Nostalgia, Big City<->Hometown

[Faith Bach]

The desire to turn back the clock to past places and times is  
arguably the primary defining feature of all the Japanese arts,  
beginning with the earliest recorded literature, and does not seem  
always to require the artist to have actually experienced the yearned- 
for past himself.  Donald Keene has written much on this; also see  
anything on classical poetry from Narihira to Basho.  Traditional  
performance, however, tends to glorify urban glamour in an opposing  
tendency to Western pastoralism;  I have just happened to see a good  
essay by Frank Hoff on this but there is lots else out there.   
[ "City and Country: Song and Performing Arts in 16th Century Japan"  
in WARLORDS, ARTISTS AND COMMONERS, Eds. Smith & Elison,1987,  
U.Hawaii,  ISBN0-8248-1109-7]

Prewar film abounds in "hometown" nostalgia, altho' it may not be the  
precise type you are looking for.  The matatabi wanderer films are  
the most obvious examples.  The great old Mori Kazuo version (1937)  
of the Yuuten Kichimatsu story starring Ichikawa Utaemon is a  
personal favorite and nicely illustrates Return, but there are  
literally hundreds more from the 30s and 40s, many based on older  
narratives.  (See Sybil Thornton's excellent THE JAPANESE PERIOD  
FILM, ISBN 978-0-7864-3136-6, for info on the matatabi genre.)  And  
do not overlook the prewar and wartime "nagaya community" films, such  
as the classic Yamanaka Sadao "Ninjou Kamifusen" (1937), and Makino's  
"Kinou Kieta Otoko" (1941) and its many imitators.   There is also a  
prewar genre of urban shitamachi-style-community films.  The one that  
springs immediately to mind is "Hanakago no Uta" (1937, Gosho)  
starring Tanaka Kinuyo as the warm-hearted daughter of a tonkatsuya  
in the Ginza backstreets, but there are many others.

Nostalgia is by no means new, and you have got your work cut out for  
you.  By the way, it is MEoto, not Myoto, Zenzai.  A bunraku version  
also exists, which would be worth your time.

Faith Bach
Kyoto

On Apr 29, 2008, at 11:48 AM, Ken Shima wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> With the recent passing of Showa Day here in Japan I've been  
> thinking about the portrayal of nostalgia and how this is dealt  
> with in Japanese cinema, particularly in terms of the hometown 
> (kokyo) and urban city contrast. I'm looking for films, books or  
> articles in Japanese or English that deal with 'returning home' or  
> 'leaving home' and idea of creating of collective nostalgic  
> experiences. Psychologically, socially, how are these feelings of  
> nostalgia created, particularly when set in the  increasingly  
> distant Showa period. For example, from the 1950s onward we see  
> popular novels and films that portray a more communal 'shitamachi'  
> urban environment of Osaka in Toyoda Shiro's "Myoto Zenzai", or  
> Tokyo in the Tora-san.
>
> More recently, the hugely popular "Always 3-chome" films have  
> established the Showa 30s/1955-65 as a popular site of nostalgia  
> created by filmakers who never experienced this period themselves  
> but nonetheless create an period depiction appealing to a  
> surprisingly wide range of ages, a nostalgia that 10 year olds and  
> 70 years olds can enjoy (weep) together.
>
> I am curious about the history of this "community now forgotten"  
> theme, does it begin before or after the war, and when, if ever, do  
> things switch from longing for the upward mobility of the city to  
> longing for the simplicity and community of small town life? I  
> would greatly appreciate any recommendations not only related to  
> urban nostalgia but also dealing with how the hometown/urban  
> contrast was used to emphasize the sense of the fading forms of  
> culture and society in film, art, and literature.
>
>
> Thank you for your help,
> Ken Shima
>
>