Blog#4 Bushido, Giri, IE,

1. Bushido
       Bushido refers to the ethics that come from the bushi, or samurai (41). During the Heian period in Japan samurai were the highest of the four classes, that also includes, the farmers, artisans, and tradesman. These four classes where all under the power of a lord, which owned the land and even more them. The samurai's purpose was to serve and protect their lords land and resources and fight for their lord. The samurai were found to be so loyal and unselfish that they would fight to the death for one's lord and even take their own lives before being captured by enemies. All of the courage, loyalty, unselfishness, honor and much more of the samurai fits into the term bushio, which is referred to as the samurai spirit.
        Bushido, the honorable ways of the samurai was introduced in the sixth century by a Buddhist by the name of Zen (42). This sect, Zen taught the samurai many things but one thing in particular seemed to have the largest and most beneficial effect. That was the state of no-mind that he taught them. No-mind is mindset that does not become startled by anything, focused on one task at a time, and is worry free (42). The point of no-mind is dismiss distractions and focus clearly on the tasks ahead. The text uses a great example and refers to it as mushin (no-mind), "When mushin or munen is attained, the mind moves from one object to another, flowing like a stream of water, filling every possible corner. For this reason the mind fulfills every function required of it (42-43)." The samurai's strict and orderly behaviors also come from Confucianism, which establish many ethical rules and guidelines for society.
        In short, the samurai were more than willing to die because it was found to be very honorable to there lords. Also the death of a samurai usually followed with the family receiving more property or something else of value. This even more gave samurai reason to die, that is to serve their family. Samurai would often attempt to be the first in line during battle while shouting their names. Also they believed that the soul was in the abdominal region so when they would commit seppuku (suicide) their soul would be released.
       The strangeness, i'm sure, to most Americans of choosing to takes one life continued throughout Japanese history and lead to kamikaze. It's strange that in America suicide is a disgraceful action while in Japan it may be honorable. Though it's probably much less honorable today in Japanese culture, the Japanese still look at the taking of one's own life completely different from that of Americans.

2. Giri
    Giri was formed in ancient Japanese times and was greatly influence by the samurai and Confucianism. Originating in the rice field, the Japanese began to help one another with each others work. By helping another, one expected help in return. Hints one of the meanings of giri is to return something in equal value. As time progressed this meaning change to, "returning something for goodwill (96)." Today in Japan giri is simply used to insure the wa of society or in other words promote harmony. It's also looked at as a required action or "social duty" (98).  Now, the most common form of giri is gift giving which accrues during the holidays. One example that has become somewhat new in the Japanese culture is chocolate giving during Valentines day. The women send chocolates to the men in two different forms. The first being a crapy cheep box of chocolates (giri choko) to men they don't have much liking for (to insure wa), and the second is a nicer box of chocolates (honmei choko) which are given to men they really like (98).  With similar purpose to that as aimai, the absolute most important reason for the existence of giri is to support, insure, and uphold harmony in the Japanese culture.

3. ie system
In shortest explanation the ie system is the family system. This means that it is the historical family line. In the past the ie system was much more respected and followed while now the leash has been loosened and the common theme of the ie has faded accordingly.
      Ie is a family system that focuses on honoring the family line. This includes honoring the died ancestors in the ie. From the ideals of Zen, dead ancestors were found to be of the spirit and in a perfect state and it is necessary to honor them with a alter if one wants to have a blessed family. If ancestors were not honored they thought they would be cursed (120). Also, the most important thing in the ie system was to continue that ie by having males to carry on the name. Strangely enough some samurai, if unable to have boys or if those boys died, would adopt a boy from another family. This was found to be okay since it would continue ie. During these early times of ie women had few rights and were found to be nearly child machines. Also males were most important in the ie and were ranked with their ages. Meaning the oldest male had most authority. This also meant that men would have to get approval before marriage. Not directly sure why eldest males had most authority, but it may have been due to their closeness to death, as the Buddhist belief was that spiritually life was pure perfection and "spiritual enlightenment" (120).
      Today the ie system is still practiced today but seems to be drifting away from it's original roots. some for the good and some for the bad. One example is that women now have equal rights to males. This means that men no longer own their wives and if comes a divorce the finical aspects are divided equal rather then to the males side alone. One negative change would have to be that younger generations are freeing themselves from the historical ie by not always keeping the families ie name. In short there have been a few changes to the ie system in the past decades but for the most part the ie ideals are still present today.

