Title Abstracts Sub Title 英文要旨 Author Publisher 慶應義塾大学アート・センター Publication year 2015 Jtitle Booklet Vol.23, (2015. ) ,p.134- 137 Abstract Notes ldole♥Heroine V Genre Journal Article URL https://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/detail.php?koara_id=AA11893297-0000002 3-0134

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Preface This booklet focuses on “female idols” who appear in performing arts, literature, ukiyoe and comic books. As is known, the word “idol” originally indicates a “statue/ image representing deity” and later came to signify “someone who is worshipped as an idol”. In Japan, this word further evolved around the 1970s to point particularly to young and charming female celebrities who became the object of virtual romance for many men. But did not similar “female idols” always exist, regardless of time or place? Didn't these “idols” perform a special role throughout the history of culture and arts? And aren't these “idols” becoming an important media for contemporary artistic expressions? Such are the questions we posed ourselves upon requesting specialists of various genres to approach, each in their own point of view, the topic of “idol”.

Study on Edo period “Idols”: Interpretation through representations

Masato NAITO

Adoration towards an “Idol”, or hero/heroine has always existed no matter when and where. In the ancient times, even before the apparition of religion, people sought “idols”, at times as an icon. This paper is an attempt to track the Japanese Edo-period “idols”, that is, the existence of these popular “idols”, through drawings, wood-block prints, or literature, and to extract the various forms of these idols during this time period. By observing the Edo-period idols it is impossible to deny that their way of being is very similar to that of a modern day “idol”. For example, the most vulgar Edo-period “idols”, such as courtesans and Kabuki actors, were at times compared to Buddhist saints. This let us understand the ambivalence of these popular idols: they were the most sacred and at the same time the most vulgar existences. And this double nature is what allows “idols” to be in their utmost splendor.

134 Politics of “bittersweet” “prettiness”: Orientalism from Perfume and BABYMETAL

Toshiyuki OWADA

Recently, a number of Japanese girl groups have pursued and enjoyed success in the U.S. and Europe, despite its lyrics sung mostly in Japanese. Both Perfume, an electro pop girl group from Hiroshima and Babymetal, a three-girl ‘idol’ group backed by virtuoso metal musicians have made their Stateside appearance in November 2014. In this paper, I examine these two 'idol' groups within the context of Japan-U.S. cultural negotiations. They could be understood as Japan's answer to the girl group tradition in the U.S., which culminated with the worldwide success of Destiny’s Child. I argue that contemporary J-pop girl groups are not solely a Japanese creation─rather, they are the direct outcome of an ongoing transpacific dialogue on ethnicity and aesthetics. Indeed, Orientalism and self-Orientalism are crucial in understanding contemporary Japanese music.

On the world stage! Forefront of Japanese Idols

Nobuyuki HARADA

Nobuyuki Harada, producer of “J-Melo”, a hit program on the international broadcast division of Japan's public broadcasting service, NHK, looks back in his experience of advertising Japanese pop music to the world, and observes the condition under which J-pop may be accepted by the world. According to Mr. Harada, the key genres in J-pop acceptance are “Anime Song”, “Visual Kei” and “Idol” songs. However, these three are not purely musical “genres”, but more a form of expression or business model, of diverse components. Mr. Harada continues to analyze the “idol” music. “Idol” music, being a mixture of media and an attempt of image strategy, could be considered as a type of contemporary art. On the other hand, J-pop is fundamentally Japanese. Mr. Harada concludes by predicting that the future “idols” would become even more “localized” throughout Japan and continue to disseminate true nature of Japanese culture to the world.

135 Genealogy of Three girls “Idol” groups

Asato IZUMI

Distinguished columnist Asato Izumi looks back in the history of “Idols” through the framework of “San Nin Musume (Three Girls Group)”. He points out how “Idols”have always appeared in the form of “San Nin Musume” in the world of Japanese show business. He refers to the original “San Nin Musume” from the mid 1950s –– Chiemi Eri, Hibari Misora, and Izumi Yukimura–– and the “Spark San Nin Musume” ––Yukari Ito, Mari Sono, and Mie Nakao–– also from the 50s, the “New San Nin Musume” ––Rumiko Koyanagi, Mari Amachi, and Saori Minami–– from 1970s who armed not only children but also grown ups, the “Chusan Trio”––Junko Sakurada, Momoe Yamaguchi, Masako Mori–– next generations for “New San Nin Musume”, and the three girls unit, Candies. Mr. Izumi reviews the structure of “Idols”, passed on to contemporary groups like AKB48 in systems like “Center” and “Oshimen (Promoting/Favorite Member)” or in business models like media mixing.

Cleopatra’s Two Bodies

Hayato KOSUGE

To the extent that the poetic report presents us with one aspect of Cleopatra and her stage action another, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare has “two bodies”: a body politic as the ‘idol’ queen and a body natural as a realistic woman. Cleopatra presents these double images until the end of the play; that is, the legendary beauty in the speeches by the Roman characters is at odds with her whimsical behavior and shrill voice on the stage. In this process, on the one hand, Shakespeare emphasized an image of Cleopatra as an ‘idol’, an enchanting queen, making a repeated point of identifying Cleopatra with the goddess Isis of Egyptian mythology, thus connecting her with ideas of fertility, eroticism and exoticism. On the other hand, despite her presentation as a figure of mythic grandeur, Cleopatra is also a realistic stage figure that never makes audiences believe the reports of the Romans. This ironic gap between word and deed dissolves at the death of Antony in Act 4, and, thereafter, Cleopatra is given an integrated, idolized body of sublime and eternal royalty.

136 Garasu no Kamen and “Idols” : Asking Miuchi Miuchi

Interviewer: Hayato Kosuge

Hayato Kosuge, Professor of Theatre Studies and Liberal Arts of Keio University, interviews Miuchi Suzue, the author of one of Japan's most prominent girl's comic series, Garasu no Kamen (The Glass Mask). According to Miuchi Suzue, the heroes and heroines of comic books were precisely an “idol” to the author at her childhood, and that she used to “gaze adoringly” at them. How Miuchi Suzue fell in love with the comic book characters rather than an actual person may have been a forerunner of how teenagers today prefer “Two dimension”. The interview moves on to how the character in Garasu no Kamen were created. However, according to Miuchi Suzue, Kitajima Maya, the heroin of the series, is not an “idol”. Instead, her rivals hold the personality, talent, and pomp characteristic to “idols”. She reveals that such character structure is in line with the movie Osho (King), a shogi movie that she loved as girl. The interview continues in search of the source of “idols”, an “imagination and its crystal”, in movies, dramas, literature, and history.

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