Culture Day in Japan
Culture Day in Japan is celebrated annually on November 3. Modern Japan cannot be imagined without the Meiji period, and it is impossible to talk about the Meiji period without mentioning Emperor Meiji. Culture Day coincides with his birthday and is a public holiday. Established in 1927, Meiji Day celebrates the birthday of Emperor Meiji.
In 1948, the day under this name was abolished, and the “Law on National Holidays” established “Culture Day”. The ideological meaning of the new holiday was determined by the same law: “To love freedom and peace, to promote the development of culture.”
Culture Day is also a national day off, allowing the Japanese to spend time with benefit for the mind and soul. The ancient capitals of Japan Kyoto and Nara, seaside and mountain resorts, national parks and hot springs, which do not experience a shortage of tourists on other days, are ready for a pilgrimage of vacationing Japanese and foreigners on Culture Day.
Traditionally, on Culture Day, awards and prizes are presented for achievements in literature, poetry, and painting. The merits of young writers are especially celebrated, thus contributing to the development and popularization of literature among young people. Today, Culture Day would not be possible without cultural festivals held at universities throughout Japan.
Students are preparing for the “cultural week” very seriously: they invite famous and fashionable musicians, writers, designers among young people, amateur university orchestras and student rock bands rehearse demonstration programs, erect tents on campuses in which food, drinks, and university symbols will be sold .
Culture Week itself is very busy, there are almost no activities on these days, and the campus is open to local residents, children, parents and friends. Senior students tell guests about university life and their future profession. Invited celebrities talk about creativity, warming up the audience with some details of behind-the-scenes life, and answer questions.
It is interesting that foreign students certainly participate in the festival, representing the culture of their country, its national cuisine, clothing, and music. The festive fun flares up in the evening to the sounds of a student orchestra or an amateur rock or jazz band.
And, of course, on Culture Day, on the streets, in parks, and historical places of Japan, you can admire women and girls in national clothes - kimonos. A woman in a kimono is a centuries-old cultural tradition of Japan, which is not affected by the passage of time or the changes of the modern world.
The Other Side of the Sun: Japan's Extreme Culture
Moscow, November 3. Culture Day was introduced in Japan after the war during the process of demilitarization. Until 1948, November 3 was celebrated as the birthday of Emperor Meiji. But it was replaced by a holiday designed to promote the ideals of peace and humanism. Japanese civilization has given the world a unique culture with rich traditions. But art cannot stop at classical examples. Even in such a conservative country, the artistic world does not stand still and is rapidly developing, sometimes acquiring bizarre and even shocking forms. MIR 24 has collected the most striking examples of what strange and mysterious Japan is associated with.
YOUTH SUBCULTURES
From time immemorial, Japan, being a geographically isolated country, has been brewing within its own traditions. At the end of the 19th century, the world became more open, and the Land of the Rising Sun, willy-nilly, began to experience the influence of Western culture. Superimposed on Japanese identity, it transforms and gives birth to a completely new youth environment, of which subcultures become an important part. In the second half of the twentieth century, photographs of fashionistas from the streets of Tokyo are forever featured in glossy magazines, the images become more and more extreme - the younger generation, feeling the breath of freedom, strives for individualism and new forms of self-expression as a protest against traditional values, social order, and the oppression of responsibility to society. On the one hand, subcultures become a way to express oneself, to go against the rules, on the other hand, they become an opportunity to find your own little flock.
One of the first youth subcultures was gyaru , which appeared in the 1970s and had a very large influence on the famous Japanese street fashion. Gyaru arose under the influence of US pop culture: Japanese girls began to imitate American pop stars, preaching sexuality and freedom of morals. It is believed that even the word “gyaru” itself comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the word girl. Followers of this trend wear ultra-short skirts and shorts, flashy clothes, high-heeled shoes, and actively use artificial tanning and cosmetics. The golden age of gyaru was in the 90s, and in the 2000s the popularity of the subculture began to decline. In general, society has a negative attitude towards gyaru for their rejection of Japanese values, imitation of the West, materialism and enjo-kosai - the practice of “paid dates”, when a girl or young man (gyaruo) receives money or gifts for a pastime that does not necessarily involve sex.
In Japan, every subculture gives rise to many undercurrents. Thus, the gyaru subculture gave rise to two more main branches: kogyaru and ganguru. Kogyaru usually become high school girls or girls who have dropped out of school. There is an opinion that kogyaru is a derivative of the word gal, which translates as “a girl who loves branded clothes”, and “kodomo” - “child”. Kogyaru create the image of nymphets - short school skirts, white knee socks, a light tan, natural cosmetics and touching accessories. These girls are never without their phones like typical teenagers. Above all, they value a carefree lifestyle and fashionable items.
