Visual Anthropology of Japan - 日本映像人類学

Announcement: 13th Nippon Connection Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sat, 25 May 2013 06:17:00 +0000

Image borrowed from Nippon Connection Film Festival.

13th Nippon Connection Film Festival – The Program
More than 130 films & 41 cultural events
4 – 9 June 2013, Frankfurt am Main
New festival locations: Mousonturm and Naxoshalle

The program for the 13th edition of the Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection is complete! Over the course of six festival days, the audience will have the chance to discover more than 130 short and feature films from Japan, with many German, European, and world premieres, from 4 – 9 June 2013. The genres range from subtle dramas and wild comedies to anime and critical documentaries. Many filmmakers and artists from Japan will be present at the biggest festival for Japanese cinema worldwide. An extraordinary cultural program will top off the festival, offering a rich experience of this outstanding country. For the first time, the Nippon Connection Festival will not take place on the University campus, but at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and at Naxoshalle in Frankfurt. Other locations will include the German Film Museum and the Mal Seh‘n cinema.

For more information: http://www.nipponconnection.com/

Announcement: VAOJ Student Photo Exhibition, May 22-25

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:58:00 +0000

VAOJ students have been working all semester on their ethnographic visual projects and their resulting photos will be exhibited from Wednesday, May 22 to Saturday, May 25. This time the photo exhibition will be included with the Asian Studies Program Ceramics and Manga show. Lots of good art to see. Free and open to all students, staff, faculty and general public.

グレイス世菜

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:24:00 +0000

幸せ!

Announcement: IAFOR Open Film Competition in Osaka, November 8-10, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:39:00 +0000

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is inviting filmmakers from around the world to submit an original short film for the annual IAFOR Open Film Competition. Amateur and professionals are welcome to enter, however entrants are limited to just one submission for the category, regardless of category. There is no charge for entering a film.

Submissions in English (or with English subtitles) are welcome in the following categories:
- Fiction (under 40 minutes/over 40 minutes)
- Documentary (under 40 minutes/over 40 minutes)
- Anime (under 20 minutes/under 40 minutes)
- Spot News (International/Regional/National; under 20 minutes/under 40 minutes)
- Music Video (under 10 minutes)

Judge Panel Films will be judged by a panel of three judges:
- Judge 1: Professor Gary Swanson, The University of Northern Colorado (USA)
- Judge 2: Dr James Rowlins, Singapore University of Technology and Design (Singapore)
- Judge 3: TBA

The closing date for entries is September 15, 2013.

Winners will be announced at the Asian Conference on Film and Documentary in Osaka, Japan (November 8 – 10, 2013). The overall winner will be awarded a grand prize of US$1000 and a trophy. Winners of the individual categories will be awarded a trophy.

For more entry information and to download the entry form, please visit http://filmasia.iafor.org/film.html

Announcement: VAOJ Student Film Festival, May 14

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

VAOJ students have been working all semester on their projects and their resulting films will be shown on Tuesday, May 14 at 6:30 PM. This time the venue is the Grand Hall on the 4th Floor of the ICC Building. Enter the ICC from the main street near campus or rear access via the land-bridge in front of the library; take the elevator to the 4th floor, enjoy the view and enter the hall for the films. Free and open to all students, staff, faculty and general public.

Golden Week II: ネコ公園

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:11:00 +0000

The second stop for strolling and photographic adventures during Golden Week was what I will refer to as "Cat Park" near my neighborhood. Stray cats are a problem in Japan. Signs are displayed in the park with messages discouraging abandonment of pets and animal abuse, and to "think about" the repercussions of feeding strays. Some people make daily trips to the park to feed the strays and bond with the animals. They get to know the personality of the cats and their various roles in the cat society. I happened upon such a woman who pointed out a male who she considered to be the boss cat in the park and informed me about a mother who recent gave birth to a litter under a bridge. The adventure today reminded me of Kazuhiro Soda's observational film, Peace, which deals with social workers and stray cats in Japan.

Golden Week I: 鶴橋

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

There was lots of walking to be done during the Golden Week holidays. Warm, sunny weather made for pleasant strolls and photographic adventures. The first stop was Tsuruhashi, the center of Korean and Japanese-Korean culture in Osaka.

New Film Announcement: The Dance of the Sun

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:30:00 +0000

Photo borrowed from studiobuji.

Announcement from H-Japan:

The Dance of the Sun [is] a film about the origins of dance and mythology in Japan connecting with contemporary dance today.

