The widespread dissemination of Japanese history and culture has promoted Japan’s status in the hearts of its people and other countries. Many countries also use Japanese culture as a reference, actively absorb beneficial elements, and integrate the cultures of various countries. has an important role. The following is the content of the paper on Japanese history and culture that I have compiled for you. You are welcome to read and refer to it! Japanese History and Culture Paper 1
A brief discussion of the historical contribution of Japanese geisha culture
Abstract: With the release of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" directed by Spielberg, Japanese geishas quickly attracted the attention of many people. In the eyes of most people, geisha has always been a special profession full of mystery and some ambiguity. Some people even simply think that geisha is a prostitute with a certain talent. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. In fact, geisha are engaged in a performing art. Their singing, dancing, instrumental music, and even every move and gesture embody the classical artistic concept. Therefore, in modern society, geisha are called the living fossils of Japanese classical culture, and geisha have even played some special roles in Japanese history.
Keywords: Japanese Geisha Kinou Geisha's historical contribution
With the release of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", Japanese Geisha quickly attracted the attention of the world. In the eyes of most people, because there is an extra word "geisha" in the title "geisha", there are many misunderstandings about geisha. In fact, this is just a deviation after being translated into Chinese. Geisha is called "geisya" in Japanese. When it was translated into Chinese, the word "geisha" was removed and a word "geisya" was added, so many people misunderstood it. I think a geisha is a prostitute who can sing and dance well.
Geishas can indeed sing and dance, and they can also drink and laugh, but the difference from prostitutes is that they do not sell their bodies. That is to say, geisha are engaged in a performing art. Their singing, dancing, instrumental music, and even every move and gesture embody the classical artistic concept. Therefore, in modern society, geisha are called the living fossils of Japanese classical culture. Not only that, in the process of Japanese social development, geisha even played some special roles in history.
Let’s start with the origin of geisha
Geisha emerged in the Edo period during the Tokugawa shogunate period. It has a history of more than 300 years. Their predecessors were performers of singing and dancing. Wandering female artist. As the population of Edo (today's Tokyo), the center of the shogunate's rule, increased, a large number of wandering female artists gathered and became prostitutes who settled here. At that time, in order to increase tax revenue, the Tokugawa shogunate strictly prohibited secret prostitution, forcing folk prostitutes to find a job as a cover. So they gradually evolved into professional banquet girls who performed shamisen accompaniment and were called maiko. It can be called the initial formative period of the geisha.
After the emergence of maiko, prostitutes in the shogunate's official brothels also gradually absorbed some of the performance content of maiko and began to transform into maiko in order to attract customers. The word geisha originally referred to the accompanist of a dancing girl. From the second half of the 18th century, accompanists and dancers were collectively referred to as geisha. Because geishas both sell their skills and their bodies, government-run prostitutes face dual competition from internal and external geishas at the same time, and their survival situation is extremely difficult. Under this circumstance, the Edo Shogunate made clear regulations on the management of geisha, prohibiting geisha prostitution, and violators would be severely punished. This regulation completely separated geisha from prostitutes, and also made geisha officially independent as a profession, and its professional norms and customs were also established.
As a profession, geisha has its own unique code of conduct, which is the geisha way. First of all, geishas do not sell their bodies in order to protect their own image; secondly, they must adhere to the "sealing" order, that is, they must strictly keep the secrets of their guests. They can only listen to the top secrets of the guests with their ears, as if they are passing by, and cannot behind their backs. It is said to outsiders to give guests a sense of security; thirdly, geisha need to cultivate the typical temperament of Japanese female beauty to conform to the ideal female image in male concepts.
Although geisha is officially legalized as a profession and is a model of Japanese female beauty, in Japan during the Edo period, geisha were still at the bottom of society, belonging to the enslaved and ravaged class. Geishas were able to enter mainstream society and stir up waves in Japanese history because of the Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration changed Japan and the image of geishas.
