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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 1, 2017 17:12:47 GMT -5
THE GRAMMAR OF JAPANESE HORRORwww.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-structure/Summary rehash of a journal article from the 1980s by Utako K. Matsuyama claiming fundamental structural differences between Japanese storytelling and Western storytelling. Japanese stories have a different logic. Not the same parts, and they don't work the same. Western (Active, driven by conflicting goals) in 3 or 4 acts: | Japanese 起承転結 (Kishoutenketsu) (Reflective, driven by unfolding fate) in 4 acts: | 1. SITUATION Things Are This Way + Characters >
2. DEVELOPMENT {STUFF} > people did this / non-catastrophic things happened >
3. CLIMAX Because they are like this, they did that / something big happened > now things are this new way
4. RESOLUTION (optional) What was that all about and also now what, The End | 1. SITUATION (起句, Kiku) Things Are This Way +...
2. EVOLUTION (承句, Shouku) Characters > people did this / non-catastrophic things happened >
3. DID NOT EXPECT THAT (転句, Tenku) {STUFF} > Because they are like this, they did that / something big happened >
4. REVELATION AND CONCLUSION (結句, Kekku) Now things are this new way, because 1 + 2 + 3 = obvious, The End |
See the difference? Me either. Looking at it this way, it's the same stack of layers, although you can slice between them as you choose. It might be a bit much to call this a fundamental difference in "the grammar of storytelling". Regarding the emphasis on action and choice versus impersonal causality: your Western literary tradition originates with ancient Greece, where the very definition of high tragedy requires that the main character be subject to an inexorable fate. Besides, not every Japanese horror story fits the Kishoutenketsu model. Snickers CM When your stomach is empty Yoshiko Mita is Sadako2016 NOV 26 by kawa yama (00:15) Gaah… What the… coming out of the TV is a problem! I AM AN ACTRESS!! The "You're not you when you're hungry" ad campaign for Snickers was at least as funny in Japan as elsewhere. Below is a reel of TV spots including other Sadako variations. youtu.be/ck0e-3eyxj8
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Post by thegl0r on Nov 2, 2017 20:06:42 GMT -5
THE GRAMMAR OF JAPANESE HORRORwww.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-structure/Summary rehash of a journal article from the 1980s by Utako K. Matsuyama claiming fundamental structural differences between Japanese storytelling and Western storytelling. Japanese stories have a different logic. Not the same parts, and they don't work the same. Western (Active, driven by conflicting goals) in 3 or 4 acts: | Japanese 起承転結 (Kishoutenketsu) (Reflective, driven by unfolding fate) in 4 acts: | 1. SITUATION Things Are This Way + Characters >
2. DEVELOPMENT {STUFF} > people did this / non-catastrophic things happened >
3. CLIMAX Because they are like this, they did that / something big happened > now things are this new way
4. RESOLUTION (optional) What was that all about and also now what, The End | 1. SITUATION (起句, Kiku) Things Are This Way +...
2. EVOLUTION (承句, Shouku) Characters > people did this / non-catastrophic things happened >
3. DID NOT EXPECT THAT (転句, Tenku) {STUFF} > Because they are like this, they did that / something big happened >
4. REVELATION AND CONCLUSION (結句, Kekku) Now things are this new way, because 1 + 2 + 3 = obvious, The End |
See the difference? Me either. Looking at it this way, it's the same stack of layers, although you can slice between them as you choose. It might be a bit much to call this a fundamental difference in "the grammar of storytelling". Regarding the emphasis on action and choice versus impersonal causality: your Western literary tradition originates with ancient Greece, where the very definition of high tragedy requires that the main character be subject to an inexorable fate. Besides, not every Japanese horror story fits the Kishoutenketsu model. Interesting article and I could sort of see where they were heading with it. Some time ago I read and equally interesting (and rather long) scholarly work which came to a different conclusion. The writer had claimed that it was that the pace of the story's progression and the amount of time spent on the various "episodes" in the storyline that was mostly responsible for the differences in western and Japanese storytelling. Perhaps throw in a slight rearrangement of the "episodes" in the story and... ...ta-da! Start slowly, very slowly and finish with a bang. That particular article's writer wasn't just limiting themselves to horror stories and had traiced their evidence back to The Tale of Genji for proof. Unfortunately I can't remember what book I read article that in.
