini in absolutni model in da evropsko jezikoslovje ne more biti nujno vodilno načelo za kokugogaku.« (po Lee 2010, 126-27)
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evropeizacije v kontekstu ideologije nacionalnega jezika kot civilizacijske pridobitve kokugo izkazal za nedoraslega svojemu novemu poslanstvu. To je čas razcveta številnih teorij jezikovne reforme (kokugo kairyoron 0 nj^ A), katerih cilj so bile racionalne, logične in tudi ekonomične izboljšave jezika (Y amaguchi 1989, 36).
Drugo obdobje, ki je trajalo od konca osemdesetih do zmage v kitajsko-japonski vojni (1895), je bilo po Tokiedovem mnenju obdobje prebujenega nacionalizma, ko se je jezikovna zavest končno zoperstavila površinskemu racionalizmu in utilitarizmu, nadomestila pa naj bi jo zavest, da se dejanskega stanja jezika in njegove tradicije ne da odrezati od dejanskega »jezikovnega življenja« (gengo seikatsu). Vrhunec tega obdobja predstavlja prav znameniti govor Uede Kazutoshija leta 1894, v katerem je pozival k ohranitvi nacionalnega jezika in hkrati k njegovi reformi (Yamaguchi 1989, 36).
Tretje obdobje zaznamuje priključitev Tajvana in Koreje Japonskemu imperiju, kar je vprašanje narave »nacionalnega jezika« v japonskih kolonijah osvetlilo s popolnoma novega zornega kota (Y amaguchi 1989, 36).
Četrto obdobje je čas od Mandžurskega incidenta (1931) pa do Tokiedove sedanjosti sredi druge svetovne vojne. Vprašanje, s katerim se je Tokieda spopadal v tem času, je bilo, kako razširiti japonski jezik kot skupni jezik Območja vzajemne blaginje Velike vzhodne Azije (Daitoa kyoeiken), pri katerega izgradnji je imela Japonska vodilno vlogo in ki je obsegalo številne narode s številnimi različnimi jeziki (Yamaguchi 1989, 36).
Tokieda se je v tem četrtem obdobju »vprašanja nacionalnega jezika« s svojo jezikovno teorijo sam znašel v protislovju. V njegovi teoriji jezikovnega procesa jezik ni le formalni sistem (la langue), temveč je forma jezikovnega izražanja, ki govorca vzpostavlja kot subjekt, zato se je pri vprašanju jezikovne politike v Koreji Tokieda znašel v zagati. Njegova teorija namreč sloni na dediščini vseh štirih obdobij in, kakor piše Yamaguchi (1989), Tokiedova ideološka zagata v tako imenovanem »četrtem obdobju« izvira iz njegove vpetosti v nacionalistično ideologijo »drugega obdobja« in iz odsotnosti ustrezne rešitve problema nacionalnega jezika v Koreji v »tretjem obdobju« (Yamaguchi 1989, 36).
Ueda Kazutoshi je bil v kontekstu nacionalnega prebujanja vpet v protislovje »ohranjanja« vselej že obstoječega nacionalnega jezika, hkrati pa se je zavzemal za njegovo »reformo« na podlagi iste ideologije, ki je nujno razkrivala dejstvo, da
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tak ideološko zamišljeni idealni nacionalni jezik še ni dokončno vzpostavljen. Tokieda Motoki pa se je v svojem »četrtem obdobju« jezikovne politike, se pravi, na vrhuncu imperialističnega pohoda Japonskega cesarstva, znašel v drugačnem protislovju: če je kokugo preprosto »japonski jezik«, ki ga je treba ljubiti kot materni jezik in si prizadevati za njegovo ohranitev, kako potem to verjetje uskladiti z upravičenostjo širjenja Japonskega imperija in z njim japonskega jezika na koloniziranih območjih? Na teh območjih ljudje govorijo svoje jezike, do katerih imajo enako pravico, kakor imajo govorci japonščine pravico do svojega, in ki bi jih v kontekstu te ideologije morali prav tako ljubiti in si prizadevati za njihovo ohranitev.3
Kako torej lahko Tokieda kot intelektualec sam pri sebi upraviči kot legitimno in celo potrebno nasilno jezikovno politiko militantnega imperija? Tu mu priskoči na pomoč ideologija, ki se maskira kot »znanost«, in sicer kot znanost jezikoslovja. Tokieda poskuša z jezikoslovno teorijo pojasniti ideološke odločitve jezikovnih politik državnih institucij. Najprej mora razrešiti izhodiščno protislovje, ki izhaja iz Uedove nacionalistične ljubezni do nacionalnega jezika kot »duhovne krvi« naroda. V svojem eseju Prihodnost jezikovne politike in poučevanja japonskega jezika v Koreji, objavljenem leta 1942, zapiše:
Če neposredno privzamemo poglede profesorja Uede, se v odnosu do Korejcev, ki so drug narod, del razloga, zakaj bi bilo treba med njimi razširiti nacionalni jezik, nujno izgubi. Kajti za Korejce je korejščina (chosengo m) materni jezik (haha no gengo ®©WfnO oziroma jezik vsakdanjega življenja (seikatsu no gengo ^^©Hm) in je torej prav tako lahko njihova duhovna kri (seishinteki ketsueki Mtt^^S). Toda ko pomislimo, da je širitev nacionalnega jezika pomemben ukrep za uspešno politično upravljanje Koreje in je torej ukrep, ki ga zahteva trenutna realnost, se moramo vprašati, kako uspešno razrešiti to dilemo. Zaradi tega problema sem bil sam pri sebi zagrenjen. (Yamaguchi 1989, 37)
3 Na tem mestu je treba opozoriti, da Tokieda ni gojil nepremišljeno naivnih nacionalističnih pogledov na jezik, kakor morda nekateri njegovi kolegi. Tokieda je, na primer, kritiziral stališča konservativnega jezikoslovca Yamade Yoshia, ki je kokugo razumel kot »standardni jezik Japonskega imperija« (Lee 2010, 147). Tokieda je vztrajal, da mora biti kokugo kot koncept definiran na podlagi svojih notranjih jezikovnih značilnosti, ne pa na zunanjih danostih, kakršne so narodi in rase. V svojem delu Zgodovina proučevanja japonskega jezika (Kokugogaku-shi) iz leta 1940 je zapisal: »Kokugo kot objekt discipline kokugogaku moramo obravnavati kot sinonim za nihongo. Naša praksa poimenovanja kokugo in kokugogaku namesto nihongo in nihongogaku je le stvar udobja nas, ki smo se rodili na Japonskem in govorimo ta jezik. Strogo gledano pa bi morali prevzeti pojme nihongo in nihongogaku in prihraniti pojem kokugo za druge priložnosti.« Navedeno v Lee (2010, 147). Kakšna je bila ena od takih priložnosti, bomo videli v nadaljevanju.
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Horizont njegove jezikovne ideologije ga torej pripelje v protislovje, ki ga mora razrešiti v okviru te iste ideologije. Pri tem Tokiedu pride prav že obstoječa navidezna razcepljenost japonskega jezika na pojma kokugo in nihongo, ki jima pripiše nove pomene v okviru svoje jezikovne teorije. Tokieda kokugo opredeli kot jezik, ki ima s stališča države posebno vrednost, medtem ko se taka zavest o posebni vrednosti ne drži pojma nihongo, ki ima skupaj s korejščino (chosengo) in vsemi ostalimi jeziki sveta enakovreden status jezikovnega fenomena (Y amaguchi 1989, 37).
V svojem osrednjem delu Principi raziskovanja nacionalnega jezika (Kokugogaku genron Hln^^fm) iz leta 1941 Tokieda ugotavlja, da se v splošni rabi kokugo uporablja kot sinonim za nihongo, hkrati pa se z izrazom kokugo misli tudi na pojave, kakor so državni standardni jezik (kokka no hyojungo Bn) ali uradni jezik (koyogo ^^bh), kar so po njegovem ožji pomeni pojma kokugo. Zato zaključi, da bi bilo treba pri rabi pojma kokugo ohraniti samo ta ožji pomen, medtem ko bi morali takrat, kadar govorimo o japonščini v celoti, uporabljati izraz nihongo in posledično tudi izraze, kakršen je kokugogaku (študij nacionalnega jezika), nadomestiti s pojmom nihongogaku (študij japonskega jezika) (Tokieda 2007, 165).
Znanstveno jezikoslovje in položaj japonskega jezika
Ključna pa je Tokiedova nova definicija konceptualne cepitve med kokugo in nihongo, ki mu je pomagala razrešiti ideološko protislovje med nacionalno ideologijo in jezikovno politiko kolonialnega Japonskega imperija. Tokieda je najprej zavrnil definicijo, da je japonščina »jezik japonske države« (nihon kokka no gengo B^H^^Mnn) oziroma »jezik japonskega naroda« (nihon minzoku no gengo B^KK^Mnn), in jo je nadomestil z definicijo, da je japonščina jezik, ki ima »lastnosti japonskega jezika« (nihongoteki seikaku o motta gengo 0 ^Bn ^tt^lofeH) (Tokieda 2007, 165). Da bi Tokieda pojasnil, kaj pomeni imeti »lastnosti japonskega jezika«, se vrne k Saussuru in h konceptu la langue, ki naj bi bil jezikovni sistem, ki ga kot zakladnico jezikovnega znanja poseduje vsak pripadnik določene jezikovne skupnosti. Sledeč Saussurovi teoriji, pravi Tokieda, je japonščina eden takih les langues. La langue je na eni strani psihološka realizacija vezi med konceptom in slušno podobo, na drugi strani pa pomeni tudi vsoto takih vezi. Kot individualna materializacija mu nasproti stoji la parole, zato je la langue splošen koncept nasproti individualni la parole. Toda Tokieda
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ugotavlja, da Saussure pojma la langue ne razume kot posplošenega koncepta nasproti individualnosti la parole, temveč ga definira kot samostojno entiteto, ki ima svoje korenine v družbi (Tokieda 2007, 166).
Če na podlagi teze, da je la langue vsota vezi med koncepti in slušnimi podobami, ki se nahajajo v možganih vsakega posameznika, pogledamo koncept japonščine (nihongo), postane jasno, pravi Tokieda, da kot posamezniki ne posedujemo znanja celote japonskega besedišča ali slovničnih pravil, niti jih nismo zmožni v celoti realizirati. Potemtakem moramo, kadar govorimo o »japonščini«, to razumeti kot vsoto besedišča in slovničnih pravil vseh posameznih individuov. Od tu izhaja strukturalistična teza, da la langue obstaja zunaj posameznih individuov kot družbeni pojav. Kvantitativno razumevanje japonščine kot vsote individualnih jezikov (kojin no gengo fi A ^ W nn ) neizogibno izhaja iz predpostavke, da je la langue vsota vezi med koncepti in slušnimi podobami. Na podlagi tega razmišljanja pa moramo zaključiti, meni Tokieda, da vsak govorec japonskega jezika poseduje le »del« japonščine; časopisi, romani in druga besedila, ki jih dnevno prebiramo, so le del celote japonskega jezika (Tokieda 2007, 166167).
Če je la langue vsaka vez med konceptom in njegovo zvočno podobo in hkrati vsota teh vezi, skupaj pa predstavljajo realno obstoječo entiteto, moramo seveda la langue razumeti kot razmerje med deli in celoto. V tem smislu naša neposredna izkušnja ne more zajemati več kot le dela kokugoja, prav tako pa vsote delov kokugoja ne moremo objektivno dojeti kot celote. Te predpostavke nas nujno pripeljejo do zaključka, da veda o japonščini (kokugogaku Hln^) ni mogoča (Tokieda 2007, 167).
V nadaljevanju si Tokieda zastavi vprašanje, zakaj vseeno menimo, da je kljub razpolaganju z le delom japonskega jezika veda o japonskem jeziku vseeno mogoča. Po odgovor se zateče na področje botanike, kjer raziskovalci na podlagi opazovanja enega češnjevega cveta definirajo češnjeve cvetove na splošno, kar lahko storijo zato, ker predpostavljajo, da se v posameznem delu odraža splošna narava češnjevih cvetov. Skratka, en češnjev cvet potemtakem ni en del celote češnjevih cvetov, temveč je njihov predstavnik. Pri proučevanju jezika ne bi mogli uporabiti enake logike, če bi japonski jezik razumeli le kot vsoto besedišč posameznikov. Toda zakaj lahko brez težav določeno besedo, ki jo izreče posameznik, takoj prepoznamo za »japonščino«, če jo postavimo nasproti nekemu »tujemu jeziku«? Da bi lahko to pojasnili, pravi Tokieda, moramo zavreči
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strukturalistični pogled na jezik in se postaviti na stališče jezika kot procesa. Znotraj strukturalističnega pogleda je namreč težko najti osnovo, na podlagi katere bi lahko razločili določeno japonsko besedo od nekega drugega jezika (langue), če besedo razumemo le kot strukturno vez med konceptom in zvočno podobo (Tokieda 2007, 168). Tokieda zato ugotavlja:
Posebne značilnosti japonščine moramo iskati v psihološko-fiziološkem procesu, v katerem se te značilnosti izrazijo. Prav ta psihološko-fiziološki proces, ki je inherenten specifičnemu jeziku, ki si ga izberemo za objekt proučevanja, lahko prepoznamo kot japonščino, saj se narava japonskega jezika uteleša prav skoz to procesno formo. (Tokieda 2007, 168)
Japonski jezik tako ni le slovnična forma, temveč lahko posebno formo japonščine prepoznamo tudi v ritmu, naglasu, fonemih, tujkah itn. Narava japonskega jezika se nahaja prav v omenjenih formah in zato ni v nikakršni neposredni povezavi z državo ali narodom, pač pa v dinamiki širjenja in krčenja »družbenega življenja« (shakai seikatsu	presega narod ali državo (Tokieda 2007, 169-70).
S teorijo o »lastnostih japonskega jezika« Tokieda postavi konceptualno ločnico med pojmoma nihongo in kokugo, pri čemer iz dveh sinonimov za japonski jezik ustvari dva vrednostna nivoja: nivo japonščine (nihongo) kot le enega med številnimi jeziki, v vseh pogledih enakovrednega, na primer, korejščini in celo narečjem znotraj Japonske, medtem ko ima nacionalni jezik (kokugo) s stališča države posebno »vrednost«. Enako je tudi z razmerjem med narečji in standardom. Narečje je le jezikoslovni objekt, ki nima nič manjše ali večje vrednosti kakor standardni jezik, pri čemer ponavadi čutimo čustveno navezanost do svojega narečja kot do maternega jezika (haha no gengo ®^Wnn), vendar pa ima s stališča države po Tokiedovem mnenju prednost poučevanje standardnega jezika (hyojungo bh) in nacionalnega jezika (kokugo) (Yamaguchi 1989, 37).
S tem ko Tokieda predpostavi z vidika države posebno »vrednost« nacionalnega jezika nasproti narečjem, je sklep, do katerega ga pripelje to stališče, enostaven: »vrednost«, ki jo ima z vidika države nacionalni jezik nasproti narečjem, je hkrati argument za prevladujoč pomen nacionalnega jezika nasproti korejščini:
Če se vrnemo h koreninam razmer, v katerih moramo priznati prevladujoč položaj nacionalnega jezika (kokugo) nasproti narečjem, korejščini itn., ugotovimo, da izhajajo iz ustroja moderne države. Hkrati moramo v tem najti
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tudi ključ za razmislek o prevladujočem položaju japonščine (nihongo) v
Območju vzajemne blaginje Velike vzhodne Azije. (Yamaguchi 1989, 37)
Tokieda, ki je deloval v Koreji, se pravi, japonski koloniji, kjer so pripadniki drugega naroda govorili japonski jezik, je japonščino teh ljudi, skupaj z japonskimi narečji (in tudi, na primer, s staro japonščino) definiral kot kokugo, kot koncept, ki v sebi zajema vse te pojavne oblike jezika, in disciplino, ki proučuje ta od vsakršne nacionalnosti ali politike abstrahirani jezik, ki ima »značilnosti japonskega jezika«, poimenoval kokugogaku (Yasuda 1998, 92). Tokieda s svojo ideološko operacijo na videz neproblematično preide od teze, da ni japonščina nič drugega kakor jezikoslovni objekt, ki ima enakovreden položaj s korejščino in vsemi ostalimi jeziki, do prevladujočega položaja japonščine v Območju vzajemne blaginje Velike vzhodne Azije. Poseben položaj kokugoja Tokieda izpelje s stališča države, kajti kokugo ne pomeni celote japonskega jezika (nihongo), temveč le japonski jezik kot uradni jezik države, skratka, jezik s specifično »vrednostjo«. Ker je torej kokugo, se pravi, nacionalni jezik Velikega japonskega imperija hkrati slučajno tudi japonski jezik, ta japonščina, kljub temu da je jezikoslovno gledano sama po sebi popolnoma enakovreda korejščini ali kateremukoli drugemu jeziku, hkrati postane jezik s posebno »vrednostjo« na ravni države, ker zaseda strukturno mesto kokugoja. Japonščina ima poseben položaj nasproti korejščini le zato, ker je japonščina »hkrati« tudi kokugo.
