Japanese Conceptualizations of the South Seas (Nan’Yō) As A
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MONSTROUS PROJECTIONS AND PARADISAL VISIONS: JAPANESE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE SOUTH SEAS (NAN’YŌ) AS A SUPERNATURAL SPACE FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY AUGUST 2014 By Mark Alan Ombrello Dissertation Committee: Yuma Totani, Chairperson David Chappell David Hanlon Matthew Lauzon Nobuko Ochner ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to take this opportunity to express my utmost appreciation to all the people who offered their support through the process of completing this dissertation. I am particularly indebted to my committee members (Dr. Yuma Totani (Chair), Dr. David Chappell, Dr. David Hanlon, Dr. Matthew Lauzon, and Dr. Nobuko Ochner) who stuck with me to the end. Thank you for your guidance and mentoring. I also want to offer my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Sharon Minichiello who also served as a tremendous mentor and source of inspiration during my years as a graduate student. Thanks to all the wonderful people at the Crown Prince Akihito Fellowship Foundation. My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Kazuhiko Komatsu and the kind folks at the Komatsu Project. I also want to express my gratitude to the librarians, staff members, visiting scholars, and other professors at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken). Individual thanks to Daniel Arakelian, Heidi Ballendorf, Chris Cabrera, Susan Carlson, Dr. Greg Dvorak, Michael Gatti, Dr. Anne P. Hattori, Kevin Hulbert, Nathan Jones, Jessica Jordan, Dr. James Kraft, Scott Kramer, Richard Nigh, Danny Peck, Dr. Donald Platt, Dr. Curtis Rigsby, Dr. Jun Saitō, Eiko Sakuma, Dr. Fred Schumman, and Carla Smith. Special thanks to Shin’ichi and Teruko Yokota. Your love and support made this all possible. Finally, I want to thank Rie and Tino. I couldn’t have done it without you. i ABSTRACT From Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels to the giant monster movie Mothra, the South Seas has served as conceptual space filled with supernatural potential in Western and Japanese discourse. This dissertation will examine Japanese discourse that appropriated the South Seas (Nan’yō) in that capacity with relation to historical developments and Japanese identity formation from ancient times to the present. Not only does this vast space have a long tradition associated with fantastic beings, but it also resembles traditional Japanese ghosts and other fantastic phenomena in composition and character. Drawing from methodologies and concepts integrated in the field of ghost studies (yōkaigaku), this study will survey continuities and shifts in ways Japanese came to comprehend the space as a physical and conceptual entity. Through this investigation, issues concerning the formation of a worldview, the “Othering” of Pacific peoples, and the development of Japanese modernity will be revealed, offering insight into the transformation of modes of thought and cultural production vis-à-vis direct and vicarious engagement with the oceans and Islanders south of Japan in real and imaginary contexts. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments................................................................................................................ i Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1, Continuity and Change after the Storm ..............................................................1 Chapter 2, A Fantastically Mundane Morning in Ogura.…………………….……...…..37 Chapter 3, Strange Early Encounters .................................................................................62 Chapter 4, Entangling a Yōkai-like Nan’yō to the Nation State…......……………........102 Chapter 5, Coeval South Seas Visions .............................................................................138 Chapter 6, Atomic Monsters and Discursive Mutations .................................................182 Chapter 7, Hula Girls and Dragon Balls ..........................................................................222 Appendix A (Nan’yōkan) .................................................................................................231 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................235 FILMOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................272 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Broadsheet depicting ōnamazu ..............................................................................07 2-6. Dankichi Returns ...................................................................................................13 7. Map of Japanese Shipping Routes in the Nan’yō-chō (Late 1930s). .....................22 8. Rainy Day Tanuki. .................................................................................................38 9. Oni from Gazu hyakkiyagyō. .................................................................................42 10. Illustration of Kappa. .............................................................................................42 11. Woodblock print of ōnamazu in a tug-of-war with Commodore Perry .................48 12. Illustration of Perry as Tengu .................................................................................48 13. Portion of the picture scroll Hyakkiyagyō (Night Parade with One Hundred Demons) ..................................................................................................50 14. Illustration of the boatman, Kuwana no Tokuzō, and the Umibōzu. .....................54 15. Funa-yūrei in Ehon hyaku monogatari ..................................................................54 16. The Boatman and the Seas Specter. .......................................................................55 17. Ayakashi (Ikuchi) in Konjaku hyakki shūi ............................................................59 18. Shinkirō in Konjaku hyakki shūi ...........................................................................59 19. Shokuin in the Shan-hai jing ..................................................................................67 20. Shokuin in Konjaku hyakki shūi ............................................................................67 21. Kankyōjin (People with holes in their stomachs) from the Shan-hai jing .............69 22. Minamoto no Tametomo with oni attempting to draw his bow………………….75 23. Early Meiji-period woodblock print of Minamoto no Tametomo and the Islanders of Ōshima ...............................................................................................76 24. The Rescue of Minamoto no Tametomo by Goblins (Tengu). ................................78 25. Tenaga and ashinaga from the Shan-hai jing ........................................................83 26. Tenaga and ashinaga from the Wakansansai zue (1712) ......................................83 27. Map from the Kaitsūshōkō by Nishikawa Joken identifying the Land of the Long People (長人國) at the tip of South America ...............................................85 28. Wasobyōe and the stork being put on display by the giant, Dr. Kawauchi, in Ikoku kidan Wasobyōe .. ........................................................................................87 29. Wasobyōe in the Land of the Long People in Ikoku saiken Wasobyōe …………90 30. Asakusa Okuyama Iki-ningyō ................................................................................95 31. Tenaga-ashinaga zu ...............................................................................................95 32. Nestuke of Minamoto no Tametomo and Islanders of Ōshima………………….99 33. Nan’yō-jin netsuke……………………………………………………………….99 34. Tokugawa-period netsuke of ashinaga and tenaga ............................................100 35. Netsuke of the ashinaga Nan’yōjin (long-legged South Seas Islander) ..............100 36. Chinese soldiers as yōkai in shin hyakkiyagyō (New Hyakkiyagyō) ...................103 37. A photograph of the Gen’yōsha (The Black Ocean Society) (ca. 1905) .............134 38. Momotarō from Nanyō guntō kokugo dokuhon Vol. 1 (1917) ............................156 iv Chapter 1 Continuity and Change after the Storm A little more than two years had passed since my last visit to Japan in the summer of 2012. Prior to this trip we lived in the Kansai region in a section of Uji City in Kyoto known as Ogura where I commuted to Katsurazaka to do dissertation research at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken). Although Japan was a second home and a place of considerable familiarity, I did not expect to encounter the degree of change that took place on account of the “storm.” As broadcast all over the world, the cataclysmic tsunami and subsequent accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant of the previous year unleashed immeasurable trauma and destruction. Yet out of all the devastation, the catastrophe served as an engine for remarkable social, political, and economic transformation readily apparent upon arrival. New post-tsunami realities resulted in a national redoubling of efforts to save energy; they also