<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><DIV>Just a quick thought to follow on Melek's inspiring broadening of our discussion: A great resource in English to consult on both Yanagita and Kyoka is Gerald Figal's <I>Civilization and Monsters</I> (Duke UP, 1999). I don't have the text near me, so I can't recall precisely what Figal has to say. At least from my own readings, sometimes inspired sometimes by Figal, I remember quite significant differences between Yanagita and Kyoka. For the former, there seems to be a fundamentally modern logic of nostalgia, the need for science to categorize and save the past, while for the latter there seems a deliberate refusal to settle for the dominance of a modern linear temporality. It would be interesting to see what similar differences we might find in these filmic representations of forest/nature. I can imagine Himatsuri's final image of boots and dogs hovering above a glistening bay (spoiled with oil) has more in common with Kyoka than Yanagita, while Miyazaki seems, to me, to lie fully within the logic of nostalgia.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Jonathan</DIV></SPAN><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">-----</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">Jonathan M. 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Forest usually = mountains in Japanese folklore, given that this is a dominant feature of the geography anyway. This aesthetic can be found even in a brand new movie like _Mushishi_, where the mushishi himself starts out as a "normal" human being but eventually becomes a part of the slowly vanishing spirit world. (In my opinion, the movie is disappointing for several reasons, but nevertheless.....). Ditto on many of Miyazaki's animations, as someone has already pointed out. One of the most important texts that highlighted the nature of these beliefs, at least from a modern perspective, is Yanagita Kunio's _Tôno monogatari_ (1910). Izumi Kyôka, "master" of gothic fiction (and author of one of the works suggested), was by the way a peer of Yanagita's and an admirer of his work. Ditto on Miyazawa Kenji. Yanagita's book has been made into a movie - which I haven't seen and is probably not very much like the book (which is not a unified narrative but a collection of short, often fragmentary sketches) - but it might be worth checking out. (look at the listing on imdb). There is also a translation of the text into English, which has some problems, but is still very usable (by Ronald Morse, out of print but available in many univ. libraries).</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Just my 2 cents; hope it helps.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Cheers,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Melek</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Melek Ortabasi, Ph.D.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Assistant Professor</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Department of Comparative Literature</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Hamilton College</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Clinton, NY</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">**Visiting Researcher at The University of Tokyo, 2006-2007**</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></SPAN><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>