Zaključek
V pričujoči razpravi smo hoteli pokazati na to družbeno plat jezika kot »družbene institucije«, ki pomaga strukturirati človeške družbe ne le s svojo komunikacijsko funkcijo, temveč tudi s svojimi ideološkimi učinki. Ti učinki se, kakor smo videli, zagotavljajo na različne načine, pri čemer tovrstno jezikoslovje, ki poleg materialnosti jezika ne upošteva tudi vsakokratnih ideoloških predstav o tem jeziku, lahko namesto teoretske ali znanstvene opravlja ideološko funkcijo. Tokieda Motoki je jezik poskušal trdneje zvezati s širšim družbenim kontekstom, a je spregledal ideološko naravo družbenih dejstev, ki jih poleg njihove institucionalne strukture konstituira tudi predstava, ki jo o njem gojijo subjekti družbene prakse.
Tokiedu je v predvojnem obdobju s stališča jezikoslovne znanosti uspelo utemeljiti prisilno jezikovno politiko Japonskega imperija v Koreji in na Tajvanu, politiko, ki jo danes, v drugačnih družbenih razmerah, toliko lažje prepoznamo kot
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zgrešeno in torej kot »ideološko«, medtem ko ideološko naravo tistega jezikoslovja, ki v kontekstu nacionalnih držav znanstveno utemeljuje obstoj nacionalnega jezika kot empirično obstoječega objekta, zaradi naše vpetosti v nacionalno pogojeno »iluzijo epohe«, načeloma spregledamo.
Literatura
Benveniste, Emile. 1988. Problemi splošne lingvistike I. Ljubljana: ŠKUC FF.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1992. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, Maiden: Polity Press.
Davis, Hayley G., in Talbot J. Taylor. 1990. Redefining Linguistics. London & New York: Routledge.
Ide, Sachiko. 1986. "Introduction: The Background of Japanese Sociolinguistics." Journal of Pragmatics 10 (3): 281-86.
Konoshima, Masatoshi. 1976. Kokugogakushi gaisetsu Slo^^^fA (Očrt zgodovine japonistike). Tokyo: Oufuu.
Koyasu, Nobukuni. 2003. Nihon kindai shiso hihan: Ikkokuchi no seiritsu 0
ftffl: —(Kritika moderne japonske ideologije). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
Lee, Yeounsuk. 2010. The Ideology of Kokugo: Nationalizing Language in Modern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Silverstein, Michael. 1985. "Language and the Culture of Gender: At the Intersection of Structure, Usage, and Ideology." V Semiotic Mediation: Sociocultural and Psychological Perspectives, uredila E. Mertz in R. Parmentier, 219-59. Orlando: Academic Press.
Tokieda, Motoki. (1941) 2007. Kokugogaku genron (jo) ISM^^fra (±) (Principi japonistike 1. knjiga). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
Yamaguchi, Koji. 1989. "Kin-gendaika to kotoba no mondai: Nihongo (hogo), kokugo kara ningen no kotoba no hitotsu toshite no nihongo e ' ^{Xiht ^¿¡i
(^M), SM^bA^©r^	(Vprašanje
modernizacije in jezika: Japonščina, od nacionalnega jezika do enega od jezikov človeštva)." Ritsumeikan Studies in Language and Culture (Ritsumeikan University) 1 (1): 25-45.
Yasuda, Toshiaki. 1998. Shokuminchi no naka no »kokugogaku« tSKffi©
^J (Proučevanje nacionalnega jezika v kolonialnem kontekstu). Tokyo: Sangensha.
Summary
In the last century and a half or so, linguistics was established as a scientific discipline with language as its object of research. Specifically, structural linguistics thus discarded all elements perceived as external to language itself and
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attempted to approach language in its "pure" or abstract form. On the other hand, linguistic schools attempting to understand language in the social context have also been formed, among others, for example, a school of Japanese linguistics which had been developing linguistic theories around the notion of "language life" (gengo seikatsu). However, be it within the framework of structural linguistics or within sociolinguistic and language life theories, language itself necessarily remains an ideological notion if these theories fail to produce a critique of social relations that generate our representations about language or, more precisely, our representations about language practice. In this paper an attempt is made to point out a historical case of this kind of ideological overlook by looking at the linguistic deliberations of Japanese linguist Tokieda Motoki (H^ftMfB 19001967), who, within the framework of linguistic science, attempted to justify the colonial language policy of Japanese Empire in Taiwan and Korea.
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Imperialna nostalgija na Japonskem: politična instrumentalizacija šintoističnega svetišča Yasukuni
Klemen SENICA* Izvleček
Šintoistično svetišče Yasukuni je ena od nevralgičnih točk v japonskih zunanjepolitičnih odnosih s sosednjimi državami, predvsem Kitajsko in Južno Korejo. V recentnem obdobju je bilo deležno izjemne medijske pozornosti širom sveta predvsem zavoljo dejstva, da ga je v času svojega vodenja vlade redno obiskoval Koizumi Jun'ichiro, čeprav je njegovi praksi počastitve spomina padlim za »japonsko stvar« oponiral širok spekter posameznikov na Japonskem, da kitajskih in južnokorejskih državnikov niti ne omenjam. Sodim, da je potrebno glorificiranje izbranih žrtev velikega Japonskega imperija, ki ga prakticira konservativni del japonskih političnih elit, umestiti v širši kontekst imperialne nostalgije, ki smo ji na Japonskem priča v začetku 21. stoletja.
Ključne besede: Yasukuni, instrumentalizacija, japonski imperij, kolektivni spomin, nostalgija, Japonska
Abstract
The Yasukuni Shrine is among highly controversial issues when it comes to Japan's foreign relations with its neighbouring countries, particularly China and South Korea. Recently, it has drawn considerable public attention worldwide, owing to regular visits by former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro while he was still in office. However, his practice of paying respect to the soldiers who died for the "Japanese cause" was met with stiff opposition from a wide spectrum of individuals in Japan, not to mention Chinese and South Korean political leaders. In my view the glorification of chosen victims of the great Empire of Japan, practised mostly by the conservative part of Japanese political elites, needs to be set in a broader context of imperialist nostalgia, the wave of which has been coming over Japan since the turn of the 21st century.
Keywords: Yasukuni, instrumentalisation, Empire of Japan, collective memory, nostalgia, Japan
* Klemen SENICA, doktorski kandidat, Oddelek za etnologijo in kulturno antropologijo, Filozofska
fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenija.
klemen.senica@gmail.com
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Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
(Horacij)
Japonska sodi v tisto skupino azijskih držav, ki se dokaj pogosto pojavljajo v množičnih medijih na Slovenskem, a zdi se, da je spekter obravnavanih tem precej ozek.1 Poleg teritorialnih tenzij s Korejo, Kitajsko oziroma z Rusijo in novicam iz gospodarstva je največ pozornosti namenjene šintoističnemu svetišču Yasukuni, vendar ostaja slednji v našem akademskem polju popolnoma prezrt.2 Še tisti redki medijski prispevki o njegovi kontroverznosti pa so praviloma površni prevodi tujih agencijskih novic, zato namesto k odstiranju njegove problematične narave bolj prispevajo k popačenju dejstev. Da bi vsaj deloma zapolnil omenjeni raziskovalni manko, kanim v nadaljevanju na kratko predstaviti zgodovinski pomen Yasukunija in njegovo recentno instrumentalizacijo za uresničevanje notranjepolitične agende dela vladajočih političnih elit na Japonskem. Svojo analizo bom utemeljil na metodi, ki je najbolj razširjena v kulturni antropologiji, in sicer opazovanju z udeležbo, pri čemer tudi muzejske prospekte, časopisne članke s svetovnega spleta in vladne dokumente štejem v kategorijo etnografskega materiala, saj sočasno zrcalijo in aktivno (re)konstruirajo japonske percepcije Yasukunija.
Med enoletnim raziskovalnim delom na Univerzi v Tsukubi - med decembrom 2009 in novembrom 2010 - sem kaj kmalu spoznal, da je sodobno zamišljanje Velikega japonskega imperija (Dai Nippon teikoku) v japonski družbi precej bolj tabuizirana tema, kot nam razkriva »oddaljeni pogled« izpod Alp. Diskusije z japonskimi prijatelji, znanci, profesorji v Tsukubi in tistimi, ki sem jih spoznaval ob čestih obiskih Tokia, kako dojemajo japonski imperij, so se praviloma že po nekaj stavkih sprevrgle v razglabljanja o japonski krivdi za vojne zločine in potrebi po opravičilu, predvsem sosednjima Južni Koreji in Kitajski. Ko sem jim omenil še svojo osredotočenost na recentno odkrivanje literarne zapuščine Nakajime Atsushija (1909-1942), primarno tiste o Mikroneziji, je pogovor s tem večinoma zamrl, saj razen profesorice primerjalne književnosti z Univerze v Tsukubi nihče ni poznal njegovih kratkih zgodb, katerih dogajanje je pisatelj umestil v takratno japonsko kolonijo. Kljub temu me je večina sogovornikov odkrito spodbujala k raziskovanju, saj naj bi bilo po njihovem mnenju tujcu lažje proučevati občutljive zgodovinske teme kot samim Japoncem. Da bi mi le nekako pomagali, so mi največkrat svetovali, naj se v disertaciji lotim dveh vedno
1	Hvala anonimnima recenzentoma za konstruktivne komentarje in sugestije.
2	Brskanje po knjižničnem katalogu cobiss v začetku maja 2015 razkrije, da je tematiko v svoji diplomski nalogi obravnaval le Matej Sedmak (2013).
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aktualnih vprašanj, to je vsebine srednješolskih učbenikov za zgodovino in šintoističnega svetišča Yasukuni (cf Ryu 2007, 705).
Slednje leži le nedaleč stran od cesarske palače in je bilo kot Tokio Shokonsha ustanovljen v zgodnjem obdobjuMeiji, in sicer leta 1869. Današnje poimenovanje je dobilo komaj deset let kasneje, domnevno po kitajski klasiki Chun-qui zuo-shi-zhuan, kar v prevodu pomeni »prinašati mir v deželo«. Prvi, ki jih je svetišče prepoznalo kot šintoistična božanstva oziroma kamije,3 so bili ubiti vojaki v kazenski ekspediciji na tajvanske staroselce leta 1874.4 Takahashi (2006, 172) dodaja, da je šele po vojni z ruskim carstvom (1904-1905) Yasukuni dejansko postal osrednja institucija za komemoracije v spomin na vojake cesarske vojske in civilno osebje, ki so izgubili življenje v boju za Japonsko, vendar so obredi postali javni komaj po začetku druge vojne s Kitajsko, to je leta 1937 (Seraphim 2008, 65). Za svoje delovanje je svetišče vse do propada imperija leta 1945 prejemalo finančna sredstva iz državnega proračuna, saj je bila njegova osrednja naloga imperialnim podložnikom vcepiti patriotizem z obljubo apoteoze, če bo posameznik žrtvoval svoje življenje za »višje cilje« (beri cesarja), trdi Breen (2007, 55).5 Dandanes je Yasukuni predvsem na Kitajskem in v Južni Koreji, manj pa v drugih nekdanjih kolonijah japonskega imperija, še vedno sinonim imperialne ekspanzije cesarske vojske in vseh strahot, ki sodijo zraven. Največ ogorčenja med številnimi prebivalci Korejskega polotoka izziva dejstvo, da so bili v kamije brez vednosti svojcev povzdignjeni celo nekateri njihovi rojaki, v kolonialnem obdobju nasilno mobilizirani v cesarsko vojsko.6 Zato si je junija 2001 peščica Južno
3	Maja Milčinski (1999, 300) zapiše: »Osrednje verovanje v šintoizmu pa velja kamijem, v katerih vidi ljudstvo univerzum in prek katerih univerzum nastaja in se vzdržuje. Kamije verniki spoznavajo preko molitve in obredne dejavnosti, ki gradi na priznavanju, potrjevanju odvisnosti človeških bitij od teh božanskih sil in s tem, da s priprošnjo dobivajo ljudje od njih pomoč in ohranjajo svojo srečo.«
4	Uradni Tokio je trdil, da je želel z njo le maščevati poboj 54 ribičev z Okinave, ki se je dogodil ob brodolomu njihove ladje nekaj let prej, a je vse skupaj služilo zgolj kot krinka za poskus kolonizacije vzhodnega dela Tajvana. Ker se je vlada zbala, da bo konflikt prerasel v vojno s kitajsko dinastijo Qing in sprožil intervencijo zahodnih velesil, je kmalu umaknila svoje čete z otoka (glej Eskildsen 2002, 393, 398).
5	Katarzyna Cwiertka trdi, da je v japonskih imperialnih vojnah med letoma 1937 in 1945 več cesarskih vojakov izgubilo življenje zaradi »bolezni, ki je bila posledica podhranjenosti«, ali lakote kot sovražnikovega orožja (2006, 70; cf. Seraphim 2008, 68). Natančno število padlih borcev seveda ni znano, Franziska Seraphim navaja 1,74 milijona (2008, 60).
6	Ker so se bali upora podjarmljenih Korejcev, je številne vojake s polotoka doletela naloga varovanja vojnih ujetnikov. Zaradi domnevnega slabega ravnanja z njimi so mnogim v drugi polovici štiridesetih let sodili na Mednarodnem vojaškem sodišču za Daljni vzhod, bolj znanim pod imenom tokijsko sodišče (glej Oguma 2002, 290).
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Korejcev prizadevala, da bi bili njihovi najdražji umaknjeni s seznamov »posvečenih«, vendar zaman (Takahashi 2006, 177).7
Ob tem je potrebno izpostaviti dejstvo, ki je pri nas mnogokrat spregledano (npr. Lipušček 2015 idr.). Umrli vojaki in civilisti, ki so dobili svoje mesto v yasukunijevem »panteonu«, tam niso pokopani, saj je po besedah enega od mojih japonskih prijateljev v šintoizmu truplo percipirano kot nečisto in grešno. Mogoče je tudi v tem potrebno iskati razloge, da si ni Japonska po razpadu imperija nikoli prav intenzivno prizadevala v nekdanjo kolonialno metropolo vrniti posmrtnih ostankov 2,4 milijona umrlih v čezmorskih osvajanjih, zato so grobovi približno polovice preminulih vojakov in civilistov še vedno raztreseni širom Azije (glej McNeill 2008). Da bi lahko preminuli v posebnem obredu apoteoze sploh postal kami, je potrebno skrbnikom Yasukunija posredovati posameznikove osebne podatke in podrobnosti o njegovi smrti (Breen 2007, 52-3). Čeprav je bila po vojni uzakonjena ločitev države in verskih skupnosti, Nakano trdi (2014), da je bila de facto vlada tista, ki je dolga leta skrivoma oskrbovala svetišče z zahtevanimi informacijami.
A problematična narava Yasukunija ne izhaja iz dejstva, da je posvečen spominu na približno dva milijona in pol tistih, ki so dali svoje življenje v boju za »japonsko stvar« od srede 19. stoletja naprej - med njimi je celo nekaj vojakov samoobrambnih sil, umrlih po koncu zadnjega svetovnega konflikta. Tako domače kot tuje nasprotnike obiskovanja Yasukunija s strani političnih predstavnikov japonske države najbolj moti dejstvo, da je od 17. oktobra 1978 med njimi tudi štirinajst od 25 obtoženih za najhujše vojne zločine na tokijskem sodišču (april 1946-november 1948),8 celo generala Tojo Hideki (1884-1948) in Matsui Iwane (1878-1948), ki je bil odgovoren za poboje v Nankingu. (Befu 2001, 97, 98; Breen 2007, 48, 58; Okuyama 2009, 241; Seraphim 2008, 244-45; Kingston 2011, 192). Uradno kitajsko stališče se namreč glasi, poudarja Tamamoto (2001, 35), da so bili tako Kitajci kot Japonci v tridesetih in prvi polovici štiridesetih let preteklega stoletja žrtve militarističnih voditeljev v Tokiu, zato počastitev spomina na umrle v ekspanzionističnih vojnah v Yasukuniju, ki ga prakticirajo nekateri japonski
7	Zavrnjena je bila tudi zahteva tajvanskih in japonskih tožnikov leta 2006 (Okuyama 2009, 245). A averzija do Yasukunija ni novodoben pojav, sporadično izražanje nezadovoljstva se je med »pogrebi« duhov umrlih vojakov pojavljalo že v obdobju imperija (glej Seraphim 2008, 65).
