MONSTER MASHUP JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE

FROM THE 18TH CENTURY TO THE 21ST

Glynne Walley UO Portland Workshop

August 19, 2016

Tōfu Boy (Tōfu kozō) •  A yōkai (monster, spook, etc.) •  Appears on dark, rainy nights and offers

you tofu (or steals your tofu) •  Big head, sometimes only one eye •  That’s all… •  First appears in late 18th century – popular

in illustrated fiction, comic books, etc. •  Urban legend? •  Marketing gimmick? •  Comic book character

The Boss of the monsters, the Overlooker, appears and summons all his spooky cronies.

The Boss’s grandson, Bigheaded Boy, threatens tofu-peddlers on drizzly nights so he can bring back a block.

From: Bakemono chakutōchō (Monsters, Reporting for Duty) •  1788 •  Illustrated by Kitao

Shigemasa •  A kibyōshi

(“yellowback) •  Visual-verbal

sequential narratives: comics

•  Mass printed and sold – very popular

•  Some for children, some for adults

My points: •  Japanese popular culture does not begin

with modernity •  Modern Japan: post-1868 •  “Early Modern Japan”: 1600-1868

•  Early Modern Japan has popular culture

•  “Traditional” culture not monolithic, unchanging

•  Modern-contemporary Japanese popular

culture draws on early modern Japanese popular culture •  re-uses genres, tropes, characters,

stories •  deploys them as critiques of modernity

•  Geisha, samurai, etc. •  Monsters

•  yōkai 妖怪 •  bakemono 化物 Above: Tōfu Boy statue on Mizuki

Shigeru Road, Sakai-minato, Tottori

Early modern popular culture? •  Urban commercial culture

•  Centered in Edo (Tokyo), Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, etc. •  Cash-based, driven by urban commoner merchant class (bourgeoisie)

•  Print culture and media •  Woodblock printing meant mass production of books and prints •  No newspapers, but broadsides •  National distribution through booklenders (mobile pay libraries) •  Not-quite-universal literacy

Early modern popular culture? •  Performance culture and media

•  Kabuki theaters in major cities – several companies, supported by ticket sales

•  Traveling and local troupes in countryside

•  Supported by print media – souvenir prints, review books, “novelizations,” etc.

•  Early modern popular culture: •  mass, not elite •  mediated by print •  commercial •  urban, quasi-national

What kind of stories? •  Romance, tragedy, comedy, history, parody, fantasy, crime •  Horror

•  Ghosts •  Monsters •  Gods/demons/wizards •  Shape-shifting animals •  Animate objects •  i.e., yōkai

Early modern monsters in context – 1 •  As horror

•  Example: Yotsuya kaidan (The Yotsuya Horror) •  Kabuki play, premiered 1825 •  Samurai Iemon and wife Oiwa

•  Iemon poisons Oiwa so he can marry up

•  Disfigures her face, later she dies

•  She comes back to haunt him •  Lantern transforms into her

face •  Horror

•  Vengeful female ghost •  Wicked samurai

•  Stage play, but story repeated and spread through prints and books

•  Left: Arashi Rikan II as Iemon, by Hokuei, 1832

Early modern monsters in context – 2 •  As object of inquiry

•  Philosophical – do they exist? •  Historical/literary – where are they written

about? •  Taxonomical/philological – how many are

there and what are they called? •  Early modern encyclopedic impulse

Illustrated Night-Parade of a Hundred Monsters (Ezu hyakki yagyō) (4 vols.), 1776-84, by Toriyama Sekien •  Above: ubume (ghost of woman who died in

childbirth) •  Right: tanuki (real animal, shape-shifter,

trickster)

Early modern monsters in context – 3 – As figures of fun •  Fairy-Tale Monsters board game (Mukashi banashi bakemono sugoroku),

Ichijusai Yoshikazu, 1858 •  note shape-shifted tanuki, Oiwa lantern, Tōfu Boy

Early modern monsters in context – 3 – As figures of fun •  Kuniyoshi’s tanuki prints (ca. 1842)

Tanuki •  “raccoon dog,” like badgers •  real animals •  in legend, shape-shifting tricksters •  reputed to have large, malleable scrota…

Early modern monsters in context – 4 – As vehicles of satire or parody •  Kuniyoshi’s prints parody common

occupations •  Bargeman •  Fortune-teller

Early modern monsters in context – 4 – As vehicles of satire or parody

Bride of the Monster! (Bakemono no yomeiri) •  or: The Monster Takes a Bride? •  or: Bridezilla! •  1807 comic book by Jippensha Ikku, ill.

