NEWS

2023.06.29

【Report】Book Launch/International Symposium “CAPTURE JAPAN” was held! (Cohosted by the AJI Priority Research Program with the “Research on Culture and Art in East Asia” unit, led by Professor Yumi TAKENAKA)

Professor Yumi Takenaka, from Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, held a Book Launch and International Symposium on May 27. The event was cohosted by the Asia-Japan Research Institute and the Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences. In this event, participants focused on the recently released book, Marco Bohr(ed.), Capture Japan: Visual Culture and the Global Imagination from 1952 to the Present, edited by Marco Bohr (Bloomsbury, England, in December 2022). This book is divided into four parts and twelve chapters, covering topics such as art, film, manga, and games. It explores the role these forms of media have played in shaping Japan's image in the global imagination, from cultural, political, and historical perspectives.

This symposium was held at the Soshikan Conference Room in Ritsumeikan University’s Kinugasa Campus, and six authors participated in it, with two authors among them participating online from the UK and Canada to share their research backgrounds and discuss the research interests raised by this book with the other participants in the venue.

During the symposium, Professor Takenaka introduced the purpose of the project and then Associate Professor Marco Bohr gave the keynote speech. As the editor of the book, Professor Bohr discussed the strategic development of the “Japanese Style” in Hiroshi Sugimoto’s artwork. Sugimoto is a contemporary artist who has achieved success in the international art market. Professor Bohr explained how this style was influenced by the shifting geopolitical, economic, and cultural relations between Japan and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.

During her presentation, Professor Hiroko Hagiwara of Osaka Prefecture University highlighted a point made in one of the book’s chapters about Miyako Ishiuchi’s Hiroshima series. Ishiuchi is a photographer who deviates from the traditional Hiroshima Photography lineage that has influenced Japan’s perspective on the Pacific War. Professor Hagiwara noted that Ishiuchi made a significant transformation in her approach, moving away from a focus on the author and towards considering the location in which photographs are presented and showing their relevance to contemporary Japan.

Professor Yumi Takenaka began by discussing the removal of photographs concerning the atomic bomb from the Tokyo exhibition of “The Family of Man,” which started its global tour in 1955, aimed to create a universal perspective during the Cold War era in the context of photojournalism during the post-occupation period in Japan. She also mentioned the conflict between the movement to ban atomic bombs and the movement to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy following the Daigo Fukuryū Maru Incident.

Martin Roth, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, used examples from low-budget game software, which includes games like THE Last Japanese Soldier and THE Battleship, to make his point about war games. He put forth the idea that the symbols of war formed based on the Pacific War, when taken out of context, could be seen as promoting a banal and unclear form of nationalism that reimagines Japan as a country with revisionism.

In his analysis, Dr. Man-tat Terence Leung, a former lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, explored the themes present in Shunji Iwai's film, All About Lily Chou-Chou. The film portrays the life of a middle-school student who exists between the limited reality of the post-bubble era and the vast world of the Internet. During the presentation, he shared his perspective by comparing the anti-Eurocentrism found in Roland Barthes’ Japanese cultural theory in Empire of Signs with that of Takeuchi Yoshimi’s Asia as Method.

Selma A. Purac, an Assistant Professor at Western University in Canada, discussed the complex Pygmalion-like relationship between the male protagonist and the beautiful-girl-type PC in CLAMP's Chobittsu manga. In her discussion, she applied this point to the relationships between male fans and virtual idols, exploring its connection to changes in economics, technology, and gender politics that occurred in the post-bubble era.

The talks came to an end with a panel discussion comprising all the speakers, moderated by Professor Bohr.

The Q&A session included contributions from Takaya Negishi, a research assistant professor at the Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, as well as graduate students Rui Fujimoto, Goki Atoyama, Wu Zewei, Noam Stein, and Kazuteru Takahata, all members of the "Research on Culture and Art in East Asia" unit. The session began with their opinions and questions, followed by further questions from the audience, including Professor Emeritus Rebecca Jennison from Kyoto Seika University and other graduate students. The discussions were quite lively and continued until the event's closing time.