Anth230: Anthropology of East Asia

I like the direction of your topic pearce. It is good to have a narrowed down aspect within Japanese poetry, and this should be quite interesting. Perhaps you could find some similiar examples in American poetry as well as culture. I remember an Alan Ginsberg Poem called America which contains a line "America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb". Does this powerful part of the beat movement in America have any parallels with Japanese Atom Bomb poetry? You could also look at the Stanley Kubrik film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964). Perhaps there is minimal connection, if not any, but it may be worthwhile to investigate the difference between the two sides of the Bomb.

Pierce, as I did some of my own brief research on this topic, it is very interesting indeed. I think if you provided a timeline of Genbaku poetry and discussed how it evolved over the years, it would be a nice addition to your project. Furthermore, it would clarify the timetable that this poetry occupied. I was unable to find anything on whether this sort of peotry is still as popular as it once was. Another avenue that you could explore is doing a comparison of actual anecdotes from pople living in Japan during this era with the poetry that we see during that era. Do this with paying particular attention to the images that are portrayed and the suffering that was expeinced during this time. Anyways, this is a very interesting topis with many areas to explore.

Tim

Pierce,
After viewing your research and potential ideas on genbaku poetry, I can see that your project is coming along very well. From what I can gather, the genbaku poetry as a result of the atomic devastation is similiar to poetry that emanated from other historically powerful events. Some examples might be the stoic poetry following the Civil War in the U.S. or the poetry gathered from prisoners in concentration camps in Germany during WWII. Thus, poetry can and does represent somewhat univeral feelings of devastation, disillusionment, and outright fear. This is why it is so powerful--even if a reader was not in a given situation, the parallel empotions derived from that situation can transcend the experiential divide. With this in mind, it might help your research (although calling for more research) to examine genbaku poetry in contrast with other poetry that ocurred at roughly the same time in history, under the same such conditions. British poetry after WWI and the poetry from concentration camps are one such example. This would enable you to compare and contrast the emotions of the Japanese to those in other parts of the world. I did a few searches for concentration camp poetry on google and came up with several interactive sites that provide the poetry in context of the Camp experience. This one in particular provides interesting poems that command such powerful images and phrases of genbaku poetry. Hopefully this will allow you to draw some conclusions about the general Japanses emotional response to this horrific event, and to compare it to other responses. Good luck.

Bob,
After reading one of the articles that you included on your log, I think that one area that you could explore is the culture that exists around this phenomenon of Karaoke. Why are country songs the most popular in the US? Which songs are popular in Japan? Is there a connection between popular songs in each nation? I think another area that you could explore within the culture aspect of karaoke is the difference between a regular bar and a karaoke bar. In Karaoke bars, the atmosphere seems to be more social and jovial than a typical bar.

Tim

I think the genbaku poetry is a very interesting topic. Does it only deal with the atomic bomb or all of WWII? I am curious as how they describe it and how different it is from how the western civilizations perceive the bombings.

Pierce, after reviewing your site and reading the comments already made on your progress, I agree that it would be very interesting to compare this poetry to the poetry of another culture suffering from a comparable disaster. The thing I'd be concerned about is getting to general with your comparisons by trying to incorporate too much. I'd suggest you choose one, and only one, other event and select only a few poems to represent it. A question that I'd like to know is exactly who the people are writing these poems. You say that most of these are by regular people expressing their emotions, but is there any general trend as to who these people are. Similarly, if you can isolate poems by social class, I think it would be fascinating to compare the responses of different classes to similar events across different cultures. That is what I'd like to see from your comparison. Oh and maybe a few more pictures. It looks like you've made a lot of progress, though.

Bob, I found the links that I looked at from your page fascinating. I noticed that in most of them, they talk about people wanting to be entertained almost as much as they want to entertain. I wonder if many people go to these bars and just watch. Also, I found this quote particularly relevant to the text that we had to read for Tuesday's class: "Taking a client to a bar and singing for them can mean the difference between getting a contract or not; through karaoke you sing for your supper, literally." It reminded me a great deal of the reading's description of debt in Asian cultures. I wonder if someone singing a song earns points with the person they sing to or for, and if so, what exactly does that mean. Do people respond by feeling they must return the favor? Or does it go even further than that?

