showa genroku

[Gardner, William]

Anne,

Thanks for your interesting comments on "Sh?wa Genroku." My own guesses as
to why Genroku of all of Edo would be 1)this period is widely viewed as sort
of 'golden age' of Edo culture (before the Ky?h? reforms put on the damper)
2) more specifically, the period is associated with the rise of the ch?nin
(townspeople) class, and thus may have served as an analogy for the vibrant
popular culture of the 'high growth' era.

At any rate, your comments point to the wider question of postwar
temporality, and illustrate the late-Showa compulsion to seek out
connections with the legendary past. Certainly the "counterculture"
movements of the 1960's (underground theater etc.) were also known to employ
a strategic atavism (is this where Imamura comes in?). Labelling this
cultural movement "postmodern" seems somehow out of focus. Anyone else have
a take on this?

By the way, a friend sent a citation in a literary essay which suggested the
term  "Showa Genroku" <<may>> have been coined by the literary critic
Odagiri Hideo. For anyone following this thread, I'll paste the citation
below. 

William

Akiyama Shun, "Nichij?teki genjitsu to bungaku no hatten, 1961-1978." 
Matsubara Shin'ichi et al., eds.  Z?ho kaitei sengo Nihon bungakushi 
nenpy?.  Tokyo: K?dansha, 1978.

> ----------
> From: 	Anne McKnight
> Reply To: 	KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Sent: 	Thursday, July 27, 2000 12:39 PM
> To: 	KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: 	re:  showa genroku
> 
> That's a really interesting question.  I had heard the term, but I wonder
> if
> it didn't resonate with the similar commemorative I've heard a lot of, the
> "Jimmu miracle," i.e. 1964, year of Olympics, income-doubling, etc.  It
> seems
> like public-policy, journalism rhetoric.   The Jimmu miracle seems to
> point to
> the grand finale of a 'developmental' model, the superhero economy going
> up-up-and-away--this is because it's touting the most flourishing GDP
> since
> the beginning of what could be considered the first Japanese nation (Jimmu
> being the mythical first emperor).
> 
> I looked up Showa genroku in the __Taishu bunka jiten__-it's very handy
> (ed.
> Yoshimi Shunya and others).  The one I have came out in 1991, but maybe
> there's another edition.  There's at least one fatter 2-volume edition.
> Anyway, it says this word was coined in the wake of the Izanagi boom
> (1965-70)
> in 1968, by former prime minister Fukuda.   Some of the familiar
> characteristics are reprised:  throwaway society commences, consumerism
> booms,
> the celebration of 100 years since Meiji with all its festivals all over
> Tokyo.  The dark underside is represented by the costs/sacrifices of
> modernization, such as industrial pollution, student unrest, etc.
> Basically
> it seems to encapsulate the dialectic of enlightenment and sacrifice,
> center
> and periphery, past and future, the narrative which so often seems to
> drive
> descriptions of the 60s, especially retrospective ones, which tend to be
> so
> melancholic.
> 
> Maybe Showa genroku is the cultural component of the Jimmu miracle?  Why
> Genroku out of all Edo, do you think--Imamura comes immediately to mind
> here?
> What makes it so accessible or enviable as an object of nostalgia?  What
> do
> you think of all the play of temporalities going on here?
> 
> Anne
> 
>