The return of the Kansai Modern Japan Group

[Dick Stegewerns]

 I am afraid the lecture will not focus on the Kansai area specifically, 
 but nonetheless I will check with the speaker if he is willing to 
 distribute the sound and/or images of his lecture to a wider audience.

 Dick


 On Tue, 17 May 2011 11:34:23 +1000, Melanie Abbott wrote:
> For the Kansai loving diaspora will this presentation be recorded in 
> anyway?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 17/05/2011, at 11:28 AM, Dick Stegewerns
> <dick.stegewerns at xs4all.nl> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> It is my great pleasure to inform you about the rebirth of the 
>> Kansai Modern Japan Group. The KMJG is a platform for scholars on 
>> modern and/or contemporary Japan, residing in or visiting the Kansai 
>> area. It convenes on a monthly basis, alternately in Kyoto or Osaka, 
>> for a lecture, comments by a discussant, followed by an open 
>> discussion (and usually a konshinkai at a local izakaya). In October 
>> we organise a special meeting, consisting of several lectures on a 
>> specific theme. The 'rules' are simple. The lecture is in English, the 
>> comments and discussion either in English or Japanese, all interested 
>> are welcome. Film-related presentations are most welcome.
>>
>> For our first meeting we will just continue 'as usual'. David 
>> Hopkins of Tenri University (and the man behind Public Bath Records, 
>> the label that brought us the best of the Osaka underground during the 
>> 1980s) will take up the story on Japanese popular music where he 
>> stopped several years ago, namely in the 1930s. In his lecture on 
>> wartime popular music he will discuss the content and trends in the 
>> hit records of this era, both the miltary songs and the 'civil' songs, 
>> with a focus on the images of women (see abstract below). Of course, 
>> David will treat us to various vivid examples from his impressive 
>> 78rpm record collection.
>>
>> In order to provide a little more atmosphere to this lively lecture, 
>> we will not gather at one of our 'satellite classrooms' but at our 
>> shinnenkai venue in Kyoto. For this special event Sakebar Yoramu will 
>> turn into something that might slightly resemble one of those postwar 
>> gunkoku sakaba, although we will keep out the related ideology and 
>> melancholy. This has the extra advantage that after the lecture we 
>> will not have to relocate but can stay where we are to enjoy the best 
>> of Japan's sake (strictly junmaishu) and an intriguing combination of 
>> Kyoto and Middle Eastern cuisine. And, if circumstances allow, there 
>> will also be a screening of the 1958 Daiei B-movie 'Gunkoku Sakaba' to 
>> give you an impression of what real gunkoku sakaba used to be like.
>>
>> Here are the data:
>>
>> SPEAKER: David Hopkins (Tenri University)
>> TITLE: Kessen musume: Images of Women in Japan's War-era Record 
>> Industry
>> DATE: Wednesday 25 May
>> TIME: 18:30
>> PLACE:  Sakebar Yoramu, Kyoto - ground floor, on the south side of 
>> Nijo-dori, inbetween Higashi no Toin-dori and Ainomachi-dori. It is a 
>> 5 minute walk from exit no.1 of the Karasuma Oike subway station. For 
>> directions see: http://www.sakebar-yoramu.com/access_eng.html
>>
>> Those who are planning to attend, please send a notice to 
>> dick.stegewerns at xs4all.nl by Monday 23 May. Those willing to present 
>> at one of our monthly meetings, please send an abstract of the 
>> presentation you propose to do to this same address.
>>
>> I look forward to welcoming many familiar and new faces.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Dick Stegewerns
>> Kyoto University & Oslo University
>>
>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>>
>> ABSTRACT:
>>
>> Kessen Musume: Images of Women in Japan?s War-era Record Industry
>>
>> Recent scholarship has greatly expanded our understanding of the 
>> history of the music of Japan?s 15-year war era, but this scholarship 
>> hasn?t yet applied much lit crit or social psychological methodology 
>> to more deeply understand the records in their social context.
>> With young men gone to the armed forces, the audience for record 
>> companies to target was overwhelmingly female. Record companies used 
>> several strategies to overcome resistance to consumption of 
>> non-essentials, making one type of frivolous consumption not a luxury, 
>> but an expression of patriotism. The various traditional roles of 
>> women?mother, wife, daughter?all figured prominently in music targeted 
>> at the homeland audience. In addition, new roles, such as worker 
>> ?behind the gun? and even combatant, became more and more common as 
>> the war progressed.
>> There is a clear break in content with the expansion of the war to 
>> the Pacific in late 1941. One strong feature of late 1930s music is 
>> the feminization of Asian conquests, with all of the sexual 
>> possibilities that implies. Ri Ko Ran is only the strongest of many 
>> examples. This type of content has little place in the wider arena of 
>> the Pacific War, when censorship had become stricter. Similarly, Miss 
>> Wakana was a major figure in manzai in the late 1930s?often calling 
>> attention to women?s issues in a more or less resistant way, only to 
>> disappear from record in the 1940s.
>> In my presentation I will use actual records played on a period 
>> phonograph
>>
>>
>> David Hopkins is an associate professor at Tenri University in Nara. 
>> His recent publications have been about Japanese movies from the 1960s 
>> and 1970s, and about public and school libraries? relationship with 
>> manga culture. He has a collection of more than 2000 pre-war records.
>>
>>
>>