London ultra-Japanizes Japanese
Oct. 18th, 2007 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusWithin hours of arriving in London I was in Japan. Or rather, I was at the British Museum, killing time until my nearby hotel could check me in, looking at the Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan exhibition.
As soon as my brainstorming session at LSE was over, I was back in Japan -- in the grocery under the Japan Centre and then the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly, where they currently have an exhibition called Hand in Hand: Japanese graduates from Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
Once I got past the embassy's rather over-strict security X-ray (they were very worried by a pen in my bag, the one I used to take notes in the gallery), I found Hand in Hand an interesting show. Not so much because the work was strong, and not just because I happen to live "hand in hand" with a Japanese Central St Martins graduate (BA Honours Graphic Design) I met in London. No, what I found so interesting was the cultural angle the curator had worked into all the interviews with the artists, displayed on boards next to their work. Basically, this show was about how life in London had impacted on the students' sense of their Japaneseness. Or, as the blurb puts it, "fizzing with energy, the creative talent featured underlines the relationship between the college and Japan".
I say "cross-cultural angle", but that's not exactly the picture that emerges. As much concentration as hybridization of national identity seems to be going on. Here's what some of the thirteen students featured had to say on the issue. "I feel more Japanese than when I first arrived in the UK," says Rie Funakoshi (BA Honours Fine Art). Asked how her friendships have evolved since she moved to London, Rie says, pointedly, "I've met some great Japanese people." Broken any hearts? "I hope not." No miscegenation -- cultural or sexual -- going on here, then.
Sawa Tanaka (BA Honours Graphic Design) presents her Japaneseness as a series of self-deprecating but slightly sarcastic failings: "Here I feel I'm too organized, too concerned about cleanliness, too shy, too short-legged, and have too much good taste in food!" These self-reproaches... aren't.
Yuko Nasu (MA Fine Art) spells it out for her embassy. "You still feel Japanese. I'm absolutely Japanese. Staying in London makes Japanese more Japanese." Asked if she can remember her first day at Central St Martins, Emi Miyashita (BA Honours Fine Art) says: "Yes, too many British students, it was very, very uncomfortable... I feel really Japanese now. Much more than I realised before I moved here."
What does that mean? "There is nothing straight in UK. The manners, behaviour, expressing, weather, art and food. Better or worse, so many things are so different. Which gives me a very strong realisation of my nationality."
If culture shock and an enhanced sense of difference and separateness characterizes most of these students' London experience, there are some who seem more positive about London. Momoko Mizutani (MA Creative Practice for Narrative) and Emi Sekiguchi (BA Honours Fashion) pinpoint the reason most of these young Japanese women (and they are almost all women) have come here: "We think London has the coolest culture background, which is beyond important."
Nakaba Ikoma (MA Textile Design) is unique amongst the students interviewed -- she actually sounds as if she wants to renounce her nationality. "London has had the greatest influence on me. I am Japanese. I was born in Japan and grew up there, I have a Japanese passport. But I am not sure if I am feeling Japanese. These days I do not want to belong anything if it is possible." Wanting to renounce all nationality and all belonging almost sounds like a suicide threat.
The Japanese are much more aware than most Westerners of the fact that the national-cultural self is a blessing as well as a curse. Sure, don't fence me in, but remember that there is nowhere outside of society, outside of specific social habitus. Azumi Yamada (MA Ceramics) lays out rather more realistically than most the pleasure / pain (or should we say limitation / possibility?) dialectic of the national-cultural self: "I feel my identity is constructed in Japan and I still want to go back to Japan when I'm old."
