The wide dissemination of Japanese history and culture has promoted the status of Japan in the hearts of its nationals as well as in the hearts of other countries, and many countries have also taken Japanese culture as a reference and actively absorbed the beneficial components, which plays an important role in the fusion of cultures of different countries. The following is what I have organized for you on the history and culture of Japan essay, welcome to read reference!
Japanese History and Culture Essay 1An Introduction to the Historical Contribution of Japanese Geisha Culture
Abstract: With the release of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" directed by Spielberg, the Japanese Geisha quickly attracted the eyes of many people. In most people's eyes, Geisha has always been a special profession full of mystery and some ambiguity, and some people even simply think that Geisha are prostitutes with some kind of talent. In fact, this is a misunderstanding, in fact, Geisha is engaged in a performing art, their songs, dances, instrumental music and even a hand and a foot, all reflecting the concept of classical art. Therefore, in modern society, Geisha has been called a living fossil of Japanese classical culture, and Geisha has even played some special roles in Japanese history.
Keywords: Japanese Geisha, Geisha, Geisha, Historical Contributions
With the release of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", the Japanese Geisha quickly attracted the attention of the world. In most people's eyes, because? Geisha? This kind of title in the more a? Geisha? in the name "Geisha", there are many misconceptions about Geisha. In fact, this is only due to the translation of the word "Geisha" into Chinese, which is called "Geisha" in Japanese. In Japanese, Geisha is called "geisya". (geisya) in Japanese, but when translated into Chinese, the character The word "geisya" was removed from the word "geisha" in Japanese. and added the word "伎" (geisya). Geisha? So many people mistakenly think that Geisha is a prostitute who can sing and dance.
Geisha is indeed able to sing and dance, but the difference with prostitutes is that they are selling their art, not their bodies. That is, Geisha is engaged in a performing art, their songs, dances, instrumental music and even a hand and a foot, all reflecting the concept of classical art. For this reason, in modern times, geisha are known as a living fossil of Japanese classical culture. Not only that, but in the course of the development of Japanese society, geisha have even played a special role in history.
The Origin of Geisha
Geisha were born in the Edo period during the Tokugawa Shogunate, and for more than three hundred years, their predecessors were wandering female entertainers who performed songs and dances. As the population of Edo (present-day Tokyo), the center of the Tokugawa Shogunate's rule, increased, a large number of vagabond entertainers gathered and settled here as clandestine prostitutes. At that time, the Tokugawa Shogunate imposed a strict ban on clandestine prostitution in order to increase tax revenue, forcing private prostitutes to find a cover profession, and they gradually evolved into professional entertainers who mainly performed shamisen and sang along with it, and became known as maiko (geisha). It can be called the initial formation of Geisha.
After the emergence of maiko, the prostitutes of the Shogunate's official brothels gradually absorbed some of the maiko's performances in order to attract customers, and began to transform into maiko. The term "Geisha" was originally used to refer to those who accompanied the dancers, but from the second half of the 18th century onwards, the accompanists and the dancers were collectively called Geisha. Since geisha sold both their art and their bodies, government prostitutes faced competition from both internal and external geisha, and their survival was extremely difficult. Under such circumstances, the Edo Shogunate made clear regulations on the management of geisha, prohibiting geisha from prostitution and severely punishing those who violated the regulations. This provision makes the geisha and prostitutes completely separate, but also makes the geisha as a profession formally independent, and its professional norms and customs have also been established.
Geisha as a profession, has its own unique behavioral norms, that is, Geisha Road. First of all, Geisha sell their art, not their bodies, in order to maintain their own image; secondly, they must adhere to? Sealing? Order, that is, must strictly guard the secrets of the guests, for the guests said the top secret privacy, can only use the ear to hear, such as the smoke, and not behind the back of outsiders Legend, so as to give the guests a sense of security; third, the Geisha need to cultivate and cultivate the typical temperament of the Japanese women's beauty in order to comply with the male concept of the ideal image of women.
Although geisha were formally legalized as a profession and were the model of Japanese female beauty, they were still at the bottom of the social ladder in Japan during the Edo period, and belonged to a class of people who were enslaved and ravaged. The fact that the geisha were able to enter the mainstream society and make waves in the history of Japan was due to the Meiji Restoration, which changed Japan and the image of the geisha.