Choreographer Ami Skånberg Dahlstedt takes us on a voyage to Japan where dance has a long and significant history. The dance has its roots in a mythological story, in which the Sun Goddess gets angry and hides in a rock cave. The world plunges into darkness and cold. However, the Goddess of laughter lures her out with some energetic and crazy dancing and finally the light and warmth returns. The story is the basis for both classical and contemporary dance and theater; Noh, Kabuki, Nihon Buyo and Butoh. The film also invites us to meet Nishikawa Senrei, a very special profile in Kyoto. We will see parts of Ami´s lesson in traditional Japanese dance and also meet contemporary performers in Kyoto, Japan.

For more information: http://studiobuji.wordpress.com/

"Distinctiveness versus Universality: Reconsidering New Japanese Photography"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:59:00 +0000

おすすめです！ Check out the new article by Yoshiaki Kai about Japanese photography at Trans Asia Photography Review.

Link: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/tap/7977573.0003.203?view=text;rgn=main

#@四十六歳

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:30:00 +0000

甲子園の写真

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:49:00 +0000

One of my favorite places in the whole world is Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers. I love baseball and Hanshin is my favorite team. But it is challenging for me at Koshien to balance my role as a fan and as a visual anthropologist. I am literally juggling cheering paraphernalia, chu-hai, katsu curry and camera while sitting in a narrow seat (or suddenly standing after a good play) in a very crowded stadium. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Here are some shots from my recent pilgrimage when Hanshin took on the Yokohama Baystars.

And by the way, Hanshin won! And it was a special game because it was the first win for the rookie player Fujinami who was drafted right out of high school in the first round. Here's hoping he becomes a Hanshin star...

See details of the game (4/14/13): http://japanesebaseball.com/blogs/thread.jsp?blogid=1137&thread=68313

See previous VAOJ posts and photos essays about Hanshin: click here.

New website on Nonaka Kofun by the Osaka University Department of Archaeology

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:54:00 +0000

Announcement from EASIANTH:

The Osaka University Department of Archaeology has created an English-language website in conjunction with its Project for the Preservation and Utilization of Artifacts from Nonaka Kofun.

Built in the 5th century in Fujiidera City, Osaka Prefecture, the Nonaka tomb (kofun) is situated roughly at the center of the Furuichi Tomb Cluster. The 1964 excavation conducted by Osaka University revealed that this kofun offered many important clues for our study of state formation in Japan.

Nonaka Kofun is an especially valuable resource for the study of ancient Japan, with its numerous artifacts evidencing the military, economic, and technological strength of the Yamato Kingdom.

Many of the pictures and videos are being released to the public for the first time.

Link: http://www.let.osaka-u.ac.jp/kouko/nonaka/en/index.html

"Assistant judge fired for taking upskirt film"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:49:00 +0000

I certainly don't want to break the spring mood of the previous few posts with yet another upskirt story. But this particular case took place in my own neighborhood and at a time when I theoretically could have been on the train. From Japan Today, 4/11/13.

A 28-year-old assistant Osaka district court judge has been fired after he was arrested for filming up a woman’s skirt while on a train last August.

The Diet’s impeachment court said that Toshiki Hanai, 28, had disgraced his profession with behavior unbecoming of a judge, Fuji TV reported Thursday.

Hanai was arrested after filming up a woman’s skirt on a Keihan train at around 8:30 a.m. between Neyagawashi and Kayashima stations. He was reportedly squatting and taking photos with his smartphone when he was spotted by another male passenger who then restrained him until he was handed over to the authorities, Fuji TV reported.

During police questioning, Hanai was quoted as saying that he was interested to know what kind of underwear the woman was wearing. His phone had images taken up other women’s skirts, police said.

The Osaka district court fined Hanai 500,000 yen and suspended him from duty, but the Diet impeachment court ruled that his behavior warranted dismissal.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/assistant-judge-fired-for-taking-upskirt-film

Spring III: くわしく

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:02:00 +0000

Spring II: あいだに

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:36:00 +0000

Spring I: さくら

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:50:00 +0000

Spring has arrived in Osaka and with it the beautiful sakura (cherry blossoms). The sakura came early this year but they still had the power to attract countless cameras to record their beauty. Behind my house there are 130 cherry trees that run along a small stream so I don't have to go far to see sakura. Many people walk along the stream to view the flowers and enjoy the warm spring air. Upstream, a local resident's association writes and displays senryu poetry. Everyone seems to love spring...