8	Tanaka Nobumasa navaja, da je skupaj glorificiranih 911 posameznikov, ki so bili obtoženi vojnih hudodelstev (po Seraphim 2008, 79).
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politični voditelji, sistematično spodkopava osnovno premiso, na kateri temelji kitajsko-japonska sprava.9
»Vsaka nacija ima pravico počastiti spomin na padle vojake«
Ob prelomu stoletja je prišel Yasukuni na naslovnice svetovnih časopisov in v osrednja poročila največjih televizijskih postaj izven japonskega arhipelaga predvsem po zaslugi tedanjega premierja Koizumija Jun'ichiroja, ki ga je v obdobju vodenja japonske vlade med letoma 2001 in 2006 obiskal kar šestkrat, prvič le nekaj mesecev po nastopu mandata.10 Njegovi obiski so vsakokrat sprožali ostre proteste političnih voditeljev v Seulu in Pekingu,11 čeprav je Yasukuni obiskal na obletnico razglasitve japonske kapitulacije (15. avgust 1945) le leta 2006, dva meseca pred odhodom s premierskega položaja (Okuyama 2009, 243). Prvi povojni japonski premier, ki je svetišče obiskal 15. avgusta, je bil Miki Takeo (1907-1988), in sicer leta 1975, a je svoj prihod označil za zaseben (Breen 2007, 49). Kljub temu so ga japonski socialisti ostro kritizirali, saj da je izbral skrajno neprimeren tajming (Yomiuri 2005), pred svetiščem pa so ga pričakale množice nezadovoljnih protestnikov (Seraphim 2008, 227). Vsi Mikijevi nasledniki do leta 1985, razen Ohire Masayoshija (1910-1980), so sledili njegovemu zgledu in v Yasukuniju počastili spomin na umrle v japonskih vojnah (Seraphim 2008, 244). Prvi, in do sedaj edini povojni japonski premier, ki je eksplicitno poudaril, da je njegov obisk 15. avgusta uraden, je bil Nakasone Yasuhiro leta 1985, vendar se je tudi on izognil religioznim proceduram, ki jih od obiskovalcev zahteva Yasukuni (glej Okuyama 2009, 241, 242-43). Kljub temu so bili odzivi na njegovo odločitev tako doma kot na tujem izjemno negativni, zato je moralo miniti kar 11 let, preden je Yasukuni ponovno obiskal japonski ministrski predsednik: 29. julija 1996 je to storil Hashimoto Ryutaro (Nakano 2014). Ob tem se zastavlja vprašanje, kateri povojni predsednik vlade je bil pravzaprav iniciator izkazovanja državniških časti v Yasukuniju. Čeprav Franziska Seraphim (2008, 236) zapiše, da je to glavni ideolog gospodarskega razcveta Japonske Yoshida Shigeru (1878-1967), ki se je
9	Tretja prepreka intenzivnejšemu transnacionalnemu povezovanju v Vzhodni Aziji je vprašanje »žensk za tolažbo« (jugun ianfu). Izjemno znanstveno monografijo o tragičnih usodah številnih, tako pred kot po letu 1945, je objavila ameriška antropologinja Sarah Soh (2008).
10	Koizumi je z obiski Yasukunija nadaljeval tudi po odstopu s položaja, saj ga je skupaj s svojim naslednikom Abejem Shinzojem, ki se je na premierski stolček znova povzpel decembra 2012, obiskal 15. avgusta 2009 (Nagata 2009).
11	Da bi nekako pomiril politične napetosti med državama, se je Koizumi ob obisku Južne Koreje oktobra 2001 odpravil v zloglasni zapor Seodaemun, japonsko različico Abu Grajba, ki je danes muzej (Podoler 2009, 201).
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prvič tja odpravil leta 1951, torej še v času ameriške okupacije države (19451952), se moti. Kot namreč navaja Mitsuchi Shuhei (po Ryu 2007, 712), sta ga že leta 1945 obiskala prva povojna premiera, Higashikuni Naruhiko (1887-1990) in Shidehara Kijuro (1872-1951), slednji kar dvakrat.
Koizumijeva »romanja« v proslulo svetišče, ko je bil na čelu vlade, so izrazito poslabšala bilateralne odnose z Južno Korejo in s Kitajsko, kar se je odražalo predvsem v eskalaciji ozemeljskih sporov s slednjo, manj odločnem pritisku uradnega Pekinga na politično nomenklaturo Severne Koreje naj zaustavi razvoj balističnih izstrelkov in v neuspelem japonskem prizadevanju za stalni sedež v varnostnem svetu Združenih narodov, trdi Kingston (2011, 119). Oponiranje njegovim dejanjem ni bilo omejeno samo na sosednje države, nezadovoljstvo so izražali tudi številni na Japonskem. Nekateri so - z argumentom, da je kršil ustavo - vložili proti Koizumiju celo tožbe, vendar so različna sodišča njihov zahtevek za izplačilo odškodnin nenehno zavračala, čeprav so nekatera razsodila v prid tožnikom (Takahashi 2006, 155; Okuyama 2009, 245; Kingston 2011, 193). Glas proti so povzdignili tudi japonski gospodarstveniki, zavedajoč se škodljivega vpliva na odnose z največjo zunanjetrgovinsko partnerico Kitajsko (Pyle 2007, 373) in številni vplivni konservativci (Kingston 2011, 194-95), med njimi celo nekdanji predsednik vlade Nakasone Yasuhiro (Kajimoto 2005), vendar je Koizumi vsa opozorila, moledovanja in kritike vehementno zavračal.
Domnevam, da so predvsem predstavniki gospodarstva bili plat zvona, ker so se bali izbruha protijaponskih protestov v regiji, ki se predvsem na Kitajskem neredko izmaknejo nadzoru in vodijo v brezumno uničevanje vsega, kar demonstranti povezujejo z Japonsko. Zavoljo cenejše delovne sile je v preteklosti več kot dvajset tisoč japonskih podjetij preselilo svojo proizvodnjo na celino, spet druga pa na Kitajsko izvažajo blago oziroma storitve, zato jim nestabilni politični odnosi med državama zagotovo niso po godu, saj negativno vplivajo na njihove finančne prilive. Nekdanji vplivni politiki so najverjetneje povzdignili glas proti, ker obiski članov japonske vlade in parlamenta v Yasukuniju vedno znova hromijo meddržavne odnose na najvišji ravni. Tako je na primer takratna namestnica kitajskega premierja Wu Ji maja 2005 odpovedala že dogovorjeno srečanje s Koizumijem, ko je slednji Kitajsko zaradi neodobravanja njegove afinitete do Yasukunija obtožil vmešavanja v notranjepolitične zadeve Japonske (Muto
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2005).12 Nasprotno Ryu (2007, 714) sodi, da je številne japonske politike bolj motila kršitev povojne »pacifistične ustave«, ki v 20. in 89. členu izrecno določa ločitev države in verskih skupnosti (seikyo bunri).13 Nekateri korejski intelektualci (npr. Park Yu-ha itn.) so izpodbijali Koizumijevo razlago povoda obiskov Yasukunija, v katerih je padlim pripisoval zasluge za mir in blaginjo današnje Japonske. Kot dodaja Okuyama (2010, 243-44), so mu hkrati očitali, da ni izrazil nobenih pomislekov o samih ekspanzionističnih vojnah in predvsem o tem, zakaj in kako so ti posamezniki žrtvovali svoja dragocena življenja. Ker povzroča trenja v odnosih med uradnim Tokiem in Seulom, politična instrumentalizacija Yasukunija ni povšeči niti najtesnejši japonski zaveznici ZDA. Kljub temu je administracija pod vodstvom Georgea Busha mlajšega tolerirala in pozdravljala Koizumijevo manifestacijo »zdravega nacionalizma« v upanju, da bo slednja pripomogla k dejavnejši vlogi japonske vojske v ameriškem boju proti terorizmu in vojni v Iraku (Nakano 2014).
A sprega političnega in religioznega na Japonskem ni novodoben pojav. Tesen preplet med cesarjem, ki je še dandanes vrhovni šintoistični svečenik, vladajočimi elitami in šintoizmom je bil prisoten že v imperialnem obdobju, še posebej med tako imenovano petnajstletno vojno (1931-1945), trdi Oguma (2002, 303). Tedaj so bili imperialni podložniki širom imperija prisiljeni obiskovati šintoistična svetišča in darovati molitev za zmago cesarske vojske. Da ni Yasukuni zgolj običajno šintoistično svetišče, dokazuje dejstvo, da ga je po razpadu japonskega imperija obiskala le peščica tujih državnikov.14 Po letu 1978 je z obiskovanjem prenehal še cesar Hirohito oziroma njegov naslednik Akihito (Kingston 2011, 192), čeprav ga je skupaj s cesarico često obiskoval pred letom 1945 in tako izkazoval »hvaležnost in spoštovanje« vsem braniteljem domovine (gokoku no churei), omenja Takahashi (2006, 164); sedemkrat ga je obiskal tudi po kapitulaciji (Breen 2007, 56).15 Befu (2001, 98) zavrača enačenje Yasukunija s spomeniki neznanim
12	Čeprav je od tedaj minilo že celo desetletje, so diplomatski odnosi med državama še vedno napeti. Zavoljo številnih nerešenih vprašanj sta se tudi sedanji predsednik japonske vlade Abe Shinzo in predsednik Ljudske republike Kitajske Xi Jinping prvič srečala šele v začetku novembra 2014, kar je več kot poldrugo leto zatem, ko sta nastopila svoji funkciji.
13	Kot navaja Okuyama (2009, 237, op. 6.), 20. člen zapoveduje: »Država in njeni organi se vzdržijo verske vzgoje ali kakršnihkoli drugih verskih aktivnosti.«
14	Ga je pa 14. avgusta 2010 obiskal takratni vodja francoske Nacionalne fronte Jean-Marie Le Pen. Svečanih spomladanskih in jesenskih obredov se na povabilo ministrstva za obrambo udeležujejo tudi vojaški atašeji različnih držav, navaja Breen (2007, 65, op. 2).
15	Omenjeno zahteva dopolnilo. Cesar res ni več obiskal svetišča po letu 1978, a se obredov ob prazniku pomladi in jeseni še vedno udeležuje njegov odposlanec, ki kamijem daruje v cesarjevem imenu (Breen 2007, 56).
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vojakom, ki se ga često poslužujejo nekateri tako znotraj, na primer Tamamoto (2001, 34), kot zunaj Japonske (npr. Reischauer in Jansen 2005, 210). Tudi Breen (2007, 64) meni, da so takšne komparacije neprimerne, saj je Yasukuni religiozna institucija, sveto mesto s svojo lastno duhovščino, ki izvaja obrede za mrtve in jim daruje kot kamijem.
Menim, da ni religiozna komponenta Yasukunija edino, kar ga loči od spomenikov neznanemu junaku, katerih funkcijo Anderson (2007, 27-8) opiše takole (poudarka v originalu):
V moderni kulturi nacionalizma ni simbolov, ki bi bili bolj fascinantni kot spomeniki padlim borcem in grobnice neznanih junakov. (...) Četudi v teh grobnicah ni trupel niti nesmrtnih duš oseb, ki bi jih mogli identificirati, so vendarle prežete z duhovi zamišljenega nacionalnega. (Zato toliko najrazličnejših narodov niti ne čuti posebne potrebe po tem, da bi na takšne grobnice zapisali, kakšne nacionalnosti so bili njihovi odsotni sodržavljani -saj je menda jasno, da niso mogli biti drugega kot Nemci, Američani, Argentinci ...)
Ne samo da skrbniki (beri šintoistični svečeniki) Yasukunija odrekajo pravico do apoteoze tistim umrlim, ki jih ni mogoče identificirati, kot navaja Tanaka Nobumasa (2004), je svoje mesto med poltretjim milijonom kamijev dobilo tudi približno 49000 Korejcev in Tajvancev. V nasprotju s spomeniki neznanemu junaku osnovni namen Yasukunija torej ni slavljenje nacionalnega, ampak imperialnega, kar bom podrobneje razčlenil v sklepnem delu razprave.
Čeprav so si nekateri politiki v šestdesetih letih minulega stoletja prizadevali poslati v parlamentarno proceduro zakon, ki bi ga znova postavil na piedestal državnega svetišča (glej Seraphim 2008, 238-39), vse do danes ni priznan kot uradno obeležje padlim »za japonsko stvar« (Kingston 2011, 187); takšno funkcijo ima pokopališče, ki leži le nedaleč stran, in sicer Chidorigafuchi (Breen 2007, 62). 16 V obdobju Velikega japonskega imperija je sicer Yasukuni užival priviligiran status v primerjavi z ostalimi šintoističnimi svetišči in je sodil v pristojnost ministrstva za obrambo, medtem ko je ostala nadziralo ministrstvo za notranje zadeve (Seraphim 2008, 231). Ker ga niso občutno prizadele niti obsežne reforme v času ameriške okupacije, navaja Franziska Seraphim (2008, 235-36), je
16 Od leta 1965 je del Yasukunija tudi Chinreisha, preprosto leseno šintoistično svetišče, zgrajeno v čast vsem padlim v japonskih državljanskih vojnah od leta 1853 dalje, zapiše Goto-Jones (2009, 45). Breen nasprotno navaja, da je Chinreisha posvečena vsem, ki so življenje izgubili v vojnah širom sveta (2007, 52).
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ostal eden od krajev spomina, ki jih del japonskih političnih elit v skladu s svojo politiko spomina »priznava za temeljne komemorativne kraje, izpušča ali izogne pa se tistim topoi, ki so za vladajočo skupino travmatični ali nemanipulabilni« (Kramberger in Rotar 2010, 150). Zatorej najverjetneje niti ni posebej presenetljivo, da so v času cvetenja češenj spomladi 2010 v vremenski napovedi večernih poročil japonske javne televizije NHK predvajali posnetek cvetočega drevja iz Yasukunija, mene pa je prizor osupnil.17
Da bi tudi na lastne oči videl ta »simbol japonskega militarizma«, sem se v času svojega raziskovalnega bivanja na Univerzi v Tsukubi še sam odpravil tjakaj, in to kar dvakrat. Prvič nekje sredi poletja skupaj s prijateljem Keijijem,18 tedaj mladim raziskovalcem na tokijski univerzi, ki ga zanima obilico stvari, najbolj pa posledice onesnaževanja pristaniškega mesta Minamate.19 Čeprav je sprva okleval, je na moje vztrajno prigovarjanje le pristal na kratek sprehod skozi svetišče. Yasukuni je bolj ali manj sameval, več obiskovalcev je bilo le v muzeju Yushukan, delu kompleksa, kjer so med drugim razstavljene parafernalije vojakov in oborožitev cesarske vojske. Prospekt muzeja sporoča, da so v njem na ogled predmeti, nekoč v lasti »božanstev«, ki so darovala svoja »dragocena življenja« za »domovino, rodišča in družine« (Guide of Yasukuni Jinja: Yushukan). Ob vstopu vanj obiskovalec najprej zagleda mogočno parno lokomotivo C5631, ki je v štiridesetih letih preteklega stoletja prva zapeljala na neslavno progo med današnjima Burmo in Tajsko, pri gradnji katere je umrlo okoli 100000 prisilnih delavcev in vojnih ujetnikov. Nedaleč stran je primerek razvpitega lovskega letala »Zero«, ki so ga proti koncu azijsko-pacifiške vojne za svoje napade na zavezniške ladje uporabljali tudi samomorilski piloti, bolj poznani kot kamikaze. Videno v vhodni avli in pripadajoči trgovini s spominki me je popolnoma pretreslo - en in edini namen razstavljenega je namreč enostransko poveličevanje japonske imperialne preteklosti in domnevnih vojaških junaštev; obenem so usode posameznikov, ki so se v vojnah znašli proti svoji volji, na strani napadalcev ali napadenih, popolnoma prezrte -, zato se v prvo nadstropje muzeja, deloma iz ogorčenja in deloma iz protesta, saj bi moral za vstopnino plačati 500 jenov
17	Takrat namreč še nisem vedel, da Japonska meteorološka služba vsako leto obdobje cvetenja češenj za Tokio napove ravno na podlagi opazovanja tistih v Yasukuniju (Yasukuni jinja: sanpai no shiori).
