-
Links
- “Empowering through the Mundane: Royal Women’s Households in 12th and 13th Century Japan”, Sachiko 2022
- “Tokyo Says Long Goodbye to Beloved Floppy Disks: Reliability Cherished by Bureaucrats, but Maintenance Fees Had Become a Burden”, Sugimoto 2021
- “Anime's Atomic Legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the Negotiation of Japanese War Memory”, Manji 2020
- “How Japan Copied American Culture and Made It Better: If You’re Looking for Some of America’s Best Bourbon, Denim and Burgers, Go to Japan, Where Designers Are Re-engineering Our Culture in Loving Detail”, Downey 2014
- “Book Reviews”, Branwen 2013
- “Earth in My Window”, Murakami & Hoaglund 2012
- “The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax And The Men Who Created Evangelion”, Takeda 2010
- “Murakami's 'little Boy' Syndrome: Victim or Aggressor in Contemporary Japanese and American Arts?”, Koh 2010
- “The Melancholy of Subculture Society”, Branwen 2009
- “Book Review of Steven D. Carter's _Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History.:Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History: (2007)”, Borgen 2008
- “History of Combinatorial Generation (The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 4: Pre-Fascicle 4B: Section 7.2.1.7) § Pg22”, Knuth 2005-page-22
- “Behind the Sensationalism: Images of a Decaying Corpse in Japanese Buddhist Art”, Kanda 2005
- “Impotence Culture—Anime”, Murakami 2001
- “The Dark Side of Private Ordering: An Institutional and Empirical Analysis of Organized Crime”, Milhaupt & West 2000
- “Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest times to the Late Sixteenth Century (Fujiwara No Teika Excerpts)”, Keene 1999
- “Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest times to the Late Sixteenth Century (Shotetsu Excerpts)”, Keene 1999
- “The Poet and the Politician: Teika and the Compilation of the Shinchokusenshū”, Smits 1998
- “Tokyo: A Certain Style”, Tsuzuki 1997
- “Unforgotten Dreams: Poems by the Zen Monk Shōtetsu”, Shōtetsu & Carter 1997
- “Reviewed Work: 'String of Beads: Complete Poems of Princess Shikishi', by Princess Shikishi, Hiroaki Sato [book Review]”, Bundy 1994
- “Reviewed Work: The Tale of Matsura: Fujiwara Teika's Experiment in Fiction. by Wayne P. Lammers [book Review]”, Hulvey 1992
- “Reviewed Work: Conversations With Shōtetsu. by Robert H. Brower, Steven D. Carter [book Review]”, Bundy 1992
- “Poetic Apprenticeship. Fujiwara Teika’s Shogaku Hyakushu”, Bundy 1990
- “Kyōgoku Tamekane: Poetry and Politics in Late Kamakura Japan”, Huey 1989
- “Waiting for the Wind: Thirty-Six Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Age”, Carter 1989
- “Robert H. Brower, 1923-1988 [obituary]”, Editor 1988
- “Fujiwara Teika’s Maigetsushō”, Brower 1985
- “Genji Days”, Archive 1983
- “Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era, 1200: A Complete Translation, With Introduction and Commentary. By Robert H. Brower. Tokyo: Sophia University (Monumenta Nipponica Monograph No. 55), 1978. 120 Pp. Illustrations, Footnotes, Appendix, Works Cited or Quoted in the Text, Index. Share_history1.00. [book Review]”, Morrell 1979
- “Fujiwara Teika’s Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era [Continued]”, Brower 1976
- “Reviewed Work: _Fujiwara Teika's Supreme Poems of Our Times. A Thirteenth-Century Poetic Treatise and Sequence_, by Robert H. Brower, Earl Miner [book Review]”, Kato 1969
- “Fujiwara Teika’s Superior Poems of Our Time [book Review]”, O’Neill 1968
- “Japanese Court Poetry”, Brower & Miner 1961
- “The Manyoshu: The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation of One Thousand Poems With the Texts in Romaji”, Shinkokai & Keene 1940
- Muji
- Miscellaneous
Links
“Empowering through the Mundane: Royal Women’s Households in 12th and 13th Century Japan”, Sachiko 2022
2022-kawai.pdf
: “Empowering through the mundane: royal women’s households in 12th and 13th century Japan”, (2022-01-08; similar):
This paper argues that commodities such as bamboo blinds, flooring materials [straw mats], and food supplies are valuable historical sources for understanding the power of Heian and Kamakura royal women.
Vases and bowls excavated from the Noto Peninsula, for example, show that Premier Royal Lady Kōkamon-in (1122–1181) played an important role during the twelfth century in starting Suzu stoneware [Suzuyaki] production at her Wakayama Estate and stimulated interregional commerce. From this growing industry, she gained economic benefits and strengthened her political networks.
Another contemporary female landlord, Senyōmon-in [Princess Kinshi] (1181–1252), implemented a due-collection [outstanding rents] plan for obtaining material objects that maintained the livelihood of her palace. Mundane items including household furnishing articles supported her economic well-being while buttressing her political and cultural influence over the course of her life. By collecting various items from her estates, such as blinds, curtains, and mats, she supported her adopted children and widened her human networks. With the effective use of such material goods, she could seek political allies and align with leading courtiers who participated in decision-making meetings at court.
As a whole, the above case studies show that series of innocuous data such as excavated ceramic pieces and recorded object types can be used to reveal a level of substantial cultural, political, and religious influence.