Ganguro is a more radical offshoot of gyaru, based on hip-hop culture. Followers imitate black performers, so they not only visit the solarium, but also apply dark-colored foundation to their skin. By the way, ganguro is translated from Japanese as “black face”. In clothing they prefer miniskirts and shoes with large platforms. The girl's hair is usually lightened, and they also like to use blue lenses.
Another branch of gyaru that is worthy of mention is yamamba, or mamba, this current came out of ganguro. In Japanese folklore, mambas are called mountain witches. In modern Japan you can always recognize them by their characteristic makeup: white lipstick and circles around the eyes on a very tanned or made-up face, hair is dyed in any color of the rainbow, often bright pink. In addition, girls wear shoes with very high platforms and prefer eccentric accessories. Kogyaru, ganguro and mamba are not all gyaru movements; it is hardly possible to count them all.
visual kei has had a great influence on Japanese youth fashion . It appeared in the 1980s on the basis of the musical genre of the same name, formed from a mixture of metal, glam rock and punk rock. Young people began to copy the images of musicians who borrowed much from glam and gothic rock: X Japan, Luna sea, Dir en grey, Malice Mizer and others. The essence of the visual kei style is a distinctly androgynous image, provocatively sexy clothing, lots of makeup and complex hairstyles. Like J-Rock, visual kei practically discarded the ideological component and concentrated on the visual. And, of course, within this subculture, over time, many more substyles emerged, for example, oshiare kei - the most sweet and positive subtype, kote kei - on the contrary, gloomy and slightly gothic. By the way, there is no gothic subculture in the European sense in Japan at all, but there are visual kei and Gothic&Lolita that are visually reminiscent of it.
So, the Lolita and its subtype - Gothic&Lolita . If gyaru clearly became an imitation of US pop culture, then Lolitas, who, by the way, have nothing in common with Nabokov’s heroine, took European elements, creating a modern traditional Japanese costume. In contrast to gyaru, Lolita’s images are not about sexuality, they are about childhood, naivety and even stiffness. Instead of a mini - fluffy skirts no higher than the knee, instead of a neckline - a tightly closed neck, a blouse and a jacket. Followers of the subculture actively exploit the style of Victorian England and the Rococo era. The costumes are replete with decorative details and are complemented by rather rough shoes with platforms or high heels. There are also substyles within the subculture, one of the brightest is Gothic&Lolita, which received a lot of attention from visual kei. Followers of this style prefer black, purple, red colors and a dark aesthetic. “Sweet” Lolitas dress in bright, cheerful colors, as if exploiting the infantile childish image. Often, girls complement their costume with a lace parasol, “square” handbags, hairpins, bows and lace. It is curious that, having originated in Japan, the Lolita subculture conquered the whole world and today is the most popular in the Land of the Rising Sun.
One of the varieties of Japanese street style is decor . A distinctive feature of this subculture is the incredible abundance of plastic jewelry that girls wear. Clothing, as a rule, is childishly colorful, multi-layered and replete with prints in the form of hearts, kittens and other kawaii elements. Hair is multi-colored and always has a lot of hairpins. The decor appeared in 1997 thanks to the Japanese woman Yaki Kobayashi, who appeared on the cover of one of the issues of FRUiTS magazine as a prominent representative of street fashion. In the article, Kobayashi explained how she created her style, and she soon gained many followers. From the outside, these colorfully dressed young people present a rather psychedelic spectacle.
Bosozzoku is a subculture of bikers that has shrouded itself in a halo of scandals due to connections with crime. Initially, bosozzoku arose in the 50s of the twentieth century from semi-criminal groups of motorcyclists; by 2009 there were already more than 42 thousand of them. Many went through colonies and prisons and did work for various mafia clans, including the yakuza. Over time, more and more members of the community spoke out against connections with the mafia, but in society they gained a reputation as dangerous motorcycle hooligans. An obligatory part of any subculture is clothing. Bosozoku also use certain attributes that became elements of Japanese military uniforms during World War II. Many wear trousers and raincoats with patriotic slogans, pilot boots, and inscriptions on the back with the name and description of the gang: some have imperial insignia, others have Nazi swastikas. It is worth noting that bosozzoku often identify themselves with kamikazes protesting against modern evils of society.
CINEMA: FROM POETRY TO SHOCK
Cinematography came to Japan almost simultaneously with the invention of the camera. The first film created by Japanese masters was released in 1899. Over more than a century of cinema history, the Land of the Rising Sun has given the world masterpieces by Akira Kurasawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and many other outstanding artists.
