Section 5 | Anthropology and Sociology | Session 4B, Panel (continuation)
Panel organiser: Elise Edwards (Butler University)
Muriel Jolivet (Sophia University, Tokyo)
In an article published in the Unesco Courrier, July/August 2001 (“Passing rites: The Sirens of Tokyo”) I stressed the plasticity of the Japanese female body, young ladies making use of their bodies as though it were plasticine, in order to match the desired look, whether the Afro look, the Caucasian look, or more recently the Asian beauty look.
After pointing out the subtle changes that have been brought to the traditional kimono bijin look, I will show how the Japanese female can so easily indulge in an Afro look by giving her skin the desired golden shade in the tanning salons (hiyake salons). She can also have her hair permed or frizzed, and make up with golden or brownish eye shadows, playing with nacre highlights.
The singer Amuro Namie launched a style inspired by African Americans. She was the first to display the beauty of a golden skin, and during her stardom, in the nineties, hiyake salons flourished all over the big cities, enabling young girls to have the required “amura look” (a word coined after the word “shanera”, who refers to the Channel brand addicts). To enhance the effect, she used to sing or dance surrounded by a chorus of black singers or dancers. Hamasaki Ayumi initiated a U-turn, launching the “Caucasian look” with a skin as white as can be, exploited at once by the whitening cosmetics industry. Her blond hair and blue contact lenses, even gave her a Madonna look for a song where she embodies the Virgin Mary ... (a clip will be shown). More recently, the Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has been chosen to challenge Caucasian models with her “Asian beauty” looks for the shampoo Asience.
Catharina Blomberg (Faculty of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University)
Garments and various appurtenances have indicated social position, rank, profession and wealth throughout history, and their study provides insights into human ingenuity as well as manners. In feudal Japan the kimono style dress, common to the entire population, meant that a great deal of thought went into the creation of subtle distinguishing marks. The Kamakura bakufu enforced a simple and frugal lifestyle, in complete contrast to the extravagance of the Heian court, and the bushi became arbiters of fashion. Individual taste, rank and means were demonstrated through craftsmanship and the quality of the materials used, above all in swords and armour, their most highly prized possessions. After the Sengoku jidai the rules governing society became considerably stricter. The Buke Sho-hatto of the successive Tokugawa Shoguns included increasingly drastic sumptuary laws, regulating people’s apparel as well as their behaviour. A person´s social position, even his family name, was apparent by a glance at the mon worn by all bushi on their garments or on their accoutrements. The wearing of silk was prohibited among the chōnin, and the increasingly wealthy bourgeoisie went to great lengths of ingenuity to enjoy the forbidden fruit, inventing weaves which made silk look like cotton, while adhering to the prescribed sombre colour scheme of indigo, grey or brown. Carl Peter Thunberg, the Swedish scholar who visited Japan in 1775 –76, was enthusiastic about the fact that the Japanese seemed to wear basically uniform clothing. Failing to spot the nuances he observed that this practice appeared to be in accordance with the ideas of the Enlightenment concerning thrift and the economy of nations.
Marie H. Roesgaard (University of Copenhagen)
This paper will describe the art of choosing a suitable middle school for a Japanese child. Most Japanese children go to public middle schools, 5.9 percent went to private middle schools in 2003, but the choice no longer only concerns private versus public. Reform of school districts in many urban areas has meant that one can now choose among a number of public middle schools, so many more than previously will be involved in choosing middle schools. Many different elements will help determine this choice, among them are the academic standing and reputation of the school in question, distance from the home, school policy and the like. In this paper, I will examine in more detail two particular elements influencing the choice, namely the naishinsho and the issue of posh uniforms. Naishinsho is an internal report card filled out for each pupil. It is not accessible to parents or pupils, but it will form the basis of the recommendation your school or head teacher can make of you for the receiving school. If you decide to leave education after middle school or high school it may also influence your job prospects. Uniforms may seem an oddly un-academic element to include here, but for the individual choice, their importance is undeniable. Schools of unremarkable academic may use smart uniforms to attract students and guidebooks to choosing middle or high schools will typically include sections on the uniforms. In the paper I intend to present this factor of the choice of middle school along with the factor Naishinsho, as factors that are not immediately visible, but nevertheless influential.