The historical contribution of Japanese Geisha
1. The influence of Geisha culture on Japanese politics
At the end of the Edo period, in 1853, the Americans opened up Japan's gates with ships and cannons and forced the Edo Shogunate to sign a series of unequal treaties. The signing of the unequal treaties intensified the conflicts in Japan and gave the various territories an excuse to attack the Shogunate. In particular, the Choshu and Satsuma clans, which were powerful and had long been dissatisfied with the Shogunate's rule, gathered in Kyoto under the slogan of "honoring the king and defying the barbarians" to overthrow the Shogunate's rule. This group of people was called the "King's Defense Faction". The Shogunate, of course, was not indifferent to this and sent people to strengthen the security of Kyoto, and this group was called the Shogunate faction. The two factions gathered in Kyoto at that time and often competed with each other.
When the King's faction in Kyoto discussed important matters, they often chose to do so in a geisha house, because one of the most important rules of the geisha way was to keep the secrets of their clients secret, so that the clients would have a sense of security. Therefore, the choice of this place can be hidden from view and do not have to worry about their own discussions were leaked out. Some Geisha were sympathetic to the royalists and often helped and covered up for the royalists. Taking this opportunity, the Geisha from the bottom of society to the foreground of history, in the social changes in a cluster of waves, these Geisha to the foreground is known as the King's Geisha.
The most famous of these Geisha is Juno, who is a member of Kyoto's Dainiwaen (诋园). The Geisha at the Shimamuraya Geisha House in Kyoto often works at a place called "Yubin" (鱼品). Fishin? It was here that she met Inoue Shin, an aspiring warrior from the Choshu clan (Yamaguchi Prefecture). Inoue was born in 1835 and studied in England. Later, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, and Minister of Finance in the Meiji Restoration Government, and was one of the Meiji Elders. Inoue fell in love with Kunio at first sight, and they were very much in love. Later, Shimada, a member of the Shogun's faction, who was a leading figure of the Shogun's faction in Kyoto and had power and influence in Kyoto, also fell in love with Kunio. In the eyes of an ordinary Geisha, to be the concubine of such a person would be the most desirable thing in the world. However, Kunio refused for the sole reason that Shimada was a member of the Satsuma school. However, soon after, one of Inoue's accomplices approached her and asked her to agree to Shimada's request to work as an undercover agent to spy on Shimada's secrets for the Chinzei faction. So he became a Geisha spy. Later on, based on the information provided by Juno, the King's Secretaries plotted to assassinate Shimada, and Shimada eventually died under the sword of the King's Secretaries. In the end, Shimada was killed by the sword of the king's volunteers, which was a great honor for the king's faction.
It is also said that Juno saved the life of Takayoon Kido, who was known as one of the three masters of the Restoration. The Geisha of the King's Defense Faction often came to their aid in order to cover for them. Juno is only one of the representatives of the many stories of heroes rescuing beauties. Because of the special role of geisha in the campaign, they made an important contribution to the Meiji Restoration in Japan, so it was later jokingly said that without geisha, the history of Japan would have to be rewritten.
2. Geisha's Contribution to Japanese Society
A qualified Geisha, generally from the age of 10, within five years to learn the Japanese traditional dance, shamisen, tea ceremony, calligraphy, flower arrangement, dress dress, etc., so that Geisha in dance, qin and make-up and other aspects of the inheritance of the essence of the traditional Japanese art and culture, is a living fossil of Japan's classical culture and art, but also to provide the community with an opportunity to learn the art and culture of the Japanese people. It also provided society with an ideal image of a noble, elegant, and gentle woman, and formed its own unique Geisha culture, which had a great impact on Japanese society.