But of no less interest to world culture is the Japanese cinematic avant-garde, one of the most radical and explosive. The boom of independent Japanese cinema occurred in the 70s and 80s, but the echo of bold experiments can still be heard. We have collected the brightest moments of the glorious history of the Japanese underground.
"Weavers from Nishchijin" (1962)
Toshio Matsumoto is one of the most controversial Japanese directors of our time. But the outstanding esthete and daring provocateur began with poetic films, the most famous of which was the short film “Weavers from Nishchijin.”
Filming took place in the artisan district of Tokyo, where residents weave silk fabrics for kimonos. The camera moves smoothly through narrow neighborhoods, enters workshops and demonstrates the poetics of traditional craft.
Matsumoto’s painting is somewhat reminiscent of Dziga Vertov’s production poems, glorifying the work of ordinary people. The outstanding work of the Japanese director was awarded the Venice Film Festival prize as the best documentary film of 1962.
“Throw away your books, go outside!” (1971)
The loud slogan in the title of Shuji Terayama's film refers us to the aesthetics of the student uprising that shook Paris in May 1968. This rebellious spirit permeates the entire film, which tells about the Japanese youth of modern times.
The main character of the film is a young man from a dysfunctional family living in the slums. Trying to find a place in this world, he plunges into a psychedelic phantasmagoria, in which the comic and tragic are mixed in equal measure.
“Throw away your books, go outside!” is a manifesto of an entire generation that replaced the strict conservative Japanese and produced a real cultural revolution, revealing a renewed, crazy Japan to the world.
"Noisy Requiem" (1988)
Yoshihiko Matsui cannot boast of an extensive filmography. From the late 70s to the present day, he has directed only four full-length films: “The Empty Rusty Can,” “Pig and Chicken Suicide,” “Noisy Requiem” and “Where Are We Going?”
Upon release, Matsui's early films certainly caused a scandal, but in the end they firmly entered the golden collection of Japanese independent cinema. Conservative critics believe that the shocking director is trying to attract attention to himself by raising taboo topics not only of homosexuality, but also of outright perversion. Matsui himself, however, does not accept such criticism.
“The main thing in all my films is love. And it doesn’t matter what it is - same-sex, different-sex, or a person’s love for a doll. Love can be between anyone. At the center is the feeling itself. Prejudices and stereotypes are unnecessary here. The very fact of the emotions being experienced is important.”
“Noisy Requiem” is the pinnacle of creativity of a marginal artist. The heroes of this depressing film are the dregs of society, the disabled, midgets, maniacs living on the outskirts of the universe. Like many of the films on our list, the 2.5-hour Requiem may shock the unprepared viewer. But the artist’s talent is capable of turning even the darkest aspects of life into poetry, expressed in the language of cinema.
"Tetsuo, the Iron Man" (1989)
Kaizu Theater, founded by Shinya Tsukamoto, is a unique phenomenon in modern Japanese culture. Their performances, which are built at the intersection of mythological archetypes, cyberpunk, and body horror, are an eerie avant-garde embodiment of the neuroses that torment people in the post-industrial era.
The cult film “Tetsuo, the Iron Man” is one of the peaks of the creativity of Tsukamoto and his associates. It is very difficult to retell the plot of this film, the images created on the screen are so extravagant.
During the 67 minutes that the film lasts, its characters undergo nightmarish mutations, gradually turning from people into grotesque monstrous machines of unknown purpose. Heaps of wires, ingenious mechanisms, piles of twisted iron, all this is accompanied by noise electronics.
There is a great temptation to call “Tetsuo” an example of Japanese trash, but the questions sharply posed by the Kaizu Theater do not allow this. Tsukamoto's film is a radical existential parable about how a person, dependent on machines, himself turns into a meaningless collection of cables and metal.
"Yakuza Horror Theater: Gozu" (2003)
“This is not a dog. This is a dog trained to kill the yakuza. This is not a car. This is a machine created to kill the yakuza,” raves the film’s protagonist Takashi Miike. However, is he delusional? In the strange labyrinth that Miike built, hallucinations can turn out to be reality and vice versa.
During his relatively short career, Quentin Tarantino's favorite director managed to shoot more than 90 films in a variety of genres, including trash comedies, horror and even westerns. “Gozu” can rightfully be called an example of a road movie with elements of horror and grotesque.
The unhurried, mysterious narrative of this film is permeated with the spirit of ancient Greek myths, which organically took root on Japanese soil, and the comically exaggerated acting of the actors refers to the traditions of the medieval kegen theater.