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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 3, 2017 18:46:47 GMT -5
Interesting article and I could sort of see where they were heading with it Some time ago I read and equally interesting (and rather long) scholarly work which came to a different conclusion. The writer had claimed that it was that the pace of the story's progression and the amount of time spent on the various "episodes" in the storyline that was mostly responsible for the differences in western and Japanese storytelling. Perhaps throw in a slight rearrangement of the "episodes" in the story and... ...ta-da! Start slowly, very slowly and finish with a bang. That particular article's writer wasn't just limiting themselves to horror stories and had traiced their evidence back to The Tale of Genji for proof. Unfortunately I can't remember what book I read article that in. Your author sounds pretty sensible. I'd kind of like to see that discussion some time. The writer for Tofugu is just churning out a blog post based on something remembered from a Japanese literature class. The horror hook is personal taste plus seasonal marketing. The observations are probably fine as far as they go, but everybody is over-concluding to get something IMPRESSIVE that might not be very real. Whenever I try to take apart something a structuralist has put forward, it seems to amount to a useful framework for thinking about things, otherwise no big news.
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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 8, 2017 5:15:47 GMT -5
More Japanese way of thinkingThe nail that sticks up gets painted black Japanese School BANS Natural Non-Black Hair???2017 NOV 07 by That Japanese Man Yuta (08:31) Yes it bans it, and it's being sued for the distress caused. After enduring a year and a half of official harassment over a hair-must-be-black rule, one girl stopped going to school. Her mother sued for damages. At some other schools, all-black exceptions are granted if you can convincingly document that you were born with the hair color you're currently wearing. There's even a national hair color registry for this purpose. Council for the school filed to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that with them it's not a no-hair-dye rule. They said they would require even a blonde foreigner to wear black hair. Good thing they don't have height requirements. Litigation is ongoing. Watch as people on the street try to sort out rights of personal liberty versus values of social harmony. Learn Japanese with Yuta: goo.gl/TMxmsF Support me on Patreon: goo.gl/aiWNd5 More videos on Facebook: goo.gl/7htsJB Single woman in Tokyo? goo.gl/1deeCx Twitter: twitter.com/ThatYuta Blog: www.yutaaoki.com/blog/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/YutaAokiOfficial Instagram: www.instagram.com/thatyuta/ Snapchat: ThatYuta Do you want to translate my video? Upload your translation hereA Japanese high school student sued her school last month because her school forced her to dye her hair black. She has naturally brown hair.
Naturally brown-haired Osaka student sues government for forcing her to dye her hair black: en.rocketnews24.com/2017/10/28/naturally-brown-haired-osaka-student-sues-government-for-forcing-her-to-dye-her-hair-black/
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Post by lazybone712 on Nov 26, 2017 12:12:24 GMT -5
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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 26, 2017 16:30:44 GMT -5
It's so uplifting until you read the comments by Western gun nuts and bigoted political know-nothings. The bottom line is, Japanese police and gangsters have guns but don't usually need to un-holster them. They're just there as a last resort. Everybody else has other methods of influencing people, and owning a gun makes no sense in Japan except for a few hunters and sport shooters. Japanese have a deep love of gun violence in movies and games, though. They totally thrill to that fantasy of the super-powerful lone gunman, same as you. So it's really a matter of social conditioning as much as anything. In the US, a small percentage of people are conditioned to think that turning in their man-killer firearm is the same as cutting off an arm. Worse, actually. It's a sickness you can't reason about.
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Post by thegl0r on Dec 1, 2017 14:10:03 GMT -5
It's so uplifting until you read the comments by Western gun nuts and bigoted political know-nothings. The bottom line is, Japanese police and gangsters have guns but don't usually need to un-holster them. They're just there as a last resort. Everybody else has other methods of influencing people, and owning a gun makes no sense in Japan except for a few hunters and sport shooters. Japanese have a deep love of gun violence in movies and games, though. They totally thrill to that fantasy of the super-powerful lone gunman, same as you. So it's really a matter of social conditioning as much as anything. In the US, a small percentage of people are conditioned to think that turning in their man-killer firearm is the same as cutting off an arm. Worse, actually. It's a sickness you can't reason about. As I live in the wrong country to have a real understanding of these things, I can't really comment on the stupidity of this sort of craziness. But if my dodgy maths is right, Japan's yearly death toll from guns gets used up in about four hours in America. Can that really be true, or is my maths really that bad? One thing I will say though is that it does seem a bit extreme to have to resort to wrapping up dangerous offenders in a big comfy blanket so they can sleep "it" off. Recently I watched a documentary about the increasing numbers of children who kill in Japan. They know that with the way the law stands, they can get away with just a slapped wrist for killing someone while they are still a minor.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 1, 2017 23:52:54 GMT -5