[Keywords: medieval Japan, Asian history, royal women, nyoin, gender, materials, primary sources, Heian, Kamakura]
“Tokyo Says Long Goodbye to Beloved Floppy Disks: Reliability Cherished by Bureaucrats, but Maintenance Fees Had Become a Burden”, Sugimoto 2021
“Tokyo says long goodbye to beloved floppy disks: Reliability cherished by bureaucrats, but maintenance fees had become a burden”, (2021-10-23; ; backlinks; similar):
Meguro Ward plans to put all work involving floppies and other physical storage media online in fiscal 2021, and Chiyoda Ward plans a similar transition within the next few years. Minato Ward moved its payment procedures from floppies to online systems in 2019.
…This system survived even after floppies themselves disappeared from the market. Sony, one of the earliest suppliers of 3.5-inch floppy disks, stopped making them a decade ago. Floppies can be reused, and the ward had plenty on hand, giving it little reason to deal with the time and expense of upgrading to new systems.
That changed in 2019, when Mizuho Bank informed the ward that it would begin charging 50,000 yen ($438 at current rates) per month for use of physical storage media, including floppies.
The bank cited the end of production and the cost of maintaining disk readers and pointed out the relative inefficiency and risk of lost data involved compared with online banking.
The prospect of spending roughly an extra $5,000 a year pushed the ward to make the switch for all work involving outside systems. “This will save us the time of having each department save data to floppy disks and carry them around”, Ono said…A full switch to digital services remains a long way off, given the time that will be needed to handle tasks such as digitizing paper contracts. “There are a lot of little things that need to be handled in fine detail”, according to Chiyoda Ward accounting chief Shogo Hoshina.
“Anime's Atomic Legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the Negotiation of Japanese War Memory”, Manji 2020
2020-manji.pdf
: “Anime's atomic legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the negotiation of Japanese war memory”, (2020-07; ; backlinks; similar):
This thesis explores the cultural commentary by Japanese Neo-Pop artist Takashi Murakami in relation to Japan’s war memory and its legacy in popular culture, addressing in particular the essays accompanying his 2005 exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture. Murakami constructs a genealogy of postwar otaku subculture— anime, manga, tokusatsu, and video games—which he sees as reflecting anxieties repressed within mainstream culture: namely, memory of defeat, occupation, and ongoing military protection by the United States, epitomized by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These concerns become intertwined with the social malaise of Japan’s “Lost Decades”, in which postwar narratives of endless economic growth through scientific innovation give way to nihilism and social withdrawal. While anime of the “Economic Miracle” period show empowered heroes overcoming apocalyptic trauma through technology and righteous ideals, those of the 1990s frustrate such heroism: as scientific optimism deteriorates, protagonists are forced to question their beliefs, affiliations, and self-definition.
While Murakami offers a wealth of socio-historical insights, clear limitations emerge, particularly the immediate post-Occupation release of films and artworks depicting the war and the atomic bomb, which challenges the notion that these topics were repressed exclusively into subculture. Furthermore, critics have argued the emphasis on Japan’s defeat and the hardships faced by civilians downplays the broader history of the Japanese Empire and its wartime activities abroad, a tendency Carol Gluck terms “victim’s history”. This thesis proposes a revision of Murakami’s theory which argues that memory of Japan as perpetrator emerges subliminally in subcultural narratives alongside memory of victimhood. Drawing on Hashimoto’s, LaCapra’s, and Elsaesser’s insights on the transmission of perpetrator memory, I argue that many of anime’s most iconic Sci-Fi and fantasy narratives are rooted in ambivalence towards national history, with heroes forced to identify simultaneously with hero, victim, and perpetrator roles. I focus on directors Hayao Miyazaki and Hideaki Anno, identifying the recurring motif of the “perpetrator fathers” whose legacy young heroes must overcome, while at the same time experiencing a traumatic identification with their father figures. These narratives complicate questions of national identity, reflecting a simultaneous desire to escape from, and redeem, historical memory.
Anime’s Atomic Legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the Negotiation of Japanese War Memory
- Contents
- Abstract
- Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Superflat, Subculture, and National Trauma
Takashi Murakami and superflat
- A genealogy of superflat subculture
- Framing JNP: Japan’s Postmodern Condition
- The Database & Animalization
- Superflat and National Cinema
- Trauma Theory
- Atomic Trauma in Mainstream Japanese Cinema
- The Subcultural Split from Mainstream Cinema
Chapter 2: National Identity and Perpetrator Trauma in Anime Subculture
- National Identity & Perpetrator Trauma
- Miyazaki and Anno: Negotiating Historical Memory
Chapter 3: Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
- Murakami on Miyazaki
- Troubling Parental Figures: the Perpetrator Fathers and Earth Mothers
The Economic Miracle: 1978–1989
- Miyazaki’s Early Apocalyptic Narratives
- Future Boy Conan: Trauma, Nature, and Industry
- The Return of the Repressed: Conan’s Trauma Narratives and the Perpetrator Fathers
- Becoming the Perpetrator: Monsley and Intergenerational Trauma
- The Grand Narrative Preserved
The Lost Decade: Miyazaki’s Nihilism and the Decline of Grand Narratives
- Fragmented Identity and Survivor Guilt in Porco Rosso
- Complicity and Withdrawal in Howl’s Moving Castle
Chapter 4: Hideaki Anno
Hideaki Anno
- Anno’s goals as artist
- Interior Perspective and Hyperlimited Animation
The Economic Miracle: Gunbuster as Nationalist Fantasy
Anno’s Turning Point: Fascism and Technological Ambivalence in Nadia
- Nemo and Gargoyle: Reconciliation with the Perpetrator Fathers
The Lost Decade: Evangelion, Withdrawal, and the Decline of Grand Narratives
- The Decline of Scientific Optimism
Conclusion
Works Cited
- Reference Texts
- Films & Artistic Works
“How Japan Copied American Culture and Made It Better: If You’re Looking for Some of America’s Best Bourbon, Denim and Burgers, Go to Japan, Where Designers Are Re-engineering Our Culture in Loving Detail”, Downey 2014
“How Japan Copied American Culture and Made it Better: If you’re looking for some of America’s best bourbon, denim and burgers, go to Japan, where designers are re-engineering our culture in loving detail”, (2014-04; backlinks; similar):
[Account of specialty retailers and craftsmen in Japan, who love Americana, focusing on: old bourbon, jazz, workwear (“railroad jackets, canvas dusters, flannel shirts, double-kneed pants”; especially denim), hamburgers, and preppy “Ivy Style” fashion.]