See previous sakura-related posts on VAOJ:
Spring 2010
Spring 2011
Spring 2012 pt.1
Spring 2012 pt.2
Spring 2012 pt.3

Lucky Billiken On the Road in Osaka

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 04:44:00 +0000

The Lucky God Billiken, symbol of mercantile Osaka, really gets around. I asked the gentleman pictured above what Billiken was doing in the back of his truck (like a hitch-hiker rather than a god) and he said that the statue was going to be installed with a signboard at a glasses store. Lucky shop!

Picture of the Day: Homeless "Napster"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 07:52:00 +0000

Image borrowed from Japan Today, 3/25/13. Image quality altered on purpose.

The caption for Japan Today's Picture of the Day (3/25/13) reads "A homeless man takes a nap near JR Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture." But the purpose of the photo remains a mystery, especially in the context of it being displayed in a news resource. This is a photo I would advise my students not to take and certainly not to post on the internet with such a cutesy title... Unless the photographer actually interacted with the subject, confirmed he was indeed homeless and was indeed taking a nap and received informed permission for the photo to be used (with the subject being aware of his portrait rights and privacy). There is no indication of any such interaction. The problematic representation of the photo plays out in the discussion made up of Japan Today reader comments. I first saw the photo and comments the morning of the 25th. At that time there were 39 comments and some mentioning of others being deleted by the moderator. When I checked later in the evening the Picture of the Day had been changed and the comments had been reduced to 28. There was discussion and bickering about the nature of homelessness and what is appropriate action to help the homeless (and I suspect these type of comments were the ones deleted). Here is a sample of the comments I was most interested in dealing with the methods and ethics of shooting photos in public in Japan. (I reproduce these comments in case they might be deleted in the near or distant future.)

I don't understand why this picture, its title or this sight is trying to making a humorous comment about a homeless man sleeping on the street. Did the person snapping the picture think to ask him why he was there or how they could help?

I saw this many many times when working in Omiya. Never thought of taking his photo and uploading it to Japan Today.

I wouldn't take this photo. But if there is any good that comes of it then so be it.

How could any good possibly come of this? It's callous and tasteless and nothing else.

This seems very unprofessional and callous of a news organization to attach a humorous headline to a picture depicting the obvious plight of a fellow human being. I would expect this sort of content from 2 channel, not from JT.

A homeless person 'takes a nap' is rather making light of the real situation - and more accurately should read 'A homeless person is LIVING...'. Using the photo as part of a piece on homelessness would've been better. Simply using it as 'Picture of the Day' with a pun of a title and a quirky throw away comment is tasteless and quite unnecessary.

He looks pretty happy. not all homeless people are miserable, you know. also the photo is a clever juxtaposition of the relative poverty of this poor guy with the relative wealth of the society in which he lives (as shown by the bicycles behind him and the high qulity security fence). also, Omiya in Saitama is a brilliant place where I am suere this guy gets lots of sympathy and handouts and so on. So stop ripping on JT - plenty else to read into this picture.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/napster

It is not only Japan Today that runs these kinds of questionable photos - I have seen similar pictures in various photo blogs about Japan: those taken without consent and based upon assumptions and stereotypes rather than interaction and research. The common sense rule of thumb would be for the photographer to put herself in the place of the subject - would she want to be represented in such a way?

Read more about these issues in Japan: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.jp/2009/02/ethics-of-visual-anthropology-in-japan_12.html

Visual Documentary Project, "Care" in Southeast Asia

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 06:44:00 +0000

Image and text borrowed from Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.

On 15 March 2013, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, hosted a Visual Documentary Project whereby five makers from Southeast Asia were invited to show their works and share ideas on the subject of visually documenting care in Southeast Asia.

Project Synopsis: “Care,” is one of the most important aspects of human life at any time in our life cycle and is a fundamental part of all societies. Yet, the term “care” is western and has no exact corresponding term in Asian languages. This film forum hopes to stimulate, and raise awareness of how Southeast Asian filmmakers consider the relevance and meaning of “care,” and how they visually document it in their own societies.Five documentaries were selected by an international committee from a total of 36 original entries submitted from the region.

The documentaries are now available online for viewing.

http://sea-sh.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/visual-documentary-project-2012/

"Man beaten to death by passerby filming fight"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:40:00 +0000

Another reason to be careful filming in public... From The Daily Yomiuri Online, 3/11/13:

A man was beaten to death by a stranger filming a quarrel he was involved in on a street in Konan Ward, Yokohama, at about 4:25 a.m. Sunday, according to police.

