The return of the Kansai Modern Japan Group

[Dick Stegewerns]

 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

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 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.