UNCG - MLS610C Global Arts Unit 3 - Japan
Comments under the title of this post are responses required in Unit 3.
Map of Japan
Japan's Mt. Fuji, according to wikipedia
Map of Japan
Japan's Mt. Fuji, according to wikipedia
posted by Y @ 5:59 AM
9 Comments:
Blog assignment
Answer the following questions:
What are your first impressions when you think of Japan or Japanese culture?
I immediately have an image of geisha girls in their kimonos, clog shoes, and they are carrying shellacked paper umbrellas.
One of them always has a covered basket into which she's reaching with some tongs. She tongs out a rolled up and steamy hot white face cloth and slightly bows as she offers it to me. The custom has got to be the most civilized hospitality gesture on the entire planet.
I think of Japan and I think of Mt. Fuji which was visible through a small window in the building at the base of Yokohama microwave tower where I was stationed as a watchstander in the mid-1970s with the Navy. I did night shifts a lot. So I saw Fuji many, many times at sunrise, a reverent time and place in Japanese culture.
When I think about Japanese culture I think about the language, which is not that difficult to learn to speak but is virtually impossible to learn to write in one of three alphabets,
hiragana, katakana, kanji, and is irritating to write in romaji.
What makes you laugh?
a. Miscommunications that cause people to do the opposite of a desired behavior and that, when resolved, point to innocent human error that caused no one to be injured, throw-up, pookie in their pants, bleed from the nose, or die.
b. Puns (Use sparingly, please.)as in Monty Python jokes
c. Satirical 18th century literature.
Unit 3 Lesson 2
Blog assignment: Watch Kani Yamabushi and Kamabaraand compare and contrast the plays in structure, characters, etc. in a group discussion.
Zeami, the father (although not the grandfather) of traditional Japanese theatre, recongnized “three role types to which all other roles can be reduced, i.e., an old person, a woman, a warrior.” Characteristics and mannerisms indicative of these three characters can be used to convey other roles (Ortolani, 112).
According to our written class lecture,Kyogen (long dash over "o") traditionally involve the following characters:
god
medieval landowners
tarokaja - mischievous servants
bridegroom in trouble with in-laws
women - shrewish and/or silly
mountain priests - overly prideful
demons - tricksters with humans
priests - interacting with women
blind men - wisdom or troubadors
dancers - like Noh
The two kyogen, Kani Yamabushi (Crabmask), and Kamabara (Attempted Suicide with a Sickle)include characters from the list.
Kani Yamabushi is about a prideful mountain priest who is returning home (on foot) with his servant when they happen on a demon disguised as a crab.
Kamabara is about a shrewish wife who is stopped from killing her husband (placeholder is a bridegroom in trouble) by a character possibly a medieval landowner (or at least a man of some importance). Rather than trudge off to work, the lacksadaisical husband boasts he's going to commit hiri kiri. The fact that he doesn't sort of vindicates the wife's complaint toward him.
The two plots contrast in the amount of humor they contain. The Crabmask demon getting the better of the foolish mountain priest is funnier that the homily conveyed by the cowardly husband.
Do any of the “one liners’ remind you of past or present jokes?
The Crabmask reminds me of every priest at the Pearlie Gates of St. Peter, and the Attempted Suicide kyogen reminds me of Henny Youngman's signature phrase, "take my wife. Please!"
Unit 3 Lesson 1
Describe and discuss with fellow students your reactions to the Kyogen play Busu. Do you see parallels between the comedy of Kyogen and your favorite sit-coms or comic films? If so, please describe these parallels.
My posts on the class discussion forum:
We named so many sit coms. I posted: Well, let's not leave out of the comedy masters list the names of George Burns & Gracie Allen or Jack Benny & Rochester or Red Skelton or Milton Burrel or Mae West & W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplain, or Buster Keaton.
So, question: Are two comedians, bouncing schtick off each other, all that is needed for the kyogen format?
But I answered the discussion question:
Subject: Busu and the male gutteral
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It was definitely easier to understand Busu in English rather than Japanese! It was an added comedic device for the English speakers to inflect the throaty sound of male Japanese!
I was intrigued that the story was so universal. A master leaves servants/slaves to watch over something mysteriously special (the busu) and the warning to stay away doubles back to be the reason they just have to see what the special something is. Repercussions thus follow.
The American sit com that Busu reminds me of, and it's because of the dumb & dumber duo of servants, is "I Love Lucy."