In Japan, the ability to perfectly imitate—and even improve upon—the cocktails, cuisine and couture of foreign cultures isn’t limited to American products; there are spectacular French chefs and masterful Neapolitan pizzaioli who are actually Japanese. There’s something about the perspective of the Japanese that allows them to home in on the essential elements of foreign cultures and then perfectly recreate them at home. “What we see in Japan, in a wide range of pursuits, is a focus on mastery”, says Sarah Kovner, who teaches Japanese history at the University of Florida. “It’s true in traditional arts, it’s true of young people who dress up in Harajuku, it’s true of restaurateurs all over Japan.”
“Book Reviews”, Branwen 2013
Books
: “Book Reviews”, (2013-08-23; backlinks; similar):
A compilation of books reviews of books I have read since ~1997.
This is a compilation of my book reviews. Book reviews are sorted by star, and sorted by length of review within each star level, under the assumption that longer reviews are of more interest to readers.
See also my anime / manga and film / TV / theater reviews.
- 5 Stars
- Like Engend’ring Like, Russell 1986
- Cat Sense, Bradshaw 2013: Are We Good Owners?
- The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T., Brand 1988
- Radiance, Scholz 2003
- Stories of Your Life and Others, Chiang 2010
- Worm, Wildbow 2013
- Urne Burial, Browne 2005
- The Discovery of France, Robb 2007
- Selected Non-fictions, Borges 1999
- The Wages of Destruction, Tooze 2007
- Lords of Finance, Ahamed 2009
- Bias in Mental Testing, Jensen 1980
- The Notenki Memoirs, Takeda 2005
- The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro 2005
- The Book of Lord Shang—A Classic of the Chinese School of Law, Yang 2011
- The Origins of Political Order, Fukuyama 2011
- The Histories, Herodotus 2003
- Genius, Gleick 1993
- The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker 2011
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Mitchell 2010
- Collapse of Complex Societies, Tainter 1990
- Star Maker, Stapledon 1999
- 4 Stars
- ARPA and SCI: Surfing AI, Roland and Shiman 2002
- Past, Present, and Future of Statistical Science, Lin 2014
- The Cultural Revolution, Dikötter 2016
- The Genius Factory, Plotz 2006
- Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes, Everett 2008
- McNamara’s Folly, Gregory 2015
- The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Swanwick 2012
- Bad Blood, Carreyrou 2018
- A History of Life-Extensionism in the Twentieth Century, Stambler 2014
- Moondust, Smith 2006
- The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III, Byrne 2010
- Unsong, Alexander 2017
- Fortune’s Formula, Poundstone 2006
- Digital Gold, Popper 2015
- Playboy Interview II, Golson 1983
- Spec Ops, McRaven 1996
- Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide?, Gergel 1979
- Titan, Chernow 2004
- A Perfect Vacuum, Lem 1999
- Fujiwara Teika’s Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era, 1200, Brower 1978
- Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Márquez 2003
- The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice, Stallings 2019
- Existence, Brin 2012
- Singularity Rising, Miller 2012
- The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq, Blasim 2014
- Savage Continent, Lowe 2012
- Quantum Computing Since Democritus, Aaronson 2013
- A Life of Sir Francis Galton, Gillham 2001
- The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, Luttwak 2016
- The Machiavellians, Burnham 1988
- The Vaccinators, Jannetta 2007
- The Black Company, Cook 1992
- Life in Our Phage World, Rohwer 2014
- Tombstone, Jisheng 2012
- Pact, Wildbow 2014
- Drugs 2.0, Power 2013
- The Hall of Uselessness, Leys 2011
- Packing for Mars, Roach 2010
- The Windup Girl, Bacigalupi 2009
- Haikai Poet Yosa Buson And The Bashō Revival, Crowley 2006
- Turing’s Cathedral, Dyson 2012
- Web Typography, Rutter 2017
- Echopraxia, Watts 2014
- Ketamine, Jansen 2004
- Clear and Simple as the Truth, Thomas 1996
- In the Plex, Levy 2011
- Ready Player One, Cline 2011
- Cool Tools, Kelly 2013
- Proving History, Carrier 2012
- Wired Love, Thayer 1879
- The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, Hadamard 1954
- The Devil in the White City, Larson 2003
- The Mask of Sanity, Cleckley 2003
- The End of History and the Last Man, Fukuyama 2006
- Hyperbole and a Half, Brosh 2013
- Declare, Powers 2002
- A Shropshire Lad, Housman 1990
- Chased by the Light, Brandenburg 2001
- The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald 2004
- The Signal and the Noise, Silver 2012
- The Theory That Would Not Die, McGrayne 2011
- The Man Who Knew Infinity, Kanigel 1992
- Debt, Graeber 2011
- Red Plenty, Spufford 2010
- The Metropolitan Man, Wales 2014
- The True Believer, Hoffer 2010
- Dreams of Steel, Cook 1990
- On China, Kissinger 2011
- The Master Switch, Wu 2010
- The Circus of Dr. Lao, Finney 2002
- The Kindly Ones, Littell 2009
- The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bailyn 1992
- Friendship is Optimal, iceman 2012
- 3 Stars
- Pioneers of Soviet Computing, Malinovsky 2010
