DOCSLIB.ORG

Japan's Prostitution Prevention Law: the Case of the Missing Geisha

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Japan's Prostitution Prevention Law: the Case of the Missing Geisha Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Law School Student Scholarship Seton Hall Law 2010 Japan’s Prostitution Prevention Law: The aC se of the Missing Geisha Tenica Peterfreund Seton Hall Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Peterfreund, Tenica, "Japan’s Prostitution Prevention Law: The asC e of the Missing Geisha" (2010). Law School Student Scholarship. 57. https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship/57 Japan’s Prostitution Prevention Law: The Case of the Missing Geisha By Tenica Peterfreund “Remember, Chiyo, geisha are not courtesans. And we are not wives. We sell our skills, not our bodies. We create another secret world, a place only of beauty. The very word ‘geisha’ means artist and to be a geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art.” – Memoirs of a Geisha1 I. Introduction There are some who have called Japan a prostitution culture.2 Indeed, prostitution was officially sanctioned by the Japanese government during the Tokugawa regime of 1603-1868.3 Up until the end of the feudal era, poor families sent their daughters to big cities to find work at brothels and other niches in the sex industry, having them enter into “slavish bondage” with brothel owners.4 Today, prostitutes come in different forms—as streetwalkers, hostesses at bars and call girls.5 Streetwalkers will roam the streets of mizo shobai and almost always have an understanding with police who grant prostitutes a certain degree of freedom.6 Hostesses who work at bar establishments provide companionship to male patrons and will then visit love hotels7 later in the night.8 Call girls, a fast-growing group, will typically meet men at love hotels after the men call a central line about where they can meet their dates.9 But with the variety of 1 Memoirs of a Geisha (Columbia Pictures, 2005). 2 Jennifer Chan-Tiberghien, Gender and Human Rights Politics in Japan 40 (2004). 3 Id. (The Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime which focused on military power and an isolationist foreign policy). 4 Andrew D. Morrison, Note, Teen Prostitution in Japan: Regulation of Telephone Clubs, 31 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 457, 461 (1998). 5 Stephan M. Salzberg, The Japanese Response to AIDS, 9 B.U. Int’l L.J. 243, 262 (1991). 6 David H. Bayley, Forces of Order: Policing Modern Japan 110-111 (1991). 7 See Morrison, supra note 4, at 472. (Love hotels are analogous to hourly motels in the United States). 8 See Salzberg, supra note 5, at 261-262. 9 See Salzberg, supra note 5, at 263. 1 prostitutes that find their place in Japanese society, there is one group in the sex industry cloaked in mystery, that has been able to hide behind a curtain of tradition—the geisha. Many scholars poetically view geisha as heirs to a romantic heritage.10 Their eyes are outlined in black with a face that shines white and impassive like a mask.11 Their hair is “piled into gleaming black coils” reminiscent of hills and valleys on a country-side.12 Their kimonos sparkle in shades of blue and gold.13 The women are well-versed in passionate stories and poems of heroes and villains, beautiful femme fatales and great lovers.14 They are not women, but walking works of art, a stylized image of ultimate femininity in Japan.15 Not only do they tell stories, they spend years studying dance and music before graduating to a fully qualified geisha.16 They live in tea houses where they entertain wealthy and powerful government men, like Prince Charles of England,17 performing and flirting, engaging in witty conversation.18 While many believe that geisha are legally recognized professionals, entertainers and performers, there are others who believe them to be a distinct part of Japan’s ever-flourishing sex industry. This distinction between prostitutes and geisha is an important one under Japan’s current Prostitution Prevention Law.19 Since geisha are not considered prostitutes under the statute, there has been a growing “geisha-isation” in Japan, where brothels and meeting places have transformed into geisha houses to escape enforcement of the law.20 Because of this, the Prostitution Prevention Law has been less than effective. This paper will provide a historical 10 Lesley Downer, The Secret History of the Geisha: Women of the Pleasure Quarters 3 (2001). 11 Id. at 1. 12 Id. 13 Id. at 2. 14 Id. at 3. 15 Id. at 9. 16 Id. at 12. 17 Mineko Iwasaki, Geisha, A Life 186 (2002). 18 Michiko Aoki, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in History, http://www.mywire.com/a/Oxford-Enc-Women- World-History/Geisha/9498261/ (Jan 1, 2008). 19 Baishun boshi ho [Prostitution Prevention Law], No. 118 (1956). 