Nostalgia, Big City<->Hometown

wgardne1 at swarthmore.edu wgardne1 at swarthmore.edu
Tue Apr 29 20:53:36 EDT 2008


For a current television update of the rural nostalgia theme, you may be
interested in the show "Inaka ni tomaro" (long "o" at the end) currently
airing on Sunday nights on TV Tokyo.

http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/inaka/

Here various urban dwellers (usually minor talento/celebrities) are sent
out to the countryside and must ask for lodging from total strangers they
they encounter there-- depending on the set-up, it could be for one night
or for a long stay. (Sometimes foreigners of various ethnicities are
thrown in for dubious comic/tension-creating effects.) Typically the
urbanites experience a kind of nostalgic "homestay" in the country, and
then depart tearfully from their kindhearted hosts at the end of the show.

Will


On Tue, April 29, 2008 11:23, Melek Ortabasi wrote:
> Hi Ken,
>
> As Faith already mentioned, nostalgia (also in
> film) was present before WWII, and encompasses
> both longing for the countryside, as well as
> longing for a more tightly knit village type of
> community in the city. I don't think there was a
> "switch" to longing for the country; I think that
> given the fairly long history of cities in Japan
> that the urban nostalgia you are thinking of was
> probably always a feature that coexisted with
> pastoral fantasies.
>
> I'm more familiar with literature than film, but
> here are some thoughts. I have no doubt that
> Kinejapanners with a focus on the prewar period
> can give more film-specific information.
>
> Being a student of Yanagita Kunio's work, I'm
> more familiar with city/country dichotomies (he
> was definitely more interested in the country
> than the city); from the late Meiji period
> onwards he, and many of his literary peers, wrote
> longingly of the country. Probably the most
> popular novel of 1890 (by contemporary accounts,
> including Yanagita's) was Miyazaki Koshoshi's
> _Kisei_ (Homecoming), which tapped into what was
> already developing into the furusato (hometown)
> idea. So that's way, way prewar. WWII anyway.
>
> For a more urban shitamachi image: Tanizaki's
> _Tade kuu mushi_ (Some Prefer Nettles) springs to
> mind - when the protagonist Kaname waxes poetic
> about his merchant class upbringing in Tokyo.
> There's not a whole lot there, but it's a very
> different Tokyo from the roaring twenties chaos
> we generally think about. So even with a
> "decadent" like Tanizaki we have a nostalgic
> conception of the city. And of course Tanizaki
> got only more nostalgic as he got older;-)
>
> Also as Faith already said, you've got your work
> cut out for you. But maybe the question to ask is
> not, when did nostalgia begin, but rather, how
> has the portrayal of nostalgia changed, even if
> it is still informed by the urban/rural divide?
> Or, maybe focusing only on the shitamachi motif
> might help.
>
> A pastoral film fantasy, just as an afterthought:
> Takahata Isao's animated feature _Omoide poro
> poro_ (1991), where a young Tokyo woman finds
> "home" in the country.
>
> Shitamachi communal ideas pop up in Kitano's
> Kikujirô no natsu (1999): Kitano's character is
> not related to the little boy whom he accompanies
> on a journey to find his mother. It's a
> neighborhood babysitting arrangement that
> accidentally turns into the development of a
> deeper, almost familial bond. The neighborhood
> where they live (don't remember, it's Tokyo I
> think??) is definitely of the shitamachi variety.
> Just a thought.
>
> All right, I really should get back to class prep.
>
> Cheers,
> Melek
>
>
>
>>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
>
>
> --
> Melek Ortabasi, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Comparative Literature
> Hamilton College
> Clinton, NY
>




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