forest philosophies

[Jonathan M. Hall]

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 Civilization and Monsters (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.

Jonathan

-----
Jonathan M. Hall
Japanese Film, Media, and Modern Literature
Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature / Film & Media Studies

320 Humanities Instructional Building
UC Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2651 USA
office: 1-949-824-9778
fax: 1-949-824-1992

Co-Chair, Queer Caucus, Society for Cinema and Media Studies



On Jun 4, 2007, at 8:15 PM, Melek Ortabasi wrote:

> Since the original post requested non-samurai movies, it is telling  
> that what unites many of the movies/stories suggested is instead  
> the element of animistic belief that kami/spirits live in the  
> forest, which is often equated with the margins of society/ 
> civilization. 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).
>
> Just my 2 cents; hope it helps.
>
> Cheers,
> Melek
> -- 
> Melek Ortabasi, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Comparative Literature
> Hamilton College
> Clinton, NY
>
> **Visiting Researcher at The University of Tokyo, 2006-2007**
>


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