Lucy and Ethel, with the master, Rickie, returning to find Lucy has done exactly what he told her not to. Rickie throws a temper tantrum. Lucy and Ethel cry. Audience gets a good laugh. Fade to black. The characters and story line in "I Love Lucy" formats are almost mirror images of Busu.
Unit 3 Lesson 2 Discussion forum question:
What does Kyogen tell you about the Japanese culture? If your cultural and personal lens has been affected, how have your impressions changed from this brief look at Japan’s classical comic theatre?
There was some lamenting about how American codes of honor and conduct are slacker now, or missing, compared to the "good old days." I posted:
Subject: Re: Code of Honor, Codes of Humor
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It may be that Americans just do not have as ingrained and complex codes as the Japanese. This is pointed out many times in diplomatic exchanges that equate to, "Hey, you 'mericans! You're only 250 years old! We got theatres in our capitol twice as old as that!"
Another for instance, while we tie the idea to the time of the Pilgrims in New England (circa 400 years ago), Thanksgiving has only been a national holiday in the U.S. since FDR, circa 1930s.
Not to curmudgeon but where we get sort of lost from what could be considered "our" codes of honor and humor is in not belaying the authors who developed our "heroes." These authors consciously set out to develop characters that embody "American" codes of honor and humor: 19th century authors, e.g., James Fenimore Cooper, et. al. Maybe we should look at lit equivalents of kyogen, rather than TV sit com. To that end, and in anticipation of All Hallows Eve, not the least kyogen/comical of U.S. characters, I submit the name of Icabod Crane.
LLLOL!!!!!!!!
Discussion about codes of honor continued. A specific question arose: is it true can we have a society with freedom(as we know it), morals and have an honor system? Or as we become more modern in order to gain one we lose one or more of these?
I posted:
Subject: Re: Code of Honor, Codes of Humor
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As I offer an answer, please, detach from being a member of the society about which you question or a member of a particular family supposedly of the American culture (however we may wish to define it). Also, please think in the impersonal "you."
a) The overarching culture that rose to domination of the section of the North American continent, which is presently called the United States, developed a form of government that was designed to co-exist with and complement capitalism. Little of the indigenous culture has been allowed to survive.
b) The objective of capitalism is to accumulate as much wealth off of one's capital as is possible using the work/time of as many people as one can. In the Elizabethan Period, the term "colony" carried the same meaning as "corporation" in today's definition.
c) To instill the work ethic among the populous, a concept called "the American Dream" was promoted and the social system was left open-ended just enough to allow a small percentage of people to rise to the astronomical top, proving that "anyone can make it in America." To make sure that the populous never actually gained control of the top heads of the government, a system called the Electoral College was created.
d) As long as the American culture's myth of "freedom" is perceived as a truth, the people will gravitate toward ethical and moral behavior to preserve the "freedoms" even if their leaders do not act symbiotically.
e) No one knows how the republican/capitalistic form of government will progress. It's only 250 years old and never been tried before. Although it's not the shortest lived form of government in history's empires/governments/countries, it is at least one of the shortest.
f) Because of the "freedoms," no government dictated religion is in place. The absence of a government sanctioned religion has historically meant that the populous are difficult to rule, e.g. Charlemaine. Therefore, either the "freedoms" continue or a government woven moral and ethical blanket will be allowed to be created and smother the republic.
g) In Japan, it's only been in the last 30 years or so that adult children were not assumed to be economically and socially responsible for their elderly parents and grandparents. While age is acknowledged in the honorific, Japan's baby boomers have more of the American attitude toward elderly actually living in their households -- they don't.
IMHO
That Americans don't take care of their elderly was confirmed. In another vein, one of the comments that bounced back: " For Owens' last post: item C! Haha!!"
As the week wore on, the discussion forum asked if our surprise that Japanese humor exists might be due to our lack of knowledge about Japanese comedians.
I posted:
Subject: Re: Most Recent Teacher: Kyogen
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The winner of the U.S. Last Comic Standing, Dok Phan, is a native of and from Chapel Hill. He tells outrageous stories about his mother. Unfortunately, for this moment, Dok Phan's parents are Vietnamese.
LLLOL, I did a search on "Japanese comics" and silly me, ended up with Manga. Tried again, on "Japanese comedians."
No excuses, now: http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/comedian1.shtml
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOL..l...lll...l..
And then I remembered the Asian comedian who won one of the Last Comic Standing competitions. So I posted: Correction: Dat Phan is the name of the Asian roots comic but he's not from Chapel Hill. sorry bout that confusion. See http://www.datphan.com be sure to scroll down to Dat Phan's video.
but still, LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOL!!!
