Literacy and tactility: An experience of writing in Kuzuhara Kôtô Nikki (Kuzuhara Kôtô’s diary)

Abstract

Walter Ong points out that no one can write naturally, because writing is a completely artificial technique we need to acquire through education. The technology of literacy as writing letters begets a dividing line between “literates” and “illiterates,” since literacy cannot be acquired otherwise. When we review the early history of literacy, we notice that letter-writing was a specialized technology, and that in its center resided a small number of elites who could write. Thereafter, in the Modern Era, the center of discussion on literacy turned to the issue of the illiterate masses, mainly on how to bring them to literacy through school education. As the interest in popularizing literacy increased, though, another kind of increased interest arose: the interest in literacy education for blind people. On purpose or not, blind people had been excluded or alienated from literature and/or letter-based culture. However, the stronger the power exerted to exclude blind people, the more blind people aspired to write/read letters. Such aspiration and attempts to write/read letters in their own way may establish a distinct touch-centered world of letters and literacy and, importantly, may relativize its sight-centered world counterpart. If so, how will such a practice revise sight-centered literacy and open new horizons? I would like to consider this topic by reviewing its historical background and examining a case of writing practice by Kuzuhara Kôtô, a blind musician, in 19^th century Japan.

Keywords:

• Writing
• literacy
• blind people
• tactility
• tactile letter
• Kuzuhara Kôtô

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A Goze is a female traveling musician who visits house to house, village to village, and sings while playing a Shamisen (Japanese guitar with three strings). For more information, see Groemer, 2014.

2 According to Kawajiri, while public affair diaries concerning wars and/or visits to the Chinese Tang Dynasty can be found from the 7th century on, diaries about private affairs can be found only after the 9th century in Japan (Yoshimura et al., 2020, pp. 114-116).

3 Shinjirô Kudô analyzes Kuzuhara Kôtô’s psychological landscape shown in his Wakas, in relation to human physical senses (cf. Kudô, 1994).

Additional information

Funding

This research project is supported by the JSPS (Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science) KAKENHI Grant Number 20K02423.

Notes on contributors

Reiko Muroi

Reiko Muroi is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Iwate University, Japan. Her primary areas of scholarship are philosophy of education, history of educational ideas and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thought on education. E-mail: [email protected]