As soon as my brainstorming session at LSE was over, I was back in Japan -- in the grocery under the Japan Centre and then the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly, where they currently have an exhibition called Hand in Hand: Japanese graduates from Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
Once I got past the embassy's rather over-strict security X-ray (they were very worried by a pen in my bag, the one I used to take notes in the gallery), I found Hand in Hand an interesting show. Not so much because the work was strong, and not just because I happen to live "hand in hand" with a Japanese Central St Martins graduate (BA Honours Graphic Design) I met in London. No, what I found so interesting was the cultural angle the curator had worked into all the interviews with the artists, displayed on boards next to their work. Basically, this show was about how life in London had impacted on the students' sense of their Japaneseness. Or, as the blurb puts it, "fizzing with energy, the creative talent featured underlines the relationship between the college and Japan".I say "cross-cultural angle", but that's not exactly the picture that emerges. As much concentration as hybridization of national identity seems to be going on. Here's what some of the thirteen students featured had to say on the issue. "I feel more Japanese than when I first arrived in the UK," says Rie Funakoshi (BA Honours Fine Art). Asked how her friendships have evolved since she moved to London, Rie says, pointedly, "I've met some great Japanese people." Broken any hearts? "I hope not." No miscegenation -- cultural or sexual -- going on here, then.
Sawa Tanaka (BA Honours Graphic Design) presents her Japaneseness as a series of self-deprecating but slightly sarcastic failings: "Here I feel I'm too organized, too concerned about cleanliness, too shy, too short-legged, and have too much good taste in food!" These self-reproaches... aren't.
Yuko Nasu (MA Fine Art) spells it out for her embassy. "You still feel Japanese. I'm absolutely Japanese. Staying in London makes Japanese more Japanese." Asked if she can remember her first day at Central St Martins, Emi Miyashita (BA Honours Fine Art) says: "Yes, too many British students, it was very, very uncomfortable... I feel really Japanese now. Much more than I realised before I moved here."What does that mean? "There is nothing straight in UK. The manners, behaviour, expressing, weather, art and food. Better or worse, so many things are so different. Which gives me a very strong realisation of my nationality."
If culture shock and an enhanced sense of difference and separateness characterizes most of these students' London experience, there are some who seem more positive about London. Momoko Mizutani (MA Creative Practice for Narrative) and Emi Sekiguchi (BA Honours Fashion) pinpoint the reason most of these young Japanese women (and they are almost all women) have come here: "We think London has the coolest culture background, which is beyond important."
Nakaba Ikoma (MA Textile Design) is unique amongst the students interviewed -- she actually sounds as if she wants to renounce her nationality. "London has had the greatest influence on me. I am Japanese. I was born in Japan and grew up there, I have a Japanese passport. But I am not sure if I am feeling Japanese. These days I do not want to belong anything if it is possible." Wanting to renounce all nationality and all belonging almost sounds like a suicide threat.
The Japanese are much more aware than most Westerners of the fact that the national-cultural self is a blessing as well as a curse. Sure, don't fence me in, but remember that there is nowhere outside of society, outside of specific social habitus. Azumi Yamada (MA Ceramics) lays out rather more realistically than most the pleasure / pain (or should we say limitation / possibility?) dialectic of the national-cultural self: "I feel my identity is constructed in Japan and I still want to go back to Japan when I'm old."
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 09:04 am (UTC)and then, again, it says a lot about one who performs the attempting
=)
define who you are
Date: 2007-10-18 02:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 04:21 am (UTC)Well, expressing an opinion is a form of self-definition, no?
Enjoy it--it's always shifting, and better it be on your own terms than someone else's.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 11:45 pm (UTC)but then, again, anything can turn into the task of self-definition. its a question of priorities, I guess =)
how I see is pretty simple - its hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if its not there
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 09:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 09:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 11:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 12:03 pm (UTC)But seriously, living in New York and Tokyo definitely made me feel more Scottish. You can hear that on my New York album (Folktronic) and my Tokyo album (Oskar Tennis Champion).
one thing strikes me
Date: 2007-10-18 02:19 pm (UTC)I would only last for a few daze! It seems Deutchland suits you!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 01:25 pm (UTC)However one thing strikes me is that the number of students in CSM from Hong Kong certainly outweighs that from Japan but seems that few people are interested in knowing how Hong Kong-ish do those students think of themselves are and the culture shock they encounter.
and the other important thing is how genuine are the asian artists about their cultures in the creative process and how much of their opinions and ideas are comprimised in order to fulfil the 'exoticness-expectation' from foreigners so as to attract attentions from foreigners and cash in(can it be called internalised orientalism?)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 05:23 am (UTC)39
Date: 2007-10-18 02:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 02:46 am (UTC)And these Japs are exactly as you say.