Two historical contributions of Japanese geisha
1. The influence of geisha culture on Japanese politics
In 1853, at the end of the Edo period, the Americans used strong ships and powerful guns to Opened the door to Japan and forced the Edo shogunate to sign a series of unequal treaties. The signing of unequal treaties intensified various contradictions in Japan and also gave various territorial countries an excuse to attack the shogunate. In particular, the Choshu and Satsuma clans were powerful and had long been dissatisfied with the shogunate's rule. They gathered in Kyoto under the slogan "respect the king and repel the barbarians" and wanted to overthrow the shogunate's rule. This faction is called the Qinwang faction. Of course, the shogunate would not ignore this and sent people to strengthen the security of Kyoto. This faction was called the Samu faction. The two factions gathered in Kyoto at that time and often competed.
When discussing important matters in Kyoto, the Jinwang faction often chooses to stay in a geisha house in order to cover up important matters, because one of the important rules of geisha do is to strictly keep the secrets of guests so that guests can have a full sense of security. So if you choose this place, you can cover yourself up and don’t have to worry about your discussions being leaked. Some geishas sympathized with the Qinwang sect and often helped and protected the loyalists of the Qinwang sect. Taking this opportunity, geishas moved from the bottom of society to the forefront of history, causing waves in the great social changes. These geishas who came to the forefront were called Qinwang geisha.
The most famous among the Kinou geishas is Kimio. Kimio is a geisha from the Shimamuraya Geisha House in Kyoto. She often performs at a teahouse called Uopin, here. She got acquainted with Kaoru Inoue, a loyal scholar from Choshu Domain (Yamaguchi Prefecture). Inoue Kaori traveled to England in 1835 to study, and later served as minister of foreign affairs, interior affairs, and Tibet in the Meiji Restoration government, and was one of the elders of the Meiji period. Inoue Kaoru fell in love with Junio ??at first sight, and the two were very affectionate. Later, Shimada of the Sashogunate faction also fell in love with Kimio. Shimada was the leader of the Sashogunate faction in Kyoto and was powerful in Kyoto. In the eyes of ordinary geisha, it is a dream to become the wife and concubine of such a family. But Kimio refused. There was only one reason, because Shimada was from Samu's faction. But soon, Inoue Kaoru's accomplices found Kimio and asked him to agree to Shimada's request and work as an undercover agent for the King of Kin faction to spy on Shimada's secrets. So Kimio became a geisha spy. Later, the King of Kin faction planned to assassinate Shimada based on the information provided by Kimio. In the end, Shimada died under the sword of King Kin's loyalist. Junwei made great contributions to the King Qin faction.
It is said that Kimio once rescued Kido Takayun, who was known as the Three Heroes of the Restoration. At that time, Qinwang Geisha used the Geisha Hall as a cover to contact people with lofty ideals from all over the country to carry out secret activities to bring down the curtain. In order to protect them, the geishas of the Qinwang faction often came to help. Among the many stories of heroes saving beauties, Junwei is just one of them. Due to the special role of geishas in the Overthrow Movement, they made important contributions to Japan's Meiji Restoration. Therefore, some people later joked that without geishas, ??Japan's history would have been rewritten.
2. The contribution of geisha to Japanese society
A qualified geisha usually has to learn traditional Japanese dance and shamisen within 5 years starting from the age of 10. , tea ceremony, calligraphy, flower arrangement, costumes, etc. Therefore, geisha have inherited the essence of traditional Japanese art and culture in dance, music, costumes, makeup, etc., and are living fossils of Japanese classical culture and art. At the same time, they also provide society with a noble The image of an ideal woman who is elegant, gentle and submissive has formed her own unique geisha culture, which has had a great impact on Japanese society.
(1) Impact on Japanese literature and art
Geisha culture has become a part of Japan’s traditional culture. Geisha means living by art. Taking literature as an example, there are many novels based on the life of geisha. The most famous of them are Kawabata Yasunari's "The Dancing Girl of Izu" and "Snow Country". The works use literary means to recreate the geisha culture, making people admire the traditional Japanese geisha culture and at the same time have to pay attention to modern and contemporary Japanese literature. Good impression. In a sense, this also made Kawabata Yasunari become the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(2) Impact on the modern service industry in Japanese society
With the development of history, Japanese geishas have increasingly faded out of the stage of history, but this has not eliminated the inherent pivotal influence of Japanese geishas. . Geishas have been integrated into all aspects of social life, and their thoughtful and considerate services have become a model for the service industry.
