Tiny buds whispering: flowers in contemporary Japanese culture and ideology

Abstract

Japan's poetic practice not only expresses verbal beauty and deep historicity, but also maintains the power to express cultural ideals and goals of the state through the use of nature–human metaphors. The political use of nature imagery as a template for human motivation and cultivation was described during the Heian period (CE 794–1185) and continues to the present day. This paper focuses on contemporary examples of the use of flowers to represent people and thus to motivate and construct specific behaviours and outcomes to seem as natural and inevitable as blooming. One set of data derives from participatory fieldwork in events leading up to the launching of a city councilman's political campaign; the second is taken from nationally popular songs and public responses to those songs. Analysis shows how nature provides the basis for cultural logic in support of gendered as well as more generalized ideological statements designed to motivate and cultivate contemporary Japanese people.

Keywords:

• Japanese
• ideology
• metaphor
• nature
• gender

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dr Janet S. Shibamoto Smith, Dr Gary B. Palmer, and Stephen J. Davies for their advice in the development of this paper; the NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant #SBR 9729002 and Reizo Shibamoto for research assistance on enka, the MIC Travel Fund for follow-up support, and her consultants. The author is also grateful for the helpful comments of the reviewers and of audiences present where this research has been presented. The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes

1. However, Sugimoto rightly lists religion under “mass popular culture” given the propensity of individual Japanese to espouse belief in and employ practices of multiple religions (2003, 255–256).

2. An impressive example of Japan's insistence on preserving folklore in fostering its contemporary identity is presented in Mizoguchi's (2006) analysis of the use of the prehistoric Himiko myth in the construction and promotion of the Yoshinogari Historical Museum.

3. Thomas is specifically referring to politics in the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) and afterwards, but notes in her analysis that Tokugawa theorists hearkened back to works on Confucianism, Taoism, even the Tale of Genji in anchoring their interpretations of nature; thus we can posit continuous linkage with Heian thought.

4. Her earlier works on nature–human metaphor include analyses of monkey imagery (Ohnuki-Tierney 1987) as well as that of rice (Ohnuki-Tierney 1993).

5. The circle is another image of goodness, contrasted with the batsu (“X mark”), which indicates a wrong answer. But circles readily give way to flowers. See, for example, how they are embodied in the Sanrio cartoon characters Bad Batsu-Maru (“bad X-O”) (who is not evil, but rather ambiguous) and Good Hana-Maru (“good flower-O”).

6. Seasonal decorations are an important part of the décor of school classrooms and are often exhibits of student work (White 1987, 67).

7. I was told that this reference to newness referred to and, thus, linked the candidate to, the general trend of governmental reform sweeping Japan at the time.

8. Date Masamune (1567–1636) is arguably the most famous daimyo of the Tohoku region, who in 1600 took up residence in Sendai castle. Although the castle itself is now gone, its site is still a major tourist attraction, set high atop Aoyama with a commanding view of the city. Date's feudal stronghold was based in Sendai; his clan continued rulership of the area until the Meiji Restoration (i.e. Date Munenari, 1818–1892).

9. The word morotomo may have been literally , which would clearly mean “with friends”; Akemi was recalling Hiroshi's utterance in his absence. Writing morotomo in kana phonetic script also creates resonance with a poem from the Heian Hyakunin Issyu (100 poems by 100 poets), which begins similarly: morotomo ni ahare to omohe yamazakura hana yori hoka ni shiru hito mo nashi (“there is no one who shares this plaintive feeling but me and the mountain cherry blossoms”) – which is thought to have been written in Nara at Mt Omine by someone who had just emerged from a period of religious austerities.

10. Having attended several parties at the Watanabes’ during my prior stay in Sendai, I had never witnessed an exchange of poetry, although other performances such as singing karaoke and dancing to others’ songs were common.

11. Other, less poetic ways of “making sense” include a variety of patriarchal practices, legal and/or customary, that still guide men and women towards marriage and inhibit divorce (Sugimoto 2003).

12. The grammar is: saku (“to bloom”), sakaseru (“bloom + causative, to make bloom), and saita (“bloom + past, bloomed”).

13. Saita started publication in 1998.

14. Note, in a soccer-based metaphor for making a successful goal, women's marriage is termed gooru in (“goal in”).

15. However, the use of omae in this way is not uncommon in rock lyrics.

16. In 2007 this song remains immensely popular and is a common part of amateur public singing performances.

17. Oricon Entertainment provides music rankings services. The second-ranked song, incidentally, was called Sakura (“cherry blossom”) and had been used as the ending theme of a TBS drama during 2003.