Eroticism, Grotesqueness and Non-Sense: Twenty-first Century Cultural Imagery of Japan in the Israeli Media and Popular Culture1

1. The title of this paper is a metaphoric reproduction of the slogan used by Japanese to describe the 1920s in Japan as the era of “eroticism, grotesqueness and nonsense” (ero, guro, nonsensu). In using this slogan as the title of this paper I do not mean to suggest that history repeats itself, but that cultural imageries can sometimes become marked features of a society and powerful symbols of an era.

Abstract

The formation of cultural imageries amidst the current transnational dynamics is presently a highly debated issue. In this paper I explore a significant contemporary discourse about Japan in the Israeli media and in different forms of Israeli popular culture that objectifies and differentiates Japan as a futuristic and often decadent Other, exhibiting the conventions of an Orientalist style of thought. Although Israelis are actively involved in the production of this discourse, it relies heavily on imagery derived from globally circulating images of Japan. Beyond its popularity in Israel as an entertaining diversion that reverberates the contemporary fascination with Japan, it serves to familiarise Israelis with the Japanese Other while keeping its alienness, and also to assert the Western identity of Israeli culture. As this study shows, globalisation is about re-territorialisation as much as it is about de-territorialisation.

Keywords:

• Orientalism
• Self-Orientalism
• Cultural imageries
• Globalisation
• Media
• Popular culture
• Japan
• Israel

Notes

1. The title of this paper is a metaphoric reproduction of the slogan used by Japanese to describe the 1920s in Japan as the era of “eroticism, grotesqueness and nonsense” (ero, guro, nonsensu). In using this slogan as the title of this paper I do not mean to suggest that history repeats itself, but that cultural imageries can sometimes become marked features of a society and powerful symbols of an era.

2. All translations from Hebrew in this paper are the author's.

3. The tamagotchi is a take-along digital pet.

4. Seen on the May 2002 broadcast of Roim Olam Magazine, a weekly survey of current events around the world produced by First Channel, Israeli public TV.

5. Yū-Gi-Ō is the protagonist of a hit anime series produced by Asahi TV (starting in 1998). The series has become the inspiration for a large range of collectibles, card games, video games, etc.

6. This article was the subject of a TIME Asia cover story and a profile in the “Year in Ideas” issue of The New York Times Magazine, and it was reprinted in a number of international publications, including the Guardian (UK) and Chūō Kōron (Japan), suggesting the huge impact it had on public opinion both inside and outside of Japan.

7. Osim tsohoraim im Yael Dan, Galei Zahal (IDF radio channel), Autumn 2003.

8. On the enhancement of an everyday hedonism in postmodernity, see Maffesoli.

9. On the concept of the esprit du temps in Maffesoli's thought, see also Shields (4).

10. For an account of the changes in the images of Japan in the US popular imagery during the twentieth century, see Raz and Raz 1996.

11. On such attributes of the West in the Orientalistic discourse, see Said (40, 300).

12. Naoki Sakai (476–77) reminds us that onto the geography of the “East” and “West” are mapped the distinctions between “pre-modern” and “modern” and between the superiority of the “West” and the relative inferiority of the “Orient”.

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Michal Daliot-Bul

Michal Daliot-Bul has recently received her PhD from the Porter School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University. She is an independent researcher as well as an Associate in research at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies in Boston, USA. Her research focuses on the deep cultural meanings of play (asobi) in Japan. Her other research interests include the sociology of consumption; cross-cultural flows and the production of intra-and inter cultural imageries. In addition to a number of published and forthcoming articles, she is currently revising her doctoral thesis for publication