4. Oimai
In Japan there are two types of marriage. one being love marriages and the other being arranged marriages (165). The most common is arranged marriage. Today in the busyness of the japanese lives, dating is unpractical and time consuming. That's were oimai comes in. Oimai is a meeting of a male and female and possible parents that is arranged by an in-between person. The in-between usually disperses information of the individuals and a picture to the other family. After this a meeting is formed called oimai (166). This then progresses to possibly more meetings a then engagement. the male side of the family will usually sends three months worth of wages to the women's family. Then a few months later a wedding is held.  

   

Blog 3-Hospitalite

1.      Considering Uchi to Soto, what kinds of role does neighborhood watch petition play?

             In the Mikio's house there were often many foreigners entering in. This brought with it some speculation from the neighborhood watch. Since Japanese usually fall in line with their societies general customs it was a surprise to the neighborhood watch to see the strange behaviors from the foreigners. The foreigners are considered soto as they are indeed outsiders. One explicit example would be of Annabelle from brazil. She was seen chest bare in a window by a neighborhood watch which was a shock to them as brazilian ways are shockingly strange to even myself. This pattern of out of place, unlined actions from outsiders grew and continued till the end of the movie.     

2.      Considering Danjyo Kankei, what are the roles and relationships between Mr. Kobayashi, Natsuki, and Seiko in this movie? 

        Though historically things would have differed significantly, overall there were hints of confucianism still present. Kobayashi and Natsuki were married. Kobayashi did his work as Natsuki did her duties as a female. Again, in the past things may had differed, being that Kobayashi may have worked away from home rather than in it and Natsuki may then had had full responsibility for the home. Since Kobayashi works at home it seemed that the role his wife was to play was shared with him as well....Now as far a Seiko goes, she was a mysterious one. She often left the home for the day. This brings the question, has Kobayashi's manly role of leaving the house gone to Seiko, as he is the one staying home? It's a poor question but one at that. Of course Kobayashi is still playing a manly role, as he is indeed working, but it is just strange to see Seiko leave the house so often and for so long. It seems that it would be more custom for her to stay at home, clean, cook, and clean some more according to Confucius ways.     

3.      Considering Aimai, as for Mr. Kagawa, what kinds of attitudes do you consider as Aimai attitudes? Explain.  

        It's funny that you ask this question directed to Mr. Kagawa as I believe Mikio would be more suiting. But anyways as far as Mr. Kagawa goes I guess there are signs of aimai. Looking through the muck of his selfishness, which he seems only to want to fulfill, I guess he might be ambiguous (aimai).  Okay now, Mr. Kagawa seemed to be very easy going and his attitudes seemed to be in accordance, but what his attitude said was completely different from his actions. Let us not forget that aimai accured in Japan as to not upset wa. So doesn't anything that upsets wa also go against aimai?  I find him a poor example of aimai because of these: He moved in with a mans family which upset wa; He invited people over to that house which upsets wa; The people he invited where soto which upsets wa; He made loud grinding noises which upsets wa; Overall he was a wa discombobulating machine.   

4.      What kinds of attitudes of Mr. Kagawa interrupt the concept of Uchi to Soto? Find two and explain the reasons why you think so.