18	Imeni prijatelja in prijateljice v članku sta v skladu z uveljavljeno antropološko prakso izmišljeni.
19	Zaradi skoraj štiri desetletja (1932-1968) trajajočega nezakonitega izpuščanja živega srebra v morje, ki ga je nato z morsko hrano in ulovljenimi ribami zaužilo lokalno prebivalstvo, je zbolelo na tisoče ljudi. Kljub temu je glavni krivec za onesnaževanje, podjetje Chisso, s pomočjo osrednje vlade dolga leta zanikal kakršnokoli odgovornost za njihovo obolelost in se izmikal plačilu odškodnin.
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(približno 5 evrov) in s tem posredno prispevati k ohranjanju muzeja, nisem želel povzpeti. Tako mi je bilo prihranjeno prebiranje zgodb o »kitajskih teroristih« in spletkarskih ZDA (glej Kingston 2011: 188). Podobno kot številni drugi avtorji Breen (2007, 65) izpostavlja, da muzej nikjer ne problematizira japonskega imperialnega ekspanzionizma in dejstva, da lives lost were lives wasted20 Še več, kot podčrtuje Hong Kal (2007, 144), Yushukan ne prikazuje le domnevnega patriotizma umrlih, ampak ustvarja zgodovinsko naracijo, ki japonski kolonializem in ekspanzionistične vojne opravičuje kot altruistično japonsko misijo reševanja Azije iz spon zahodnega imperializma.21
Upravitelje muzeja lahko brez oklevanja uvrstim v kategorijo tako imenovanih podjetnikov spomina, ki opravljajo selekcijo preteklih dogodkov v imenu pripadnostne skupine, pri tem pa samoumevno privilegirajo nekatere plati preteklosti na stroške drugih. Noiriel (2008, 373) nadaljuje:
Zaradi njih postanejo disparatni, velikokrat nejasni, se pravi zmedeni spomini na skupno preteklost, ki jih je sleherni član skupine ohranil, bolj homogeni in pridobijo vidnost v javnem prostoru. To delo meri na krepitev kolektivne identitete skupine, najpogosteje zoper konkurenčna memorijska podjetja.
Tako si producenti spomina prizadevajo »rešiti pred pozabo« ali rehabilitirati posameznike oziroma skupine, do katerih čutijo afiniteto, še dodaja avtor (Noiriel 2008, 374).
Ideološka (zlo)raba preteklosti kakopak ni značilna zgolj za Japonsko, identičen modus operandi koristijo vladajoče elite širom sveta. Tako britanski zgodovinar Mark Mazower ob analizi evropskih spominov na boj proti Hitlerjevemu imperiju ugotavlja (2008, 520-21):
Nadzorovanje tistih, ki so sodelovali v uporu, je bilo eno; nadzorovanje spomina na upor in njegovega pomena pa nekaj drugega, a nič manj pomembnega. (...) Upor sta vsekakor precej zaznamovala lokaliteta in regionalizem, čeprav ju, iz samoumevnih razlogov, povojne nacionalne vlade v spominskih komemoracijah niso poudarjale. Nekatera prizorišča so postala sinonim nacionalnega trpljenja - dejansko so postala simbol nacionalnega mučeništva -, druga pa so kmalu utonila v pozabo. Politiki in komentatorji so vsilili svoje razumevanje dogodkov, zato se običajno ni veliko govorilo -
20	Connerton (2004, 63) poudarja, da je smrt tistih, ki so padli v vojni, vedno reprezentirana kot žrtvovanje in ne kot nesmisel.
21	Zaradi kritik o enostranskem prikazovanju preteklosti je v osemdesetih letih preteklega stoletja muzej posvečen spominu na žrtve atomske bombe v Hirošimi k razstavi dodal del o japonskem ekspanzionizmu na azijski celini (Seraphim 2008, 25).
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razen z molkom - o zelo mešanih lokalnih odzivih, ki so pogosto spremljali
upore in protiukrepe, ki so jim sledili.
Eden prvih raziskovalcev mehanizmov konstruiranja kolektivnega spomina Maurice Halbwachs (2001, 87) slednjega definira kot »kontinuiran mišljenjski tok«, ki od preteklosti ohranja samo tisto, kar je »še živo ali zmožno živeti v zavesti skupine, ki ga vzdržuje«. Z drugimi besedami, kolektivni spomin določene skupnosti oblikujejo tisti izbrani spomini njenih članov, ki so se ohranili po procesih selekcije in objektivizacije in so za pripadnike skupnosti pomembne identifikacijske opore dotične skupnosti (Kramberger in Rotar 2010, 112). Posledično je »v zelo veliki meri rekonstrukcija preteklosti s pomočjo podatkov, sposojenih iz sedanjosti, to pa so poleg tega pripravile druge rekonstrukcije, narejene v prejšnjih dobah, iz njih pa je podoba preteklosti izšla že precej predrugačena,« meni Halbwachs (2001, 75). Kljub temu ni statična, ampak se nenehno transformira, kot se hkrati spreminja tudi skupnost, ki je njen nosilec, dodaja (2001, 90).
Znova sem se v Yasukuni odpravil 15. avgusta, na dan torej, ko je cesar Hirohito leta 1945 v vnaprej posnetem radijskem govoru širni Japonski oznanil poraz v boju z ZDA in njenimi zaveznicami ter posledičen razpad imperija. V okolici svetišča je mrgolelo policistov, česar si ob samem prihodu s Tatjano, podiplomsko študentko novinarstva iz Bosne in Hercegovine, nisva znala razložiti. Na shinmonu22 so japonske zastave visele na pol droga, obiskovalci pa so se v svetišče zgrinjali z vseh strani. Njihova starostna struktura je bila precej pestra, vendar so prevladovali posamezniki srednje generacije oziroma starejši, čeprav je bilo moč opaziti tudi nekaj družin z otroki in radovednežev iz neazijskih držav. Po Breenovem (2007, 61) prepričanju sicer večina obiskovalcev Yasukunija ni članov priviligiranih desničarskih interesnih združenj (npr. Nippon izoku kai, Eirei ni kotaeru kai itn.), ki svetišče izrabljajo v politične namene, ampak kvečjemu zduženj vojnih veteranov ali pa niti tega ne. Podobno Tsujita Mariko (2009, 198) sodi, da večina starejših obiskovalcev obišče Yasukuni v pristni želji po komemoraciji svojih bližnjih, niso pa prepričani nacionalisti.
Dogodek sem želel ovekovečiti tudi s fotoaparatom, kar mi je sprva kar dobro uspevalo, nato pa mi je fotografiranje množice posameznikov med molitvijo preprečil eden od varnostnikov. Na splošno sva bila s Tatjano v natrpanem svetišču deležna precej srepih pogledov obiskovalcev, ki tisto leto sicer niso
22 Vhod v šintoistično svetišče
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dočakali prihoda prvega ministra Kana Naota, saj je bila tedaj na oblasti Japonska demokratska stranka (DPJ), uradno oster kritik politične instrumentalizacije Yasukunija. Kot sem kasneje izvedel od nekega študijskega kolega, njegovo delovanje finančno podpirajo predvsem združenja svojcev padlih v zadnjih japonskih vojnah. Breen (2007, 60) kot glavno pobudnico komemoracij ob 15. avgustu navaja združenje Eirei ni kotaeru kai (Združenje častilcev duhov padlih junakov). Izjemno vplivna je tudi asociacija Izokukai (Združenje užaloščenih svojcev), ki je hkrati ena od pomembnih lobističnih skupin na Japonskem. Kot piše Takahashi (2006, 155-56), svojo podporo Liberalno demokratski stranki pogojuje z obiski njenih voditeljev v Yasukuniju in si sočasno prizadeva, da bi država padle vojake priznala kot primarne žrtve imperialnih vojn (Seraphim 2008, 9). Kljub temu je del njenih članov naklonjen ideji, da se državniki rajnim poklonijo kje drugje kot v Yasukuniju (Breen 2007, 59).
Slika 1: Poklon. (Foto Klemen Senica, 15. 8. 2010)
Ob vračanju proti domu sva naletela na stojnice različnih interesnih skupin, katerih predstavniki so delili letake z izrazito nacionalistično, ksenofobno in protikitajsko vsebino. Ko sem tako od neke aktivistke vzel enega, ki je pozival proti dodelitvi volilne pravice tujcem, se mi je vljudno zahvalila. Na poti proti četrti Akihabara sva nenadoma zaslišala hrup iz zvočnikov in povsem naključno naletela na protestnike, predvsem starejše - averzijo do državniških obiskov
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Yasukunija izražajo predvsem tisti z levega dela političnega spektra (Breen 2007, 48), a tudi pogost koalicijski partner LDP, stranka Komeito -,23 in ultradesničaije v kombijih z ogromnimi zvočniki, ki so želeli motiti protest prvih. Po kakšnem kilometru ali dveh je policistom, verjetno pripadnikom protiizgredniških enot kidotai, le uspelo zaustaviti slednje in verbalno nasilje ni eskaliralo v fizično obračunavanje med stranema, ki ju razdvaja popolnoma diametralno razumevanje ne tako daljnjih dogodkov V Vzhodni in Jugovzhodni Aziji.
Razlike v interpretacijah zgodovinske vloge Japonske v drugi polovici 19. in prvi polovici preteklega stoletja so podobne tistim, ki smo jim še 70 let po koncu 2. svetovne vojne priča tako na Slovenskem kot v prenekateri državi v naši soseščini, pa tudi širše. Medtem ko tisti bližje desnemu polu japonskega političnega spektra imperialne vojne razumejo kot osvobajanje Azije,24 ki so jih zavezniki na čelu z ZDA po kapitulaciji očrnili kot fašistično agresijo, po Kingstonovem (2011, 186) mnenju njihovi nasprotniki Yasukuni dojemajo kot simbol zakrknjenega militarizma, ki relativizira in zanikuje japonske zločine nad koloniziranimi ter rehabilitira odgovorne zanje, kar lahko posledično vodi v kolektivno amnezijo o brutalnostih cesarske vojske. Poleg tega izpodbijajo njegovo apolitičnost, dasiravno je Yasukuni z vidika japonske zakonodaje avtonomna verska institucija (shukyo hojin). Kot namreč poudarja Muto (2005), njegovi voditelji izražajo jasna politična stališča, saj zanikajo legitimnost tokijskega sodišča in obsojene generale reprezentirajo kot mučenike, hkrati pa japonske ekspanzionistične vojne razumejo kot samoobrambne in pravične.
Če je verjeti Halbwachsu (2001, 34), je konsenz med antagonističnimi razlagami preteklosti tako na Japonskem kot drugje domala nemogoč, saj nobena od skupin
od trenutka, ko so se ločile, ne more več reproducirati celotne vsebine nekdanjega mišljenja. Četudi zdaj dve izmed vseh teh obnovita stik, da bi se razumeli, se sporazumevali med seboj in vzajemno potrjevali spomine iz te preteklosti skupnega življenja, jima za to manjka prav zmožnost, da bi pozabili pregrade, ki jo ločujejo v sedanjosti.
23	Kot v svoji razpravi prepričljivo argumentira Ryu (2007, 716-24), odnos japonskih politikov do Yasukunija ni strogo determiniran z njihovo strankarsko pripadnostjo.
24	Pri tem pozabljajo, da ni bila Koreja nikogaršnja kolonija, ko jo je leta 1910 anektiral japonski imperij.
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Obujanje spominov na »veličastno« imperialno preteklost
Nekdanji prvi minister Koizumi, podobno retoriko uporablja sedanji premier Abe Shinzö (Statement 2013), je na plaz očitkov o obiskih Yasukunija odgovarjal, da se želi zgolj kot običajen državljan pokloniti vsem prednikom, ki so kadarkoli padli za domovino, saj da so tudi oni prispevali k miru in blaginji današnje Japonske (glej Takahashi 2006, 156; Ryu 2007, 713).25 Številni niso verjeli njegovim pojasnilom in so mu očitali težnje po sprevračaju zgodovinskih dejstev, saj je prav v obdobju njegovega vladanja prišlo do sprememb kurikula zgodovine v srednjih šolah. Nekateri, na primer Inoguchi (2009, 347), Koizumijeve obiske Yasukunija interpretirajo kot poskus pomiritve skrajne desnice in njenega antiameriškega razpoloženja. Japonska vlada je namreč po 11. septembru odločno podprla ameriški invaziji na Afganistan in Irak, njene oborožene sile pa so zagotavljale logistično podporo ameriškim in britanskim vojakom, vendar je del domače javnosti v tem prepoznal pretirano servilnost ameriškim geostrateškim interesom.26 Takšna razlaga je na prvi pogled sprejemljiva, vendar se ob poglobljenem razmisleku hitro izkaže za nezadovoljivo. Koizumi je namreč prvič obiskal Yasukuni že 13. avgusta 2001 (Takahashi 2006, 155), torej slab mesec dni pred terorističnim napadom na newyorški WTC, ko ameriški vojaški in politični voditelji, vsaj javno, še niso razmišljali o invaziji na dve državi z »osi zla«. Še več, da bo obiskoval Yasukuni, je bodoči premier obljubil že v tekmi za predsednika Liberalno demokratske stranke (LDP) leta 2001, ko je premagal protikandidata, nekdanjega predsednika vlade in združenja Izokukai Hashimota Ryütaröja, zapiše Takahashi (2006, 156).
25	Zanimivo, ko je Yasukuni obiskal oktobra 2012, je Abe izjavil, da je to storil kot vodja največje opozicijske stranke (Asahi 2012).
26	Tukaj moram nameniti nekaj besed japonskim oboroženim silam. Čeprav je bilo po razpadu imperija sprva predvideno, da država ne bo imela lastne vojske, so napetosti med svetovnima hegemonoma v nastajanju spremenile ameriške načrte za radikalno prenovo Japonske. Če so v tako imenovani fazi A zavezniški upravitelji še prakticirali politiko popolne demilitarizacije države, so si med letoma 1948 in 1952 prizadevali samo še za ekonomsko obnovo Japonske (Pyle 2007, 219). Izbruh vojne na Korejskem polotoku je še utrdil prepričanje ameriških politikov o nujnosti vključitve Japonske v nekomunistični tabor. Leta 1950 so tako japonski vladi ukazali formiranje paravojaških policijskih enot, ki so prevzele naloge na bojišča v Koreji premeščenih ameriških kopenskih sil (Reischauer in Jansen 2005, 356); leta 1954 so bile dokončno preoblikovane v Samoobrambne sile (Goto-Jones 2009, 97). Navkljub dejstvu, da je Japonska leta 2007 uradno institucionalizirala ministrstvo za obrambo, so nekateri moji sogovorniki zanikali obstoj »prave« japonske vojske. Dotična »nevojska« je sicer večja od francoske ali britanske armade in ima peto največjo mornarico na svetu (Kingston 2011, 129).
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Zato sodim, da je potrebno recentne obiske predstavnikov japonskega političnega establišmenta - afinitete do Yasukunija je z obiski izkazoval tudi nekdanji tokijski župan in kasneje sopredsedujoči stranki Nippon ishin no kai, katere ime bi veljalo malo hudomušno prevesti kot »Združenje za vrednote japonske reformacije«, Ishihara Shintaro in številni konservativni politiki -primarno razumeti kot manifestacijo imperialne nostalgije konservativnega pola japonskih političnih elit.27 Pri tem imperialno nostalgijo v nasprotju z Rosaldom (1989, 107-10) definiram kot spomin na oziroma hrepenenje po minulih, v primerjavi z dandanašnjimi domnevno veličastnejšimi, kolonialnimi časi politične entitete, ki ji nekdo pripada. Koizumi je postal premier aprila 2001, torej po »izgubljenem desetletju«, zaznamovanem z ekonomsko stagnacijo države in smrtjo cesarja Hirohita leta 1989. Wallerstein (2006, 75) rezonira, da politični voditelji javno glorificirajo nacionalistične - sam bi k temu dodal še imperialistične - tematike v želji po krepitvi moči politično šibke ali oslabljene države in ne takrat, ko država prosperira.28 Podobno Kingston (2011, 194) sodi, da »(z) obujanjem atavističnih simbolov nacionalizma v nameri obuditve nacionalnega ponosa, politiki odgovarjajo na občutke bledenja slave, naraščajoče negotovosti in izgube zaupanja v vlado«. Carol Gluck (1993, 95) meni, da slavljenje preteklosti dejansko pomeni izogibanje izzivom sedanjosti, kar je »kombinacija, ki zaslepi tako zgodovinski spomin kot sodobno vizijo«. Hong Kal (2007, 151) nasprotno izpostavlja, da je potrebno vzroke obujanja izgubljene veličine nacije iskati drugje, in sicer kot protiutež ostrim kritikam vojnih zločinov cesarske vojske, ki niso prihajale samo iz Azije in z Zahoda, nanje je opozarjal tudi del domače civilne družbe. Kljub temu ameriški antropolog Brian McVeigh (2005, 267; glej tudi Breen 2007, 64-65; Okuyama 2009, 248) zapiše, da si nostalgični nacionalisti med politiki praviloma ne prizadevajo zanikati zločinov japonskih vojakov, ampak slavijo veličastno imperialno preteklost Japonske, česar
27	Tudi v sosednji Italiji smo priča pojavu imperialne nostalgije neofašistične in postfašistične desnice, ugotavlja Baskar (2009, 125). Kot v poročilu o shodu, ki so ga neofašisti iz vse Italije pripravili konec maja 2015 v Gorici, navajata Jerneja Grmadnik in Klara Škrinjar (2015), je na eni od številnih zastav pisalo, da so pripravljeni umreti za Italijo, hkrati pa je njihov vodja Simone di Stefano dejal: »Kdor je pripravljen dati življenje za nekaj velikega, se lahko počuti živ. Danes praznujemo ta duh, ta spomin!«
28	Imperialne nostalgike je seveda moč najti tudi med običajnimi Japonci (glej Ghosh 2014). Vzporedno z imperialno nostalgijo se krepi tudi nestrpnost do etničnih manjšin na Japonskem (Mie 2013).
