Japan – STANDPLAATS WERELD

by Sophie Vilé

On the 26^th of June, I handed in my Master’s thesis at the department Social and Cultural Anthropology. I have written my thesis about socalled kawaii girls in Japanese society. Kawaii girls are girls with a cute, loveable and childish fashion style and behaviour. The kawaii fashion style exists of fluffy, frilly, pink and pastel colours clothes and accessories, such as stuffed animals and multiple bows. Kawaii girls express their kawaii style to a full extent and in every detail of their appearance. Next to their appearances, kawaii girls behave in a certain way. They try to behave cute and innocent by, for example, posing with their hands to their cheeks and they speak with a high-pitched voice.

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Another fieldwork 2013 report!

By Ulrike Scholtes Walking up the little hill in Yokohama to reach the studio my Sunday-workshop takes place at, I have to pass a bamboo forest. On sunny days, which are common here in Japan, it looks nicely illuminated, showing all the different shades of brown and green it has to offer. Towards the centre the forest turns extremely dark, but I am still able to see the many rows of bamboo trunks, that appear almost artificially organized. From here I have to walk a few meters straight and turn right at the massive orange tree, one of the landmarks I desperately need to survive here in Japan and find back the places I have been before. Soon a discrete sign will appear on my right hand, saying “Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio”, I believe the only sign in this neighbourhood that provides an English translation for the Kanji words. The sign leads to the – with childish mosaic patterns cheerfully decorated – path, I have to take in order to reach the studio. The second path leads to YoshitoOhno’s house. It used to belong to Kazuo Ohno, one of the two establishers of butoh dance. Out of different parts and materials that belonged to an old, and now fully deconstructed, elementary school, Kazuo Ohno had the first butoh dance studio built on this piece of lands, where he and HijikataTatsumi would practice and philosophize about what authentic Japanese, dance, but most importantly about what the body is.

Tag: Japan

Purikura: a ‘kawaii’ phenomenon in Tokyo

Dancing Bamboo