       Mr. Kagawa did seem to discriminate much as his friends were soto. First off, when Mr. Kagawa invited many soto to Miko's house he treated them like family or uchi. He patted them on the back and welcomed them. Another example of Mr. Kagawa's interruprition of uchi to soto would have to be when he first showed up with his wife from brazil. This showed also that he was every opened to soto as if uchi. Or maybe not? Maybe he was in it for other reasons.  

        

5.      Why did Mr. Kobayashi hit Natsuki even if he also slept with Annabelle? What Japanese concepts would lead to his action? Explain the reasons why you think so.

        Mr. Kobayashi had a very quick reaction in slapping Natsuki. I think it was just a quick shock for him and he didn't contemplate his own mistake soon enough.  The concept of Danjyo and Kankei relates well with this as historically it promotes a faithful marriage.  

6.      What was the purpose of Mr. Kagawa coming to the Kobayashi family? 

         He claims that he came to help with the bird problem but it seemed he just need a place to live. 

7.  What do you think the Inko bird implys? 

     Tough question as i wasn't sure that Inko had a implication. I guess the bird did add to the general theme or purpose for the movie since they were always looking for it. I guess you could say that if the bird was not lost then Mr. Kagawa would not had made his life into the Mikio's household. This would have resulted in a completely different story.  The Inko bird could symbolize a reflection of the Mikio's relationship. This being that the Inko bird was lost and there was a problem. Instead of fixing that problem by finding the bird the Mikio's bought a another bird and said it was the lost one. As for how the Mikio's relationship compares, there was an ongoing problem in there relationship but instead of fixing there large problems they took the easier way out and chose to talk less to each other. Both events have a problem and a solution that isn't the best or more of a avoidance of the problem than a solution.     

8.      This movie included many aspects of typical Japanese people’s attitudes. Write down the parts you didn’t understand and analyze why you think so comparing with your own experiences and American standard. 

        Over all the movie was understandable. I guess i could say i don't understand why the Mikio's didn't talk about their relationship. You could say it is a culture thing that husbands and wife's are like that but i don't think it should be. As if a husband and wife were truly in a good relationship they would both be able to comunicate to one another about there mistakes. The problem i had was not that they didn't comunicate, as i find a lack of communication fine, but that their lack of communication of do to there internal wrongness and not because of humility. it's a complicated matter which i don't want to go on about.   

9. The ending was upsetting as it didn't bring closure. The movie wasn't to exciting. I would recommend the movie Wing Chun over this movie any day. 

Blog 2 Aimai, Uchi to Soto, Danjyo Kankei

Aimai:

The Japanese have developed by working together in their society. Due to harsh climates and other environmental hurdles, the Japanese found it most beneficial to work as a team in farming, agriculture and everyday life . Also, most of them lived very close to each other because of the geography of Japan. As the text says, "Japan is also a mountainous country and does not have a great deal of inhabitable land; as a result, people had to live close together in communities in which everyone was well acquainted with one another. (10)" As a result of being so close to one another the Japanese began using a form of ambiguity know as aimai to keep harmony in the communities. This means that Japanese do not give direct yeses or no's but rather give and answer that is more in between; while giving expressions to help indicate what they really mean. "Nobody expects to be told no directly, even if the other person is really in disagreement. (11)" This is all to insure wa (harmony) in society. Another example is, if a Japanese person is asked, "which will you have, tea or coffee? (13)" A Japanese person will respond with "either." In Japan this is a very polite and harmony supporting answer but if this was told to an american, it may seem confusing to the american. Altogether, aimai is simply ambiguous communication with the reason of existence, that is, to insure peace and harmony, wa.    