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po mnenju Tamamota (2001, 38) ne smemo enačiti z željo po konstrukciji Velikega japonskega imperija 2.0.29
Najsibo vzrok takšen ali drugačen, nikakor ne morem sprejeti Kingstonove (2011, 195-96) teze, podobno razvijeta Tamamoto (2001, 36) in Pyle (2007, 373), da so Koizumijeva »žalovanja« v Yasukuniju pravzaprav odražala njegovo željo po dokončnem prelomu z dediščino II. svetovne vojne in »koraku naprej« v odnosu do nje; zadnji implicitno aplavdira Koizumijevim potezam, saj da ima vsaka nacija pravico spoštovati svojo preteklost. Vendar Yasukuni v imaginariju precejšnjega dela japonskih političnih elit ni kraj, kjer lahko svojci v miru počastijo spomin na umrle v vojnah, ampak institucija, kjer država slavi njihov boj za domovino (Takahashi 2006, 175). Zato Tanaka (2004) sodi, da je šele skupna tožba korejskih, kitajskih in tajvanskih žrtev japonskega kolonializma in imperialnih invazij ter japonskih državljanov proti japonski vladi odraz želje po prelomu s preteklostjo, ko se želijo pripadniki omenjenih azijskih nacij znebiti etikete večnih žrtev, Japonci pa nočejo biti nenehno percipirani kot agresorji.
Čeprav so imele Koizumijeve »komemoracije« jasno intenco oživljanja spomina na »slavno« japonsko imperialno preteklost, neločljiv del katere so tudi ekspanzionistične vojne,30 menim, da je bilo samo dejanje bolj namenjeno krepitvi samozavesti domačega volilnega telesa kot ujeziti tuje vlade, na kar v svojih razmišljanjih namiguje zagovornik takšne prakse Kobori Keiichiro, zaslužni profesor Univerze v Tokiu. Breen (2007, 57) je njegove zapise analizirala takole:
Kobori želi povedati, da ministrski predsedniki s svojimi smelimi obiski Yusukunija vsako leto 15. avgusta vplivajo na moralno preobrazbo japonske sicer nepopravljive mladine. Dejanja premiera slednjo opozorijo na to, da so milijoni umrli junaške smrti in da je Japonska bila veličasten boj, torej da je Japonska veličastna nacija, ki je vredna tudi njihove žrtve. Ko japonska mladina to uvidi, bosta Japonska in njena nekdanja imperialna slava znova obujeni.
Ob tem je pomenljivo, da Koborijeva dikcija močno spominja na tisto, ki jo je filozof Inoue Tetsujiro (1856-1944) zagovarjal na vrhuncu japonske imperialne
29	Verjetno najbolj notorični imperialni nostalgik in revizionist na Japonskem je kontroverzni avtor mang Kobayashi Yoshinori, ki ga Ma (2009, 192) označi za predstavnika tiste skupine Japoncev, »nezadovoljnih s povojno liberalno demokracijo, ki sanjarijo o zlatih časih japonskega kolonializma in ohranjajo revizionističen pogled na vojno«.
30	Za Breena (2007, 55) je Yasukuni substantivna fizična vez z japonsko imperialno, militaristično preteklostjo.
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ekspanzije. Kot zapiše Goto-Jones (2008, 44), je namreč trdil, da je smrt v imenu in službi cesarskega dvora
lepa in veličastna, zavoljo enotnosti, ki jo takšno dejanje izkazuje med vladarjem in podaniki (kummin itchi) ter med spoštovanjem in lojalnostjo. Poleg tega bi takšno dejanje skoraj čudežno vplivalo na preostale podanike, saj bi dobesedno transformiralo kokutai (...) in oplemenitilo krepost nacije.
Ker je vlada, ki ji je predsedoval, na prošnjo ZDA sprejela odločitev o napotitvi japonskih čet v Irak, Takahashi (2006, 157) ocenjuje, da Koizumijevi obiski Yasukunija in njegovi slavospevi tistim, ki so »žrtvovali svoja dragocena življenja v boju za domovino«, niso bili izraz pietete, ampak so želeli Japoncem implicitno sporočiti, da je »umreti za domovino« plemenito dejanje, vredno izkazovanja najvišjih državniških časti. Zatorej si upam trditi, da dandanašnja politična instrumentalizacija Yasukunija služi identičnim ciljem kot tista v obdobju japonskega imperija. Kot namreč dodaja Takahashi (2006, 172-73) v nadaljevanju, je bil v obdobju Velikega japonskega imperija osrednji namen izkazovanja najvišjih časti padlim v »samoobrambnih« vojnah prepričati za boj sposobne podanike, da bi šli po stopinjah ubitih sorojakov in bili pripravljeni žrtvovati svoje življenje za »očetnjavo«. Skupaj z Breenom (2007, 57) lahko torej ugotovim, da je Yasukuni še sedem desetletij po razpadu imperija
ideološko obremenjeno prizorišče, ki časti spomin na mrtve in jih izrablja v ideološke namene. Tako je bilo na Japonskem vseskozi v času vojne in tako je še danes. (Poudarek v originalu)
Če bi se namreč Koizumi, Abe in ostali vidni predstavniki japonskih političnih elit dejansko želeli iskreno pokloniti vsem japonskim žrtvam azijsko-pacifiške vojne, kot neumorno trdijo (glej Kingston 2011, 190), bi jih verjetno zmotilo dejstvo, ugibam, da ni bilo apoteoze v Yasukuniju deležno več sto tisoč civilnih žrtev bombardiranj Okinave, Tokia, Hirošime ali Nagasakija, kar v svojem eseju izpostavi Muto (2005).
Pri tem je simptomatično, da niti Koizumi niti Abe v svojih razčlenjevanjih dogodkov v prvi polovici 20. stoletja nista nikoli eksplicitno obsodila japonske agresije na sosednje države, jasno definirala vzroke trpljenja sodržavljanov in se distancirala od dejanj tvorcev japonskega imperija.31 Nasprotno, izrazila sta zgolj
31 Navdih za takšen prelomni korak bi lahko črpala iz znamenitega govora nekdanjega zahodnonemškega kanclerja Richarda von Weizsackerja (1920-2015), ki ga je slednji imel v bundestagu 8. maja 1985.
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»globoko obžalovanje« zavoljo trpljenja Azijcev v obdobju japonske nadvlade in ponovila zaobljubo, da se država reševanja mednarodnih sporov ne bo nikoli več lotila z orožjem. Obenem sta v isti sapi hitela poudarjati, da so za sedanjo prosperiteto Japonske zaslužni vsi, ki so svoje mesto dobili v Yasukuniju, tudi najhuših vojnih zločinov obsojeni generali,32 kar je po mojem mnenju primer perfidnega historičnega revizionizma in negacionizma par excellence. Obenem je takšna simbolna rehabilitacija imperialnih voditeljev, ki so s svojimi kratkovidnimi odločitvami in zablodelimi strategijami v smrt pognali na milijone ljudi tako doma kot na tujem, žaljiva do vseh, ki so trpeli hudo povojno pomanjkanje in kasneje s številnimi odrekanji prispevali k rekonstrukciji leta 1945 popolnoma uničene države. Čeprav ni nujno, da bi iskreno japonsko soočenje s hudodelstvi iz obdobja Velikega japonskega imperija dokončno pomirilo vladajoče politične elite v Južni Koreji in na Kitajskem, se zdi, da se tiste v Tokiu najbolj bojijo finančnih posledic morebitne razrešitve perečih zgodovinskih vprašanj s sosednjima državama. Kljub temu sodim, da se bodo morali konservativni politični misli naklonjeni japonski državniki in njihovi volivci slejkoprej pogledati v ogledalo zgodovine in sprejeti tudi temne plati neuspelega imperialnega zavojevanja, saj kot zapiše Yamamuro (2000, 11), naj so morda Japonci še toliko izbrisali spomine na imperialno preteklost in skovali samopodobo na osnovi te amnezije, dejstvo, da je Japonska imela kolonialni imperij, ne bo preprosto izginilo.
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Ma, Sheng-Mei. 2009. "Three Views of the Rising Sun, Obliquely: Keiji Nakazawa's A-Bomb, Osamu Tezuka's Adolf, and Yoshinori Kobayashi's Apologia." Mechademia 4: 183-96.
Mazower, Mark. 2008. Hitler's Empire. How the Nazis Ruled Europe. New York: Penguin Press.
McNeill, David. 2008. "Magnificent Obsession: Japan's Bone Man and the World War II Dead in the Pacific." Accessed May 30, 2015. http://www.japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/2821/article.html.
McVeigh, Brian J. 2004. Nationalisms of Japan: Managing and Mystifying Identity. Lanham (Md.) in Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
Mie, Ayako. 2013. "Xenophobia Finds Fertile Soil in Web Anonymity." Dostop 20. april, 2014. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/01/08/news/xenophobia-finds-fertile-soil-in-web-anonymity/#.VYAZ8EYTVFm.
Milčinski, Maja. 1999. "Kami in šintoistična kozmogonija." Studia mythologica Slavica 2: 299-304.
Mutö, Ichiyö. 2005. "Revise the Peace Constitution, Restore Glory to Empire." Dostop 22. julij, 2014. http://www.europesolidaire.org/spip.php?page=article_impr&id_article = 1850.
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Noiriel, Gérard. (2004) 2008. "Zgodovina, memorija, državljanski angažma." Monitor ZSA 10 (1-2): 373-77.
Oguma, Eiji. 2002. A Genealogy of'Japanese' Self-images. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press.
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Sedmak, Matej. 2013. "Yasukunijski konflikt v okviru japonske zgodovine in zunanje politike." Neobjavljena disertacija. Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani.
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Summary
Along with territorial issues, history textbooks and the "comfort women" controversies, the Yasukuni Shrine is among highly contentious issues when it comes to Japan's foreign relations with its neighbouring countries, particularly China and South Korea. Ever since its inception in 1869, it has had a privileged symbolic position among Shinto shrines in Japan. It was only after 1978, when fourteen former military leaders who were convicted as Class-A war criminals at the Tokyo Trial were secretly enshrined there, that it became utterly problematic for many Asians who suffered under the Japanese colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century and their descendants as well as many Japanese. Recently, it has drawn considerable public attention worldwide, owing to regular pilgrimages by
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former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro while he was still in office and the visit of the current Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in December 2013. The phenomenon of paying respect in Yasukuni to the soldiers and civilians who died for the "Japanese cause" in the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945), practised mostly by the conservative part of Japanese political elites, is repeatedly met with stiff opposition from a wide spectrum of individuals in Japan, not to mention Chinese and South Korean political leaders. Although there have been numerous discussions trying to explain the reasons and causes of why so many Japanese (right-wing) politicians still have an explicit affinity for a "war shrine" 70 years after the dissolution of the Empire of Japan, in my view the glorification of chosen victims needs to be set in a broader context of imperialist nostalgia, the wave of which has been coming over Japan since the turn of the 21st century. As so many social scientists convincingly argue, political leaders around the world resort to the presumably glorious past of their countries when the countries are weak(ening) economically or unimportant in international politics.
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Poročanje o sporu glede otočja Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku v izbranih slovenskih medijih1
Saša ISTENIČ*
Izvleček
Spor med Japonsko, Kitajsko in Tajvanom glede suverenosti nad otočjem Senkaku ostaja vir resnih mednarodnih napetosti. Ker bi morebitna napačna presoja lahko zanetila vojno z nepredstavljivimi posledicami, je novica o sporu prodrla v medije po vsem svetu. Tudi slovenski mediji so, podkrepljeni s splošno vrednostjo objav novic o mednarodnih konfliktih, spremljali aktualne novice o spornem otočju. Medtem ko je oddaljena vzhodnoazijska regija na dnu slovenskih prioritet in ambicij njenih politikov, pa so tržni nagibi močno povezani s stabilnim in varnim okoljem v Vzhodni Aziji. Pričujoč članek analizira s pomočjo kvantitativne in kvalitativne vsebinske analize vseh novic o sporu, ki so bile objavljene med leti 2010 in 2013 v ključnih slovenskih tiskanih in spletnih dnevnikih, poročanje slovenskih medijev o spornem otočju.
Ključne besede: ozemeljski spor, otočje Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku, Japonska, Kitajska, Tajvan, vsebinska analiza
Abstract
The dispute over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands remains a source of significant international tension. Given that any miscalculation could lead to a war with unimaginable consequences, the issue has gained media attention across the world. Buttressed with the general newsworthiness of an international conflict, Slovene media has also been attentive to report on the islands' controversy. Although the remote East Asian region is far down the list of Slovenia's priorities and ambitions of its politicians, national commercial considerations are connected with a stable and secure environment in East Asia. By applying a combined quantitative and qualitative content
1	Analiza je zajela tri tiskane in spletne dnevnike (Delo, Dnevnik in Večer) ter tri spletne portale dnevnih novic (24.ur.com, Siol.net, RTVSLO.si) od 1. januarja 2010 do 31. decembra 2013. Avtorica se zahvaljuje anonimnima recenzentoma za konstruktivne pripombe in predloge.
Saša ISTENIČ, docentka, Oddelek za azijske študije, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenija. sasa@tajvan.si
2	Japonsko uradno ime otočja je Senkaku ^M, kitajsko ime je Diaoyu f^ft, tajvansko pa Diaoyutai
Zaradi poenostavitve bo v tem članku uporabljeno japonsko ime, ker je otočje trenutno pod upravo Japonske. Avtorica s tem nikakor ne podaja presoje glede suverenosti nad spornim otočjem.
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analysis of the news stories on the dispute published in Slovene major print and online daily newspapers between 2010 and 2013, the present paper examines Slovene media's coverage of the islands' dispute.
Keywords: territorial dispute, Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands, Japan, China, Taiwan, content analysis
Uvod: Konflikt nad otočjem Senkaku
Pomorski ozemeljski spori v Vzhodni Aziji se vse bolj zaostrujejo, pa čeprav se pravzaprav nobena od vpletenih strani ne želi naseliti na spornem skalovju. Vzroki za nepopustljivo in občasno agresivno držo vpletenih držav tičijo predvsem v naslednjih interesih: otoški strateški lokaciji v središču pomembnih trgovskih poti, potencialno bogatih fosilnih gorivih kot sta nafta in zemeljski plin v njihovi okolici, bogatih ribolovnih področjih kot tudi v sami zgodovinski in politični vlogi otočja, ki sta obe povezani z nacionalnim ponosom vpletenih strani. In prav ti interesi so tisti, ki narekujejo potek dogodkov, še posebno v zadnjih nekaj letih. Vode v okolici spornih otočij v Južnokitajskem, in še posebno okrog otočja Senkaku v Vzhodnokitajskem morju, so postale preteča žarišča, ki bi lahko povedla v resno vojno, saj bi bile v konflikt vpletene tri največje gospodarske sile sveta.