20 Caroline Norma, A Past Re-imagined for the Geisha: Saviour of the 1950’s Sex Industry, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6988/is_10/ai_n31337323/ (Jan 2008). 2 examination of prostitutes and geisha, the geisha’s place under the Prostitution Prevention law and an analysis of why they were excluded under the law based on unique societal characteristics of Japan including its social order construct and the honne/tatemae philosophy. In addition, this paper will provide recommendations to effect change in Japan’s sex industry, namely to close loopholes in the law by including the geisha as a prostitute. II. History of the Prostitute and the Geisha There is a deep and complex history for both the Japanese prostitute and the Japanese geisha. Japan, unlike other countries, had few moral reservations concerning the sex industry. The history of licensed prostitution in Japan is robust and begins around the 1600s.21 The geisha have their own history starting in the “pleasure quarters” of the Tokugawa shogunate, commencing during the mid-18th century. Though this paper will try and separate those histories, there are times when the narratives will collide, revealing a past that ties geisha and prostitutes closer than some would like to believe. Officially supervised prostitution has dated back to the Kamakura period (1185-1333), where the government created the office of “steward of prostitutes” (yukun betto).22 The shogunate of 1338-1573, known as Ashikaga, formally recognized prostitution as a trade and taxed it as a profession under its “Harlots Bureau.”23 But it was during the Tokugawa era in the 1600s that the origins of today’s modern prostitution regime arose. In 1618, authorities set up the Yoshiwara quarters, licensed prostitution quarters that were meant to concentrate “scattered gangs of prostitutes.”24 Regulations demanded that the area be walled off, surrounded by a moat 21 Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life 90 (1997). 22 Id. 23 Id. 24 Id. 3 and open only during the day.25 Brothels had to be of a predetermined size, prostitutes could only work at one brothel within one licensed quarter and their patrons were only allowed to stay for a 24-hour period.26 These regulations became more lenient around the 1650s.27 By the end of the seventeenth century, there were 35 licensed quarters in Japan, Yoshiwara and Shimabara quarters (Kyoto) alone accounting for 2,800 prostitutes.28 Even then, “innovative brothel-like establishments” emerged, like “meeting houses” or tea houses, which served as a disguise for simple brothels.29 Officials in early Japan had fewer moral reservations about the profession than, for example, Christian societies in the West.30 The legal system did nothing to discourage the sale of young girls into prostitution as an answer to poverty.31 Prostitutes were often bound by indentured relationships to brothel owners.32 These owners offered monetary advances to the girls, but more generally to the girls’ parents.33 If a girl quit prior to the repayment of that advance, her parents were contractually indebted to the owners to pay off that obligation.34 Other times, the opposite would occur, where the girl would work off her family’s debts.35 However, in 1872, an event occurred which spawned a change that would affect the lives of all geisha and prostitutes and their influence on Japan.36 The Peruvian ship, the Maria Luz, 25 See Morrison, supra note 4, at 460. 26 Id. 27 Id. at 461. 28 See Garon, supra note 21, at 90. 29 See Morrison, supra note 4, at 461. 30 See Garon, supra note 21, at 91. 31 Id. 32 Id. at 93. 33 Id. 34 Id. 35 Yasuzo Kitamura, Evolution of Antitrafficking in Persons, Law and Practice in Japan: A Historical Perspective, 14 Tul. J. Int’l. & Comp. L. 331, 335 (2006). 36 Susan Tiefenbrun, Copyright Infringement, Sex Trafficking and Defamation in the Fictional Life of a Geisha, 10 Mich. J. Gender & l. 327, 356 (2004). 4 sailed into Japanese harbors for repairs, carrying 230 Chinese slaves.37 The slaves were ultimately set free but not without an international uproar.38 While the Japanese government officially stated that it had no policy recognizing slavery, the Peruvian government fought back claiming Japan indeed did have its own de facto system of slavery—the women in the pleasure quarters.39 Because the new Meiji government40 was attempting to convince the world of Japan’s new modernity and civility,41 the Council of the State passed the Prostitute and Geisha Emancipation Act,42 which decreed that all prostitutes, geishas and indentured servants be freed,43 prohibiting the sale of and trade in human beings.44 The women did not have to repay their advances because “prostitutes and geisha are those who have lost control of their bodies and thus are no different than cows and horses.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Sexual Life of Japan : Being an Exhaustive Study of the Nightless City Or the "History of the Yoshiwara Yūkwaku"
    Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012541797 Cornell University Library HQ 247.T6D27 1905 *erng an exhau The sexual life of Japan 3 1924 012 541 797 THE SEXUAL LIFE OF JAPAN THE SEXUAL LIFE OF JAPAN BEING AN EXHAUSTIVE STUDY OF THE NIGHTLESS CITY 1^ ^ m Or the "HISTORY of THE YOSHIWARA YUKWAKU " By J, E. DE BECKER "virtuous men hiive siitd, both in poetry and ulasslo works, that houses of debauch, for women of pleasure and for atreet- walkers, are the worm- eaten spots of cities and towns. But these are necessary evils, and If they be forcibly abolished, men of un- righteous principles will become like ravelled thread." 73rd section of the " Legacy of Ityasu," (the first 'I'okugawa ShOgun) DSitl) Niimrraiia SUuatratiuna Privately Printed . Contents PAGE History of the Yosliiwara Yukwaku 1 Nilion-dzutsumi ( 7%e Dyke of Japan) 15 Mi-kaeri Yanagi [Oazing back WUlow-tree) 16 Yosliiwara Jiuja ( Yoahiwara Shrine) 17 The "Aisome-zakura " {Chen-y-tree of First Meeting) 18 The " Koma-tsunagi-matsu " {Colt tethering Pine-tree) 18 The " Ryojin no Ido " {Traveller's Well) 18 Governmeut Edict-board and Regulations at the Omen (Great Gate) . 18 The Present Omon 19 »Of the Reasons why going to the Yosliiwara was called " Oho ve Yukn " ". 21 Classes of Brothels 21 Hikite-jaya (" Introducing Tea-houses"') 28 The Ju-hachi-ken-jaya (^Eighteen Tea-houses) 41 The " Amigasa-jaya
    [Show full text]
  • Inside the Secret World of the Geisha
    2019 Spring Semester Inside the Secret World of the Geisha Section 1 Instructor/Title Professor Arif Iqball 【Course Outline / Description】 Painted by Picasso, sculpted by Rodin, entertainers to Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and US Presidents, yet the role and image of the Japanese Geisha has often been misinterpreted outside Japan, and has shaped Western stereotypes about Japan and Japanese women. Being historically closed in a world of secrecy, not many Japanese either have been able to get access to this world with its own rules and etiquette, and with very little documentation. This course examines the primary role of the Geisha in Japan as an artist and an entertainer encompassing a variety of important social, cultural, and historical elements. Leveraging the instructor’s personal connections and research, a field trip to a seasonal dance performance, and conversations with current Geisha, as well as use of academic literature and visual documentation including historical photographs, documentaries and movie representations, this course attempts to provide a complete cultural experience to the Asian and Japanese Studies student on the true role and place of these artists in Japanese culture, and in a traditional world which runs parallel (and yet is completely different than) to the modern Japanese world of manga, anime, and robots. With emphasis on the Geisha of the five Kagai (performance districts) in Kyoto, this course not only explores the historical and cultural elements, but also introduces this relatively unknown and closed
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Studies on Sex Workers in Japan, Australia and New Zealand: the Way to Unionisation of Sex Workers
    The Otemon Journal of AustralianStudies, vol. 34, pp. 55−65, 2008 ５５ Comparative studies on sex workers in Japan, Australia and New Zealand: The way to unionisation of sex workers Akira Morishima Otemon Gakuin University I. Preface As widely known, the term ‘prostitution’ is regarded as a negative taboo word in Japan. Probably because of this, the word ‘Fuzoku(1)’, which is the euphemism of prostitution, has been recently commonly used to refer to the sex industry itself, brothels and sex workers. This paper intends to clarify the status quo of sex workers, and eventually reveal the taboo through comparative studies on the cases of Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Japan is opposed to Australia and New Zealand not only geographically but also in terms of re- sponses for prostitution including the welfare/health policies. Therefore, this paper mentions firstly the situations and problems sex workers in those three countries are faced with, in the process of which it will be hopefully clear at last why I conclude “The way to unionisation of sex workers” as a solution. II. Situation in Japan In Japan, the occupations and places related to prostitution began to be generally called ‘Fuzoku’ in the end of twentieth century and, the term has been commonly used since the beginning of twenty-first century. And, the ‘Fuzoku’consists mainly of escort agencies widely known in Western countries and brothels. The escort agencies in Japan have almost the same management system as those in Western countries; women (mostly) registered by the agencies are dispatched to hotels upon request via phone call or the like, while the system of brothels is rather complicated.