- The Operations Evaluation Group, Tidman 1984
- Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Quincey 2003
- The Unholy Consult, Bakker 2017
- A Troublesome Inheritance, Wade 2014
- The Recollections Of Eugene P. Wigner, Wigner 2003
- Donald Michie, Michie 2009
- Average Is Over, Cowen 2013
- New Legends, Bear 1996
- Perseverance island, Frazar 2009
- Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, Buffett 2013
- A Memory of Light, Jordan 2013
- Tokyo, Tsuzuki 1999
- 1000 Poems from the Manyōshū, Yakamochi 2005
- Double Entry, Gleeson-White 2012
- Renaming of the Birds, Troupes 2013
- Drop Dead Healthy, Jacobs 2012
- Spam Nation, Krebs 2014
- On the Historicity of Jesus, Carrier 2014
- Mathematical People, Albers 2008
- The Riddle of the Labyrinth, Fox 2013
- Pirate Freedom, Wolfe 2007
- Japanese Love Hotels, Chaplin 2007
- The Life of Samuel Johnson, Boswell 1993
- Selected Poems, Celan 1972
- Moby-Dick or, the Whale, Melville 2003
- Japan as Number One Lessons for America, Vogel 1999
- Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence, Goldthwaite 1968
- Before the Storm, Kube-McDowell 1996
- Uncontrolled, Manzi 2012
- Research Fraud in the Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences, Miller 1992
- 空ろの箱と零のマリア 1, Mikage 2009
- Game Programming Patterns, Nystrom 2011
- The Dark Side of the Enlightenment, Fleming 2013
- Drift into Failure, Dekker 2011
- The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hopkins 1976
- Possible Worlds, Haldane 2001
- Hanging Out with the Dream King, McCabe 2005
- Theological Incorrectness, Slone 2004
- String of Beads: Complete Poems of Princess Shikishi, Shikishi 1993
- On the Road, Kerouac 1976
- Handbook of Intelligence, Goldstein 2015
- The Secret History of the Mongols, Rachewiltz 2006
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman 2013
- A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole 1994
- Bitter Seeds, Tregillis 2010
- Modern Japanese Diaries, Keene 1999
- Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin 1989
- Indiscrete Thoughts, Rota 1998
- Inside WikiLeaks, Domscheit-Berg 2011
- The Bridge to Lucy Dunne, Exurb1a 2016
- The Japanese Family Storehouse, Ihara 1959
- The Pillow Book, Shōnagon 2006
- Robert Bakewell and the Longhorn Breed of Cattle, Stanley 1998
- Hive Mind, Jones 2015
- The City of Falling Angels, Berendt 2006
- Structural Equation Modeling, Lee 2007
- The Autobiography Of Benvenuto Cellini, Cellini 1999
- Newton and the Counterfeiter, Levenson 2009
- Drug Interdiction, Steffan 2010
- Daemon, Suarez 2009
- The Midas Paradox, Sumner 2015
- Clever Hans, Pfungst 2011
- The Hye Ch’O Diary: Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India, Hyecho 1984
- Un Lun Dun, Miéville 2007
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson 1998
- Curves and Angles: Poems, Leithauser 2006
- An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry, Miner 1968
- More Poems, Housman 1936
- Tau Zero, Anderson 2006
- The Buried Giant, Ishiguro 2015
- Matter, Banks 2008
- 50 in 50, Harrison 2002
- Shadow Games, Cook 1989
- Silicon Snake Oil, Stoll 1996
- Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Lem 1986
- iWoz, Wozniak 2006
- House of Leaves, Danielewski 2000
- Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Ingram 2008
- The Judging Eye, Bakker 2009
- No Country for Old Men, McCarthy 2006
- Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, Lipsky 2010
- The Rapture of the Nerds, Doctorow 2012
- Chinese History in Economic Perspective, Rawski 1992
- The Wallet of Kai Lung, Bramah 2002
- Portfolios of the Poor, Collins 2009
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Malkiel 2004
- Kim, Kipling 1981
- Cognitive Surplus, Shirky 2010
- Genius Revisited, Kassan 1993
- Everything Bad is Good for You, Johnson 2006
- Spice and Wolf, Vol. 01, Hasekura 2009
- The Art of UNIX Programming, Raymond 2003
- Psychiatry And The Human Condition, Charlton 2000
- The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, Appelbaum 1980
- Being Wrong, Schulz 2010
- Silently and Very Fast, Valente 2011
- The Cinema of George Lucas, Hearn 2005
- Practical Criticism, Richards 1930
- Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb, Cohen 2000
- The Man Who Would Be Queen, Bailey 2003
- 2 Stars
- Solid Fool’s Gold, James 2011
- The Master Algorithm, Domingos 2015
- Intellectuals and Society, Sowell 2010
- The Simple Men, Troupes 2012
- The Fountain, Troupes 2014
- Fascinating Mathematical People, Albers 2011
- Soldiers Live, Cook 2001
- The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, Tolkien 2009
- Tales of Ise, Anonymous 1968
- The Mature Optimization Handbook, Bueno 2013
- Light, Harrison 2004
- Puzzles of the Black Widowers, Asimov 1991
- The Thousandfold Thought, Bakker 2007
- Good Thinking, Good 2009
- The Lady Tasting Tea, Salsburg 2002
- 1 Stars
- Visual novels
“Earth in My Window”, Murakami & Hoaglund 2012
2005-murakami
: “Earth in My Window”, (2012-03-04; ; backlinks):
Essay by Pop Art artist Takashi Murakami on Japanese society and on WWII infantilizing Japanese culture as revealed by media, anime, and otaku.
