Japan At Play (Nissan Institute/routledgecurzon Japanese Stu

Description:
This book explores the myth, so abused by the mass media, that the Japanese are a grey, anonymous mass of efficient, obedient workers. The articles shed light on a Japan outside officialdom, a lively Japan of tumultuous and independent thought, inefficient and aesthetic, pleasure-loving, aggressive and wasteful, creative and anti-authoritarian. The book's truly international contributors examine the role in modern Japanese society of a range of leisure and play activities, from drinking to travel, football to karaoke, tattoos to rock fandom. They explore how things that seem like play in one context are deadly serious in another, and how the fun and enjoyment may be achieved in unexpected ways. They also draw attention to the importance of such activities in understanding the deeper structure and meaning pervading all areas of the society in which they take place. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Sociology, Anthropology and Cultural Studies.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Acknowledgements Conventions List of Contributors Introduction Massimo Raveri 1.The Japanese Tattoo: Play or Purpose? Joy Hendry 2.Interpreting the World as a Ken Game Sepp Linnhart 3.Kono Saki (The Japanese Gay Scene): Communities or Just Playing Around? Wim Lunsig 4.Karakuri: The Ludic Relationship Between Man and the Machine in Tokugawa Japan Yamaguchi Masao 5.Ludic Elements in Japanese Attitudes to Tsukuru Maria-Dolores Rodriguez del Alisar 6.Saved by the Love song: Japanese Rock Fans, Memory and the Pursuit of Pleasure Carolyn S. Stevens 7.Inakazumo, Fun and Socially Sanctioned Violence Michael Ashkenazi 8.At the Interstices: Drinking, Management, and Temporary Groups in a Local Japanese Organisation Eyal Ben-Ari 9.Training for Leisure: Karaoke and the Seriousness of Play in Japan William H. Kelly 10. Is there a Japanese way of Playing? Rupert Cox 11.When a Goal is not a Goal: Japanese School Football Players Working Hard at their Game Simone Dalla Chiesa 12.Professional Soccer in Japan John Horne 13.A Spell inJapan in the world of Play with Johan Huizinga Jan van Bremen 14. Countryside Reinvented for Urban Tourists: Rural Transformation in the Japanese Muraokoshi Movement Okpyo Moon 15.From Curing and Playing, to Leisure. Two Japanese Hot Springs: Arima and Kinosaki Onsen 16.Illegal Fishing and Power Games Ulrike Nennstiel 17. Hunters and Hikers: Rival Recreations in the Japanese Forest John Knight 18.Japan at Play in TDL: The Dialectics of Asobi and REJA