Katsukawa Shun’ei •  Archetypal marriage story: arranged

marriage, betrothal, ceremony, childbirth •  Common theme in children’s

storybooks – preparation for later life •  The twist: they’re all monsters

•  Left: •  Bride and groom exchange last toast on

wedding night •  Who’s the boy at right? Tofu Boy? •  Sexual symbolism abounds…

Childbirth scene •  In a graveyard (because monsters) – but is new mother dead? •  Midwives bathing baby

•  “Midwife” homophonous with monster ubume… •  Physician prescribing medicine – but is it useless?

Baby’s first shrine visit scene •  Priest is an animated scepter – kind of monster •  He chants – “purge, purge your purses” – punning harau (expel evil

spirits) and harau (pay) •  Satire on money-grubbing priests…

Modern uses of early modern monsters – 1 •  The Yotsuya Horror – horror •  Example:

•  Dir. Nakagawa Nobuo, 1959 •  (Eng. “The Ghost Story of Yotsuya,” etc.) •  Fairly faithful version of play •  (No lantern, though) •  link to trailer

•  The vengeful woman ghost is huge in J-horror •  The Ring •  The Grudge •  etc.

Modern uses of early modern monsters – 1 •  The Yotsuya Horror – horror

•  Example: •  Kuime (“Over Your Dead Body”) •  Dir. Miike Takashi, 2015 •  Starring Ichikawa Ebizo, kabuki actor •  Interweaves two stories

•  actors rehearsing stage version of Yotsuya kaidan

•  same actors having an affair, he kills her, she haunts him – like play characters…

•  link to trailer

•  Traditional story è gender/archetypes?

Modern uses of early modern monsters – 2 •  Mizuki Shigeru (1922-2015) •  Manga author/artist •  Best known for use of yōkai, i.e.,

“traditional” monsters

Mizuki Shigeru •  Best known for a children’s-manga character:

•  Ge-Ge-Ge no Kitarō ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 •  “ge” is a grossing-out sound (“Eww,

Kitarō”?) •  Gege (from “Shigeru”) was author’s

childhood nickname •  Kitarō is a boy who lives in a graveyard

and associates with monsters •  His father is a disembodied eye,

bathes in a soup bowl, sometimes hides in Kitarō’s empty left eye socket

•  His friends include traditional monsters and modern

•  If kids send a letter by Monster Mail asking for help, Kitarō helps

•  Hugely popular – everybody knows Kitarō •  5 different anime series (1968, 1971,

1985, 1996, 2007) •  Example: title sequence of 1996

version

•  Kitarō reminds us of the old, grimy, broken, smelly underside of high-tech modern Japan

•  Kitarō represents an escape from modernity?

•  Early modern monsters as the return of the repressed?

Modern uses of early modern monsters – 2 •  Later started researching and

cataloging traditional monsters •  Compendium of Japanese

Monsters (Nihon yōkai taizen), 1994, rev. and expanded 2014

•  895 entries! •  Monsters as object of knowledge?

Folklore? history?

Modern uses of early modern monsters – 3 •  Studio Ghibli – anime

•  Miyazaki Hayao (b. 1941) •  Takahata Isao (b. 1935)

•  Pom Poko (Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko), 1994 •  Dir. Takahata

•  Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi), 2001 •  Dir. Miyazaki

•  Two alternative interpretations of Mizuki’s use of yōkai

Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi), 2001 •  Dir. Miyazaki

•  Alice in Wonderland refraction

•  Chihiro, adolescent girl •  Moving to a new suburb •  On the way family stops at

abandoned amusement park •  Parents are turned into swine •  Chihiro transported to alternate

world, has to save them •  She’s put to work at a public

bathhouse patronized by monsters and gods

•  (clip from DVD)

Miyazaki and yōkai •  few actual traditional monsters, but traditional setting •  conflates gods and yōkai •  takes place in Tokyo suburb •  persistence of ancient spirituality in modern Japan?

Pom Poko (Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko), 1994 •  Dir. Takahata

•  Environmental fable

•  Colony of tanuki are threatened by spreading suburbs

•  They organize to attack construction workers using shape-shifting skills

•  (clips from DVD)

Takahata and yōkai •  also takes place in Tokyo suburb •  modern Japan threatens ancient ways •  yōkai as site of resistance to modernity? standing athwart history yelling

“stop”? •  yōkai as eco-terrorists?

For modern popular culture, early modern monsters offer: •  genuine horror •  laughs •  knowledge of the past •  connection to the past •  alternative to the present