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Japan Studies Review JAPAN STUDIES REVIEW Volume Nine 2005 Interdisciplinary Studies of Modern Japan Steven Heine Editor John A. Tucker Book Review Editor Editorial Board Yumiko Hulvey, University of Florida John Maraldo, University of North Florida Laura Nenzi, Florida International University Mark Ravina, Emory University Ann Wehmeyer, University of Florida Brian Woodall, Georgia Institute of Technology Copy and Production Maria Cubau Jessica Reyes Cristina Sasso JAPAN STUDIES REVIEW VOLUME NINE 2005 A publication of the Southern Japan Seminar and Florida International University CONTENTS Editor’s Introduction i Re: Subscriptions, Submissions and Comments iii ARTICLES Depopularizing the Popular: Tentori Haikai and the Bashō Revival Cheryl Crowley 3 From Fukuzawa to Blaut: On the Origins of Japanese Eurocentrism Daniel K.T. Woo 13 National Morality, the State, and “Dangerous Thought”: Approaching the Moral Ideal in Late Meiji Japan Richard Reitan 23 Karaoke Learning in Japan: Individual Expression in a Group Context Hideo Watanabe 59 FEATURED ESSAY A One-Week Retreat at a Zen Monastery in Japan: An Ethnographic Participant-Observation Kinko Ito 81 STUDENT ESSAYS Guest Editor’s Introduction 92 Inger Sigrun Brodey Paths Present and Future: Yojimbo and the Trail of the Zen Detective Matt Dale 95 Aesthetics of American Zen: Tradition, Adaptation, and Innovation in the Rochester Zen Center Garden Jeff Wilson 101 Taxicab Enlightenment: Zen and the Importance of Performing Kerouac in Satori In Paris Paul Worley 115 Mother Gaia: A Glimpse into the Buddhist Aesthetic of Gary Snyder Jeff W. Russell 123 BOOK REVIEWS Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia By Charlotte Ikels Reviewed by Leslie Williams 135 Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex & Morality in Modern Japan By William Johnston Reviewed by Jan Bardsley 138 Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto By James Heisig Reviewed by Gereon Kopf` 141 CONTRIBUTORS/EDITORS EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Welcome to the ninth volume of the Japan Studies Review (JSR), an annual peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the joint efforts of the Southern Japan Seminar and the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University, with partial funding from the Japan Foundation. JSR continues to be both an outlet for publications related to Southern Japan Seminar events and a journal that encourages submissions from a wide range of scholars in the field. Appearing in this issue are four articles on a variety of topics related to the Japanese literature form of haikai, social and political turmoil during the Meiji Restoration period (1869-1912), and the implications of learning karaoke in a group-oriented society. The first article, “Depopularizing the Popular: Tentori Haikai and the Bashō Revival” by Cheryl Crowley, focuses on the Bashō Revival movement in the middle of the eighteenth century, when Bashō poets, (commoners and low-ranking samurai) meant to redesign the popular comic form haikai into a prestigious genre of literature. Following this, “From Fukuzawa to Blaut: On the Origins of Japanese Eurocentrism” by Daniel K.T. Woo, studies the influence of the notion of Eurocentrism, or Western superiority, on the philosophy of the Japanese scholar Fukuzawa Yukichi, who sought independence from governmental interference as well as from old customs and practices of the Meiji Restoration. The third article, “National Morality, the State, and ‘Dangerous Thought’: Approaching the Moral Ideal in Late Meiji Japan” by Richard Reitan, studies the tension near the end of the Meiji era between a state- sponsored intellectual movement concerned to identify and legitimize national identity with ideas of loyalty and filiality and an anti-state movement that emphasized anarchy, socialism, and individualism. The final article, “Karaoke Learning in Japan: Individual Expression in a Group Context” by Hideo Watanabe, analyzes the individualistic role of karaoke learning in a socially dependent society, and shows some interesting and surprising results through fieldwork studies. Also appearing in this issue are five essays. The featured essay by Kinko Ito, “A One-Week Retreat at a Zen Monastery in Japan: An Ethnographic Participant-Observation,” provides a personal account of a dai ii sesshin, or one-week retreat, held at a Zen monastery in Japan. The four student essays were selected from a conference contest held in conjunction with a Southern Japan Seminar meeting in November 2003, and will be introduced by guest editor Inger Brodey of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the beginning of that section. Additionally, the volume contains three book reviews of recent publications on Japanese studies. Charlotte Ikels’ edited volume on contemporary practices of filial piety in light of social, political, and economic changes in mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan is reviewed by Leslie Williams of Clemson University; William Johnston’s work on the Abe Sada murder case is reviewed by Jan Bardsley of the University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill; and