Katsunari Maeda, 25, unemployed, was on his way home with a friend, a 22-year-old man. The police said Maeda's friend got in an argument with the driver of a minivehicle.

A fourth individual nearby began filming the quarrel with his cell phone and Maeda warned him to stop. The man then suddenly began hitting Maeda, police said, punching him in the face and abdomen. Maeda was taken to a hospital and confirmed dead.

Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130310003919.htm

Teaching 3.11 in 2013

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:01:00 +0000

3.11 continues to influence and impact Japanese society and culture. This semester in Contemporary Japanese Culture and Globalization class we spent a whole week (two class sessions) on the subject. The complexity of the subject can be illustrated by the sheer amount of research and articles dealing with the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster. Here are a list of sources that we were only able to scratch the surface of:

Visual 3/11 Materials at VAOJ

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.jp/2011/10/visual-311-materials.html

Teach 3.11

http://teach311.wordpress.com/

Digital Archives of Japan's 2011 Disasters

http://www.jdarchive.org/en/home

Japan Earthquake at Nagasaki Archive

http://e.nagasaki.mapping.jp/p/japan-earthquake.html

Beyond 3.11 - Stories of Recovery

http://www.nhk.or.jp/japan311/311-disaster2.html

Japan's 3.11 Earthquake, Tsunami, Atomic Meltdown at Japan Focus

http://japanfocus.org/japans-3.11-earthquake-tsunami-atomic-meltdown

In the first class sessions students presented a timeline of the 3.11 events and discussed details of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster from the sources above. One student talked about his friend's experiences during the disasters and another student talked about his volunteer activities in the Tohoku.

The first class session covered a lot of information and set the scene for the second class session featuring a guest lecture from my former student, Ryoko Higashi, who experienced 3.11 in Ibaraki prefecture. Ms. Higashi talked about the earthquake itself and the damage it caused to her work place and home. She talked about her lack of food and water and her eventual evacuation from the area. This was the first time we had an actual 3.11 survivor speak in class and Ms. Higashi's presentation provided a whole new perspective on the subject and was very much appreciated by all. Today for the first time we were able to move beyond questions of how and why to what we can learn from the experiences and how we can live our lives to the fullest from now on. Many thanks to Ms. Higashi and all of my students.

"Filmmaker captures the 3/11 stress of Tohoku’s deaf"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:49:00 +0000

Image borrowed from Studio Aya.

Story from Japan Times, 3/10/13, by Tomoko Otake:

Nobuko Kikuchi, a 72-year-old resident of Iwanuma, Miyagi Prefecture, couldn’t hear the emergency sirens that followed the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 11, 2011.

Nor could she hear the public announcement urging people to evacuate to higher ground as a massive tsunami approached the coast of northeastern Japan’s Tohoku region.

Kikuchi is deaf. She owes her life to a neighbor who came to alert her. Kikuchi narrowly escaped the monster wave, which uprooted and washed away her house.

In another part of the city, a deaf couple who ran a beauty salon survived — though nobody came knocking on their door. After the quake, they smelled a “strange odor” and ran up to the second floor of their house. But after the tsunami swept through their house, destroying all the equipment in their salon on the first floor, the couple spent a lonely night alone. They had no information about the scale of the disaster or where they could go to get help.

Such horrific experiences of the Great East Japan Earthquake fill “3.11 Without Sound — There Were Deaf People in the Disaster Area, Too,” a 23-minute documentary recently released by deaf filmmaker Ayako Imamura.

Nagoya-based Imamura, 33, has made seven visits to Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures since the disaster, meeting and interviewing victims there.

Her film is a bitter reminder of how people with disabilities are neglected during disasters and denied access to the kind of information that can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Statistics on the number of deaf and hearing-impaired people affected by the disaster are hard to come by. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which has a department serving people with disabilities, will only say that as of May 2011, 14 deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Miyagi Prefecture were killed by the tsunami/quake. A total of 736 others were confirmed to have survived.

The ministry has no data for such casualties in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

In the film, Imamura cites a report by public broadcaster NHK that puts the number of fatalities among deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the three prefectures at 75.

Imamura, who has shot numerous documentaries on Japan’s deaf community, met and interviewed several deaf and hearing-impaired people in Tohoku, including Kikuchi, who the film focuses on.

In an interview filmed in an evacuation shelter one month after the disaster, Kikuchi breaks down as she explains she can’t hear any of the announcements on food rationing and other assistance — no one has thought to take her special needs into consideration.