(1) Influence on Japanese Literature and Art
Geisha culture has become a part of Japanese traditional culture, and Geisha means to make a living by art. In literature, for example, there are many novels based on the life of Geisha. The most famous of them are Yasunari Kawabata's "The Maiko of Izu" and "Yukiguni," which recreate the culture of geisha by literary means, making people marvel at the traditional Japanese culture of geisha and at the same time have to be favorably disposed toward contemporary Japanese literature. In a sense, this has made Yasunari Kawabata the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(2) Influence on the modern service industry of Japanese society
As history evolved, the Japanese geisha faded away from the stage of history, but this did not eliminate the inherent influence of the Japanese geisha. Geisha have been integrated into all aspects of social life, such as the Geisha's thoughtful and considerate service has become a model for the service industry. In Japan, hotels, inns, airports, department stores and many other places can be seen similar to the service of the Geisha, all foreigners who have been to Japan, most of them have experienced the first-class service of hotels, restaurants, department stores and so on, for their thoughtful, meticulous service to be amazed. For example, in a Japanese-style restaurant with tatami-mat rooms, the waiter opens the sliding door, serves the food, and exits the restaurant in a respectful and humble manner, giving you a sense of ownership. In addition, no matter where you go, you can hear the gentle greeting of the receptionist. Welcome? Welcome, welcome, thank you. Thank you for coming? and so on, all of these make people feel the potential influence of Geisha culture, that is, the guests should be considerate, thoughtful, and obedient.
(3) Influence on Japanese women's aesthetics and values
In the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", the Geisha's temperament reflects the traditional Japanese concept of women's beauty: faithfulness, elegance, delicacy, and suppleness, which also constitute the elements of their concept of women's beauty. The dress and makeup of the Geisha has become a model of classical female beauty in modern Japanese society. It is said that the modern Japanese wear kimonos, how they tie their belts, and how they style their hair and accessories are modeled after the Geisha. To embody this temperament, to practice this temperament, Geisha has rightly become a model for Japanese women, and their actions and behaviors have become the object of imitation for ordinary women, and even the Geisha themselves are proud of the Geisha Way.
The influence of Geisha on Japanese women is also reflected in their values. A mature Geisha must be extremely gentle and determined. It is said that this temperament has become a model for modern women. For example, when we watch Japanese dramas, we often feel a gentle charm in the characters, but at the same time we feel a sense of endurance and strength behind the gentleness. These are the inner character of the Geisha, which has now been internalized as a virtue of Japanese women. For example, Shin, the main character in the Japanese TV drama "Shin", which was popular in China in the 1980s, is a woman with such a character.
All in all, the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" recreates the mysterious world of Japanese geisha, who, like Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms, have become the symbol of Japan. As a living fossil of Japanese traditional culture, it reflects the charm of Yamato culture from different perspectives. Japanese culture pursues the theme of aesthetics, which is perfectly expressed in Geisha culture. Japan's Geisha is the real life of the Japanese era, is one of the epitome of Japanese traditional culture, Geisha has become a part of Japan's unique culture, which will certainly have a more far-reaching impact on all aspects of Japan's social history.
References:
[1] Luo Li: "Yasunari Tuan's Yukiguni" and "The Beauty of Japan? The beauty of Japan? (Journal of Qiandongnan National Normal Higher and Specialized School), No.1, 2005.
[2] Kang Youjin and Bai Limin, "Japanese Geisha Culture from the Movie", Movie Review, No. 17, 2006.
Japanese History and Culture Essay 2An Introduction to the Writing of History and Culture in Contemporary Japanese Novels
Abstract: Taking contemporary Japanese novels as the object of study, the elements of the history of war and its contexts in the early post-war Japanese novels, the historical writing in the Japanese novels of the new period, and the Japanese historical novels are examined respectively. Among them, there is no lack of works that express historical themes or factors, especially after the war, there are a large number of works that accuse and reflect on the harm and disaster brought by the war, but from the point of view of the number of works and the content of ideas, there are not many works that can carry out comprehensive and profound reflection on the war.
Keywords: contemporary Japanese fiction; history; writing
Contemporary Japanese literature has shown some new trends compared with that of previous generations. For example, writers pay more attention to personalized creation, and there is an increase in the number of subjects focusing on war, society, and history in terms of ideological content, while at the same time emphasizing the expression of the self. At the same time, they also emphasize self-expression. There is also a certain breakthrough to the tradition and so on. In this paper, we select the novels in contemporary Japanese literature to discuss the historical and cultural writing and its context.
I. The historical elements of war and its context in Japanese novels in the early postwar period
In August 1945, Japan surrendered, and World War II officially ended. The war system and political order that had been maintained in Japan for nearly a decade collapsed, and the wartime cultural domination was lifted. Literature was also freed from wartime control and regained the freedom of expression. After a brief period of confusion and disorientation, the literary world gradually began to recover. In such a context, Japanese literature entered a new historical period.