James Heisig’s study on the philosophy of Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani of the Kyoto School is reviewed by Gereon Kopf of Luther College. Please note: Japanese names are cited with surname first except for citations of works published in English. Steven Heine, Editor iii Re: Submissions, Subscriptions and Comments Submissions for publication, either articles or book reviews, should be made in both hard copy and electronic formats, preferably Word for Windows on a disk (please inquire about other formats). The editor and members of the editorial board will referee all submissions. Annual Subscriptions are now $15.00 (US). Please send a check or money order payable to Florida International University. C/o Steven Heine, Professor of Religious Studies and History Director of the Institute for Asian Studies Florida International University University Park Campus, DM 300 B Miami, FL 33199 Professor Heine’s office number is 305-348-1914. Faxes should be sent to 305-348-6586 and emails to [email protected]. For more information please visit our website at www.fiu.edu/~asian/jsr. PDF versions of past volumes are available online. All comments and feedback on the publications appearing in Japan Studies Review are welcome. ISSN 1550-0713 Articles DEPOPULARIZING THE POPULAR: TENTORI HAIKAI AND THE BASHŌ REVIVAL1 Cheryl Crowley Emory University Haikai is not often discussed in the context of popular culture. It is typically categorized as "classical" Japanese literature. This term suggests that its objects of study are antithetical to popular culture, which is typically a designation for works outside the literary canon. However, in the first centuries of its development, haikai was decidedly uncanonical. Originally derived from the elite linked verse form renga, the comic form haikai got its start as an ephemeral, expendable kind of amusement, and its transformation into a genre of literature that merited refined aesthetic appreciation was a process that took hundreds of years. In this paper, I examine one part of this process: the emergence of the Bashō Revival movement in the middle of the eighteenth century. I explore the ways that the Revival poets, who were commoners and low-ranking samurai, tried to reshape haikai into a poetic form equal to that of the elite forms waka and renga, and in doing so to raise their own status in an era that otherwise offered little social mobility. While the first part of the eighteenth century was a period of remarkable growth in the number of haikai schools and practitioners, the Revival poets viewed their genre's success as problematic, as they equated popularization with vulgarization. Since by definition haikai relies on language and imagery that grounds itself in the popular, the Revival poets' stance would appear to be paradoxical. Although they represented only a minority in the haikai community of their day, ultimately it is the Revival poets and their successors, rather than their more popular rivals, who eventually came to be regarded as the central figures of haikai history. How did this happen? To consider this question, I will discuss the characteristics of haikai that made it a part of popular culture; examine the circumstances of historical development of haikai that led to the rise of tentori 点取 (point- 1 This paper was originally given as a paper presentation at the April 17, 2004 meeting of the Southern Japan Seminar in Atlanta, Georgia. 4 CHERYL CROWLEY scoring) haikai, and finally show how the Revival poets' efforts to counteract what they saw as the cheapening effect of popularization as a defense not only of the dignity of haikai, but of their own movement. The Rise of Tentori Haikai In 1751, the Kyoto haikai poet Mōotsu 毛越 published an anthology, Kokon tanzaku shū 古今短冊集 (Ancient and Modern Poetry Card Anthology), a collection of exemplary hokku verses of the past and present printed in the form of reproductions of the poets' own calligraphy. Mōotsu's collection aimed to reinvigorate interest in the work of haikai poets of the past – especially that of Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) – showing it to be superior to the common type of haikai practitioner of the day. Kokon tanzaku shū was not particularly influential, but it is worth taking a look at because of its preface, which was written by the eighteenth century's most prominent haikai poet, Yosa Buson (1716-1784). At the time that Mōotsu asked him to write the preface, Buson was a struggling young painter, recently returned to the Kansai area in order to seek his fortune. He was not a professional haikai poet, but he had a good reputation in Edo in the Tōhoku area based on his work with the Yahantei school of Hayano Hajin (1678-1742).2 Buson's preface, while containing the usual conventional words of praise for the anthology's editor, also included a damning indictment of the mainstream haikai poets of the day: Nowadays those who are prominent in haikai have different approaches to the various styles, castigating this one and scorning that one, and they thrust out their elbows and puff out their cheeks, proclaiming themselves haikai masters (sōshō 宗匠).
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