SOCIAL HISTORY OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE
THE CULTURE OF SHŌWA
(1926–1989)
SHŌWA BEFORE 1945
• 1927: Akutagawa commits suicide
• 1929: Great Depression affects Japan
• 1931: Japan occupies Manchuria
• 1937: All-out war with China
• 1940: East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• 1940: The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis
• 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor
• 1945: Hiroshima/Nagasaki
SHŌWA AFTER 1945
1945: U.S. occupation begins
• 1947: New constitution effective
• 1950: Korean War begins
• 1950: Japanese economy takes off
• 1952: U.S. occupation terminated
• 1953: First commercial TV broadcasts
• 1955: The LDP system begins
• 1960: The Security Treaty Crisis
• 1964: Tokyo Summer Olympic Games
• 1972: Return of Okinawa to Japan
• 1973: Oil crisis affects J-economy
1989: Hirohito dies, era Heisei begins
SHŌWA AFTER 1945: SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS
• The triumphant 1960s
• The fruits of high-speed growth (kōdō seichō) and income doubling (shotoku baizō)
• It took Japan only ten years to return to its prewar economic standard
• The Tokyo Olympics (1964) as national TV spectacle; first shinkansen starts operating
• The turbulent 1970s
• Major sociocultural change from “modern” to “postmodern” Japan
• Triggered by Oil shocks and symbolized by Asama Sansō jiken (Incident of Sansō Asama) and Mishima’s coup
• Popular culture came to gradually serve as mere distraction for the masses
• The thriving 1980s
• Economy surges from cheap/laughable to technically sophisticated/desirable
• Domestication of foreign things and dissemination of things Japanese (cf. kokusaika)
• Japanese media/pop culture export is on the rise
• The traumatic 1990s
• Japan falls into “lost decade” (ushinawareta jūnen)
• The “bubble” bursts, crippling Japanese economy ever since
• The “dark year” of 1995: Kobe earthquake, Tokyo Sarin attacks, Okinawa rape
LITERARY LEGACY OF EARLY SHŌWA
• reflecting incompleteness of Japanese modernity (c.f. the “stray sheep”
lost in Tokyo city lights in Sōseki’s Sanshirō)
• diagnosing Japanese society as “falling into a dark valley” (symbolized
by Akutagawa’s suicide in 1927)
• Writing in the classical style in order to preserve tradition (e.g. Tanizaki’s
In Praise of Shadows from 1933, or The Makioka Sisters from 1948)
THE “TRAGIC HEROES” OF SHŌWA LITERATURE
• Osamu Dazai (1909–1948)
• Transgressive poetics of "postwar dissolute“
• Depression, nihilism, psychological emptiness
• (e.g. Setting Sun 1947, No Longer Human 1948)
• Yukio Mishima (1925–1970)
• “Dedicated genius” with samurai values
• “Negotiating” elegance and destruction
• (e.g. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion 1956)
• Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)
• The refined "pure beauty” of Japan
• Sensualist, perceptionalist, mono no aware
• (e.g. Snow Country 1935)
THE RISE OF “AVANT-POP”
IN POSTWAR JAPANESE LITERATURE
• The “sun tribe” literature in late 1950s: focusing on young antiheroes
emblematic of violence, nudity, and lack of social responsibility
• Kawabata becomes in 1968 the unshared Nobel laureate in literature, but
commits suicide only four years later (c.f. the “demise” of junbungaku?)
• The growing influence of “avant-pop” in Japanese literature since 1970s:
postmodernism, magical realism, socially challenging topics
• The “golden year” of 1987: Banana Yoshimoto publishes Kitchin (“Kitchen”),
Ryū Murakami publishes Ai to gensō no fashizumu (“Fascism in Love and
Fantasy”), Haruki Murakami publishes Noruwei no mori (“Norwegian Wood”)
THE ORIGINS OF MANGA
• Traditional roots of manga: emaki and kamishibai
• (Pre)war manga: normalizing war for children via cartoon and animation
• 1950s
• Osamu Tezuka (1928–89): the God of Manga (manga no kamisama)
• Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) as “android with feelings” (since 1952)
• Astro Boy precedes the “future technopia” of Japanese robot anime
• Embodying Japan’s pacifist nationalism (e.g. by fighting injustice)
• Reflecting collective trauma of destruction and postwar occupation
• 1960s
• The golden age of manga (e.g. the weekly Shōnen Jump begins
publishing in 1968)
• Further sexualization of manga content via rorikon imagery (e.g.