Geisha-like services can be seen in many places in Japan, such as hotels, hotels, airports, and department stores. Most foreigners who have been to Japan have experienced first-class services in hotels, restaurants, department stores, etc. For their Amazed by the attentive and meticulous service. For example: in a Japanese restaurant with a tatami room, the waiter's actions of opening the sliding door, serving the dishes, and exiting all show a kind of respect and humility, which immediately makes people feel like a master. In addition, no matter where you go, you can hear the receptionist's gentle "Welcome", "Thank you for coming" and other polite words. These all make people feel the potential influence of geisha culture, that is, they must be considerate, thoughtful and respectful to guests.
(3) Influence on Japanese women’s aesthetics and values ??
In the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", the temperament displayed by the geishas all reflects the traditional Japanese concept of female beauty. Various characteristics: loyalty, elegance, charm, and suppleness, which also constitute the elements of female beauty in their concept. Geisha's dress and makeup have become a model of female classical beauty in modern Japanese society. It is said that when Japanese people wear kimonos in modern society, how to tie the belt, hairstyle and accessories are all based on geisha standards. To embody this temperament and practice this temperament, geisha naturally become a role model for Japanese women, and their words and deeds have also become the objects of imitation by ordinary women. Even geisha themselves are proud of geisha do.
The influence of geisha on Japanese women is also reflected in values. A mature geisha must be extremely gentle and calm and decisive in situations. It is said that this temperament has become the best model for modern women. For example, when we watch Japanese dramas, we can often feel a gentle charm from the characters in the drama, but at the same time we can also feel a kind of endurance and strength behind the gentleness. These are the inner character of geisha, and now they have been internalized as a virtue of Japanese women. For example, the protagonist Ashin in the Japanese TV series "Oshin" that was popular in China in the 1980s is a woman with such a character.
In short, the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" recreates the mysterious world of Japanese geishas in history. Geishas, ??like Japan's Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms, have become a symbol of Japan. As a living fossil of Japanese traditional culture, it reflects the charm of Yamato culture from different angles. Japanese culture pursues aesthetic themes, which is perfectly demonstrated in geisha culture. The emergence of Japanese geisha is given by the real life in Japan and is one of the epitome of Japanese traditional culture. Geisha has become an integral part of Japan's unique culture, which will surely have a more profound impact on all aspects of Japanese social history.
References:
[1] Luo Li: "The "Snow Country" and the Beauty of Japan in Duan Kangcheng's Works", "Journal of Qiandongnan Normal College for Nationalities", 2005 Issue 1 of the year.
[2] Kang Youjin, Bai Limin: "Looking at Japanese Geisha Culture from Movies", "Film Review", Issue 17, 2006. Japanese History and Culture Essay 2
A brief discussion of historical and cultural writing in contemporary Japanese novels
Abstract: Taking contemporary Japanese novels as the research object, we separately examine the war in Japanese novels in the early post-war period Historical elements and their context, historical writing in Japanese novels in the new era, Japanese historical novels, etc. are examined. There are many works that express historical themes or factors. Especially after the war, a large number of works emerged that complained about and reflected on the harm and disaster caused by the war. However, judging from the number of works and ideological content, it can carry out a comprehensive and profound reflection on the war. His works are rare.
Keywords: contemporary Japanese novels; history; writing
Compared with the literature of previous dynasties, Japanese contemporary literature has shown some new trends. For example, writers pay more attention to personalized creation and pay more attention to war, society, and historical themes in terms of ideological content. At the same time, they also emphasize self-expression. There are also certain breakthroughs in tradition. This article selects some novels in contemporary Japanese literature to sort out, in order to explore the historical and cultural writing and its context.
1. Historical war elements and context in Japanese novels in the early postwar period
Japan surrendered in August 1945, officially ending World War II.
The war system and political order that had been maintained in Japan for nearly ten years collapsed, and the wartime cultural rule was lifted. Literature also got rid of wartime controls and regained the freedom of expression. After a brief period of chaos and confusion, the literary world gradually began to recover. In such a context, Japanese literature has entered a new historical period.
