Companion to the Anthropology of Japan

Jennifer Robertson is Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Robertson has published many articles and book chapters on a wide spectrum of subjects ranging from the seventeenth century to the present. Her most recent research projects include Japanese colonial culture-making, eugenic modernity, war art, and comparative bioethics. She is the author of Native and Newcomer: Making and Unmaking a Japanese City (1991), Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan (1998), and editor of Same-Sex Cultures and Sexualities: An Anthropological Reader (Blackwell, 2004). She is finishing a new book, Blood and Beauty: Eugenic Modernity and Empire in Japan.

• Synopsis of Contents viiiNotes on Contributors xviiiPart I: Introduction 11 Introduction: Putting and Keeping Japan in Anthropology 3Jennifer RobertsonPart II: Cultures, Histories, and Identities 172 The Imperial Past of Anthropology in Japan 19Katsumi Nakao3 Japanese Archaeology and Cultural Properties Management: Prewar Ideology and Postwar Legacies 36Walter Edwards4 Feminism, Timelines, and History-Making 50Tomomi Yamaguchi5 Making Majority Culture 59Roger Goodman6 Political and Cultural Perspectives on ‘‘Insider’’ Minorities 73Joshua Hotaka Roth7 Japan’s Ethnic Minority: Koreans 89Sonia Ryang8 Shifting Contours of Class and Status 104Glenda S. Roberts9 The Anthropology of Japanese Corporate Management 125Tomoko Hamada10 Fashioning Cultural Identity: Body and Dress 153Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni11 Genders and Sexualities 167Sabine FrühstückPart III: Geographies and Boundaries, Spaces and Sentiments 18312 On the ‘‘Nature’’ of Japanese Culture, or, Is There a Japanese Sense of Nature? 185D. P. Martinez13 The Rural Imaginary: Landscape, Village, Tradition 201Scott Schnell14 Tokyo’s Third Rebuilding: New Twists on Old Patterns 218Roman Cybriwsky15 Japan’s Global Village: A View from the World of Leisure 231Joy HendryPart IV: Socialization, Assimilation, and Identification 24516 Formal Caring Alternatives: Kindergartens and Day-Care Centers 247Eyal Ben-Ari17 Post-Compulsory Schooling and the Legacy of Imperialism 261Brian J. McVeigh18 Theorizing the Cultural Importance of Play: Anthropological Approaches to Sports and Recreation of Japan 279Elise Edwards19 Popular Entertainment and the Music Industry 297Shuhei Hosokawa20 There’s More than Manga: Popular Nonfiction Books and Magazines 314Laura MillerPart V: Body, Blood, Self, and Nation 32721 Biopower: Blood, Kinship, and Eugenic Marriage 329Jennifer Robertson22 The Ie (Family) in Global Perspective 355Emiko Ochiai23 Constrained Person and Creative Agent: A Dying Student’s Narrative of Self and Others 380Susan Orpett Long24 Nation, Citizenship, and Cinema 400Aaron Gerow25 Culinary Culture and the Making of a National Cuisine 415Katarzyna CwiertkaPart VI: Religion and Science, Beliefs and Bioethics 42926 Historical, New, and ‘‘New’’ New Religions 431Ian Reader27 Folk Religion and its Contemporary Issues 452Noriko Kawahashi28 Women Scientists and Gender Ideology 467Sumiko Otsubo29 Preserving Moral Order: Responses to Biomedical Technologies 483Margaret Lock Index 501

"This groundbreaking symposium will serve scholars well as a reference volume ... Challenging yet accessible, this is essential stock for all academic libraries, and for reference libraries with any interest in disciplines spanned or in Far East Studies. Blackwell Companions are setting an admirable standard as they blaze new trails." Reference Reviews "This is a handsomely produced volume in the recently launched Blackwell series of companions to the major fields of anthropology. ... Well-written and comprehensively documented." Ethnic and Racial Studies “Despite the magnitude of the task, Robertson has succeeded in this collection. Taken together, these 29 original chapters provide historical and theoretical grounding across a range of subjects. The diverse approaches taken here offer insight into a great variety of cultural aspects and social players, but articulate a ‘Japan’ that eludes any claims of homogeneity.”Steffi Richter, Universität Leipzig “This Companion provides amazingly wide coverage on contemporary Japan. What's more, it challenges the very idea of anthropology in interesting ways. Although written by experts in the field, it will be of such great interest to students and others new to the field that it may well spark the imagination of the next Ruth Benedict in the making.”Kazue Muta, Osaka University “A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan is a rich collection by Japanese and international researchers that demystifies Japanese culture and society. Challenging static and ahistorical perceptions of Japan, it ranges widely across space and time to provide an innovative and critical study of minorities, gender, culture, education, family, ritual, citizenship, and more.”Mark Selden, Binghamton and Cornell Universities "This is without doubt a creative, informative, and conscientiously argued book from which anthropologists and other students of Japan will have much to learn."Current Anthropology