“Earth In My Window” is a long essay by Superflat pop artist Takashi Murakami meditating on post-WWII consumerist Japanese society and on WWII infantilizing Japanese pop culture as revealed by its influences on media, anime, and the otaku subculture.
This transcript has been prepared from a PDF scan of pg 98–149 of Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, ed. Murakami, published 2005-05-15, ISBN 0300102852. (See also the transcript of a discussion moderated by Murakami, “Otaku Talk”.)
Note: to hide apparatus like the links, you can use reader-mode ().
- “Earth in My Window”
- Little Boy
- Japanese Film in the 60 Years After the War
- Death and Narrative Merge
- DAICON IV
- The Adult Empire Strikes Back
- Memories of the Atomic Bomb
- An Endless Summer Vacation
- The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
- Otaku
- Seven-Eleven
- Yuru Chara
- Phantoms in the Brain
- Robots
- New Type
- Children
- Earth in My Window
- Further reading
“The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax And The Men Who Created Evangelion”, Takeda 2010
2002-takeda-notenkimemoirs
: “The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax And The Men Who Created Evangelion”, (2010-12-27; ; backlinks; similar):
Fulltext annotated e-book of 2002 memoir by anime producer Yasuhiro Takeda, discussing Japanese SF conventions & fandom, formation & history of Gainax and its productions up to 2002, including the origins of Evangelion & the tax raid.
An annotated e-book edition of The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax And The Men Who Created Evangelion, a short autobiography by a founder of Gainax who became active as a fan and in the anime/manga industry in the late 1970s; it describes the student fan club scene around SF conventions, the creation of the famous Daicon video shorts, the founding of Gainax, its subsequent successes & travails (although with less emphasis on Neon Genesis Evangelion than one might expect), terminating around 2001. Much of the information Takeda discusses may have appeared in English-language sources before, but in obscure or missing sources and never pulled together, and it is a valuable source for non-Japanese-speakers interested in that time period.
For people interested in the history of the anime industry, Takeda fills in many gaps related to Gainax—it’s hard to think of any source which covers nearly so well DAICON III, DAICON IV, General Products, or throws in so many tidbits about surrounding people & Japanese SF fandom. It is an invaluable resource for any researcher, and I felt compelled to create an annotated e-book edition in order to elucidate various points and be able to link its claims with versions of stories by other people (for example, Okada’s extensive Animerica interview)
Those reading it solely for Evangelion material will probably be relatively disappointed: Takeda clearly finds NGE not very interesting, may have bad associations due to being targeted in the tax raids, and he was writing this in 2000 or so—too close to the events and still working at Gainax to really give a tell-all, and it’s not a terribly long or dense book in the first place. Nevertheless, NGE fans will still find many revelations here, like the origin of NGE production in the failure of the Aoki Uru film project (an origin undocumented in any Western sources before Notenki Memoirs was translated).
Note: to hide apparatus like the links, you can use reader-mode ().
- The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax And The Men Who Created Evangelion
- Preface
- Table of Contents
- The Complete Notenki Chronology
- Osaka—The whole future was sci-fi
- The end of my youth
- My fateful university acceptance
- Encounter with the sci-fi club
- Confederation of Kansai Student Sci-Fi Clubs
- First contact with a sci-fi event
- Kansai entertainers
- Holding the 4th annual Sci-Fi Show
- My first event
- The road to hosting the Japan Sci-Fi Convention
- Formal candidacy
- The DAICON 3 decision
- Meeting Anno, Yamaga and Akai
- The opening animation
- DAICON 3
- After the party
- Opening the General Products store
- Ideon Festival
- The Sci-Fi Convention revisited
- Establishing DAICON FILM
- Kaiketsu Notenki
- Aikoku Sentai Dainippon
- Kaettekita Ultraman
- DAICON 4
- The Osaka Philharmonic
- Ken Hayakawa, Private Detective
- Too many sweatshops
- The day
- Afterward
- Chairman of the Japan Sci-Fi Fan Group Association Committee
- Wonder Festival
- The founding of GAINAX
- Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushu
- Oritsu Uchugun Honneamise no Tsubasa
- General Products moves to Tokyo
- Shouting! Running! Laughing! Crying! Yasuhiro Takeda and the First Big Bash of the 21st Century
- Tokyo—And then, moving to the capital
- GAINAX House
- Tokyo life
- Third Sci-Fi Convention
- Second period of lethargy
- Dragon Quest
- Komatsu Sakyo Anime Gekijo
- Gamemaker GAINAX
- Fushigi no Umi no Nadia
- GAINAX, the anime production company
- Olympia—the phantom project
- What followed for General Products
- PC game convention
- Marriage
- GAINAX USA
- The end of General Products
- Okada leaves the company
- The new GAINAX
- Aoki Uru
- Reset
- GAINA Matsuri
- Evangelion Eve
- Shinseiki Evangelion
- Tax evasion and the birth of my daughter
- Moving ahead
- Trial in Absentia! Yasuhiro Takeda—The Truth is in Here!