    [Show full text]
  • JAPAN's BATTLE AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING: a VICTIM-ORIENTED SOLUTION When Marcela Loaiza Was Twenty-One, a Stranger Approached
    \\jciprod01\productn\J\JLE\50-1\JLE104.txt unknown Seq: 1 22-SEP-17 13:46 NOTE JAPAN’S BATTLE AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING: A VICTIM-ORIENTED SOLUTION JUSTIN STAFFORD* INTRODUCTION When Marcela Loaiza was twenty-one, a stranger approached her in her hometown in Colombia and offered her the opportunity to work as a professional dancer in Japan.1 After Loaiza lost her two jobs due to her daughter’s illness, she accepted the “talent scout’s” offer to provide for her daughter and mother.2 Upon arriving in Japan, three members of the Yakuza mafia received her, promptly took her passport, and informed her that the costs of bringing her to Japan amounted to the equivalent of $50,000.3 For the follow- ing eighteen months, members of the trafficking industry forced her to sell sex on the streets of Tokyo.4 She serviced anywhere from fourteen to twenty clients a day, with a Yakuza pimp always checking how much she earned and keeping her on a strict diet.5 She shared a three-bedroom flat with six other women from vari- ous countries across the world, including Russia, Venezuela, Korea, China, Peru, and Mexico.6 Fortunately, Marcela Loaiza escaped to tell her story, but the same does not hold true for thousands of women who remain under the power of their captors in Japan.7 Compared to their counterparts in similarly situated countries, Japanese authorities * J.D. expected 2018, The George Washington University Law School; B.A. 2008 Chapman University. 1. Anastasia Moloney, “I Had No Idea I’d Been Sex Trafficked”: A Terrifying True Story, SALON (Aug.
    [Show full text]
  • Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden Chapter One Suppose That You and I Were Sitting in a Quiet Room Overlooking a Gar-1 Den, Chatt
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Memoirs Of A Geisha Arthur Golden Chapter one Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a gar-1 den, chatting and sipping at our cups of green tea while we talked J about something that had happened a long while ago, and I said to you, "That afternoon when I met so-and-so . was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon." I expect you might put down your teacup and say, "Well, now, which was it? Was it the best or the worst? Because it can't possibly have been both!" Ordinarily I'd have to laugh at myself and agree with you. But the truth is that the afternoon when I met Mr. Tanaka Ichiro really was the best and the worst of my life. He seemed so fascinating to me, even the fish smell on his hands was a kind of perfume. If I had never known him, I'm sure I would not have become a geisha. I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha. I wasn't even born in Kyoto. I'm a fisherman's daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan. In all my life I've never told more than a handful of people anything at all about Yoroido, or about the house in which I grew up, or about my mother and father, or my older sister-and certainly not about how I became a geisha, or what it was like to be one.
    [Show full text]
  • The Comfort Women and State Prostitution
    Volume 16 | Issue 10 | Number 1 | Article ID 5143 | May 15, 2018 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus The Comfort Women and State Prostitution Onozawa Akane with an introduction by Nishino Rumiko, Kim Puja, Onozawa Akane. Translation by Robert Ricketts INTRODUCTION The Kōno statement and its limitations (1993) Nishino Rumiko, Kim Puja, Onozawa Akane In August 1991, three South Korean former comfort women, one using her real name, went The article by Onozawa Akane below is adapted public with their wartime experiences, filing from Chapter 3 (Comfort Women and State civil charges against the Japanese state later Prostitution) in Denying the Comfort Women: that year for the abuses they had suffered. As The Japanese State’s Assault on Historical other victim-survivors stepped forward, 1 Truth (London: Routledge, 2018). Originally transnational support groups formed in South published in Japanese by Ōtsuki Shoten in Korea, Japan, and elsewhere to assist them in 2013, the volume was written by prominent the lawsuits they initiated in Japanese courts. Japanese and Korean scholars—several of them Teams of lawyers, researchers, and human contributors to The Asia-Pacific Journal—and rights activists helped compile survivor edited by Nishino Rumiko, Kim Puja, and testimonies in Korean, Chinese, Filipino, and Onozawa for the Violence Against Women in English and translate them into Japanese, while War Research Action Center (VAWW RAC) in scholars began scouring Japan's national Tokyo. To place Onozawa's essay in a broader archives for historical documents bearing on context, we introduce the book as a whole the comfort women issue. before commenting briefly on the significance of her contribution.