In December 1945, left-wing writers who had been suppressed for a time initiated the establishment of the New Japan Literature Society, and founded its magazine "New Japan Literature" in 1946. Its representative writers were Yuriko Miyamoto and De Naganao and others have published many works that reflect the trauma of the war and express the crimes of Japanese militarism. Miyamoto's masterpiece "Banshu Plains" describes the tragedy of defeat and criticizes the war. Through the female perspective of the protagonist Hiroko Ishida, the novel reveals the price paid by Japanese imperialism for the war it launched. It describes the grief 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, revealing the pain and harm that war brings to women. In addition, Tokunaga Nao's autobiographical novel "Wife! Rest in Peace", novels "Quiet Mountains", "Toad", "Torture" and other works also show Japan's post-war historical transition from multiple angles and historical images of the unyielding struggles of ordinary workers, farmers, and women.
Many works of post-war writers, especially the first batch of post-war writers, have deep historical imprints. The creations of the first batch of post-war writers basically revolved around two basic points: war experience and transition experience. Such as "Red Moon on the Face", "Gloomy Painting", "Vacuum Zone" by Noma Hiroshi, "Sakurajima" by Haruo Umezaki, "The Trial" by Takeda Taijun, "Wildfire" and "Captive Chronicle" by Ooka Shohei "wait.
"Red Moon on the Face" describes the protagonist's strong awareness of the preciousness of family affection after experiencing the war, and shows the harm that war brings to the people. "Dark Picture" describes the protagonist's ambivalent mentality of being attracted to revolutionaries but unwilling to truly join the revolution. It is a work that turns expression into experience. The painter Bruegel's "Dark Picture" symbolizes the distress and pain of young intellectuals. "Vacuum Zone" is also based on the author's real experience of serving time in prison, and its background is still war.
"Sakurajima" by Haruo Umezaki is set at the end of World War II. It describes the complex inner changes of Murakami, a sergeant with an intellectual background, in a desperate environment surrounded by U.S. troops in Japan. While yearning for the beauty of life, he , exposed the cruelty of war, and criticized the Japanese reactionary army that had lost their humanity. The protagonist Jiro in Takeda Taijun's novel "The Trial" is trapped in a painful guilt state for killing Chinese people during the war. In order to atone for his sins, he chose to stay in China because he was worried that his crimes would be downplayed when he returned to Japan. This kind of self-judgmental works are rare and reflect the writer's deep reflection on the war.
Based on his experience of joining the army and being captured, Ooka Shohei wrote the short story "Captive Chronicle", the novella "Wildfire", "Wright War Chronicle", etc., using psychological analysis techniques to describe the process of being captured. , reflects the war-weariness of soldiers in the late war, the inevitability of defeat and the devastation of war on human nature, and explores issues such as human destiny and the value of existence at a critical moment of life and death. In addition, among the postwar writers, there is also Hotta Zenue, whose "Loneliness in the Square" describes the turmoil and unrest of Japanese intellectuals before and after the Korean War. His novel "History" is set in Shanghai in 1946, reflecting social turmoil. In his diary "In Shanghai", he expressed his introspection on the war of aggression and his criticism of Emperor Showa. Although the creations of the "Third Newcomer" after the post-war movement no longer focus on war-related themes, the shadow of war can still be found in their works. Such as "Gloomy Joy" and "Seaside Scene" by Shotaro Yasuoka, "In Flames" by Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, etc.
2. Historical writing in Japanese novels in the new era
With the passage of time, the number of works directly describing war themes has gradually decreased. But historical traces in the works are not difficult to find. Kai Gaojian's "Glowing Darkness", "Summer Darkness", and "Darkness of Fading Flowers" were written based on his experience as a special correspondent on the Vietnam battlefield in 1964. Mystery novel writer Matsumoto Seicho has also written documentary works that deeply explore the modern and contemporary history of Japan, such as "Discovering the History of Showa". "The Breeding" by Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe tells the story of a black soldier who landed in a mountain village due to a plane crash during the war.
