Capture Japan : visual culture and the global imagination from 1952 to the present.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bohr, Marco, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art--Japan--20th century.

Art.

Geopolitics--National Identity--Japan--21st century.

Geopolitics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Capture Japan investigates the formation of visual tropes and how these have contributed to perceptions of Japan in the global imagination. The book proposes that images are not incidental in the formation of such perceptions, but central to notions about identity, history and memory. From a tentative western ally in 1952 to a 'soft power' superpower with a huge global influence in the 21st century, the book locates questions about Japan in the global imagination to the country's transforming geopolitical position. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, with a multiplicity of perspectives from around the world, Capture Japan goes beyond binarisms to uncover how images can also produce discourses that challenge, subvert or even contradict each other. The word 'capture' in the title of the book recognises both the deeply problematic role that images have played in relation to colonialism, as well as the potential dominance that visual spectacles can wield in a contemporary context. Diverse essays from a wide range of perspectives investigate the institutional framework that has allowed certain types of images of Japan to be promoted, while others have been suppressed. In doing so, the book points to a vast network of images that have shaped the perception of Japan both from within and from outside, revealing how these images are inextricably linked to wider ideological, political, cultural or economic agendas.

Contents:

Introduction, Marco Bohr (Nottingham Trent University, UK)

Part One: Signs

Introduction to Part One, Marco Bohr

1. Le Samouraï - Jean-Pierre Melville's Cinematic Japan, Miyao Daisuke (University of California, USA)

2. Dreaming of Mexico: Japanese Artists Discover the Other, Ramona Bajema (Japan Society, USA)

3. Re/Placing Barthes in the Post-Bubble Era: Youthful Disaffection, Online Fandom, and the Reoriented Visions of 'Japan' in Iwai Shunji's All About Lily Chou-Chou, Man-tat Terence Leung (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)

Part Two: Myths

Introduction to Part Two, Marco Bohr

4. The 'Last Japanese Soldier': Putting the Nation into Play, Martin Picard (Leipzig University, Germany) and Martin Roth (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)

5. Sugimoto Hiroshi and the Emergence of a Geopolitical 'Japanese style', Marco Bohr (Nottingham Trent University, UK)

6. Japan as an 'erotic paradise' in the Sino-Japanese mobility context: ethnographic encounters, Jamie Coates (University of Sheffield, UK)

Part Three: Ruins

Introduction to Part Three, Marco Bohr

7. Shadows of the Atomic Bombings in The Family of Man: The American photographic exhibition tour of Japan in the post-occupation period, Takenaka Yumi Kim (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)

8. Fractured Land, Then and Now: The Resurgence of Ruins in the 1996 Japan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Carrie L. Cushman (University of Hartford, USA)

9. Burnt Dresses Left for the Future - Ishiuchi Miyako's photographic series Hiroshima (2007-present), Hagiwara Hiroko (Osaka Prefecture University, Japan)

Part Four: Transformations

Introduction to Part Four, Marco Bohr

10. Representing Japan: Stereotyping and Self-Stereotyping in the many Careers of Yamaguchi Yoshiko, Jennifer Coates (University of Sheffield, UK)

11. Myth, Manga, Technology and Gender: Chobits and the Postwar Pygmalion, Selma A. Purac (Western University, Canada)

12. Personal Connections and Global Relations: Staging "Japan of the Imagination" in the 1980s, Melissa Miles (Monash University, Australia)

Index .

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781350186811

1350186813

9781350186804

1350186805

9781350186781

1350186783

OCLC:

1353732112

Publisher Number:

10.5040/9781350186811 doi.