As I live in the wrong country to have a real understanding of these things, I can't really comment on the stupidity of this sort of craziness. But if my dodgy maths is right, Japan's yearly death toll from guns gets used up in about four hours in America. Can that really be true, or is my maths really that bad? One thing I will say though is that it does seem a bit extreme to have to resort to wrapping up dangerous offenders in a big comfy blanket so they can sleep "it" off. Recently I watched a documentary about the increasing numbers of children who kill in Japan. They know that with the way the law stands, they can get away with just a slapped wrist for killing someone while they are still a minor.. If you pick the right 4 *seconds* from 2017, US gun deaths might eclipse Japan's for the year. I like the mattress burrito technique very much, for your average belligerent drunk or rampaging idol fan with less than a sword. www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-pacific-38534288/wrapping-people-in-futons-how-the-japanese-police-confront-violence〜〜〜 Unsurprisingly, word is that a greater level of hurt is available if you are truly making a nuisance of yourself. Still, the goal is to apprehend you in like-new condition with a minimum of risk. Medieval sasumata as a tool of public educationwww.tameshigiri.ca/2014/04/07/a-global-weapon-the-man-catcher/Far-East rope-and-hold (hojou-jutsu)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HojōjutsuButt-kicking for law and order (taiho-jutsu)www.tofugu.com/japan/martial-arts-of-japanese-police/(The Tofugu article is from 2013. The dig about getting arrested for the crime of dancing after hours refers to the infamous 1948 no dancing w/o a license blue laws enacted to hold down prostitution and the gangs it financed; finally repealed in 2015.) The bonus guns link on the taiho-jutsu page points out that CH has lots of guns, but somehow it rarely occurs to the Swiss to shoot each other. www.tofugu.com/japan/guns-in-japan/Weapons because who doesn't like them www.tofugu.com/japan/ancient-japanese-weapons/〜〜〜 The child psycho-killer trope has been big in fiction since the 1945 Obliteration of Everything at least. It's the centerpiece of the novel Afternoon Towing by Yukio Mishima (always a model of sanity), published in English as The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. I saw a short statistical analysis claiming that as of the year 2000, more than half of reported crimes were committed by juveniles, even though they're a (shrinking) minority segment of the population. The author recommended that the Japanese work week should conform to the school week, so that working parents can spend more time with their kids; more recreational opportunities; and less socio-economic anxiety in general. That was 2003. We know how well those policy suggestions got implemented. Nevertheless, one criminologist told JT in 2015 that juvenile crime has declined ever since that time, and perceptions to the contrary are entirely the work of sensationalism in public media. Despite what the media says about juvenile crime, the kids are alright2015 JUL 18 by Philip Brasor for the Japan Times www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/18/national/media-national/despite-media-says-juvenile-crime-kids-alrightIn a monologue on his YouTube channel, educator Kunihiko Takeda explains that under the Juvenile Act, a minor offender is sent to a reformatory for a longer period of time than an adult criminal would spend in prison for an equivalent crime short of murder. That’s because true re-education takes time. If a youth is sent to prison, not only will they not receive rehabilitation, they will live among older criminals who may influence them...
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Post by thegl0r on Dec 4, 2017 19:05:57 GMT -5
Despite what the media says about juvenile crime, the kids are alright2015 JUL 18 by Philip Brasor for the Japan Times www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/18/national/media-national/despite-media-says-juvenile-crime-kids-alrightIn a monologue on his YouTube channel, educator Kunihiko Takeda explains that under the Juvenile Act, a minor offender is sent to a reformatory for a longer period of time than an adult criminal would spend in prison for an equivalent crime short of murder. That’s because true re-education takes time. If a youth is sent to prison, not only will they not receive rehabilitation, they will live among older criminals who may influence them... So, the kids are alright, but it seems that the same can't be said about the pensioners... www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/19/japan19 June 2008 by Justin McCurry for The Guardian According to the writer of this piece and other articles I've seen somewhere, supposedly some oldtimers are seeing prison as a sort of rest-home for the elderly. Um...