The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-18 02:25 pm (UTC)Re: The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-18 10:24 pm (UTC)For the money, it could have been more extensive, I thought. At least it afforded me personally the pleasure of someone I was with being prompted to say that I was a national treasure.
But I did like what was there? Some really nice pieces like the square Bizen-yaki dish, and the some of the ceramics opposite that display. Also liked the kimono and lacquerware.
Sorry to butt in. I know you weren't asking me...
Re: The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-18 10:25 pm (UTC)Re: The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-19 06:05 pm (UTC)I did seem to notice something about the dates of the artists: they started work either in the 20s (ish) or the late 50s early 60s, ie. renaissance periods, when it wasn't the case that seemingly everybody young wanted to leave, and certainly wanted nothing to do with other Japanese in terms of future families. These were anecdotes, not data, but I don't know if you've found similar among people you've known. I suppose that's what I'm looking for confirmation of.
Re: The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-20 09:18 pm (UTC)Well, I'm not sure I qualify. I don't think I was quite unconditional, though, but I did like most of the stuff on display. I just wish there had been more of it. It felt a bit like a nouvelle cuisine experience.
I'm afraid I can't confirm your observation, either, but it's an interesting one. There did seem to be a great many people there who had been designated living national treasures in the fifties (having started their work earlier), but I didn't pay that much attention to the years mentioned.
Re: The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-18 11:18 pm (UTC)Re: The first exhibition?
Date: 2007-10-19 06:20 pm (UTC)I'm surprised none of the pieces really stuck, though, or have I misunderstood?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 04:45 pm (UTC)Christopher
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 07:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 08:42 pm (UTC)I don't why. My days of signing 'N/A' in nationality boxes were the happiest of my life and I'd continue if it was practical. Why should someone feel a sense of belonging in some utterly manufactured 'homeland' (and they all are).
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-18 08:49 pm (UTC)Ownership
Date: 2007-10-18 09:00 pm (UTC)Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-18 11:24 pm (UTC)Maybe for some people, but Americans are very conscious of being American, and Japanese are very conscious of their Japaneseness.
why open your mouth if they know what's coming anyway..
One thing I've noticed is that Japanese love to state "the thing that we're all already thinking". Like, you say samui when it's cold, and you're all feeling cold. You know you're all feeling cold, but still someone says "Samui!" and someone else replies "Samui!" And, you know, there's a great delight in it. I think perhaps you have to spend quite a lot of time with Japanese people to understand what that delight is all about. The delight of "we", and of alikeness.
Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-19 12:27 am (UTC)1) When discussing heritage, people don't say they're American. Usually they say "I'm Scottish, Irish" etc etc, even if that part of their heritage is generations away. They're more American than Scottish, etc. Except when they leave the country, they say they're American and not Scottish and Irish.
2) When I think of going to other countries, I cringe at the thought of telling people I'm from America. I've never identified myself as American for some odd reason. Really, I'm not that conscious of it until someone points it out to me.
Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-19 12:28 am (UTC)Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-19 04:13 am (UTC)Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-19 04:19 am (UTC)Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-19 12:33 am (UTC)Re: Ownership
Date: 2007-10-19 05:26 am (UTC)In my experience I would say the observation only applies to those outside of the hubs of creativity (think Richard Florida). However I have found Japanese creative classes use Japaneseness (particularly women) as an explicit marketing feature.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 02:44 am (UTC)There is never any middle ground with the naicha. We Okinawans are infinitely more adapatable!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-19 03:52 am (UTC)