Pierce,
I really like how you have begun exploring your topic. It is an interesting route to examine the emotions and thoughts embodied by people effected by World War II and the bombs. I agree with what people have metioned above. It may be interesting to examine, if possible, how feelings differed across social classes. Or even if all social classes responded with similar emotions would be interesting....just suggestions, everything looks great! Good luck!

Bob,

I looked at your logsite and admit that I didn't read all of the articles so I may have overlooked this, and you may have already considered it, but I was thinking about what an impact karaoke has had on the non-gifted singer, such as myself. How has it created a new niche for those who can't naturally sing well but are able to participate and sometimes even be the life of the party through their lip synching and improvising? Also, you may be able to spin off a tangent attached to William Hung, the American Idol reject who has now made millions for doing what most karoake singers do, sing poorly.

Bob,
Your topic is very interesting and you've definitely found some helpful sources thus far. As far as suggestions, I think it might be helpful in your comparisons to look at the groups of people that Karaoke attracts in each culture. As Carlos mentioned the quote from class.. are there reasons this does or doesn't happen in the U.S.? What do our two cultures have in common to appreciate Karaoke as entertainment? Or do we get participate in it for different reasons?
Sorry if these are obvious questions, as you mentioned you are comparing the two cultures and Karaoke, but I hope these help a little.
Good luck!

Pierce,

I agree that you have done a great job narrowing your topic down to a specific type of Japanese Poetry. I had no idea there was poetry particularly related to the atomic bomb. I'm taking a class right now (Japanese Literature in Translation) in which we read an assortment of Japanese Poetry and the art of Haiku is quite impressive. Potentially, you may want to explore the symbolism of haiku and its subsequent influence on Japanese culture before you connect the various haiku thematically....

Kristin

Pierce,
I would like to begin by saying that I am quite intrigued by the "shape," if you will, of the poems by Hennacy, Kurihara, and Shumaker. I find it quite interesting that the poems not only literally comment on the effects of the bombs, but REPRESENT the bombs; they are all, in a way, in the shape of a mushroom cloud. This is a testament to the exquisiteness of Japanese and Japanese-influenced poetry.

I do like the pictures as well. Perhaps you could find more pictures of the bomb itself exploding, the after effects of the explosion, etc.

Other than that, well done. I must say your website is fantastic. Good luck with the rest of your project.

Like everyone has mentioned before, this topic is very interesting and I think you are definitely going in the right direction. I am not sure if this was metioned before, but I think you should consider researching beyond just WWII and explore how this form of poetry was used in other times of tragedy. You could also search for ways this form of poetry is used in other countries/cultures beside Japan...and compare them.

Bob Digital-

I think your idea, first of all, is a solid, original one. I have always taken Karaoke for granted and have never given much thought to its origins, so your topic is fresh.

I feel like your topic, although original, is a bit broad. I say this because Kristin and I started out with a broad topic and had a hard time finding out just "where to go," if you will. I understand that you have been quite busy with your C-school activities, but when you get around to it, perhaps you should try to pinpoint a specific aspect of Karaoke that can be elaborated upon, instead of simply finding sites that tell about its emergence and what different college students think about it.

But I digress. I said what I said because I had been simply finding "descriptive" sites on the Qin Terracotta Warriors and I was going nowhere. I must say that I only looked at a handful of your links so I could be totally wrong. Nevertheless, that's my ten cents worth. Good luck on your Karaoke endeavors!!

-Michael

Bob,
Since I am the last one to comment, I really cant give you too much more to work with. However, I guess what could be an interesting endeavor might be to ask people, through a questionaire of some sort, what their personal experiences with karaoke are. That way, you would have direct comparisons to make between what you have researched so far (which by the way is brilliant) and what contemporary Americans think of the phenomenon. Also, you could ask them questions to see what their knowledge of Karaoke is (where it originated, etc) to try and gauge just how deeply this bit of Japanese culture has sunk into American culture. It seems to me that many people like to participate in pop-culture phenomena, but really could care less what its origins are. Just something to think about. P.S. this jersey needs to be washed already.
dan

Pierce,

Genbaku poetry is a cool topic. I'd like to know what cultural events brought about this type of poetry and how popular is it in Japan today. Did genbaku have any important political or social commentary pieces that might be good to learn about?