Harenchi Gakuen 1968)
• “Dramatic pictures” (gekiga) as s more serious form of manga (at
times transgressive/antipolitical)
MANGA SINCE 1970s• 1970s
• Rise of shōjo manga (female cartoonists write for young readers): inner lives of teenagers as they negotiate with maturation
• Portraying emotions and phantasy (large eyes, little physical action, emotive backgrounds) (e.g. Berusaiyu no Bara 1972)
• Crossdressing and gender-switching: elegant feminine men (bishōnen) and their homoerotic imagery (yaoi)
• 1980s
• More paper was used for manga than for toilet tissue
• New “speculative” dimension in manga through the surprise of new life forms (e.g. Ghost in the Shell 1989)
• Rise of adult manga (seinen manga): representations of genitalia forbidden but violence and rape tolerated
• 1990s
• There are around 300 monthly/bi-monthly/weekly manga magazines in Japan, being published by large publishing houses
• Manga are first serialized in manga magazines; and if they sell well, they get published as standalone books, or anime
• Manga “fan fiction” (dōjinshi) enabling a participatory model of cultural production
ANIME
• Origins in late 1910s (e.g. Ōten Shimokawa), popularized during the U.S. occupation)
• First television anime was sponsored by food companies to improve corporate image
(e.g. Calpis)
• The post-WW II animation is largely trans/posthuman, apocalyptic and dystopian
• In 1960s the TV/anime industry introduces new genres: robot hero and magical witch
• Change of focus from the “heroic robots” to super robots (e.g. Kidō Senshi Gandamu 1979)
• Introducing rorikon to anime: mahō shōjo or “magical girl genre” (e.g. Minky Momo 1982)
• Animation studio Ghibli co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki (1985)
• The postmodern message of Katsuhiro Ōtomo’s Akira (1988)
• An image of collapse (social, material, spiritual)
• Nihilist corruption of authority and authenticity
• Not offering a moral center, but a dystopian chaos
• 1990s and beyond
• Humanoid robots still sell well
• Pokemon shock (1997) followed by Pokemon Boom
• Ghibli triumphs internationally with Spirited Away (2002)
NUCLEAR DISCOURSE IN POSTWAR JAPANESE CULTURE
• “nuclear discourse” as a set of artistic and political
utterances on the use of nuclear power for both military
and peaceful purpose
• Anti-nuclear message conveyed in different allegorical
forms: nuclear power as an energy source is represented in
dual terms (cf. Japanese videogames)
• Anti-nuclear mementos in postwar Japanese culture:
• Honda’s “Godzilla” (Gojira 1954)
• Nakazawa’s “Barefoot Gen” (Hadashi no Gen 1973)
• Ibuse’s “Black Rain” (Kuroi Ame 1969/1989)
• Okamoto’s “The Myth of Tomorrow” (Asu no Shinwa 2008)
POSTWAR JAPANESE FILM
• 1940s
• Popular culture heavily censored during the US occupation
• First Japanese on-screen kiss: Hatachi no seishun (1946)
• 1950s
• Akira Kurosawa’s Rashōmon wins the international Venice Film Festival (1951)
• Yasujirō Ozu’s bittersweet poetics and conflict between generation (e.g. Tōkyō monogarari 1953)
• Popularization of “monster movies” (kaijū eiga): Ishirō Honda’s Gojira (1954)
• “sun tribe” films (taiyōzoku) about the “corrupted” Japanese youth (e.g. Kō Nakahira: Kurutta kajitsu 1956)
• 1960s
• Superhero movies with special effects (tokusatsu): Gekkō kamen (1958) or Ultraman (1966)
• “romance pornography” (roman poruno) (e.g. films of Masaru Konuma or Nagisa Ōshima)
• Golden age of yakuza films in Japan (e.g. Tadashi Sawashima: Jinsei gekijō 1963)
• 1970s–1980s
• change of zeitgeist corresponds with change in heroes (e.g. from kōha to nanpa)
• social/family-oriented TV “morning dramas” (asadora): e.g. Oshin, Tokyo Love Story
• Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo (1989) becomes internationally acclaimed cyberpunk hit
• 1990s–2000s
• “post-trendy TV dramas” as escapist/romantic entertainment (e.g. Long Vacation from 1996)
• revival of yakuza films, now being more graphic and nihilist (e.g. late works of Takeshi Kitano)
• Boom of horror movies, revival of war-related films
Hatachi no seishun (1946) Tōkyō monogarari (1953) Gojira (1954)
Jinsei gekijō (1963) Tetsuo (1989) Outrage (2008)