Uchi to Soto:

In Japan the Japanese refer to people as either insiders (uchi), being a Japanese person, or outsider (soto), being a foreigner. "Uchi can be defined as (1) inside, (2) my house and home, (3) the group that we belong to, and (4) my wife or husband; in contrast, soto means (1) the outside, (2) outdoors, (3) other groups, and (4) outside the home. (217) Now for the Japanese every other pure blood Japanese is considered uchi to Japan. Whereas, every person who is a foreigner even if they speak perfect Japanese or were born in Japan are considered soto. Japanese can easily reveal, for the most part, if someone is soto because of differences in appearance, poor Japanese, etc. Over all the terms uchi and soto bring with them unpleasant baggage. By referring to people as soto brings discrimination. As the text says, "Even today, if a person's language, skin color, habits, or appearance are different, many Japanese will regard them as soto, and will ignore them in order to live more easily in harmony among members of their own uchi groups. (219)" The result of this discrimination is often hurt felt individuals. In america discrimination is always talked about. But here in America we try to not discriminate to the best of our countries abilities.

Danjyo Kankei:

 Danjyo and Kankei is the relationships of men and women in society. Up to this day in age womens equality to mens has significantly increase. At earlier times in Japanese culture women were to be house wives. That being that they were to work at home, raise children etc. Once confucianism interred society the view of women inside, and men outside (working that is) became more of the norm (62). This was an earlier time in Japanese history when confucianism made way. During the modern era women's rights increased. Men and women both received education. The only thing is that the women's education taught them mainly how to be "good wives and wise mothers (62)." Today women are able to have nearly all the same opportunities as males. This change mainly refers to work opportunities. Though women do have, according to law, equal opportunities there is still restricting matters that my hold them back. One being that many Japanese still except the philosophy of confucianism, or in short the "inside wife." Also, aimai plays a large role as well since women may choose to abide by confucianism as to not upset the wa of society. In turn harmony and the norm is remained constant. I think this is assumed, as most all nations in this day in age now do this, but many relationship between opposite sex are freer at a younger age and before marriage. Freer mean that many individuals engage premaritally. In retrospect, the evolution of Danjyo and Kankei has developed but many of that development has happened on the female end. Males seem to always have most of the authority and power from the beginning of the ages in male female relationships. So only the female rights and reaching of equality is easily evident.                

          

 

   

   

Swing Girls

1." Gambaru is a frequently used word in Japan, with the meaning of doing one's best and hanging on" (83). Japanese people gambaru  by studying hard, practicing hard, and working hard (83). "According to the Sanshodo Japanese Dictionary (kenbo, 1989, p. 218), gambaru is defined in the folowing ways: (1) to work hard and patiently, (2) to insist on having one's way and (3) to occupy one place and never leave (84). Here is a quick summary of the text. Overall Japanese culture is full of people practicing gambari. In japan the harsh climates and readily occurring natural disasters keeps the Japanese on their toes to work hard. In contrast, while Japanese spur on the gambari spirit Americans often tell each other to "take it easy" or "don't work to hard."
        “This achievement-based society and the equal opportunities provided by the educational system created a competitive world and reinforced the gambari spirit of the Japanese people” (p.88). What scene in the movie demonstrated this concept well?
          In the movie Swing Girls Tomoko's class was lazy and "taking it easy" if you will, like American culture promotes. But, later the hidden gambari was revealed. It started first with Kaori. After the girls began attending band practice Kaori began demonstrating gambari and surpassed the others in musical abilities. In response the rest of the class gambaru to try to match Kaori in musical talent. Gambari was progressively growing in Tomoko's class throughout the movie as they began competing with each other in music and later on in competitions against other schools bands.

2.    2.Considering gamabari, do you consider Naomi as a Gambari in terms of losing weight using the muscle stimulator? Why? Why not? Explain the reasons through explaining Gambari. 
Naomi was a little chubby girl. In her case it's hard to evaluate if she Gambari in terms of losing weight. I guess in essence, Gambari has developed in her a bit, but in Japan one definition is, " to work hard and patiently" (84). Naomi talked a few times about things she could do to loose wait but from looking at her food eating actions and the choices of using drugs to loose weights says differently. It seems that her words deceivingly indicate that she is working hard but "patience" is also key according to the Gambari definition. Using drugs to quickly shed pounds is not a form of patiences as i hope others agree. Also her words which are a reflection of her thoughts always seem to be about loosing weight which may give the impression that she is knowledgable and practicing what she says but clearly her actions in the movie did not reflect her words. Once, she said that she's on a diet and then took a full loaded pair of chop sticks and crammed a bunch of food in her mouth. Not the best demonstration of Gambari if you ask me. In fact quite the opposite.