Otočje Senkaku sestavlja skupina osmih manjših, za bivanje neprimernih otočkov, ki si jih lasti Japonska, vendar ozemeljske pravice nad njimi terjata tudi Ljudska republika Kitajska (od tu naprej Kitajska) in Republika Kitajska (od tu naprej Tajvan). Tako vlada v Tajpeju kot vlada v Pekingu svojo suverenost nad otočjem utemeljujeta na podlagi zgodovinskih dokumentov, ki segajo v dinastijo Ming (1368-1644) in dinastijo Qing (1644-1912). Trdita, da si je Japonska na skrivaj prilastila otočje v prvi kitajsko-japonski vojni (1894-5) in bi se le-to po drugi svetovni vojni, v skladu z mednarodnim pravom, moralo vrniti prvotnemu lastniku.4 Vlada v Tokiu, po drugi strani zatrjuje, da je bilo v času, ko si japonska vlada formalno priključila otočje pod svoje okrilje, januarja 1895, otočje
3	Zaradi varnostnega zavezništva ZDA z Japonsko so ZDA obvezane, da branijo celoten teritorij, ki je pod japonsko upravo. Otočje Senkaku pa je trenutno pod upravo Japonske. Filipinski predsednik Benigno Aquino III. in japonski predsednik vlade Abe Shinzo sta ozračje primerjala z razmerami pred prvo in drugo svetovno vojno (Malukanas 2014; Perlez 2014).
4	Za uradno stališče vlade v Pekingu glej, The State Council Information Office of the PRC, "Diaoyu Dao, an inherent territory of China," (2012); za uradno stališče Tajpeja glej Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
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nenaseljeno (terra nullius). Navaja, da dokazi, ki bi potrjevali upravo s strani dvora dinastije Qing, ne obstajajo.5 Med leti 1952 in 1971 je bilo otočje na osnovi mirovnega sporazuma podpisanega v San Franciscu dodeljeno v upravo ZDA. Čeprav je Washington upravo nad otočjem predal Japonski leta 1971, pa je glede vprašanja suverenosti nad otočjem obdržal nevtralno stališče. (Manyin 2012) Vse od tedaj pa so konfrontacije glede otočja ponavljajoč se politični ritual med Japonsko, Kitajsko in Tajvanom, kar vzbuja medijsko pozornost po vsem svetu.
V zadnjih nekaj letih je bilo sporno otočje Senkaku v medijih še posebno zelo odmevno. Septembra 2010 je kitajska ribiška ladja v spornih vodah blizu otočja trčila v ladji japonske obalne straže. Ker so japonski uradniki aretirali kitajskega kapitana ladje, je vlada v Pekingu nemudoma napovedala ostre protiukrepe, med katerimi je bila tudi prekinitev izvoza redkih zemeljskih kovin na Japonsko. Razmere so se ponovno močno zaostrile spomladi leta 2012, ko je japonska vlada najavila, da bo od posameznih zasebnikov kupila tri sporne otočke. Tako Kitajci kot Tajvanci so v znak neodobravanja reagirali s protesti. Septembra 2012, ko je japonska vlada uradno potrdila svoj nakup, je jeza dosegla vrhunec. Še posebno na Kitajskem so se protijaponski protesti in nasilni izgredi sunkovito razširili po vseh večjih mestih. Vlada v Tajpeju je s t.i. Pobudo za mir v Vzhodnokitajskem morju (Donghai heping changyi ^^fP^is^) pozvala vladi v Pekingu in Tokiu, da bi našli skupen konsenz, a na svojo iniciativo odgovora po pričakovanem ni dobila. Namreč, za Tokio ozemeljski spor nad otočjem uradno sploh ne obstaja, medtem ko Peking obravnava Tajvan za svojo provinco in vse od 1949. leta ne priznava njegove vlade. Tako se konfrontacije v območju spornih voda še vedno nadaljujejo. Peking je v bližini otočja razvrstil svoje bojno ladjevje, novembra 2013 pa nenapovedano razglasil obsežen del območja v Vzhodnokitajskem morju za svoje zračno obrambno identifikacijsko območje (ADIZ).6 Čeprav kitajska poteza ni spremenila nadzora posameznih držav nad zračnim območjem niti ni okrepila pravnega stališča kitajske suverenosti nad otočjem, pa je vseeno bila zelo provokativna poteza, ki je le-še dodatno zaostrila konflikt. Svetovni mediji tako še danes skrbno spremljajo dogajanje v Vzhodnokitajskem morju.
5	Za uradno stališče vlade v Tokiu glej, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
6	Novo definirano območje, ki vključuje zračni prostor nad spornim otočjem, se križa z japonskim kot tudi s tajvanskim zračnim območjem. Za podrobne informacije glej prispevek "Statement by the Government..." (2013).
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Cilj in metodologija raziskave
Mediji so najpomembnejši vir informacij in imajo potencial, da odločajo ne le o katerih dogodkih bodo poročali, temveč tudi kako bodo o njih poročali in s tem posredno vplivajo na vedenje in pogled uporabnika medijev. Sočasno s podajanjem informacije pa podajajo tudi vidik razumevanja informacije, oziroma informacijo postavljajo (uokviijajo) v kontekst. S tem pa vplivajo na interpretacijo in (so)ustvarjajo javno mnenje.7 Namen pričujoče študije je bil raziskati, kako slovenski tiskani in spletni mediji poročajo o sporu glede suverenosti nad otočjem Senkaku. Sistematična analiza prispevkov o spornem otočju ni pomembna le zato, ker razkriva medijsko prakso ter medijska mnenja in vrednote, ki jih le-te gojijo do posameznih, v konflikt vpletenih, strani - Japonske, Kitajske in Tajvana - ampak tudi zato, ker analiza ponazarja njihov potencialen vpliv na uporabnike medijev. Raziskava je bila izvedena s pomočjo kvantitativne in kvalitativne vsebinske analize prispevkov o sporu objavljenih v šestih izbranih slovenskih tiskanih in spletnih medijih v obdobju med 1. januarjem 2010 in 31. decembrom 2013. Omenjeno časovno obdobje je zajelo ključne zaostritve konflikta, ki so medije najbolj pritegnile. Jedro raziskave temelji na analizi novičarskih okvirov, ki se je osredotočila na medijsko uporabo določenih besed ali izrazov, sklicev in določenih virov informacij. Spremenljivke analize so v celoti zajete v kodirnem seznamu.8
V letu 2013 je bilo v Sloveniji registriranih skoraj 2000 medijskih enot, od teh 61 televizijskih programov, 86 radijskih programov in 1810 tiskanih publikacij. (Mediana 2013, 29 in Statistični urad RS 2014) Največji med slednjimi, glede na pogostnost izhajanja in branost, so trije tiskani in spletni dnevni časopisi: nacionalni dnevnik Delo (ki velja za najuglednejši elitni dnevnik) ter dva regionalna dnevnika Dnevnik in Večer. Poleg teh treh raziskava zajema tudi tri največje spletne portale dnevnih novic: 24.ur.com, Siol.net in RTVSLO.si. (glej Raba interneta v Sloveniji 2014) Enota analize je novinarski prispevek, torej vsaka tiskana ali spletna novica, uvodnik, kolumna, mnenje ali pismo urednikom. Ključne iskalne besede v izbranih medijih so bile: »Senkaku«, »Diaoyu«, »Diaoyutai« in »Vzhodnokitajsko morje«. S pomočjo kodiranja so se ovrednotili naslednji trije aspekti: vidnost, valentnost ter okvir posameznega prispevka. Vidnost se nanaša na število prispevkov in stopnjo prominentnosti, ki vpliva na bralčevo zavest in podaja občutek o pomembnosti dogodka (teža novice).
7	Posredovanje informacij vpliva na njihovo interpretacijo, zato je za razumevanje smisla posameznega teksta potrebno identificirati in opisati novičarske okvire (glej Entman 1993, 52-55).
8	Kodirni seznam in rezultati so dosegljivi na zahtevo pri avtorici.
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Prominentnost je bila opredeljena z meritvijo dolžine prispevkov ter analizo njihove umestitve v mediju in morebitnih spremljevalnih vizualnih sredstvih. Indeks prominentnosti je bil ustvarjen s pomočjo 10-točkovne lestvice (10 = najvišja vrednost). Dolžina prispevka, ki je bila izmerjena glede na število besed, je bila kodirana sledeče: 3 = več ali enako kot 800 besed; 2 = več ali enako kot 400 in manj kot 800 besed; 1= manj kot 400 besed. Umestitev je bila kodirana sledeče: 4 = prva stran; 3 = zadnja stran; 2 = rubrična stran; 1= druga stran. Prisotnost vizualnih sredstev je bila enostavno kodirana z: 3 = da; 2 = ne. Prominentnost je bila izračunana na osnovi seštevka kod teh treh kriterijev. Na primer, novica iz 470 besed na zadnji strani časopisa spremljana s fotografijo bi znašala 2 + 3 + 3 = 8/10. Posamezni rezultati so omogočili tudi izračun povprečne vrednosti prominentnosti.
Poleg teh treh kriterijev je kodiranje zajelo tudi zvrst prispevka (novica, kolumna, intervju, pismo bralcev ali mnenje), vire prispevka in vizualnih sredstev (interni novinarji/dopisniki, povzemanje tiskovnih agencij ali pa kombinacija obeh virov) ter vire citirane/navedene med tekstom: 1 = politični vodja; 2 = univerzitetni akademik; 3 = politični analitik; 4 = drugo. Za določitev valentnosti prispevkov je bilo kodiranje naslednje: 3 = pozitiven; 2 = nevtralen; 1 = negativen. Presoja je bila osnovana na izjavah, ki so vsebovale določene konotacije do posameznih držav. Na primer, v prispevku, ki predstavlja, kako si vladi v Pekingu in Tokiu prizadevata k iskanju miroljubne rešitve spora, bi bila valentnost kodirana pozitivno tako napram Japonski kot tudi napram Kitajski. V kolikor pa bi prispevek poročal o nasilnih izgredih v neki državi, pa bi bil kodiran negativno napram tej državi, četudi bi bila novica objektivne informativne narave. Prispevek brez konotacij, oziroma težko opredeljiv, pa je bil kodiran nevtralno.
Literatura na področju medijskih študij običajno navaja naslednjih pet splošnih okvirov, ki se jih novinarji najpogosteje poslužujejo, in sicer: okvir konflikta, okvir človeške zgodbe (human interest), okvir odgovornosti, okvir ekonomskih posledic in moralni okvir. (Semetko in Valkenburg 2000, 95-96) Novice o mednarodnih sporih so najpogosteje predstavljene v okviru konflikta ali pa ekonomskih posledic. (glej Gamson 1992; Graber 1988; Neuman et al. 1992) Novičarsko uokviijanje spora glede otočja Senkaku je avtorica natančneje opredelila s šestimi eksplicitnimi vprašanji:
V1 Ali je konflikt predstavljen kot dvostranski (med Japonsko in Kitajsko), kot tristranski (med Japonsko, Kitajsko in Tajvanom) ali kot večstranski?
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V2 Kako so predstavljeni glavni razlogi za konflikt? Ali so predstavljeni kot politični, ekonomski, varnostni, socialni ali zgodovinski razlogi?
V3 Kako so predstavljene posledice spora? Ali so predstavljene kot politične, ekonomske, varnostne ali socialne posledice?
V4 Ali prispevek namiguje, da lahko spor privede do vojne - ali poroča o riziku in nevarnosti eskalacije konflikta?
V5 Ali prispevek poda kako priporočilo glede reševanja spora?
V6 Ali prispevek sugerira, da bi ZDA ali EU lahko posredovale v sporu?
Kljub najboljšim namenom po objektivnosti pri določanju karakteristik valentnosti in ostalih kriterijev, se avtorica zaveda, da je subjektivnost neizogibna omejitev pričujoče raziskave. Za okrepitev zanesljivosti in veljavnosti raziskave so bili naključni vzorci novic (10% celote) kodirani dvakrat. Medkoderska zanesljivost (inter-coding reliability) je bila določena z izračunom Scottovega pi (n), in sicer: Pi = (PAo- PAe) : (1-PAe). PAo predstavlja delež opazovanega dogovora, PAe pa delež naključnega dogovora. PAo je zmnožek vseh vrednosti s številom teh vrednosti, deljenih s skupno vsoto vrednosti. PAe pa je vsota kvadratov deležev posamezne kategorije. (glej Neuendorf 2002, 151) Visoka vrednost pi pomeni večjo skladnost med dvemi kodiranji.9 Dobljene vrednosti Scottovega pi kažejo, da je povprečna medkoderska zanesljivost za 22 spremenljivk variirala med 0.74 in 1.00, kar je, glede na ustaljene družboslovne standarde, sprejemljiva vrednost zanesljivosti. 18 spremenljivk je bilo v zgornjem rangu (1.00), in sicer: analiziran medij, datum objave, dolžina prispevka, umeščenost, prominentnost, vir, uporaba vizualnih sredstev, vir vizualnih sredstev, citiran/naveden vir v besedilu, zvrst, omemba Tajvana, valentnost napram Tajvanu, spor nad otočjem Senkaku kot vodilna zgodba, okvir konflikta, V1, V4, V5, V6. Preostale 4 spremenljivke so bile v spodnjem rangu, in sicer: V2 (0.84), V3 (0.82), valentnost napram Japonski (0.81) ter valentnost napram Kitajski (0.74).
Ugotovitve Vidnost
V izbranih 6 medijih je skupno 270 prispevkov ustrezalo iskalnim zahtevam: 36% jih je bilo v Delu, 23% v Večeru ter 21% v Dnevniku (Graf 1). Povprečna dolžina
9 Seznam vseh rezultatov medkoderske zanesljivosti je dosegljiv na zahtevo pri avtorici. 268
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prispevkov je bila največja v Delu (760 besed). Medtem, ko je večina prispevkov obsegala manj kot 800 besed, pa je 85% prispevkov daljših od 800 besed pripadalo Delu (Graf 2).
Graf 1: Količina
Graf 2: Dolžina
Prispevki so bili večinoma umeščeni v rubriko novic sveta (87%), ki krije splošne mednarodne novice, medtem ko so samo 4 prispevki bili umeščeni ali na prvo ali na zadnjo stran medija (Graf 3). 87% prispevkov je bilo vizualno podprtih. Še posebno spletne novice so vključevale številne fotografije in video posnetke. Indeks prominentnosti je bil zmeren (med 6 in 7 od možnih 10 točk), kar nakazuje na nizko stopnjo prominentnosti prispevkov. Med tiskanimi mediji je bila prominentnost najvišja v Delu, med spletnimi pa v 24ur.com (čeprav je bila tu, po drugi strani, količina prispevkov tudi najmanjša).
zadnja stran 1%
	kolum.
	47%
Graf 3: Umestitev
Graf 4: Kategorija
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Zvrst in vir
Največ prispevkov je bilo informativnih novic in kolumn (Graf 4), skoraj 58% prispevkov pa je bilo napisanih s strani internih novinarjev posameznih medijev. V Sloveniji obstaja samo ena tiskovna agencija, Slovenska tiskovna agencija (STA), ki posledično predstavlja tudi najpomembnejši vir informacij medijem. Tako je STA bila najpogosteje citiran vir informacij med analiziranimi mediji. Drugi najpogosteje citiran vir je bila kitajska tiskovna agencija Xinhua. Preostale tiskovne agencije so vključevale francoski Agence France-Presse (AFP), britanski Reuters, ameriški Associated Press (AP), nemški Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) ter japonski Kyodo. Tajvanska tiskovna agencija Central News Agency (CNA) pa med viri informacij ni bila navedena. Največji vir vizualnih sredstev je predstavljal Reuters, sledili sta AFP and AP. Citati med besedilom so bili večinoma elitni, torej osredotočeni predvsem na izjave vodij in elit kot glavnih akterjev in virov informacij.
Valentnost
Analiza valentnosti je podala mešane rezultate. Na splošno je bila več kot polovica prispevkov kodirana negativno napram Japonski (53%) in okrog 73% napram Kitajski, medtem ko je bil Tajvan omenjen samo v 98 (36%) prispevkih. Le-ti so bili v veliki večini kodirani nevtralno (Graf 5).
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%
Tajvan
pozitivna negativna I nevtralna
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%
pozitivna
negativna
nevtralna
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%
Kitajska
pozitivna
negativna
nevtralna
Graf 5: Valentnost
Na primer, naslednja besedila v naslovih prispevkov: »Kitajska znova napenja mišice« (Delo, 19.10.2012), »Posledice kitajskega vzpona: Hladna vojna na Pacifiku« (Dnevnik, 21.12.2013), »Kitajska z bojnimi letali nadzoruje Američane
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in Japonce« (Večer, 29.11.13), »Besni Kitajci razbijajo lastnino Japoncev in napovedujejo vojno« (24ur.com, 16.9.12) - vsa izražajo negativen ton do Kitajske. Kitajska je bila pogosto prikazana kot rastoča, vse bolj samozavestna, ekspanzivna ali celo »pohlepna« država (siol.net, 30.11.2012). Pogosto omenjanje rastočega vojaškega proračuna in zaskrbljenih sosedskih držav bralcem podaja percepcijo o Kitajski kot o grožnji: »Odkar Kitajska na območju kopiči še mornarico, pa se mnogi sprašujejo, ali bo res ostalo le pri besedni vojni« (24ur.com, 11.9.2012); ali »Kitajci namreč v 'svojem' Vzhodnokitaj skem in Južnokitajskem morju, ki po obliki spominjata na kravji jezik, vse bolj samozavestno stegujejo jezik...« (Delo 29.9.2012).
