ABSTRACTS - oia - Portland State University

ASPAC Conference 2010
June 18 – 20, 2010 | Portland, OR
arrangements of kanji characters had important effects. Barthes’ theory is most useful because the two artists
made choices to code reality, to create the impression of viewing actual events in their shimbun nishiki-e.
Indeed, this goal was explicitly stated in the frontispiece to both shimbun nishiki-e series.
I will show that the visual arrangement of text and image, the use of figural motifs, and the
incorporation of stylistic techniques from Kuniyoshi affected the success of Yoshiiku’s and Yoshitoshi’s
shimbun nishiki-e. The intermingling of text and image constrained Yoshiiku’s coding of reality in his prints; as
a result, he appropriated his master’s figural motifs and often omitted background elements. Yoshitoshi, by
contrast, utilized a text-free space to create dramatic images endowed with visual depth that created the
impression of witnessing actual events. This paper provides a fresh perspective on shimbun nishiki-e, by
situating them within the context of both artists’ lineages and professional careers. This paper also raises
important questions about the relationship between text and image in Japanese art works.
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Eun Lye Lee
Japanese Novels and the Consumption Culture in the 1920s: Based on the Works of Kaji Motojiro
The 1920s in the United States was the era of consumption culture. The 1920s in Japan was the change of the
era name from Taisho to Showa. It was the time when foreign literature trends flew into Japan with no time
difference. In addition, it is called the era of establishing Japan’s modern city. As international events, there
were World War I and the Great Depression, which had large and small effects within Japan. Moreover, in
establishing cities, especially in the case of Tokyo, the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 has been the start of
building a new and full-fledged modern city.
Around this time, the United States consumption culture had sunken into 1920s Japanese society.
The United States’ new consumption culture is described in Japanese novels at that time. For example,
published in 1924, Tanizaki Junichiro’s “Chizinnoai” portrays an urban young adult who enjoys the US
consumption culture. City dwellers who roam the modern city and are assimilated into the consumption
culture often appear in Japanese novels published in the 1920s. From this point of view consumption culture
as an important keyword in investigating modernity, this essay will look at how Kajii Motojiro’s stories
“Lemon,” “Doudei,” “Rozyou.” “Kako,” and “Huyunohi,” published in the 1920s, depict the deluge of
consumption culture in Japan’s society. A novel written at the time depicts a modern consumption city. The
novel portrays modern consumption culture as (1) Purchasing merchandise (2) Stores with overflowing goods
(3) Streetcars and more. Thus, the city and its residents have been infiltrated by modern capitalism and
becomes reconstructed as a place with a completely strange and new experience. Of course, the background
of a modern city is not the only aspect that is deployed. All the more, as modern city and tradition coexist,
the new image of consumption culture is more arousing and vivid. I would like to add that with this new
image, new feelings stand out. Nevertheless, how the consumer’s feelings are expressed should not be
overlooked. In Kajii Motojiro’s work consumption culture is reflected in a single lemon. It can be seen as a
lighting up the copious emotions, the new utopic world that is being captured in product and consumption.
However, emotions are not abundant in a consumption culture, it is rather being isolated. The objective of
this essay will be on the process of isolation found by reading novels of the 1920s.
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Junghee Lee
The Lineage of Apotropaic Monsters in the Tomb Paintings of Koguryo
“I eat and eat but I am still hungry,” reads the cartouche of a monster-mask on the lantern-roof ceiling of a
tomb in Jian, presumably showing the monster’s insatiable desire to swallow evil. Monster figures loom in
dark burial chambers and create an atmosphere of fear in the tombs of Koguryo, which contain numerous
wall painting exhibiting a rich variety of scenes, including mythical beasts, gods, material culture, and even
everyday life in addition to the monsters. The majority of these scenes were influenced by Chinese funerary
art, but some examples, such as the monsters depicted from the rear and seems to be shrieking on the four
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