3. Considering kenkyo, who do you think is the most and least kenkyo? Explain the reasons. 

       Kenkyo is a Japanese word for people who are modesty and humble and also have virtue. The text gave this quote as an example, "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" (143). This quote sums up the meaning of Kenkyo, that is to stay out of the spot light. In the movie the talented musician Takuo had a stunning display of Kenkyo. While he was in the first set of band members his talent was unknown or overlooked. He was given the role of percussion which was a simple role in the band. Once the band members left, do to sickness, Takuo stepped up as head of the band. As in Kenkyo societies, the most sr. employees receive the most respect so did Takuo. He was soon after found to be a talented musician.  In contrast Tomoko was a very outspoken girl with little control. She often made actions that said, look at me. Throughout the movie she was always talking. "The pheasant that keeps its mouth shut is least likely to get shot" (147). This quote is the opposite of  what Tomoko's character did. She was outspoken which made her seem vain rather then humble.       

4.Considering Honne to Tatemae, after brass band got food poison, the girls decided to have jazz band. Although the girls practiced hard and were able to play a little, the brass band came back and took their places back. What was Honne and Tatemae of Tomoko? Explain why she acted like that. What kinds of influences contribute to group of jazz band.   

       "Honne is one's deep motive or intention, while tatamae refers to motives or intentions that are socially-tune..." (115). Actual intentions, honne. Superficial words, tatemae.  For Tomoko when the jazz band came back her superficial words (tatemae) implied that she didn't care and that they just wanted to get out of their other class anyways. But internally her honne was different. She did care about the band and was beginning to enjoy it. She gambaru and was learning well. The band was changing her character for the good but her tatemae said the opposite of her honne. 

5. What kinds of feelings/motives are changed from skipping make-up classes to gambaru.

       From skipping make-up classes to gambaru major changes occur. From apathetic to caring, is all for the better. When this change happens feelings turn from a sort of emptiness to joy in one's own accomplishments. As motivation grows through gambaru feelings for hard working grow and anxious and impatience slow.       

6. In the end, jazz band ended up playing great music. How would you end this movie, if it was not based on ganbari spirit? Explain the reasons. If this movie were not full of ganbari spirit from the Japanese then it could have been totally different. Those girls could have stayed apathetic and non caring and ultimately stayed the same. In correlation the movie could have ended with them attempting to play jazz but without unison.     

7. Among three concepts, which one is the most difficult to understand. Analyze why you think so comparing with your own experiences and American standard.  Gambaru, Kenyo, and Honne and tatemae all seem like easy concepts to understand but all have one difficult thing to remember in common. That is that they are all Japanese words which makes them hard to spell and retain which word goes with which concept. The concepts are basic and easily understood, but deriving a concept from a Japanese word seems a bit challenging because a word that is spelled differently form Americans' and sounds different may not be able to send the mental cues to the brain in order to retrieve a stored concept. 

8. Overall Swing Girls was a loving, enjoyable and positively a cultural shock of goodness. It was blastingly funny with Japanese humor. This was a surprisingly new experience since as Americans our movies different. It's safe to say that our humors are worlds apart. The only down fall, I would have to say is the ending of this movie. It was too happy. A bit of dramatic things towards the end would have helped out a lot. After all isn't the goal of most movie to get it stuck in your head? If there was a dramatic event towards the end it would more then likely enhance the possibility that the movie would had stayed with the viewer for longer. Well, nevermind, that was just a tangent. No drama needed. Movie is good.