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 6, 2017 16:55:43 GMT -5
So, the kids are alright, but it seems that the same can't be said about the pensioners... www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/19/japan19 June 2008 by Justin McCurry for The Guardian According to the writer of this piece and other articles I've seen somewhere, supposedly some oldtimers are seeing prison as a sort of rest-home for the elderly. Um... It's probably because some of those same elderly inmates were handing out juicy quotes to reporters, like the one the Guardian cited. "I'm comfortable with prison life," a 76-year-old inmate told a Japanese newspaper earlier this year, before the prison banned prisoners from talking to visiting journalists. "I have clothing, food and housing and I'm taken care of when I get sick. Prison life is like a strict nursing home."I'm not so sure this is a problem you can fix with kawaii personal care bots. Meanwhile, a commenter on an article today in the US section states with great dogmatism that the solution to small farmers killing themselves when they can no longer cope with business conditions affecting farming... is AI agents that can reach optimal decisions based on agglomerations of data about everything from the weather to the economic and political climate. Yeah, that ought to fix artificially depressed prices for farmed commodities.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 8, 2017 20:19:36 GMT -5
Other people's behavior at karaoke that makes you think, "Stop that!"No karaoke, no chance of bad behavior (Japan Info photo)
Freely adapted from a 2015 survey on My Navi for students * gakumado.mynavi.jp/gmd/articles/7827You could argue about how the responses got compiled, but at least one student was diverted from a life of crime into a life of survey-taking. The numbering is theirs, and a little different than I'm used to. 〜〜〜〜〜 I began by asking 431 readers about "things people do at karaoke that you want them to stop" and 103 people answered. Then I compiled the actions they wanted to stop and ranked them as follows (with comments): ● The top 10 behaviors of other people you wish they would stop at… KARAOKE No. 1
| Cueing up songs one after another "I don't want to hear just one singer." "I feel like my turn will never come."
| 16 people (15.5%)
| No. 2
| Acting like they don't care when others are singing "It worries me when I'm singing and people leave to go to the bathroom." "Awkward when someone's singing and people are on LINE with smartphones."
| 11 people (10.7%)
| No. 3
| Forcing people to sing "My sempais are tired of forcing people to sing." "I'm no good at singing so I always want to listen, but when I'm forced to take the mic I feel bad."
| 9 people (8.7%)
| (tied)
| Arbitrarily coming in on harmony "It's nice if you can harmonize neatly, but most are bad at it so it's the worst." "He started harmonizing in a voice louder than the person singing, then didn't notice when the first person stopped and sang to the end. It was the worst."
| 9 people (8.7%)
| No. 5
| Being petty toward other people's songs "Complaining about the song you're singing, saying they don't like it." "When there's more advice-giving than singing, it's annoying."
| 8 people 7.8%)
| No. 6
| Only singing the hook "Singing for a bit and stopping, just spewing out the chorus on almost every song."
| 6 people (5.8%)
| No. 7
| Handing me the mic when I'm saying I can't sing "'I can't sing like this!' and still they pass it to me."
| 5 people (4.9%)
| (tied)
| Beating the tambourine for no reason "It's stimulating, but basically a noisy hindrance."
| 5 people (4.9%)
| No. 9
| Singing nothing but anime songs "Only singing songs that are too much like Anisong or Maniac, it's already a pain endlessly listening to them singing me songs I don't want to hear."
| 4 people (3.9%)
| No. 10
| Singing with their mouths on the microphone "As the mic was looking stinky, I managed to sing using another microphone."
| 3 people (2.9%)
| (tied)
| Stopping the song without permission when someone is singing "They all drew away from the person who was performing. 'That was somewhat lacking in permission…' I thought."
| 3 people (2.9%)
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Other replies included: • Only singing ballads that they don't know • Singing with the door to the room open • Taking their clothing off • Banging noisily on the walls • Interrupting, even though it may not be an exciting song • Cigarette smoking • Coercing duets between girls • Saying "That's enough" and switching it off in the same breath ※ My Navi student survey, May 2015 web questionnaire. 431 eligible respondents, employed males and females aged 19–78.
(中田ボンベ@dcp)
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 29, 2017 0:53:01 GMT -5
Fuji-san is tall
Really, really tall. And immovable. And frosty on the lee slope.
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Post by tangerinesun on Jan 15, 2018 17:16:38 GMT -5
Hey, where are you going with that — that's ours!!
A few thousand words on bluegrass music in Japan. It's not a 2-minute read, but by the end of it, Japanese bluegrass players in plaid shirts, stetsons and blue jeans with instruments made in Oklahoma might make sense to you. The basic idea is that if you leave your keys in the car… Japan may take it joyriding, but they'll bring it back to you with a full tank. Also, washed and waxed, with a pink rabbit's foot hanging from the mirror.
The Mandolin Cafe bluegrass forum Oct-07-2011, 1:55am #1 johnny5 Japanese Bluegrasswww.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?77836-Japanese-Bluegrass Has anyone ever noticed just how many Japanese bluegrass bands and musicians happen to be on youtube and have web presences?
