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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>"Nostalgia is by no means new" - very nice.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Not perhaps as axiomatic as Faith's suggestions, but
I happened to read at the weekend a passage by Arthur Nolletti on <EM>Izu no
odoriko</EM> (1933), p49 in his book, 'the setting encourages us to imagine
another time, another place - a world in which the appearance of an occasional
car or bus seems an anachronism. Admittedly an unabashedly romantic view,
it was nevertheless one that many Japanese of the 1930s wanted to believe
in.'</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I'm not at all sure that a scarcity of cars on remote
country roads in the 1930s in any country was anachronistic, but the projection
of the countryside as a stage for nostalgia is surely valid.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>But the passage actually brought to mind a very different
recent film, Yamashita's <SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><EM>Tennen
Kokekk</EM></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><EM>ō</EM>.
I'm not sure I believe there's a school anywhere where pupils would never
ape the behaviours they see on the television - and all of the accounts of bad
behaviour I have heard from Japanese schools have come from <U>rural</U>
schools. But certainly I very much want to believe in that
place.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Just
my view,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Roger</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>----- Original Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>From: "Faith Bach" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:faithbach@yahoo.co.jp"><FONT
face=Arial>faithbach@yahoo.co.jp</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu"><FONT
face=Arial>KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:20 AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Subject: Re: Nostalgia, Big
City<->Hometown</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial>> The desire to turn
back the clock to past places and times is <BR>> arguably the primary
defining feature of all the Japanese arts, <BR>> beginning with the
earliest recorded literature, and does not seem <BR>> always to require
the artist to have actually experienced the yearned- <BR>> for past
himself. Donald Keene has written much on this; also see <BR>>
anything on classical poetry from Narihira to Basho. Traditional
<BR>> performance, however, tends to glorify urban glamour in an
opposing <BR>> tendency to Western pastoralism; I have just
happened to see a good <BR>> essay by Frank Hoff on this but there is
lots else out there. <BR>> [ "City and Country: Song and
Performing Arts in 16th Century Japan" <BR>> in WARLORDS, ARTISTS AND
COMMONERS, Eds. Smith & Elison,1987, <BR>> U.Hawaii,
ISBN0-8248-1109-7]<BR>> <BR>> Prewar film abounds in "hometown" nostalgia,
altho' it may not be the <BR>> precise type you are looking for.
The matatabi wanderer films are <BR>> the most obvious examples.
The great old Mori Kazuo version (1937) <BR>> of the Yuuten Kichimatsu
story starring Ichikawa Utaemon is a <BR>> personal favorite and nicely
illustrates Return, but there are <BR>> literally hundreds more from
the 30s and 40s, many based on older <BR>> narratives. (See Sybil
Thornton's excellent THE JAPANESE PERIOD <BR>> FILM, ISBN
978-0-7864-3136-6, for info on the matatabi genre.) And <BR>> do
not overlook the prewar and wartime "nagaya community" films, such
<BR>> as the classic Yamanaka Sadao "Ninjou Kamifusen" (1937), and
Makino's <BR>> "Kinou Kieta Otoko" (1941) and its many
imitators. There is also a <BR>> prewar genre of urban
shitamachi-style-community films. The one that <BR>> springs
immediately to mind is "Hanakago no Uta" (1937, Gosho) <BR>> starring
Tanaka Kinuyo as the warm-hearted daughter of a tonkatsuya <BR>> in the
Ginza backstreets, but there are many others.<BR>> <BR>> Nostalgia is by
no means new, and you have got your work cut out for <BR>> you.
By the way, it is MEoto, not Myoto, Zenzai. A bunraku version
<BR>> also exists, which would be worth your time.<BR>> <BR>> Faith
Bach<BR>> Kyoto<BR>> <BR>> On Apr 29, 2008, at 11:48 AM, Ken Shima
wrote:<BR>> <BR>>> Greetings all,<BR>>><BR>>> With the
recent passing of Showa Day here in Japan I've been <BR>>> thinking
about the portrayal of nostalgia and how this is dealt <BR>>> with
in Japanese cinema, particularly in terms of the hometown <BR>>> (kokyo)
and urban city contrast. I'm looking for films, books or <BR>>>
articles in Japanese or English that deal with 'returning home' or
<BR>>> 'leaving home' and idea of creating of collective nostalgic
<BR>>> experiences. Psychologically, socially, how are these feelings
of <BR>>> nostalgia created, particularly when set in the
increasingly <BR>>> distant Showa period. For example, from the
1950s onward we see <BR>>> popular novels and films that portray a
more communal 'shitamachi' <BR>>> urban environment of Osaka in
Toyoda Shiro's "Myoto Zenzai", or <BR>>> Tokyo in the
Tora-san.<BR>>><BR>>> More recently, the hugely popular "Always
3-chome" films have <BR>>> established the Showa 30s/1955-65 as a
popular site of nostalgia <BR>>> created by filmakers who never
experienced this period themselves <BR>>> but nonetheless create an
period depiction appealing to a <BR>>> surprisingly wide range of
ages, a nostalgia that 10 year olds and <BR>>> 70 years olds can
enjoy (weep) together.<BR>>><BR>>> I am curious about the history of
this "community now forgotten" <BR>>> theme, does it begin before or
after the war, and when, if ever, do <BR>>> things switch from
longing for the upward mobility of the city to <BR>>> longing for
the simplicity and community of small town life? I <BR>>> would
greatly appreciate any recommendations not only related to <BR>>>
urban nostalgia but also dealing with how the hometown/urban <BR>>>
contrast was used to emphasize the sense of the fading forms of
<BR>>> culture and society in film, art, and
literature.<BR>>><BR>>><BR>>> Thank you for your
help,<BR>>> Ken Shima<BR>>><BR>>><BR>></FONT></BODY></HTML>