She and her husband, Tokichi (who is also deaf), had no other way of keeping track of new developments than by watching hearing evacuees.

“If they see other people lining up, they would follow suit, assuming some aid item would be handed out,” Imamura says in the film. “It’s a huge form of stress for her, and she has no time to relax all day.”

Kikuchi regains some semblance of normalcy over time. She looks much better in August 2011, when Imamura visits her at an apartment-style temporary housing facility, into which the couple moved that May. Nicely coiffed and made-up, Kikuchi smiles as she teaches her granddaughter how to make key chains with colorful plastic beads. The temporary dwelling has the basic necessities — a TV set, air-conditioning and a yellow light to let the couple know when they have visitors. But then a hearing film crew member notices that a fishmonger has just passed — without bothering to tell the Kikuchis.

Imamura visits her again on Dec. 25, 2011. Kikuchi looks pleasantly surprised, showing off many donated sweaters that she was given at a Christmas charity event. But her expression clouds again — conveying to the filmmaker through sign language her feelings of insecurity about her future. Kikuchi says she doesn’t know how much longer the situation will continue. She tells Imamura she is alone now, because Tokichi was hospitalized the previous month.

Now that she’s finished the movie, which is subtitled in English, Korean and Portuguese, Imamura says everyone living in Japan should have equal access to vital information, regardless of disability or nationality. Tsunami warnings should be sent to all mobile phone users, she says, using handsets’ vibration setting to send emergency alerts to both deaf and blind people. Imamura says all public announcements should be made in simple Japanese and in various languages.

“There are many people in society — hearing people, hard-of-hearing people, blind people, people in wheelchairs and foreigners,” Imamura says in an email. “The message I want to get across in all of my films is that a society where all these people are able to live the life they want to live is a very rich one.”

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/03/10/films/filmmaker-captures-the-311-stress-of-tohokus-deaf/#.UT1MKBnU5FR

Imamura recently lectured about her films at NPO Deaf Support Osaka (2/11/13).

Imamura Ayako Official Website: http://studioaya.com/english/index.html#profile

Related VAOJ posts:

"Aichi director records the deaf's stories"

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.jp/2012/01/aichi-director-records-deafs-stories.html

Filmmaker Imamura Lecture in Hirakata-shi

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.jp/2012/05/filmmaker-imamura-lecture-in-hirakata.html

Graduation Day 2013

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:47:00 +0000

"Google to photograph street views of evacuated town in Fukushima"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:11:00 +0000

From Japan Today, 3/8/11:

It wasn’t just the earthquake or tsunami of March 11, 2011 that shattered the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture; it was the subsequent radiation. Slowly creeping across the once fertile land, it ripped families from their homes and banished them to evacuation centers elsewhere. Today, nearly two years after the worse nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the entire 86 square miles of Namie have been declared uninhabitable due to high levels of radioactive cesium. Even if families wanted to return, they can’t.

Amid this tragic loss, Google Street View is giving the people of Namie a chance to visit the town they were forced to flee.

The Street View project was requested by Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie town. Baba explains in the video below, “By photographing the town and making those photographs publicly available, we can show the townspeople the condition of the streets. In addition, I want to show the world the true state of Namie.”

Photographing will take several weeks and Google hopes to make the images available to the public in the coming months. It seems that Namie, formerly described as “the forgotten town” in popular Japanese magazine, Bungei ShunjuI, will no longer be forgotten thanks to the efforts of Google and Mayor Baba.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/google-to-photograph-street-views-of-evacuated-town-in-fukushima

"100 Years in Tokyo"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 08:19:00 +0000

From Japan Today, 2/24/13:

“100 years in Tokyo” is a series of 202 portraits, photographed in Tokyo in 2009-2012. The book contains portraits of men and women for each year of age from 0 to 100.

The book has its origins in photographer Petri Artturi Asikainen’s deep interest in the city. He has lived in Tokyo on several occasions since 2009. For him, the visual abundance of the city makes it exceptionally fascinating. It feels as familiar as any Western metropolis, yet completely different and strange.

The theme of Asikanen’s pictures is the full range of human life. Simultaneously, he hopes to have succeeded in creating a portrait of Tokyo. It is the people that make the city.

Asikainen is a Finnish photographer, who has worked on freelance basis for 20 years. He has contributed to several newspapers, magazines and corporate publications, specializing in portraits and photo editorials.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/arts-culture/view/finnish-photographer-looks-at-life-in-tokyo

More info: http://pa.artturi.com/books/