I mean not just fans, like really good players:Cherokee Shuffle youtu.be/FDfiYEguYCANew Camptown Races – The Circle youtu.be/VfGtThEPCqk Whiskey Before Breakfast – Japanese Bluegrass Band youtu.be/7r4fsAsPi6UI mean, not to sound naive, but this is just so incredible to me, that a music people could so easily pigeonhole as American has such an international appeal I never knew about. There's obviously a serious Japanese bluegrass scene. Amazing... BORROWED TRADITIONS2015 OCT 22 by Denis Gainty in the Fall number of This Land magazine thislandpress.com/2015/10/22/borrowed-traditions/
Bluegrass... became American [ rather than "gentrified hillbilly" ] music when it grew beyond Appalachia, nurtured and loved by non-Appalachians — not just in New York or Chicago, but all around the world.
[ On the first expedition to Japan in July 1853 by gunboat diplomat Commodore Matthew Perry, his ] c rew arranged and performed a blackface minstrel show to the reported delight of Japanese officials. In short, Americans and banjos were introduced to Japan at the same time, and American music has been enjoyed in Japan since the middle of the 19th century...
...[ after 1945, the ] specifically traditional American music of bluegrass was taken up by Japanese musicians and fans at exactly the same time that so many Japanese traditions were themselves discouraged or even outlawed... 〜〜〜〜〜 Based in Tulsa Oklahoma, This Land Press aspires to be the progressive culture journal of Flyover Country. Bluegrass Police is a popular act at the Tokyo bluegrass club Rocky Top… Naomi Gingold photo for NPR.orgMeet The Musicians Behind Japan's Vibrant Bluegrass Scene2016 OCT 30 by Naomi Gingold for NPR Music Heard on All Things Considered (link) www.npr.org/2016/10/30/498827939/meet-the-musicians-behind-japans-vibrant-bluegrass-scene …two brothers, Yasushi and Hisashi Ozaki… formed the country's first bluegrass duo back in 1957…
…"We made a ukulele by my father's cigar case," Hisashi says. Yasushi bought shamisen strings, cut a round hole in the case and made a neck…
A cigar box with strings from a traditional Japanese instrument just wouldn't do, so their mom — going against their dad's wishes — secretly sold her kimono to buy them their first guitars… Secretly sold her kimono, for guitars.I have not been blessed with a daughter, so perhaps... could you let me have please a couple of… guitars?
Japan Times. The page meter is on. Going where the grass is bluer20009 MAR 13 by Virginia Sorrells and Nicholas Vroman for The Japan Times / Music www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2009/03/13/music/going-where-the-grass-is-bluer/ The basement entrance to Moon Stomp is plastered with posters of local roots acts: The Moonstompers, Cabarello Porkers, Kanaboon and Booncompanion. One recent bluegrass jam night, the door swung open and the strains of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” in somewhat idiosyncratic English drowned out the sounds emanating from neighboring clubs… Takeharu Kunimoto & shamisen– bluegrasstoday.comTakeharu Kunimoto passes2015 DEC 29 by John Lawless for Bluegrass Today bluegrasstoday.com/takeharu-kunimoto-passes/ We were saddened to learn that Takeharu died on Christmas Eve following a brief illness. He was only 55 years of age, and became sick while doing a sound check at a popular Tokyo venue… Takeharu Kunimoto Interview2009 JAN 24 by Andrew for the J-Pop World blog www.j-popworld.com/Interviews/Takeharu_Kunimoto.php Can you tell us how you came to attend Bill Monroe's concert in Tokyo when you were 14?
After hearing [ "Bluegrass Breakdown" ] at the bookstore, "bluegrass" and "Bill Monroe" were always in my mind. As I got information that he was coming to Japan for concerts, I checked out the venue, took trains and arrived at the hall 4 hours before the show. Of course no one was there yet, but soon Bill Monroe and Kenny Baker, his fiddler, came there for rehearsal. I luckily shook hands with Bill.
What effect did the event have on you?
By shaking hands with Bill Monroe, I came to believe I was fated to play the mandolin…
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Post by tangerinesun on Mar 4, 2018 19:40:58 GMT -5
This year's hina
http://instagr.am/p/Bf2hZnfl2Z8 Accorinrin from Otoboke Beaver said, "Hinamatsuri sleeping." Everybody else from Shonen Knife took 2018 off, too. But not Yamato Kotoba Cat... March 3 【Momo no Sekku】 【Hina-Matsuri】 One of the Five Festivals. Held on March 3rd of the lunar calendar, it is also called the Peach Festival because it's the season when peach blossoms bloom.
In many countries it's on March 3rd of the lunar calendar, but in Japan we celebrate by the [ regular, solar ] New Calendar.
Prayers for girls to grow up healthy are annual festival events. #Hinamatsuri
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