For the longest time I didn't know that Karaoke had asian origins. I have been to a karaoke bar or two. It's fun while you do it but quite embarrassing when you think about it in afterward. Also from watching Rush Hour 2 with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, I learned that Asians take karaoke very seriously, more seriously than American's by far. Perhaps it was an acient art form that was turned commercial, I do not know the answer, but I would really like to find out, now that you mention it.

Pierce - I think that your topic is very interesting and good in that is is very focused. I think that it might be worthwhile to look at other forms of Japanese art dealing with the bomb in order to see how the poetry is unique. I am interested to see how the poetry compares with other depictions of crisis in Japanese art and literature.

I really like the fact that you focused on poetry as a response to war. I agree that the best poetry stems from this surge of emotion in response to war.

I was actually reading a book for another class and came across something that may (or may not) help. You won't have to read the book at all, but just so you know, it's called The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, by Karen Armstrong. The book overall helps little, but the author discusses in one of her chapters Western literature as a response to the Franco-Prussian War and the industrial revolution. She says:
"During the revolutionary period in the early years of the 19th century, a new and better world had seemed finally within the grasp of humanity. But this hope was never fulfilled. Instead, the industrial revolution brought new problems...The Romantic poets...denounced the 'dark satanic mills'...Poeople were beginning to fantasize about the destruction of civilization...The British writer I. F. Clarke has shown that between 1871 and 1914 it was unusual to find a single year in which a novel or short story describing a horrific future war did not appear in some European country " (136).

The point of that exceedingly long quote was to suggest that you might want to use the poets and writers in Western society and their emotional reponses to the industrial revolution and the Franco-Prussian War (and their pessimistic view of the future) as a comparison to Japanese poetry.

Bob's topic

This is just something that popped into my head, and I'm not sure how feasible it is to do, but why not look into American culture and find out what our "karaoke" is. What universal activity (or activities) do Americans enjoy that are on par with karaoke in Japan? Making this comparison, or cultural analogy, may make it easier for your audience to relate to "the Karaoke phenomenon" in Japan. (One thing I thought of - though not as huge as karaoke - is this surge in the popularity of poker; from what I've seen, ever since they started showing the tour on ESPN and other stations, everyone I know has been playing poker with their friends -- this may not be the best, most sound cultural analogy, but I figured it will help describe what I'm suggesting).

Pierce
This is a really interesting topic. What you said about looking into the themes that lie beneath genbaku poetry is a good idea. maybe you could also compare the poetry to other responses to the bomb. For example, after 9/11 people wrote songs, made movies, documentaries, protests, major companies exploited the situation, etc. The only poetry that was really circulated was via internet. Although 9/11 was much smaller scale comparatively, there has to be some other form of "national" response. I think it would be interesting to see what other reactions people had to the bomb and whether or not the nationalism dynamic was the same as it was here.

What I would like to know is where does exactly poetry stand in Japanese society. It seems like haiku poems are regarded as a very specific type of expression, which has its own meaning in this particular 5-7-7 form. My question is: Does genbaku poetry represent an equivalent of Western poetry inspired by similar events, or does it carry a more specific and complicated message, which relates to Japanese society in some different way? What is the meaning and importance of this type of expression and does it add an additional color to the poets' views on the events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Pierce, it looks like your topic is pretty interesting and since I've never heard of Genbaku poetry anything you could tell about it would be pretty interesting. Poetry is a very specific topic too so I don't know what I could do to help you head in any particular direction, however, I really liked the poetry that you had listed in your log file. I was wondering as I read it if whether you were focusing on poetry written only by people who actually experienced the bomb or who were at least born in that time, or if you were looking into comtemporary poets too. It might be interesting to look at both poetry from that time and from this one and see how the two differ.

Bob,

What I would really be interested in knowing, but which is probably not easy to find out, is what is the popular response to this incoming "Karaoke culture" When I read the article about the concubines, the author's attitude about the whole thing was definitely there but hard to exactly pinpoint. He referred to the older business men as shrewd for making sure they aren't stuck with a concubine they don't want but then he says the same thing about the women who are good about getting what they want. While this isn't specifically about Karaoke it does sort of pertain to the fruits of this phenomenon.

Pierce,
I am interested to see where your project ends up. I think that looking at the poetry that arose out of the atomic bomb will be very interesting. I would also like to know if Genbaku poetry only pertains to the atomic bomb or has it evolved since then. I imagine there has been some evolution or perhaps writers are still looking at the history and facts and then writing expressing what they feel.