forest philosophies

[Takuya Tsunoda]

Touching upon the discussion on Yanagita and Kyoka, Tayama Katai seems
to be also an intriguing figure to investigate how forest/ mountains/
landscape/myth were portrayed in the Meji period. Especially ?Juemon no
saigo? (The end of Juemon), a bit revolting piece about a village
grotesque, clearly depicts forest as privileged topos. And I recall that
Yanagita, in his memorial piece to Katai, states that he cannot help
admitting that ?Juemon no saigo? is Katai?s most impressive work.
Translation by Kenneth G. Henshall is available from Columbia UP (1981).

 
Takuya Tsunoda
 
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan
M. Hall
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 7:27 AM
To: KineJapan
Subject: forest philosophies
 
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 _T?no monogatari_ (1910).
Izumi Ky?ka, "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**
 
 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/private/kinejapan/attachments/20070607/85fe6e6a/attachment.html