In December 1945, the left-wing writers who had been suppressed initiated the establishment of the New Japan Literary Society, and in 1946, it founded its organ magazine, New Japan Literature, whose representative writers, such as Yuriko Miyamoto and Naoto Tokunaga, published a lot of works reflecting the traumas of the war and showing the evils of Japanese militarism. Miyamoto's masterpiece, Hirano in Banshu, depicts the tragedy of defeat and criticizes the war. Through the female perspective of the protagonist, Hiroko Ishida, the novel reveals the price Japanese imperialism paid for the war it waged. It depicts the sorrow of a widow who lost her husband in the atomic bombing and the grief of a mother who lost her three sons in the war and the atomic bombing, exposing the pain and damage that war brings to women. In addition, Nao Tokunaga's autobiographical full-length novel "O Wife! Rest in Peace", the full-length novels "Silent Mountains", "Toad", and "Simmering" also show the historical picture of Japan's post-war historical turn and the unyielding struggle of ordinary workers, farmers, and women from multiple perspectives.
Many of the post-war writers, especially the first batch of post-war writers, had their works y marked by history. The works of the first postwar writers basically centered on the two bases of war experience and turning experience. For example, Hiroshi Noma's Red Moon on the Face, Dark Painting, Vacuum Zone, Haruo Umezaki's Sakurajima, Taijun Takeda's Trial, and Shigehei Ooka's Wild Fire and Tale of Captivity.
The Red Moon on the Face depicts the protagonist's strong realization of the preciousness of kinship only after experiencing the war, and shows the harm that the war has brought to the people. It is a work of turning experience. Painter Bruegel's "Dark Pictures" symbolizes the anguish and pain of young intellectuals. The Vacuum is also based on the author's real-life experience of having served a prison sentence, and its background is still the war.
Haruo Umezaki's Sakurajima, set at the end of World War II, depicts the complex inner changes of Murakami, a sergeant of an intellectual background, in the desperate environment where Japan is already under the siege of the American army, and exposes the cruelty of the war and lashes out at the reactionary Japanese army that has lost its humanity while yearning for the beauty of life. Jiro, the protagonist of Takeda Taishun's novel "The Trial", is in deep agony of guilt for killing Chinese people in the war. In order to atone for his crime he chooses to stay in China because he fears that his crime will be trivialized when he returns to Japan. This kind of work with the nature of self-judgment is still rare, and reflects the writer's deep reflection on the war.
Based on his own experience of enlisting in the army and being captured, Ooka Shigehei wrote the short story "Captive", the middle novel "Wildfire", "Wright's War", and so on, which utilized psychoanalytic techniques to describe the captivity, reflecting the soldier's aversion to war in the late stage of the war, the inevitability of defeat, and the devastation of war on human nature, and exploring the destiny of human beings and their value of existence in the face of life and death. In addition, among the post-war writers, there was also Horita Yoshie, whose The Solitude of the Square depicts the turmoil and unrest of Japanese intellectuals before and after the Korean War. His novel History, on the other hand, is set in Shanghai in 1946, reflecting social upheaval. In the diary In Shanghai, self-reflection on the war of aggression and criticism of the Showa Emperor are expressed. After the post-war faction? The Third New Generation Although their works no longer focus on war-related themes, the shadow of war can still be found in their works. For example, Yasuoka Shotaro's "Gloomy Joy" and "Light on the Beach", and Yoshiyuki Junnosuke's "In Flames".
Second, the writing of history in the Japanese novels of the new period
With the passage of time, the number of works that directly depicted the subject of war also gradually decreased. However, it is not difficult to find traces of history in the works. Ken Kaikao's "Luminous Darkness," "Darkness of Summer" and "Darkness of Flowering" are based on his own experiences as a special agent who went to the Vietnam battlefield in 1964 to cover the war. The writer of speculative fiction, Kiyoharu Matsumoto, is also the author of "Showa History Unearthed" and other documentary works that delve into Japan's modern history. Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe's "Breeding" tells the story of a black soldier who lands in a mountain village after his plane crashes during the war. In 1963, Oe Kenzaburo went to Hiroshima to conduct a social survey and was y moved by the persecution caused by the atomic bomb.
