Shinsengumi Boom/Onmyoji

[Sarah Frederick]

Indeed "working through all the media," the Onmyoji boom inspired a 
modern Noh play that I saw in Saitama in 2002.  I certainly have 
never seen so many teenagers and 20-something couples filling up a 
hall to see Noh drama. It was "modern" not in terms of performance 
style, but in being a newly written play and using Japanesey 
contemporary design of the Issey Miyake sort for the sets and 
costume, creating a "contemporary art stage space." Apparently it was 
performed in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.  I found it more 
interesting to watch than the movie, which I was surprised to see 
show up at the local Virgin Megastore, but the whole thing raised 
similar questions to Christophe's about history and national 
identity.  But why a Heian magician?

S. Frederick

>This is not another mail about the Onmyoji-Recent Japanese
>Cinema discussion (I did not know contemporary japanese
>cinema still had to be justified in this forum?!).
>
>I happen to be now interested in the shinsengumi boom now
>occuring in Japan (after the Onmyoji boom best represented
>by the movie of the same name). The attraction for the
>shinsengumi is not something new itself, and there have
>been a few movies (among them Oshima's Gohatto) and novels
>(Shiba Ryotaro) made on the subject, along with the undying
>fascination of mutliple generations of shinsengumi fans.
>
>But the actual shinsengumi boom seems to be taking a new
>scale, reaching all levels of the population, and working
>through all the media (mostly visual) available : NHK TV
>drama staring a SMAP member, RolePlayingGame for
>PlaystationII, Manga (Peace Maker), countless books of
>hitorical vulgarization along with maps of the old Kyoto, a
>growing popularity of tourist sites linked with the
>shinsengumi history...
>
>This may be just another ephemeral fashion boom (and the
>onmyoji boom can be shown to have had similar
>characteristics), yet even in that case, it still raises
>interesting questions regarding the interconnection of
>history (monumental and national), newmedia (as a locus of
>production of media space) popular culture and fashion (and
>regarding film study the role played in the history of
>japanese cinema by the bakumatsu era in the construction of
>a national identity from the Taisho era).
>
>I just raise the issue, and hope some people would like to
>share his-her thoughts on the question.
>
>Also, I take the opportunity to introduce myself. I am a
>PhD candidate in east asian studies at McGill University,
>currently in Tokyo to work on issues of urban space,
>cartography and modernity (Meiji-Taisho now).
>
>
>Christophe Thouny
>
>
>
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