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The point is that Dat Phan dispells some misconceptions that Westerners have about Asians and he does it with humor or whatever the term Kyogen (long dash over the "o") translates into Vietnamese. I think Dat Phan would say Kyogen translates into hahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
Going into Wk 6 with Unit 3 Lesson: 2
Dr. Paludan commented on our searching for explanations "code of honor/code of humor thread" that this was the kind of outside the box thinking that MALS courses encourage. On behalf of myself and the particpants in the thread, I posted:
"thanky, too!
PS: I had to start thinking outside of my box, 'cause this MALS course has torn my customary one into paper mache mulch!"
And this course has! Mostly it's caused me to reach back inside my little head for the "touchie-feelies" in order to encounter the course materials at...well...the liberal arts category, rather than the homo seriosus, clinical analysis level; the latter being where my head has been stuffed for nigh on six years in NCSU's English dept's rhetoric and criticism heavy curriculum and at Syracuse, Library "High Tech" Science. At any rate, the "touchie feelies" aren't absent from my being, they've just been pretty well stuffed -- and for too long. What is somewhat ironic...humor...a year ago, I got the complaint that I wasn't funny anymore. So, what makes me laugh? This morning it's laughing at the coincidence at this time of running into kyogen (long dash over the "o")!
Unit 3 Lesson 2 - My answer to the discussion question:
Posted under the title, "Overlay kyogen with Dissanayake/Hall"
What does Kyogen tell you about the Japanese culture? If your cultural and personal lens has been affected, how have your impressions changed from this brief look at Japan's classical comic theatre?
As I read the Japanese Theatre e-reserve, except for the names and a few other changes the story seemed a familiar one, the one being history of Western theatre, e.g., Seneca to Kyd or Kyd to Shakespeare, etc., with Petrarch and Dante squished in the renaissance middle.
Rather than surprised at the similarities between genre, not only in development of forms, codification of the forms, on/off patronage, favored/unfavored in politics, and male/female to class exclusions/inclusions in/at performances, I got to thinking about biobehavior and started actually looking for and anticipating Western benchmark dates (with which I'm familiar) arising in the Japanese theatre history (with which I was not familiar).
Broadly, the evolution of the play as a form in Japan tracks uncannily with the dates of the play (and types) in Western culture, or speaking from a Japanese perspective, the Western culture's play forms lagged the Japanese's play form development by about 100 or so years. Even so, a quick fact check suggests that both cultures developed parallel and equivalent "mystery plays," masks, court and commons story lines, tragedy, comedy beginning about 1300 A.C.E. We're more alike that I ever imagined!
Did the kyogen viewing change my perception of theatre in Japan? Well, it certainly shook my basic knowledge of theatre and has just about torn down my ethno-centric idea that the Greeks were the originators of drama! Add to that the realization that Mutt & Jeff are globally universal character types and I'd say kyogen is in my WOW category of new Knowledge!
PS: In 1879, Pres. U.S. Grant could not have been the first Westerner to view Japanese theatre (see p. 107, Ortolani, Benito. "Nogaku, Chapter VI." In The Japanese Theatre: from Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary. New Jersey, 1990.) That honor likely belongs to some undocumented entity among the Portuguese Jesuits, circa 1540s, both points mute when culture-blind biobehavior is considered. IMHO
One of my classmates posted: "... I think that our American culture is a melting pot of many cultures, but the Japanese culture gets very little play. I think that you are right that it takes education to appreciate the art and culture of another people."
This statement made me stop and think. Is it only in N.C. that Japanese culture "gets very little play?" How about in Seattle, Washington? or San Francisco? or New York? or Hawaii?
I stopped to wonder if I've ever seen a Japanese booth at Raleigh's International Festival. I can't recall that I have, which doesn't mean there isn't one participating each year; it just means that I go to the Festival with one goal in mind and that's to eat Greek food. This class is making me realize I'd do myself a Knowledge favor if I look at the entire International Festival's offerings this year.
On the other hand, I started thinking about literature about Japan and the English language book that comes to mind is Snow Falling on Cedars. This wasn't a funny book and basically what it did was re-enforce my image of Japanese Americans incarcerated as assumed security risks during WWII.
I'm wondering if anyone in our class is, or is working or socializing with, someone of Japanese origin or descent. If so, what does the person think is funny?
Also, Dr. Paludan, in the way that vaudeville is familiar but not on the top of regularly performed U.S. works, is kyogen equally familiar/unfamiliar to the Japanese?
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