    [Show full text]
  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Discussion Questions Taken From
    Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Discussion Questions 1. Many people in the West think of geisha simply as prostitutes. After reading Memoirs of a Geisha, do you see the geisha of Gion as prostitutes? What are the similarities, and what are the differences? What is the difference between being a prostitute and being a "kept woman," as Sayuri puts it [p. 291]? 2. "The afternoon when I met Mr. Tanaka Ichiro," says Sayuri, "really was the best and the worst of my life" [p. 7]. Is Mr. Tanaka purely motivated by the money he will make from selling Chiyo to Mrs. Nitta, or is he also thinking of Chiyo's future? Is he, as he implies in his letter, her friend? 3. In his letter to Chiyo, Mr. Tanaka says "The training of a geisha is an arduous path. However, this humble person is filled with admiration for those who are able to recast their suffering and become great artists" [p. 103]. The word "geisha" in fact derives from the Japanese word for art. In what does the geisha's art consist? How many different types of art does she practice? 4. Does Sayuri have a better life as a geisha than one assumes she would have had in her village? How does one define a "better" life? Pumpkin, when offered the opportunity to run away, declines [p. 53]; she feels she will be safer in Gion. Is her decision wise? 5. How does Sayuri's status at the Nitta okiya resemble, or differ from, that of a slave? Is she in fact a slave? 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Position in Memoirs of a Geisha Written by Arthur Golden
    WOMEN’S POSITION IN MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA WRITTEN BY ARTHUR GOLDEN (1997): A FEMINIST APPROACH RESEARCH PAPER Submitted as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Getting Bachelor Degree of Education in English Department by: NANANG MUHAMMAD MAHFUDH A 320 060 176 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY MUHAMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA 2010 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study The novel, "Memoirs of a Geisha", was written by Arthur Golden. Published in 1997 in the United States, it was a bestseller of the year. For a few years after reading it, Steven Spielberg worked on a film adaptation version of the book and was attached as the director. Being busy with other projects, Spielberg decided to drop the director title in early 2002. The project had a few other director candidates during 2002 and 2003 including Spike Jonze and Kimberley Peirce, and eventually settled with Rob Marshall (Chicago). Spielberg is now one of the producers of the film. Memoirs of a Geisha, published in 1997, is Arthur Golden's debut novel. The bestselling novel was a long time in the making, Golden spent more than ten years on the novel, throwing out the first two drafts before finding his "voice" in the first person account that was a publishing success. Golden was born in 1957 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to a family of journalists. His parents, Ben and Ruth, published the Chattanooga Times, and in the early 2000 his cousin, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, published the New York Times. Golden's parents divorced when he was eight, and his father died five years later.
    [Show full text]
  • Prolegomenon to Geisha As a Cultural Performer: Miyako Odori, the Gion School and Representation of a Traditional" Japan
    (159) Prolegomenon to Geisha as a Cultural Performer: Miyako Odori, The Gion School and Representation of a Traditional" Japan Manko Okada 1. Introduction In this paper, I would like to present an aspect of geisha that has been largely ignored in English literature. ′rhat is the geisha's professional identity as a "performer" of Japanese culture. ¶le common-run image of geisha is exotic, mysterious, and sexual, but is not sufficiently cultural. In the West, the image of geisha has been created through stage performances,丘Ims, and novels. Puccini's famous opera Madame Butterfly, John Huston's五Im The Barbarian and a Geisha (1958) and Jack Cardiff's My Geisha (1962) are the famous examples that have helped to formulate the image of geisha. People recognize geisha as a hostess who serves alcohol at banquets and entertains her guests with witty conversations and heart-warming care. Sometimes, a geisha is recognized as a high-class prostitute who seeks a chance to become a mistress of a wealthy man. I do not mean to say these images are incorrect, but I would like to emphasize that血ey alone cannot caphre the whole picture of a woman who works as a geisha. 2. Dominant Image of Geisha ¶lere is one example that has shown this strong bias. In 2001, an ex-geisha, Mineko Iwasaki sued the novelist Arthur Golden and the publishing company Alfred A. Knopf for defamation, breach of contract and copyright violation.1 Golden is the author of Memoirs of Geisha, which was the 1997 best-selling novel. Golden referred to Iwasaki in the acknowledgments as the most helpful informant for the novel.
