Beyond Japan with Oliver Moxham

Oliver is joined by Dr Charlotte Linton, Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Research Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute, to discuss dorozome (泥染め) textiles and traditional crafts today. Charlotte will share with us how her change from the fashion industry to academia over environmental concerns brought her to the dorozome or mud-dyeing workshop of Amami Ōshima, Okinawa to understand the challenges and benefits of traditional crafting methods in a world dominated by fast fashion.

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] The Tatsugo pattern of Oshima tsumugi kimono silk

[R] Kazuhito Kanai of the natural dyeing workshop Kanai Kougei, mordanting silk yarns in the dorota (mud-field), which is naturally rich in iron.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Dr Rumi Sakamoto, Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Auckland, to discuss remembering the kamikaze and the role of affect in war memory. Rumi shares with us how the image of the kamikaze has gone from one of shunned fanaticism to self-sacrificing heroism in popular culture through Japan’s post-war history. Looking at their representation in the Yūshūkan Museum of War at Yasukuni Shrine, Rumi also unpacks how affect can draw out a desired emotional response from visitors regardless of their preconceptions of kamikaze and how emotion can lend authenticity to historically problematic narratives.

Recommended documentary, Wings of Defeat

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Shinichi Ishimaru (1922-1945) at the Kanoya Air Base - 日本海軍報道班員

[R] Chinese tourists at Yasukuni Shrine - 靖国神社の中国人旅行者 by Toshihiro Gamo

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Dr Igor Prusa, lecturer in Media Studies at the Metropolitan University Prague, who will discuss “Ritualising Scandal”. Igor takes us through the surprisingly structured social phenomenon of scandal in Japan, the necessity for tears in a televised confession, and how those who confess can actually come out better for it.

Read Japanese Scandals and their Ritualization (2019)

Image and audio credits

Intro audio: Ryutoro Nonomura, 47, a Hyogo Prefectural assemblyman breaks down at a press conference -- bursting into tears (EuroNews)

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

Images were provided by Dr Igor Prusa.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Dr Philip Seaton, professor in the Institute of Japan Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, to discuss “Contents Tourism”, travel behaviour motivated by narratives, characters and locations from pop culture. Philip explains how contents tourism stands out from film or literature tourism through its transmedia approach, the term’s origins in Japan and the global nature of the phenomena.

Keen to know more?

Read Contents Tourism and Pop Culture Fandom: Transnational Tourist Experiences (Aspects of Tourism)

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro audio: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] A Hayabusa plane outside the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots in southern Kyushu. The panel under the tree explains it was used during filming of the 2007 kamikaze film For Those We Love. Provided by Philip Seaton.

[R] A fan of Shinsengumi takes a photo of a stuffed toy on her mobile phone at the site where Hijikata Toshizo was killed during the Battle of Hakodate in 1869. Provided by Philip Seaton.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Maiko Kodaka, PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, the challenges that come with researching such a contentious subject and the insights we can gain from it. Maiko will also share her research on josei-muke (女性向け) pornography, or “porn for women”, being produced in the Japanese Adult Video industry and how this new genre has challenged mainstream pornography shot for the heterosexual male gaze.

Keen to know more?

Website of Erika Lust, advocate of feminist pornography 🔞

Journal of Porn Studies 🔞

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro audio: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Shunga by Kitagawa Utamaro.

[R] "Pixelated Pornography" by thedescrier is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Caleb Carter, Assistant Professor of Japanese Religions and Buddhist Studies at Kyushu University, to discuss power spots, or pawā-supotto as they are known in Japan. Caleb walks us through how a global movement which began in 1960s USA and UK claiming the healing energies at key sites of natural beauty came to be embraced in Japan, peaking in popularity as recently as 2010. We explore how this communal term has been applied at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples to a mixed reception from religious authorities, as well as unexpected uses of the term at heritage sites of a more grisly nature.

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro audio: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] & [R] Visitors drawing on healing energies from power spots. Photographs provided by Caleb Carter.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Welcome back to the second series of Beyond Japan! This week the tables are turned as Professor Simon Kaner, Director of the Sainsbury Institute, interviews host Oliver Moxham on the topic of his recently completed master’s thesis, Reinterpreting Difficult Heritage. The case study of Oliver's research is Mimizuka, the Hill of Ears, a burial mound containing tens of thousands of pickled ears and noses taken from Joseon Korean and Ming Chinese soldiers in Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s 16th century invasion of Korea, the Imjin War. Located in a tourist hub of Kyoto, Higashiyama district, his research explored how the language barrier limits international engagement at the site and how analysing multilingual Google Maps reviews reveals how tourist stakeholders in its war history engage with it and their desire, or lack of, for it to be interpreted by others. Oliver also talks to Simon about the challenges and benefits of taking a digital approach to ethnographic research and offers some reflections on the first series of Beyond Japan.

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro audio: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] A man dressed in traditional Korean clothing performs in front of Mimizuka's mound. Source: Noriyasu Hagimoto

[R] Excerpt from an extreme Japanese-language Google Maps review on Mimizuka. Source: 湯浅洋一

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

For the series finale, Oliver is joined by Toshio Watanabe, Professor of Japanese Art and Cultural Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute, to discuss gardens of war memory, going over his latest project of transnational gardens across the Pacific with ties to the Asia-Pacific War (1937-45). Toshio invites us to consider gardens as spaces of memory and healing, but also as reminders of colonialism past and present across former territories of the Japanese empire throughout Asia. We also look at gardens as peopled places, looking at the motives for visitors coming to these places: do they come for the memories or just to enjoy nature?

For a comprehensive list of Japanese time periods, please see Japanese History: A Timeline of Periods and Events

Toshio's recommendations for Japanese gardens:

War in Japan

Peace in Japan

War memory of a place still under colonial conditions

Image and audio credits

Intro audio: hase-dera, kamakura, japan - garden path by OR poiesis

Outro audio: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Nagasaki Peace Park monument by MShades is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

[R] Sakura at Chidorigafuchi Park by Yoshikazu TAKADA is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Amanda McGuire, PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia, to discuss the Ainu in Japan, exploring their historical and contemporary relationship with the peoples of mainland Japan and what the withdrawal of the Ainu dance from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony says about the theme of "unity in Japan".

For a comprehensive list of Japanese time periods, please see Japanese History: A Timeline of Periods and Events

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro audio: tonkori suite by Yirara Hanawo, improvised music with the yonkori, a musical instrument used by the Ainu.

[L] "Ainu group dancing tutorial (11)" by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

[R] "Espaço Tokyo 2020" by Secretaria Especial do Esporte is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by J. Alyssa White, PhD candidate in Archaeology at the University of Oxford, to discuss the prehistoric tragedy of the world’s oldest shark attack victim. The 3,000-year-old remains of Tsukumo No. 24 were first excavated in Okayama prefecture in the early 20th century covered in hundreds of small cuts to the bone which had baffled archaeologists until now after Alyssa, along with a team of researchers, compared the damage to that of contemporary shark attack victims. Join us as we explore the final moments of Tsukumo No. 24 in amazing detail.

Read Alyssa's article: 3000-year-old shark attack victim from Tsukumo shell-mound, Okayama, Japan

For a comprehensive list of Japanese time periods, please see Japanese History: A Timeline of Periods and Events

Image and audio credits

Intro clip: tiger sharks by dinger154 is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License

Intro-outro audio: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Excavation photo - Original excavation photograph of Tsukumo No. 24, courtesy of the Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Kyoto University

[R] "IMG_1794bcra Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)" by Kevin Bryant, DMD is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.