"Hiroshima Notes" was written by Oe Kenzaburo when he went to Hiroshima to conduct social investigation in 1963 and was deeply touched by the persecution caused by the atomic bomb. "The Football Team in the First Year of Wanyan" involves the history of the peasant uprising in Japan in the first year of Wanyan (1860).
Most of Haruki Murakami’s works are themed around the city, youth and love, but his works also often involve and think about history. Among them, "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" records the events that took place in Mongolia and A little-known content of the Battle of Nomenkan on the border of the puppet Manchukuo. "Sheep Hunting Adventures" also contains novel plots based on facts about the historical relations between China and Japan, such as Dr. Sheep's field trip to Manchuria for sheep breeding. In "1Q84", the heroine Aomame takes reading books about the Manchuria Railway in the 1930s as a hobby, and the hero Tengo's adoptive father is also designed to be a member of the Manchuria-Mongolia pioneering group who returned to Japan after the war. These writings on war and historical understanding appear trivial and scattered, and have become rare in the contemporary Japanese literary world in recent years.
3. Historical novels in Japanese literature
Historical novels (also called period novels) are an important literary type in modern Japanese literature. Especially in the contemporary literature more than half a century after the war, its creation has become more prosperous. There appeared a series of writers such as Nakazato Keishan, Naoki Sango, Daibutsu Jiro, Kaionji Shiogoro, Inoue Yasushi, Shima Ryotaro, Yamaoka Shohachi, Chen Shunchen, Yoshikawa Eiji and so on. Among the more representative ones are modern Japanese historical novel writers Yoshikawa Eiji, Shima Ryotaro, Yamaoka Shohachi, etc. Eiji Yoshikawa has successively written many masterpieces such as "Miyamoto Musashi", "New Shotaikoki", "Heroes of the Three Kingdoms", "New Heike Monogatari", and "Private Taipei Chronicles". Ryotaro Shiba's literary achievements are mainly reflected in his historical novels describing the late Edo period. His characters, such as Ryoma Sakamoto, have now become recurring models in period dramas. Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Saigo Takamori have appeared repeatedly in many of his works and have been put on film and television screens many times. It took Shohachi Yamaoka 17 years to complete his masterpiece "Tokugawa Ieyasu", which triggered an unprecedented "Ieyasu craze" at the time. After that, he focused on historical novels and created masterpieces such as "Oda Nobunaga", "Sakamoto Ryoma", "Toyotomi Hideyoshi" and "Date Masamune".
In addition to paying attention to the local history of Japan, there are also some novels based on the history of other countries, such as Yasushi Inoue’s historical novels "Tian Ping Zhi Zhi", "Lolan", "Green Wolf", "Dunhuang", "Confucius", "Yang Guifei", etc. are mostly based on Chinese history, and are created using Chinese historical and biographical literature as materials to express his yearning for Chinese history and Chinese culture, as well as his unique thoughts and opinions on life and history. In addition, Dazaishi's "Run, Melos" is based on Greek mythology and historical stories, and Endo Shusaku's novel "Silence" describes a period of history when Portuguese Jesuit missionaries spread Catholicism in Japan and were suppressed.
From the above-mentioned brief review of historical and cultural writing in contemporary Japanese novels, it can be seen that contemporary Japanese novels as a whole are quite rich in historical elements. Among them, works mainly depict Japanese historical figures, and there are also works that express historical events in whole or in part. Post-war novels have produced an unusually large number of works that accuse and reflect on the damage and disaster caused by the war in World War II. This is obviously different from the literary creation of other periods. However, judging from the number of works and ideological content, there are still few works that can carry out comprehensive and profound reflections on war. Moreover, after a brief period after the war, since the late 1950s, the number of works that focus on war or have historical elements of war has decreased sharply. Not only that, but there is also a lack of works that focus on the history of the country and the destiny of the nation. One point is quite distinct from Chinese literature.
Fund project: Hebei Agricultural University Social Science Fund (No.: SK20110401)
References:
[1] He Naiying. Research on contemporary Japanese 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: Contemporary Japanese Historical Novels and Chinese History and Culture [M]. Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, 2006. >>>More exciting Japanese history and culture papers on the next page?