Heritage, Defining the Japanese and Discovering the Ainu
A copy of a human skull dating from the Jōmon period.
© Asha Bardon 2021
This week was particularly interesting with both lectures syncing to cover a much larger subject. Simon (and Ollie’s) seminar focused on where the Japanese came from, evolutionarily speaking, while Eugenia (with guest lecturer Nadine Willems) focused on the north (in this context Hokkaido and the Okhotsk region) as well as the Ainu people and their status as both indigenous people but also the repression of their culture and deconstructing works by Miyazawa Kenji and the poems of Sarashina Genzō.
Constructing Japanese Heritage was particularly interesting with the appearance of this replica/cast of a skull from the Jōmon period, right down to filed or sharpened teeth, suggesting ritualistic body modification connected to rites of passage or achievements. We examined the origins of the Japanese as they are today, including ethnic origins. Though, in my humble opinion, both the Jōmon and Yayoi women featured appeared better suited to a modern J-pop girl band than an ancient example of the female form. Ollie then did a separate presentation specifically discussing whose heritage is it anyway which posited some interesting questions and discussion.
The following day’s seminar on Researching Japan really synced nicely with the subject matter, with Nadine Willems focusing on the idea of the north and how much of Japan the Ainu once occupied. It was also especially interesting, to me at least, to discover that poets/writers would voluntarily self-censor themselves when discussing controversial subjects, rather than face legal problems, fines and punishment over their art form.
Both sessions were challenging but also deeply embedded in history, anthropology and other adjacent subjects. They are also keep for both modules discussing aspects which might be awkward or uncomfortable topics of discussion, but are vital parts of scholarly discourse and addressing the humanities within an interdisciplinary topic like Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies.