“Murakami's 'little Boy' Syndrome: Victim or Aggressor in Contemporary Japanese and American Arts?”, Koh 2010
2010-koh.pdf
: “Murakami's 'little boy' syndrome: victim or aggressor in contemporary Japanese and American arts?”, (2010; ; backlinks; similar):
This paper examines the ambiguous nature of Murakami’s criticism toward the postwar Japanese condition—as the artist most effectively captured in his phrase ‘A Little Boy’, which was also the title of his curated exhibition at the Japan Society of New York in 2005.
As Murakami wrote in his introduction to the catalogue, demilitarized Japan after the Second World War underwent a collective sense of helplessness, and the metaphor of a little boy is intended to describe Japan’s supposedly unavoidable reliance on its big brother, America. The name ‘Little Boy’, in fact, originates from the code name used by the American military for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The proliferation of ‘cuteness’ in Japanese contemporary art, which draws upon youth culture, especially otaku culture, evinces a common urge among the postwar generation in Japan to escape from their horrible memories and sense of powerlessness.
Murakami’s rhetorical analysis of Japan’s self-image seems, however, contradictory, given his extremely aggressive business tactics, which can find no counterpart in the Western art world—not even in the efforts of Murakami’s predecessor, Andy Warhol. Like My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), whose hyper sexuality defies its pubescent and immature appearance, his art, theory, and art marketing indicate the paradoxical nature of his theory of impotence.
By focusing on his manifesto and writings published on the occasion of his 2005 exhibition and his style of managing Kaikai Kiki Ltd., this paper delves into the dual nature of Murakami’s interpretation of postwar Japanese art and culture, particularly in relation to those of America.
[Keywords: Takashi Murakami, Japanese contemporary arts, otaku, art and subculture, atomic bomb (Little Boy), nationalism, globalization of art market, Asian masculinity]
“The Melancholy of Subculture Society”, Branwen 2009
The-Melancholy-of-Subculture-Society
: “The Melancholy of Subculture Society”, (2009-01-12; ; backlinks; similar):
Internet links small groups, helping dissolve big groups; good, bad? But a bit sad.
The future of technology isn’t what it used to be—a discussion of the collapse of Japanese influence on technology & design. Why did Japanese companies cease to be the admired cutting-edge of computer, video game, Internet, or smartphone technology, underperforms in critical areas like software design (such as programming languages) and is instead one of the last havens of fax machines & feature phones, with prestigious but largely useless humanoid robotic programs?
“Book Review of Steven D. Carter's _Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History.:Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History: (2007)”, Borgen 2008
2008-borgen.pdf
: “Book review of Steven D. Carter's _Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History.:Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History: (2007)”, Robert Borgen (2008-01-01)
“History of Combinatorial Generation (The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 4: Pre-Fascicle 4B: Section 7.2.1.7) § Pg22”, Knuth 2005-page-22
2005-knuth-taocp-v4-prefascicle4b.pdf#page=22
: “History of Combinatorial Generation (The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 4: Pre-Fascicle 4B: Section 7.2.1.7) § pg22”, Donald E. Knuth (2005-10-28; )
“Behind the Sensationalism: Images of a Decaying Corpse in Japanese Buddhist Art”, Kanda 2005
2005-kanda.pdf
: “Behind the Sensationalism: Images of a Decaying Corpse in Japanese Buddhist Art”, (2005; similar):
The kusözu, “painting of the nine stages of a decaying corpse”, portrays the sequential decay of a female cadaver in graphic detail. The shocking subject, rooted in Buddhist devotional practices, was regularly painted and reinterpreted during half a millennium of Japanese art. The images of a decaying corpse were charged with contextualized functionalities that have gone unrecognized in current scholarship. Through an examination of four major exemplars of the genre, this study shows how new meanings of the image were catalyzed by religious and social transformations.
The kusozu, “painting of the nine stages of a decaying corpse” (hereafter, painting of the nine stages), was executed in Japan from the 13th through the 19th centuries in various formats, including handscrolls, hanging scrolls, and printed books. The subject itself is derived from a traditional Buddhist doctrine that urges contemplation on the nine stages of a decaying corpse (kusokan, hereafter, contemplation on the nine stages). The teaching dates to the early fifth century and promotes a systematic meditation on the impurity of a decaying corpse as an aid to ardent devotees who wish to liberate themselves from sensual desires and affections.
This paper explores unrecognized features of the paintings of the nine stages as they appear through almost half a millennium of Japanese art. We will see that these narrative paintings functioned as distinct visual agents for audiences in different eras. The functionality of the image shifted from a meditative focus for pietistic catharsis, to a didactic incentive for the pursuit of paradise, to an intercessory offering for the dead at merit transferal rites, to a popularized platform for politically manipulated precepts on feminine morality. After giving the textual and theological background for the nine stages of a decaying corpse, I will examine four images of the nine stages from different centuries, which I term the Nakamura, Raigoji, Dainenbutsuji, and Akagi versions. Finally, some remarks are offered on the enduring vitality of this sensational subject.