    [Show full text]
  • The Alienation and Manipulation of Geisha in Cultural Structures of Japan with Special Reference to Arthur Golden's Memoirs Of
    The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 8, Issue-VIII, July 2017 ISSN: 0976-8165 The Alienation and Manipulation of Geisha in Cultural Structures of Japan with Special Reference to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha Smriti Thakur Ph.D Research Scholar Centre for Languages and Comparative Literature Central University of Punjab, Bathinda & Dr. Alpna Saini Associate Professor Centre for Languages and Comparative Literature Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Article History: Submitted-02/06/2017, Revised-18/07/2017, Accepted-19/07/2017, Published-31/07/2017. Abstract: Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha is an account of Geisha’s life; a life of struggle, and surrounded by various artistic practices where Geisha have no time for themselves. Their life seems glamorous and exciting to the outside world, however, in reality, it is pathetic and an isolated one. The aim of this paper is to focus on the origin of Geisha tradition, which is considered as a cultural heritage of Japan. Simultaneously, the paper throws light on various issues such as the role of tradition, culture, history, economy, and prostitution which contribute to the marginalisation of Geisha in personal as well as social arenas. The paper also deals with the reasons which blur the distinction between Geisha tradition and prostitution. To facilitate the interpretation of Geisha tradition, cultural construction of gender roles has been taken into account. Keywords: Geisha, Tradition, Prostitution, Economy, Culture. Introduction: Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha (1998) is a fictional account of Geisha’s life set in the Gion district of Kyoto between the 1930s and 1950s.
    [Show full text]
  • The Masks of Commedia Del'arte, Noh Theater and Classical Greece
    Parkland College A with Honors Projects Honors Program 2012 The aM sks of Commedia Del’Arte, Noh Theater and Classical Greece: The ulturC al Meanings, Influences and Similarities Makena Bennett Parkland College Recommended Citation Bennett, Makena, "The askM s of Commedia Del’Arte, Noh Theater and Classical Greece: The ulturC al Meanings, Influences and Similarities" (2012). A with Honors Projects. 72. http://spark.parkland.edu/ah/72 Open access to this Article is brought to you by Parkland College's institutional repository, SPARK: Scholarship at Parkland. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Makena Bennett December 5th 2012-12 Dr. Amy Stoch Theater 104-001 The Masks of Commedia Del’Arte, Noh Theater and Classical Greece: The Cultural Meanings, Influences and Similarities. Masks have been used for centuries by countless countries, ethnic groups and religions. The oldest mask today is over 9,000 years old and is held in Jerusalem. It is estimated that masks date back as far as 40,000 years ago thanks to literature and biblical references . One of the most places to find masks in history and still today is the stage. Almost every type of theatre has used masks at one point, in Rome for example the word persona meant mask, but it also meant to be a citizen of Rome. Masks play a huge role is cultural norms, and references and often reflects historical significance. Three types of Masks, Commedia Dell`Arte, Noh Theatre and Classical Greek, reflect not only the emotion an actor is trying to convey but also rules and expectations of society (Nunley 21-25).
    [Show full text]
  • Caste Discrimination and Human Rights
    CASTE DISCRIMINATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS: A comprehensive compilation of how caste discrimination and similar forms of discrimination based on work and descent have been addressed by the UN treaty bodies, Universal Periodic Review, and the Special Procedures Prepared by the International Dalit Solidarity Network Ninth edition – October 2015 The International Dalit Solidarity Network Rosenørns Allé 12 DK-1634 Copenhagen V Denmark Email: [email protected] Website: www.idsn.org Find the most recently updated edition of this compilation online: www.idsn.org/UNcompilation 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS CASTE DISCRIMINATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS ...................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 REVIEW OF FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................................. 9 UN treaty bodies (1991-2015) ........................................................................................................................................ 9 Universal Periodic Review (2008-2015) ........................................................................................................................ 11 UN Special Procedures (2005-2015) ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]