Po drugi strani pa je bila tudi Japonska kritizirana zaradi svojega oklepanja preteklosti in nepriznavanja vojne krivde (glej npr. Delo, 13.5.2013; in Večer, 29.9.2012). Shinzo Abe je bil večinoma prikazan kot »odločen«, »militanten«, »jastreb« ali pa »najbolj zagrizen desničar v LDP (Liberalna demokratska stranka)« (Večer, 27.9.2012; glej tudi Delo, 29.10.2013; 17.12.2012; siol.net, 17.12.2012). Naslovi kot so: »Japonsko opozorilo Kitajski: Tudi mi imamo vojaško silo« (Delo, 29.10.2013), »Bodoči japonski premier: Kompromis o suverenosti nad spornim otočjem ni možen« (Dnevnik, 17.12.2012), »Japonska se noče opravičiti Kitajski« (Večer, 27.9.2010), »Japonska nad sporno otočje poslala bojna letala F-15« (Dnevnik, 13.12.2012) - vsi izražajo negativen ton do Japonske. Obratno pa navedbe kot so: »Kljub kitajskemu prigovarjanju pa so številne države v Tihem oceanu in Aziji, kljub ozemeljskim sporom z Japonsko, navdušene nad novo vlogo Japonske. Nekatere med njimi, tudi Vietnam in Filipini, celo občasno prosijo Japonsko za pomoč« (siol.net, 30.11.2012) - izražajo pozitiven ton do Japonske. Poročanje, ki hvali japonske vrednote demokracije, oblasti prava, človekovih pravic in gospodarske razvitosti prav tako podaja pozitivno konotacijo do Japonske (Delo, 29.9.2012, 13.5.2013). Podobno, prispevki, ki poudarjajo humanitarno pomoč Kitajske, vsebujejo pozitiven ton do Kitajske (Večer 17.3.2011, 23.5.2011; 5.11.2012).
Uokvirjanje
Prispevki o sporu nad otočjem Senkaku so podani predvsem v okvirih nacionalne varnosti (ozemeljske integritete, pomorskega in zračnega obrambnega prostora, ameriško-japonskega zavezništva), ekonomskih interesov (nafta, plin, ribolov), zahtev mednarodnega prava, notranjepolitičnih razmer (politična nestabilnost, vzpon nevladnih akterjev), vprašanj nacionalne identitete, ali pa v okviru
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zgodovinskih zamer. Pričujoča analiza odkriva, da je dominiral okvir konflikta, saj so bili prispevki, ki so poročali o sporu nad otočjem Senkaku, vsi osnovani na konfliktu. 181 (67%) prispevkov je o sporu poročalo kot o vodilni temi oziroma o temi, ki ji je bilo posvečeno precej pozornosti. Večina je poročala o tveganju in nevarnosti eskalacije konflikta: 36% jih je namigovalo na možnost vojne: »V vodah okoli otočja zdaj nenehno patruljirajo vojaške ladje obeh držav in vzbujajo strah pred izbruhom pomorskega konflikta« (RTVSLO.com, 18.9.2012), »Ena napačna poteza katerekoli strani bi lahko imela zelo resne posledice, celo izgubo življenj, po najbolj črnem scenariju pa vojno med tekmicama« (siol.net, 27.9.2012), ».bi v primeru nekontroliranega zaostrovanja lahko imele celo tako daljnosežne posledice, kot jih je imel pred sto leti sarajevski atentat« (Delo, 6.12.2012),
Tudi nekatere evropske države so dale vedeti, da jih skrbijo razmere, v katerih so nepričakovani incidenti čedalje verjetnejši, več možnosti pa je tudi za oborožen spopad med Kitajsko in Japonsko (Delo, 28.11.2013).
Besede kot so »vojna«, »nevarnost«, »vojaške sile« so bile zelo pogoste. Na primer, zelo eksplicitni in propagandni naslovi kot »Resnična nevarnost za Daljni vzhod: Kitajska in Japonska tragična preteklost, negotova prihodnost, nevarna sedanjost« (Delo, 14.12.2012), »Nevarni otoki Senkaku: vojna zastav in besed: Na tisoče Kitajcev je protestiralo proti Japonski, nekateri zahtevajo celo vojno napoved« (Delo, 19.8.2012), »Napakica vodi v vojno« (Večer, 5.11.2012) ali »Govorijo o miru, pripravljajo se na vojno« (Večer, 31.1.2013) so še dodatno potrdili okvir konflikta. Uporaba citatov je prav tako pomembno orodje uokvirjanja. (Pan in Kosicki 1993, 68) Ker je večina prispevkov vključevala citate kitajskih in japonskih političnih oz. vojaških vodij, je bil okvir konflikta še bolj okrepljen, na primer: »Xi Jinping pa je svoji vojski ukazal, naj bo 'pripravljena na pravo bitko'« (Xi Jinping v Delu, 14.12.2012) ali
»NOV (Narodnoosvobodilna vojska) se mora znebiti teh globoko ustaljenih navad, ki jih je prevzela v več desetletjih miru, in mora biti pripravljena na vojno, takoj ko je ta napovedana« (Glasilo NOV v Delu, 22.1.2013).
Z željo po ohranjanju nevtralnosti so novinarji pogosto uporabljali tudi obratne okvire (counter-frames), kot na primer:
Iz Washingtona je za zdaj slišati pomirjujoče tone. gre še vedno predvsem za spor med Japonsko in Kitajsko, v katerem je treba hitro najti ustrezne mehanizme za krizni menedžment in se dogovoriti o učinkovitih
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komunikacijskih kanalih, po katerih bo mogoče zmanjšati tveganje za eskalacijo konflikta (Delo, 6.12.2013).
Večina prispevkov (59%) je bila uokvirjenih v dvostranski konflikt med Kitajsko in Japonsko, 38% v tristranski konflikt med Kitajsko, Japonsko in Tajvanom ter 3% v večstranski konflikt, ki je vključeval tudi ostale države (glej Graf 6). Tajvan je bil večinoma omenjen zgolj bežno, saj so se komentarji večinoma sukali okoli spora med Kitajsko in Japonsko. Nekajkrat je bil Tajvan predstavljen celo zgolj kot lokacijska referenca otočja, in ne kot eden od vpletenih strani, ki si lastijo suverenost nad otočjem, na primer: »Strateško pomembne otoke, ki so kakih 200 kilometrov oddaljeni od Tajvana, si lastita tako Kitajska kot Japonska« (Delo, 11.9.2012; siol.net, 11.9.2012; Večer, 11.9.2012; Dnevnik 11.9.2012). Poleg tega je bilo sporno otočje večinoma naslovljeno kot otočje z dvema imenoma, Diaoyu in Senkaku, medtem ko je le en prispevek podal tudi tajvansko uradno ime otočja (Večer, 14.9.2010). Medtem ko mirovna iniciativa tajvanske vlade ni bila omenjena v nobenem od analiziranih medijev, pa se je bitka z vodnimi topovi med japonsko in tajvansko mornarico v samih naslovnicah pojavila več kot desetkrat. Nekaj prispevkov je omenjalo možnost sodelovanja tajvanske in kitajske vlade proti Japonski (Večer, 20.8.2012, 26.9.2012 in 13.7.2012), le nekateri pa so eksplicitno navedli, da je Tajpej takšno sodelovanje zavrnil (Dnevnik, 13.9.2012; Delo, 19.8.2012).
dvostranski tristranski večstranski
Graf 6: Predstavitev konflikta
Glavni razlogi za konflikt so bili predstavljeni kot politični, varnostni, zgodovinski, ekonomski ali socialni (Graf 7).
Graf 7: Glavni razlogi za konflikt (%)
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Ekonomski razlogi so bili večinoma upodobljeni kot »plin«, »nafta«, »naravni viri«, ali »ribolovno območje«. Medtem ko vlade v Pekingu, Tokiu in Tajpeju otočje Senkaku označujejo za »sveto nacionalno ozemlje«, pa mediji večinoma naslavljajo otočje kot »neposeljeno«, »prazno«, »majhno«, ali celo kot »nepomembne skale« ali »pikica komajda opazna na zemljevidu«. Omenjanje pomembne strateške lokacije otočja ter pomorskih linij v njihovi okolici pa implicira na strateške oziroma varnostne razloge v ozadju konflikta. Politični razlogi so razvidni v navedbah o japonskem nakupu otočja (Dnevnik, 9.9.2012, 10.9.2012; 24ur.com, 11.9.2012, 16.9.2012; Večer, 10.9.2012), nepripravljenosti japonske vlade po priznavanju ozemeljskega spora (Večer, 15.10.2012; siol.net, 17.12.2012) ali pa nadzoru protestnikov s strani kitajske oblasti (Delo, 19.8.2012, 11.9.2012; RTVSLO.com, 5.9.12; siol.net, 20.9.2012; Dnevnik, 2.12.2013).
Nacionalizem je bil predstavljen kot pomemben dejavnik konflikta. Upodobljen je bil ne le kot razlog marveč tudi kot posledica konflikta: pribl. 17% prispevkov ga je predstavilo kot razlog, 39% pa kot posledico. Na primer: »Jezo na obeh straneh Vzhodnokitajskega morja podžiga nacionalistični aktivizem« (siol.net, 27.9.2012), ».tako burna čustva razganja še nacionalistična retorika politikov« (siol.net, 2.12.2013) ali pa
Zdaj, ko je že ustvarjena napetost, pa si nihče od voditeljev ne upa popustiti, kajti ljudstvo zahteva kri. Komunistična partija se ne boji Japonske, temveč svojega lastnega ljudstva. (Delo, 6.10.2010)
100 80 60 40 20 0
politične ekonomske varnostne socialne
Graf 8: Glavne posledice konflikta (%)
Zelo direktno so mediji protijaponske proteste na Kitajskem označili kot nazoren odraz moči kitajskega nacionalizma. Obširno so pisali o množicah nasilnih protestnikov, ki so »metali kamenje, jajca in steklenice«, »zažigali japonske zastave«, »pozivali k bojkotu japonskih izdelkov« in »prisilili mnoga japonska
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podjetja, da so zaprla svoje tovarne in trgovine« (Večer, 18.9.2012; Delo, 15.9.2012, 16.9.2012, 17.9.2012, 18.9.2012; 24ur.com, 16.9.12; siol.net, 18.9.2012, 19.9.2012). Razlogi za protijaponske proteste na Tajvanu so bili predstavljeni predvsem kot ekonomski (ribolovna območja) in varnostni (nacionalno ozemlje) (Večer, 25.9.2012, 26.9.2012; Dnevnik, 26.9.2012; Delo, 26.9.2012; 24ur.com, 25.9.2012; siol.net, 25.9.2012; RTVSLO.com, 25.9.2012). Protikitajski protesti na Japonskem pa so po drugi strani bili predstavljeni kot izraz nezadovoljstva skrajnih desničarjev. Politični razlogi za konflikt so bili nekajkrat izraženi tudi v navedbah bitke za oblast v azijski regiji (Delo, 27.9.2012, 29.9.2012, 12.6.2013; Večer, 30.11.2013, 5.12.2012; 24ur.com, 29.12.2012). Posledice so bile prikazane kot varnostne, politične, socialne in ekonomske narave (Graf 8).
Varnostne posledice so bile razvidne v temah o širjenju militarizacije in stopnjevanju napetosti. Socialne posledice pa so, kot že omenjeno, bile vidne v poročanju o porastu nacionalističnih čustev kot tudi implikacijah le-teh na področju športa in kulture (Večer, 18.9.2012; Dnevnik, 21.9.2012; Delo, 24.9.2012). Ekonomske posledice spora so bile največkrat omenjene v smislu negativnega vpliva na japonsko gospodarstvo (npr. kot padec japonskega izvoza na Kitajsko, prekinjenega delovanja japonskih podjetij na Kitajskem, ali pa kot grožnje Pekinga o uvedbi ekonomskih sankcij proti Japonski (Večer, 17.9.2012, 29.9.2012; RTVSLO.com, 27.9.2012; Delo, 18.9.2012, 22.10.2012; Dnevnik, 16.9.2012).
Noben prispevek ni podal predloga glede rešitve spora. Medtem ko je 21 prispevkov sugeriralo vlogo ZDA v azijskem sporu, pa se je v možno vlogo EU obregnil le en članek (Delo, 18.2.2012).
Zaključne ugotovitve
Analiza vzorčne skupine prispevkov šestih ključnih dnevnih časopisov in spletnih novičarskih portalov podaja grob vpogled v to, kako je bila polemika o spornem otočju Senkaku predstavljena slovenskim bralcem. Prominentnost dogodka, zemljepisna bližina, časovnost, konfliktnost, itd, so vse bistvene vrednote, ki odločajo o tem, ali bo novica dovolj zanimiva, da bo vredna objave. Več novičarskih vrednot zgodba vsebuje, bolj se šteje zanimiva za objavo. Čeprav se je v skladu s svetovnim trendom poročanje o dogodkih v Vzhodni Aziji v slovenskih medijih povečalo, pa je zelo malo verjetno, da bi novice o spornem otočju
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Senkaku na slovenske bralce imele nek izmerljiv neposreden vpliv. Izjema so morda le slovenski poslovneži, ki so zaradi svojega poslovanja odvisni od stabilnega okolja v regiji. Ne glede na zemljepisno in kulturno oddaljenost Vzhodnokitajskega morja, zaradi česar Slovenci ne čutimo emocionalne bližine do novic o otočju Senkaku, pa so bili prispevki zaradi samega značaja mednarodnega konflikta dovolj zanimivi za objavo, in le-ti so morali biti objavljeni čim hitreje. Posledično pa tako količina prispevkov o spornem otočju ni bila zanemarljiva.1
Graf 9: Primerjava slovenske blagovne menjave s Kitajsko, Japonsko in Tajvanom (tisoč €, 2003-2013). Vir: Statistični urad Republike Slovenije (SURS), Zunanja trgovina, 2014.
Poročanje medijev nedvomno izvaja pomemben vpliv na ustvarjanje podobe nekega naroda. Mediji namreč lahko vplivajo na to, kako javnost vidi neko državo, saj imajo možnost, da poudarijo določene poglede pred drugimi, in s tem (so)ustvarjajo javno mnenje. Zato obstaja močna povezava med medijskim poročanjem in javnim mnenjem o nekem narodu. (Wanta idr. 2004, 375) Ker to, kako javnost dojema neko državo, vpliva na zunanjo politiko države, je tuje javno mnenje za države vsekakor zelo pomembno. Večina vlad si tako prizadeva k vplivanju na tuja javna mnenja in izgradnji čim boljše podobe lastnega naroda. Znaten del javne diplomacije držav tako poteka preko medijev z namenom, da bi le-ti dosegli želene množice in tako pozitivno vplivali na nacionalne podobe svojih držav. Vlade Japonske, Kitajske in Tajvana so prav tako vedno bolj pozorne na svoje nacionalne podobe. Do danes so razvile trdne in raznolike odnose s Slovenijo, kar nazorno kažejo rastoče številke turističnih interakcij, blagovnih
1 Zanimiv podatek je, da so slovenski časopisi že v začetku 20. stoletja zelo pozorno spremljali dogajanje na Kitajskem in bili do uradne kitajske politike avstro-ogrske vlade zelo kritični. Slovenska javnost je dogajanje povezano z boksarsko vstajo leta 1900 spremljala z veliko pozornostjo (Lipušček 2013, 35-49).
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menjav, sodelovanja na kulturnem in izobraževalnem področju kot tudi vedno večjem številu izmenjav obiskov visokih uradnikov. 2 Takšen trend pa vsekakor kaže na interes treh azijskih sil, da ohranjajo pozitiven odnos s Slovenijo in razvijajo čim bolj pozitivno javnomnenjsko podobo. Zato je ključnega pomena za vse posamezne strani, da spremljajo, kako so predstavljene v slovenskih medijih.