“Impotence Culture—Anime”, Murakami 2001
2001-murakami.pdf
: “Impotence Culture—Anime”, Takashi Murakami (2001-01-01; ; backlinks)
“The Dark Side of Private Ordering: An Institutional and Empirical Analysis of Organized Crime”, Milhaupt & West 2000
2000-milhaupt.pdf
: “The Dark Side of Private Ordering: An Institutional and Empirical Analysis of Organized Crime”, (2000-12-01; ; similar):
This Article provides theoretical and empirical support for the claim that organized crime competes with the state to provide property rights enforcement and protection services. Drawing on extensive data from Japan, this Article shows that like firms in regulated environments everywhere, the structure and activities of organized criminal firms are substantially shaped by state-supplied institutions. Careful observation reveals that in Japan, the activities of organized criminal firms closely track inefficiencies in formal legal structures, including both inefficient substantive laws and a state-induced shortage of legal professionals and other rights-enforcement agents. Thus organized crime in Japan—and, by extension, in other countries where substantial gaps exist between formal property rights structures and state enforcement capacities—is the dark side of private ordering.
Regression analyses show negative correlations between membership in Japanese organized criminal firms and (a) civil cases, (b) bankruptcies (c) reported crimes, and (d) loans outstanding. Professors Milhaupt and West interpret these data to support considerable anecdotal evidence that members of organized criminal firms in Japan play an active entrepreneurial role in substituting for state-supplied enforcement mechanisms and other public services in such areas as dispute mediation, bankruptcy and debt collection, (unorganized) crime control, and finance They offer additional empirical evidence indicating that arrests of gang members do not curb the growth of organized criminal firm Their findings may have an important normative implication for transition economies: efforts to eradicate organized crime should focus on the alteration of institutional incentive structures and the stimulation of competing rights-enforcement agents rather than on traditional crime-control activities.
“Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest times to the Late Sixteenth Century (Fujiwara No Teika Excerpts)”, Keene 1999
1999-keene-seedsintheheart-teika.pdf
: “Seeds in the heart: Japanese literature from earliest times to the late sixteenth century (Fujiwara no Teika excerpts)”, Donald Keene (1999-01-01; backlinks)
“Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest times to the Late Sixteenth Century (Shotetsu Excerpts)”, Keene 1999
1999-keene-seedsintheheart-shotetsu.pdf
: “Seeds in the heart: Japanese literature from earliest times to the late sixteenth century (Shotetsu excerpts)”, Donald Keene (1999-01-01)
“The Poet and the Politician: Teika and the Compilation of the Shinchokusenshū”, Smits 1998
1998-smits.pdf
: “The Poet and the Politician: Teika and the Compilation of the Shinchokusenshū”, Ivo Smits (1998-12-01)
“Tokyo: A Certain Style”, Tsuzuki 1997
1997-tsuzuki-tokyoacertainstyle.pdf
: “Tokyo: A Certain Style”, (1997; ; backlinks; similar):
Writer-photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki visited a hundred apartments, condos, and houses, documenting what he saw in more than 400 color photos that show the real Tokyo style—a far cry from the serene gardens, shoji screens, and Zen minimalism usually associated with Japanese dwellings.
In this Tokyo, necessities such as beds, bathrooms, and kitchens vie for space with electronic gadgets, musical instruments, clothes, books, records, and kitschy collectibles. Candid photos vividly capture the dizzying “cockpit effect” of living in a snug space crammed floor to ceiling with stuff. And it’s not just bohemian types and students who must fit their lives and work into tight quarters, but professionals and families with children, too. In descriptive captions, the inhabitants discuss the ingenious ways they’ve adapted their home environments to suit their diverse lifestyles.
“Unforgotten Dreams: Poems by the Zen Monk Shōtetsu”, Shōtetsu & Carter 1997
1997-carter-shotetsu-unforgottendreams.pdf
: “Unforgotten Dreams: Poems by the Zen Monk Shōtetsu”, (1997; ; backlinks; similar):
[This volume presents translations of over 200 poems by Shōtetsu, who is generally considered to be the last great poet of the uta form. Includes an introduction, a glossary of important names and places and a list of sources of the poems.]
The Zen monk Shōtetsu (1381–1459) suffered several rather serious misfortunes in his life: he lost all the poems of his first thirty years—more than 30,000 of them—in a fire; his estate revenues were confiscated by an angry shogun; and rivals refused to allow his work to appear in the only imperially commissioned poetry anthology of his time. Undeterred by these obstacles, he still managed to make a living from his poetry and won recognition as a true master, widely considered to be the last great poet of the classical uta, or waka, tradition. Shōtetsu viewed his poetry as both a professional and religious calling, and his extraordinarily prolific corpus comprised more than 11,000 poems—the single largest body of work in the Japanese canon.
The first major collection of Shōtetsu’s work in English, Unforgotten Dreams presents beautifully rendered translations of more than two hundred poems. The book opens with Steven Carter’s generous introduction on Shōtetsu’s life and work and his importance in Japanese literature, and includes a glossary of important names and places and a list of sources of the poems. Revealing as never before the enduring creative spirit of one of Japan’s greatest poets, this fine collection fills a major gap in the English translations of medieval Japanese literature.