Haruki Murakami's work is mostly urban, youthful, and romantic, but there are also historical references and reflections in his work, including The Chronicles of a Clockwork Bird, which describes the little-known Battle of Nomenklatura, which took place along the border between Mongolia and pseudo-Manchukuo. In The Adventure of the Sheep Hunt, there are also fictional plots based on the facts of Sino-Japanese historical relations, such as Dr. Sheep's field trip to Manchuria for the purpose of sheep multiplication. The heroine of 1Q84, Aodou, reads books about the Manchurian railroads of the 1930s as an amateur hobby, and the hero Tengo's adoptive father is designed to be a member of the Manchurian Pioneering Corps who returns to Japan after the war. These penumbras about war and historical understanding seem trivial and fragmented, and have become rare in contemporary Japanese literature in recent years.
III. Historical Fiction in Japanese Literature
Historical fiction (also known as ? period novel?) is an important literary genre in modern Japanese literature. Especially in the contemporary literature of more than half a century after the war, its creation was more prosperous. A series of writers such as Nakazato Sukeyama, Naoki Sanjo, Daibutsujiro, Kaiyonji Shogoro, Inoue Yasushi, Sima Ryotaro, Yamaoka Shohachi, Chen Shunshin, and Yoshikawa Eiji appeared in the contemporary literature of Japan in the half century after the war. Among them, the more representative ones are modern Japanese historical fiction writers such as Yoshikawa Eiji, Sima Ryotaro, and Yamaoka Shohachi. Yoshikawa Eiji has written Miyamoto Musashi, Shinshu Taigakuji, The Heroic Tale of the Three Kingdoms, Shin? The Story of the Heike Family", "The Tale of Private Peace", and many other masterpieces. The literary achievements of Sima Ryotaro are mainly reflected in the historical novels depicting the late Edo period. His characters, such as Sakamoto Ryoma, are now recurring archetypes in period dramas. Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Saigo Takamori have appeared repeatedly in many of his works and have been brought to the screen many times. It took 17 years for Shohachi Yamaoka to complete his masterpiece "Tokugawa Ieyasu," which triggered an unprecedented Ieyasu fever at the time. Ieyasu fever. Afterwards, he focused on historical novels, writing Oda Nobunaga, Sakamoto Ryoma, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Date Masamune.
In addition to focusing on Japan's local history, there are also some novels based on the history of other countries, such as Inoue Jing's historical novels, such as "The Roof of the Heavenly Peace", "Loulan", "The Canglang Wolves", "Dunhuang", "Confucius", "Yang Guifei" and so on, most of which are drawn from Chinese history, and the creation of the Chinese historical literature as the source material, so as to express his yearning for Chinese history and Chinese culture, and the unique thinking and insights of the life of the history of China. In addition, Dazai Zhi's In addition, Dazai Zhi's "Run, Melrose" is based on Greek mythology and historical stories, and Chusaku Endo's novel "Silence" depicts the suppression of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries spreading Catholicism in Japan.
As we can see from a cursory review of the historical and cultural writing in contemporary Japanese novels, contemporary Japanese novels as a whole are quite rich in historical elements. Among them, the works depicting Japanese historical figures are the main ones, and there is no lack of works showing historical events in whole or in part. Post-war novels have unusually produced a large number of works of indictment and reflection on the harms and disasters brought by the war in World War II, which is significantly different from literary creations in other periods. However, in terms of the number of works as well as the content of the ideas, there are not many works that are able to reflect on the war in a comprehensive and profound manner. Moreover, after a brief post-war period, since the late 1950s, the number of works focusing on war or having elements of war history has decreased sharply, and not only that, works focusing on the fate of the nation's history and people are even more scarce, which is a more distinctive difference from Chinese literature.
Funded by: ? Hebei Agricultural University Social Science Fund? Funding (No. SK20110401)
References:
[1] He Naiying. Studies on Japanese Contemporary Literature [M]. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2005.
[2]Zhang Longmei, Qu Li. Japanese literature [M]. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2008.
[3]Wang Xiangyuan. Source of living water: Japanese contemporary historical novels and Chinese history and culture [M]. Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, 2006.
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