Zanimiv izsledek pričujoče raziskave je, da ne politični ne gospodarski pomisleki niso vplivali na slovenske medije pri posredovanju informacij o spornem otočju Senkaku. Namreč, Kitajska je glede na vrednost blagovne menjave zdaleč največja slovenska gospodarska partnerica v Aziji. Vrednost njene menjave je znatno večja od menjave, ki jo ima Slovenija z Japonsko, ali pa menjave, ki jo ima s Tajvanom (Graf 9).3 Zato bi morda pričakovali, da se bo Slovenija postavila na stran Kitajske z namenom, da bi zaščitila svoje gospodarske vezi, ki so ekonomsko gledano precej bolj dragocene. Vendar pa so slovenski politiki izbrali popolno distanco nad sporom, saj iz zunanjega ministrstva ni bilo slišati niti ene same izjave glede zaskrbljenosti nad razmerami ali pa kakega poziva k miroljubni rešitvi. Na splošno se zdi, da slovenska vlada niha med Japonsko in Kitajsko, ko se je potrebno opredeliti glede slovenskih ključnih zunanjepolitičnih usmeritev v Vzhodni Aziji. Ko je govora o »skupnih vrednotah« se jeziček na tehtnici usmeri k Japonski, ko je govora o »poslovnih priložnostih« pa se jeziček preusmeri h Kitajski. (glej Mekina 2014) Tajvan, ki ga Slovenija ne priznava za suvereno državo, pa je že tako sam po sebi politično preveč tvegan, da bi ob gospodarsko, politično in vojaško vse močnejši Kitajski pri zunanjepolitičnih usmeritvah sploh lahko bil obravnavan, kaj šele uradno omenjen. Gospodarski interesi, ideologija, članstvo v EU in še posebno v zvezi NATO so zagotovo med najpomembnejšimi dejavniki, ki oblikujejo slovenske politične smernice. V pričujoči analizi izbranih slovenskih medijev pa ni bilo zaznati tovrstnih nihanj med vplivi posameznih dejavnikov oziroma samocenzure. Sicer rezultati analize valentnosti kažejo, da so prispevki bili rahlo bolj naklonjeni do Japonske kot do Kitajske, ampak menim, da
2	Za podrobne informacije o izmenjavah glej posamezne strani predstavništev Kitajske (China Embassy), Japonske (Japanese Embassy) in Tajvana (Tajvanese Embassy). Za trend gospodarske rasti glej Graf 9. S Kitajsko in Japonsko ima Slovenija vzpostavljene diplomatske vezi vse od leta 1992. V Ljubljani delujeta njuni veleposlaništvi, v Pekingu in Tokiu pa veleposlaništvi Slovenije. S Tajvanom Slovenija nima vzpostavljenih diplomatskih vezi niti ne gosti tajvanskega predstavništva. Za diplomatske, konzularne, gospodarske in kulturne odnose med Slovenijo in Tajvanom je zadolžen Gospodarski in kulturni urad Tajpeja na Dunaju (TECO).
3	V letu 2013 je blagovna menjava med Slovenijo in Kitajsko znašala 665.528 milijonov evrov, med Slovenijo in Japonsko 104.033 milijonov evrov, med Slovenijo in Tajvanom pa 56.218 milijonov, glej SURS 2014).
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je to najverjetneje odraz japonske mehke moči v medijih Zahoda, ki še vedno presega slab sloves, ki se drži Kitajske. 4 Medtem ko so prispevki sicer marginalizirali Tajvan, so o njem, če že, večinoma pisali nevtralno. Kljub vsemu, pa poročanje slovenskih medijev o spornem otočju ni prispevalo h krepitvi pozitivnega profila nobene od treh vpletenih strani.
Literatura
24.ur.com. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. www.24ur.com.
"Diaoyu Dao, an Inherent Territory of China." 2012. English.news.cn, 25. september. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-09/25/c_131872152.htm.
Entman, Robert. M. 1993. "Framing Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm."
Journal of Communication 43(4): 51-58.
Gamson, William A. 1992. Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Graber, D. Doris A. 1988. Processing the News: How People Tame the Information Tide. NewYork: Longman.
Kulturni in gospodarski urad Tajpeja na Dunaju. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://www.taipei.at/culture/de/.
Lipušček, Uroš. 2013. "Interpretations of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in the Slovenian Press at the Beginning of the 20th Century." Asian Studies 1 (2): 35-49.
Malukanas, Karl. 2014. "Philippine President Compares China Turf Claims to Nazi Legacy." China Post 2.2.2014. Dostop 2. februar, 2014.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/regional-news/2014/02/06/399923/Philippine-president.htm.
Manyin, Mark E. 2012. "Senkaku (Diaoyu/Diaoyutai) Islands Dispute U.S. Treaty Obligations." CRS Report for Congress R42761. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42761.pdf.
Mediana. 2013. "Redna letna raziskava stanja medijskega pluralizma v Republiki Sloveniji za leto 2012 na področju slovenskih tiskanih medijev, radijskih in televizijskih programov ter elektronskih publikacij." Dostop 3. februar 2014. http://www. mk. gov.si/fileadmin/mk. gov.si/pageuploads/Ministrstvo/ raziskave -analize/mediji/MK-2013-porocilo Mediana FINAL .pdf.
Mekina, Borut. 2014. "Politika solo akcij zunanjega ministrstva." Mladina 34. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://www.mladina.si/159511/politika-solo-akcij-zunanjega-ministrstva/.
4 Slovenski mediji večinoma povzemajo zahodne vire, saj so pri poročanju o dogodkih v Vzhodni Aziji zaradi skoraj neobstoječih uradnih dopisnikov stacioniranih v sami regiji precej omejeni (trenutno je Uroš Lipušček edini uradni slovenski dopisnik za RTV Slovenija, ki biva v Vzhodnoazijski regiji).
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Republic of China's Sovereignty Claims over the Diaoyutai Islands and the East China Sea Peace Initiative. Dostop 3. februar, 2014.
http://www.mofa.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=38CD1D3C91067 AEC.
Neuendorf, Kimberly A. 2002. The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Neuman, Russel W., Marion R. Just, in Ann N. Crigler. 1992. Common Knowledge. News and the Construction of Political Meaning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pan, Zhongdang, in Gerald Kosicki. 1993. "Framing Analysis: An Approach to News Discourse." Political Communication 10 (1): 55-76.
Perlez, Jane. 2014. "Japan's Leader Compares Strain with China to Germany and Britain in 1914." The New York Times, 23.januar, 2014. Dostop 24. januar, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/world/asia/japans-leader-compares-strain-with-china-to -germany-and-britain-in- 1914.html?_r=0.
Raba interneta v Sloveniji. 2014. Fakulteta za družbene vede, Univerza v Ljubljani. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://www.ris.org.
RTVSLO.si. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. www.rtvslo.si.
Semetko, Holli A., in Patti M. Valkenburg. 2000. "Framing European Politics: A Content Analysis of Press and Television News." Journal of Communication 50 (2): 93-109.
Siol.net. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. www.siol.net.
"Statement by the Government of the People's Republic of China on Establishing the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone." 2013. English.news.cn, 23. november, 2013. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-11/23/c_132911635.htm.
Statistični urad Republike Slovenije. 2014. "Statistični letopis Republike Slovenije 2013." Dostop 15. avgust, 2014. http://www.stat.si/letopis/letopisprvastran.aspx.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Japanese Territory: Senkaku Islands. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/senkaku/index.html.
Veleposlaništvo Japonske v Sloveniji. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://www.si.emb-japan.go.jp/.
Veleposlaništvo Ljudske Republike Kitajske v Sloveniji. Dostop 3. februar, 2014. http://si.china-embassy.org/chn/.
Wanta, Wayne, Guy Golan, in Cheolhan Lee. 2004. "Agenda Setting and International News: Media Influence on Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81 (2): 364-77.
Summary
The dispute between Japan, the People's Republic of China (PRC or China) and
the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan) over the sovereignty of the
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Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands is one of the most serious maritime territorial disputes in East Asia. Given that any miscalculation could lead to a war with unimaginable consequences, the issue has gained media attention across the world. Buttressed with the general newsworthiness of an international conflict, the Slovene media has also been attentive to report on the islands' controversy. Although the remote East Asian region is far down the list of Slovenia's priorities and ambitions of its politicians, national commercial considerations are connected with a stable and secure environment in East Asia. This paper examines Slovene media's coverage of the island's dispute by applying a combined quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the news stories on the dispute published in selected Slovene print and online newspapers between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2013. The findings addresses the following: (1) the quantity of news reports in Slovenia's print and online media about the dispute, the placement of reports, their length, category, sources used and the visual tools employed; (2) the thematic news frames used in reporting the issue; (3) the images of Japan, China and Taiwan that are communicated to the readers; (4) the factors affecting the media's representation.
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Book Reviews
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The Rebirth of the Moral Self—The Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses
Jana S. Rosker. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2015. Reviewed by Tea SERNELJ*
The author of the present book, Prof. Jana S. Rosker, is Professor of Sinology at the Department of Asian Studies at Ljubljana University. She is an expert in Chinese epistemology, mostly dealing with the fields of Chinese logic and epistemology. In her new book, however, she devoted her research to a topic, linked to modern Chinese, especially Taiwanese philosophy. In this book, she introduces, analyses and interprets the crucial works of the so-called second generation of the Contemporary New Confucian movement, which she prefers to denote as Modern Confucian stream of thought, in order to highlight its tight connection with their aspirations to modernize traditional Chinese philosophy and to harmonize it with the ideational and material demands of the modern era.
The book consists of eight chapters, including a rather extensive and very informative introduction, a conclusion and three annexes, including a Chronological chart of Chinese dynasties, a Chronology of the developmental phases of Confucianism and an Index of technical terms and proper names in Chinese.
In the Introduction (Chapter one), the author underscores some fundamental methodological problems of intercultural research.
Chapter 2 opens with a discussion of the specific features of Chinese modernization, using as its analytical template the so-called "crisis of rationality" (Habermas) which appears in societies split between actual, contemporary socioeconomic and political practices and inherited but outmoded ideological assumptions. In this regard, it then describes the origins of the Modern Confucian
* Téa SERNELJ, PhD Candidate and Assistant Reasercher, Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. tea.sernelj @ff.uni-lj.si
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current which emerged at the turn of the 20th century, in a crucial historical moment when the Chinese confrontation with the Western powers produced a series of intellectual controversies on modernization, understood as a period of transformation and separation from traditional political, economic and axiological paradigms that had hitherto dominated the social reality of the Chinese empire.
The next chapter deals with the general historical, social and theoretical conditions which contributed to forming the Modern Confucian stream of thought, and examines its theoretical foundations.
In the fourth chapter, the author introduces four key philosophers of the so-called 2nd generation of Modern Confucian thought, Mou Zongsan, Fang Dongmei, Xu Fuguan and Tang Junyi. It points out the fact that "Confucian modernization" was a fundamental question for all these theoreticians. The chapter is divided into 4 sections, one for each thinker, with a brief biographical account and a description of their philosophical theories that focuses on their attempts to synthesize Western and traditional Chinese thought.
By appropriating certain theoretical concepts and approaches derived from Western philosophy (especially German idealism) these thinkers showed their awareness that not only traditional Chinese, but also Western philosophy was in crisis. Modern Confucian researches were thus not limited to revitalizing or rehabilitating their own cultural or traditional ideals, but recognized that conceptual and methodological renewal had to also deal with certain ideas "imported" from those cultures where modernization had first occurred. The endeavors of these thinkers were thus not focused solely upon the rescue of their own tradition, but also upon a foreign intellectual tradition which had quite clearly created its own philosophical dead-ends and binds.
A second factor uniting these thinkers is the conviction that morality must play a central role in the solution of the modern world crisis. Their theories were thus not only the fruit of technical, organizational or contractual factors, but also arose out of a profound awareness of the importance of the ethical conditionality of human life. A further common ground can also be found in the supposition that every human being as a moral being (ens morale) has a potential for maintaining and constantly re-formulating their moral priorities, and that this potential represents a foundation for a modernity of solidarity. This potential, which is linked to the concepts of autonomy as well as individual and social responsibility, is clearly evident in their different individual reconstructions of Confucian ethics.
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The chapter also shows how the 2nd generation of Confucians generally elaborated or upgraded pre-existing theoretical attempts to revitalize the Chinese cultural identity by "transplanting the old roots" of their own tradition. They believed that this renewal of "roots" not only helped guarantee the survival of Chinese culture, but also offered an active and innovative role for Modern Confucian discourses in the framework of modernized Chinese thought, and within the context of international dialogues among different modern societies.
Generally speaking, the representatives of the 2nd generation of Modern Confucians believed that if China wished to undertake an independent modernization while still preserving its cultural identity, it had to strengthen and develop those elements in its own tradition that had the potential of producing science and democracy. In order to delineate the main elements in this theoretical reworking of the Chinese—and especially Confucian—tradition, the fifth chapter is divided into four sections, each of which analyzes a specific issue and describes how that issue is elaborated by each member of the 2nd generation of Modern Confucianism. However, irrespective of their common viewpoints, the author stresses how the each scholar had very different ideas on how to actually bring about such a Confucian democracy.
Another element shared by all Modern Confucians is a general skepticism towards "Western models of science and democracy". Singled out as especially negative is the exaggerated normative nature of these society, and the prevalence of a mechanistic rationality and non-reflective scientism which risks excluding the fundamental principles of social ethics.
The next chapter deals with the Modern Confucian attempts to identify, transform and develop certain crucial concepts essential for any modernization process, while remaining within the framework of the Chinese tradition. Since it has generally been assumed that the Western concepts of reason/rationality and subject/subjectivity are paradigms indispensable for modernization, the Modern Confucian philosophers of the 2nd generation mostly focused on reinterpreting certain traditional Chinese concepts that could—in a modernized and extended form—likewise serve as theoretical paradigms for the development of modern societies (e.g. tt,	ffl, ttffl, ffffl, R^E,	M'fr etc.). Such
concepts were elaborated, extended and modified by the Modern Confucians in order to formulate new notions that could serve as the conceptual foundations for theories of a specifically Chinese modernization (e.g. the concepts of Mti
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ate, tom, «^A, m^m^, M^A
m,	etc.).
The chapter is divided into five sections, each focusing on a specific issue. The first section deals with the specific methodological approach necessary for understanding the concepts in question, i.e. the paradigm of immanent transcendence, while the next three sections explore specific traditional concepts that, in the view of the Modern Confucians, could serve as theoretical foundations for a specific Chinese modernization model. The final section examines the Modern Confucian critique of the inconsistency of Western, especially European elaborations of the aforementioned modernization concepts.
Chapter seven elaborates the modernized forms of the concepts, treated in the previous chapter and indicates their relevance for a conception of "Chinese" modernization theories. An important notion here is the advanced concept of the traditional moral Self, which in the new global philosophies was intended to assume the function of a "truly" autonomous subject. "True" autonomy in fact means that this subject is both particular and universal. While this subject acts as an individual, necessarily forming a part of the social community, it is also ennobled by an infinite heart-mind which enables it to be aware of its unity with the cosmos. Through its free will, it derives its freedom from its own inborn moral imperative which is likewise infinite, although its infinite nature is not defined by the existence of God, but rather by the organic, structural unity with all metaphysical and physical elements of being. This new, moral and infinite, limitless subject represents an elaboration of the "traditional" Confucian concept of the moral Self, and thus may also be the active personality that can sustain the idea of modernization. Since its reason as a tool of intuitive, concrete bodily comprehension is limitless, it is not dependent upon (any kind of) spiritual connection between the world and itself. This moral subject or Self is truly autonomous, for its autonomy is not determined by anything external to itself.
In the framework of classical (and partly also Modern) Confucianism, this Self is autonomous precisely due to its rational, structural (li 3) connection with all aspects of its natural and social environment. And because this connection is also dynamic and organic, it is capable of infinite forms of communication and cooperation. For a Chinese model of modernity, i.e. for a modernity permeated with humanism or mutuality (ren A), these forms of communication and
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cooperation are much more important than formal laws of economy and official politics.
The final chapter provides an overview of the complex image of the Modern Confucian movement in the latter half of the 20th century and evaluates its function and the significance of its intellectual contributions for the development of Chinese culture in the era of modernization and globalization.
It also affirms the importance of the continued, future development of this important current, and of realizing its assumptions not only on a theoretical, but also on a practical, concrete level within society.
This book raises awareness of the significance of the Modern Confucian stream of thought and exposes that Confucianism is not a monolithic entity in the Chinese and East Asian area, but differs in regard to its ideational and political background. Furthermore, the author wants to express the dynamic and creative ability of Confucian thought. The book is thus of great importance in understanding classical and Modern Confucian thought, although it simultaneously points to the new paths of further investigations, necessary in this field of research.
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