“Reviewed Work: 'String of Beads: Complete Poems of Princess Shikishi', by Princess Shikishi, Hiroaki Sato [book Review]”, Bundy 1994
1994-bundy.pdf
: “Reviewed Work: 'String of Beads: Complete Poems of Princess Shikishi', by Princess Shikishi, Hiroaki Sato [book review]”, Roselee Bundy (1994-12-01)
“Reviewed Work: The Tale of Matsura: Fujiwara Teika's Experiment in Fiction. by Wayne P. Lammers [book Review]”, Hulvey 1992
1992-hulvey-review:thetaleofmatsurafujiwarateikasexperimentinfiction.pdf
: “Reviewed Work: The Tale of Matsura: Fujiwara Teika's Experiment in Fiction. by Wayne P. Lammers [book review]”, S. Yumiko Hulvey (1992-12-01)
“Reviewed Work: Conversations With Shōtetsu. by Robert H. Brower, Steven D. Carter [book Review]”, Bundy 1992
1992-bundy-review-conversationswithshotetsu.pdf
: “Reviewed Work: Conversations with Shōtetsu. by Robert H. Brower, Steven D. Carter [book review]”, Roselee Bundy (1992-09-01)
“Poetic Apprenticeship. Fujiwara Teika’s Shogaku Hyakushu”, Bundy 1990
1990-bundy-poeticapprenticeship:fujiwarateikasshogakuhyakushu.pdf
: “Poetic Apprenticeship. Fujiwara Teika’s Shogaku Hyakushu”, Roselee Bundy (1990-01-01)
“Kyōgoku Tamekane: Poetry and Politics in Late Kamakura Japan”, Huey 1989
1989-huey-kyogokutamekane.pdf
: “Kyōgoku Tamekane: Poetry and Politics in Late Kamakura Japan”, Robert N. Huey (1989-01-01)
“Waiting for the Wind: Thirty-Six Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Age”, Carter 1989
1989-carter-waitingforthewind.pdf
: “Waiting for the Wind: Thirty-Six Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Age”, Steven D. Carter (1989-01-01)
“Robert H. Brower, 1923-1988 [obituary]”, Editor 1988
1988-brower-obituary.pdf
: “Robert H. Brower, 1923-1988 [obituary]”, Editor (1988-01-01)
“Fujiwara Teika’s Maigetsushō”, Brower 1985
1985-brower-fujiwarateikasmaigetsusho.pdf
: “Fujiwara Teika’s Maigetsushō”, Robert H. Brower (1985-12-01)
“Genji Days”, Archive 1983
1983-seidensticker-genji.pdf
: “Genji Days”, Digitized by the Internet Archive (1983-01-01)
“Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era, 1200: A Complete Translation, With Introduction and Commentary. By Robert H. Brower. Tokyo: Sophia University (Monumenta Nipponica Monograph No. 55), 1978. 120 Pp. Illustrations, Footnotes, Appendix, Works Cited or Quoted in the Text, Index. Share_history1.00. [book Review]”, Morrell 1979
1979-morrell-review:fujiwarateikashundredpoemsequenceoftheshojiera.pdf
: “Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era, 1200: A Complete Translation, with Introduction and Commentary. By Robert H. Brower. Tokyo: Sophia University (Monumenta Nipponica Monograph No. 55), 1978. 120 pp. Illustrations, Footnotes, Appendix, Works Cited or Quoted in the Text, Index. share_history1.00. [book review]”, Robert E. Morrell (1979-08-01; backlinks)
“Fujiwara Teika’s Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era [Continued]”, Brower 1976
1976-brower-fujiwarateikashundredpoemsequenceoftheshojiera-part2.pdf
: “Fujiwara Teika’s Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era [Continued]”, Robert H. Brower (1976-12-01; backlinks)
“Reviewed Work: _Fujiwara Teika's Supreme Poems of Our Times. A Thirteenth-Century Poetic Treatise and Sequence_, by Robert H. Brower, Earl Miner [book Review]”, Kato 1969
1969-kato-review:fujiwarateikassupremepoemsofourtimes.pdf
: “Reviewed Work: _Fujiwara Teika's Supreme Poems of Our Times. A Thirteenth-Century Poetic Treatise and Sequence_, by Robert H. Brower, Earl Miner [book review]”, Hilda Kato (1969-12-01)
“Fujiwara Teika’s Superior Poems of Our Time [book Review]”, O’Neill 1968
1968-oneill-review:fujiwarateikassupremepoemsofourtimes.pdf
: “Fujiwara Teika’s Superior Poems of Our Time [book review]”, P. G. O’Neill (1968-05-01)
“Japanese Court Poetry”, Brower & Miner 1961
1961-brower-japanesecourtpoetry.pdf
: “Japanese Court Poetry”, Robert H. Brower, Earl Miner (1961-01-01)
“The Manyoshu: The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation of One Thousand Poems With the Texts in Romaji”, Shinkokai & Keene 1940
1940-nippongakujutsushinkokai-manyoshu.pdf
: “The Manyoshu: The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation of One Thousand Poems with the Texts in Romaji”, Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, Donald Keene (1940-01-01)
Muji
Miscellaneous
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/24/magazine/candy-kit-kat-japan.html
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https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/unkindo-kimono-designs/
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https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-fireworks-catalogues/
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https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-firemans-coats-19th-century/
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https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-designs-1902/
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http://www.bartokdesign.com/japan/0-blog_news/spherical_drain_plug_1.php
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http://articles.latimes.com/1994-12-04/magazine/tm-4992_1_tokyo-style
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Daicon-videos
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2002-gibson
( ; backlinks; similar) -
1976-hisamatsu-biographicaldictionaryofjapaneseliterature.pdf
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1976-brower-fujiwarateikashundredpoemsequenceoftheshojiera-part1.pdf
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2004-okada
( ; backlinks) -
2000-west.pdf
( ; backlinks)