Description
Book SynopsisPresents case studies about Japanese intellectuals' relationships to modernity in three majors arenas of art (art and aesthetics, theater, and literature) beginning in the 1850s to the 1970s. This work discusses how the wave of modernity was responded to by some of the notable practitioners of art and intellectuals in Japan during this period.
Trade ReviewInexorable Modernity has the clear virtue of addressing modern Japanese aesthetics, painting, and theater in a single volume, one of very few recent works to do so. * The Journal of Japanese Studies *
By drawing together essays on art and aesthetics, theatre, film, and literature, this volume provides a broad, nuanced view of the landscape of modernity in Japan. It is a most interesting and useful resource for teaching—a fine tribute to an outstanding scholar and teacher whose erudition and creativity have afforded pleasure and insight to so many readers over the years. -- Elaine Gerbert, associate professor of modern Japanese literature, University of Kansas
Table of ContentsPart 1 Inexorable Modernity Part 2 Art and Aesthetics Chapter 3 Potentially Disruptive: Censorship and the Painter Kawanabe Kyosai Chapter 4 "Modernité in Art": Kojima Kikuo's Critique of Contemporary Japanese Painting, 1931-1940 Chapter 5 The Ascent of Yoga in Modern Japan and the Pacific War Chapter 6 Art and Ethics in Watsuji Tetsuro's Philosophy Part 7 Theatre Chapter 9 Contesting Authority through Comic Disruption: Mixed Marriages as Metaphor in Postwar Kyogen Experiments Chapter 10 An Aesthetic of Destruction: Mishima Yukio's My Friend Hitler Chapter 11 Remembered Idylls, Forgotten Truths: Nostalgia and Geography in the Drama of Shimizu Kunio Chapter 12 Healing the (Metaphysically) Sick (Theatre): A Buddhist Ibsen in Christian Japan Part 13 Literature Chapter 14 The Wild Geese Revisited: Mori Ogai's Mix of Old and New Chapter 15 Public Space and the Nature of Modern Fiction: Izumi Kyoka's Noble Blood, Heroic Blood Chapter 16 Yokomitsu Riichi's Two Machines
