Alan Tansman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520245051
- eISBN:
- 9780520943490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520245051.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter focuses on Yasuda Yojūrō's “Japanese Bridges”, an essay about the cultural and literary meanings of Japanese bridges. The essay evokes moments of authenticity or purity—beauty that can ...
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This chapter focuses on Yasuda Yojūrō's “Japanese Bridges”, an essay about the cultural and literary meanings of Japanese bridges. The essay evokes moments of authenticity or purity—beauty that can be evoked beyond the fractured space of modern life and consciousness. These moments form Yasuda's fascist aesthetic. Though they may feel merely aesthetic, they are rife with political implications and suggest an endorsement of violence. Indeed, from innocent musings on bridges Yasuda arrives in “Japanese Bridges” at a spiritual glorification of the shedding of blood. How he makes this aesthetic and ideological leap—or, to use his metaphor, how he bridges this gap—is the driving question of the chapter.Less
This chapter focuses on Yasuda Yojūrō's “Japanese Bridges”, an essay about the cultural and literary meanings of Japanese bridges. The essay evokes moments of authenticity or purity—beauty that can be evoked beyond the fractured space of modern life and consciousness. These moments form Yasuda's fascist aesthetic. Though they may feel merely aesthetic, they are rife with political implications and suggest an endorsement of violence. Indeed, from innocent musings on bridges Yasuda arrives in “Japanese Bridges” at a spiritual glorification of the shedding of blood. How he makes this aesthetic and ideological leap—or, to use his metaphor, how he bridges this gap—is the driving question of the chapter.
Alan Tansman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520245051
- eISBN:
- 9780520943490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520245051.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter analyzes Inagaki Hiroshi's 1931 film Mother under the Eyelids—an example of the fascist moment's diffusion into mass culture because of its very popularity. It deployed (unknowingly) a ...
More
This chapter analyzes Inagaki Hiroshi's 1931 film Mother under the Eyelids—an example of the fascist moment's diffusion into mass culture because of its very popularity. It deployed (unknowingly) a fascist aesthetic while entertaining its audience with the cliché of the wandering gambler searching for his lost mother. That it bears comparison with the elite, quintessentially modernist, hermeneutically difficult, and even opaque writing of a work such as Yasuda Yojūrō's “Japanese Bridges”, which is due to the common fascist thread running through these two radically different cultural expressions.Less
This chapter analyzes Inagaki Hiroshi's 1931 film Mother under the Eyelids—an example of the fascist moment's diffusion into mass culture because of its very popularity. It deployed (unknowingly) a fascist aesthetic while entertaining its audience with the cliché of the wandering gambler searching for his lost mother. That it bears comparison with the elite, quintessentially modernist, hermeneutically difficult, and even opaque writing of a work such as Yasuda Yojūrō's “Japanese Bridges”, which is due to the common fascist thread running through these two radically different cultural expressions.