"United Red Army" (2007)
In the mid-60s, protests against America and its influence on the politics of the Land of the Rising Sun swept across Japan. From the bulk of the demonstrators, a group of young radicals stood out and announced the creation of the Japanese Red Army.
The extremists took positions for which even “left-wing radicalism” is too mild a word. They declared the entire capitalist world and each individual bourgeoisie their enemies.
While at this time the Red Army Faction was terrorizing Europe with a series of daring terrorist attacks, the Japanese Red Army focused on self-destruction. The organization consisted of 29 terrorists who regularly conducted “cleansing of the ranks” sessions. Those militants who seemed insufficiently dedicated to the cause to their comrades were physically eliminated. As a result, far more militants died at the hands of their comrades than from police bullets.
Koji Wakamatsu’s film “The United Red Army” is dedicated to the history of this strange organization. In his youth, Wakamatsu was close to the radical left, so he, like no one else, was able to tell what happens when ideology replaces a person’s personality.
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC: ANARCHY, NIHILISM, PSYCHEDELIA
One of the integral aspects of modern Japanese culture is its original underground music, no less colorful than independent cinema. If we ignore teenage J-Pop, then the main export product of Japanese musicians should be considered harsh noise - one of the most merciless areas of industrial music.
The foundations of this genre were laid in the late 70s by artist, publicist and animal rights activist Masami Akita, better known as Merzbow . Inspired by the ideas of Dadaists and representatives of the academic avant-garde, he created his own recognizable sound, mixed with total improvisation, noise and broken rhythms.
Some might say that Merzbow is not art, but a collection of sounds, to which he reasonably responds: “If noise is an unpleasant sound, then for me pop music is noise.”
Masami Akita is incredibly productive. To date, he has released hundreds of full-length albums and dozens of nonfiction books dedicated to Japanese culture and environmental protection.
The direct successor of the Merzbow business is Yamazaki Maso, performing under the pseudonym Masonna . But if the work of Masami Akita is deeply intellectual and tied to the traditions of the European avant-garde, then the works of Masonna are completely nihilistic and aimed at fighting the listener. The best idea of Yamazaki Maso's aesthetics can be gained from his concert at the Osaka club Shangri-La, which lasted less than a minute.
Akifumi Nakajima went in a completely different direction, publishing under the name Aube . He preferred environmental recordings made with ultra-sensitive equipment to intense noise.
Nakajima's works represent what is beyond human perception. These are recordings of stones, tree bark undermined by beetles, fluorescent lamps and other objects whose sound we do not notice. One of Aube's albums even records what the marble used to make the base of a Catholic cathedral sounds like. And here is a recording, when creating which Nakajima took the pages of the Bible as a sound source.
Another original Japanese artist and musician is Reji Ikeda . His work is based on exploring the possibilities of light and sound. In huge empty spaces he places screens, the flickering of which is accompanied by minimalist sound patterns. Ikeda himself admits that he draws inspiration from mathematical sciences.
“Mathematics is the most beautiful thing in the world! Numbers, quantities and shapes are perfect regardless of how we perceive them, what meanings we put into them. With the help of mathematics, we are faced with the infinity of the Universe, the thoughts of which make us open our mouths in surprise. My project explores the countless intersections that are possible between such polar things as the beautiful and the sublime, music and mathematics, performance and installation, composer and artist, author and audience, black and white, zero and one.”
Speaking about modern Japanese music, it is impossible not to mention the avant-garde artist Keiji Haino . His diverse work is inspired by psychedelia, theater and krautrock. Due to the unusual melody and manner of performance, it is tempting to compare Haino with the American outsider Jendek. But, unlike his marginal brother, the Japanese can be released on fairly large labels. This is facilitated by increased interest in similar experiments in Japan.
Cybergrindcore is an already extreme genre, but in Japan its radicalism was taken, if not to the limit, then to the point of absurdity. One of the most prominent representatives of this anti-human trend is Takashi Takayama, who releases records under the Maruosa .
Takashi is a mysterious man. Observing his activity on social networks, one would think that all his activity consists of eating noodles and carefully documenting what he eats. Meeting him on the street, you wouldn’t even think that this ordinary Japanese produces incredibly bone-chilling music, which he puts on videos that can cause an epileptic attack.
Another musical extremist from the Land of the Rising Sun is Kenji Shiratori . In Russia, he is best known for his cyberpunk novel Electric Blood, written from the perspective of a machine in a mixture of English, Latin, Japanese and the C++ programming language.
When listening to Siratori's musical works, one also gets the impression that they were written not by a person, but by a computer gone crazy. Noise, clanging, glitch, unexpected changes in tone - all this forms a chaotic monstrous sound canvas.
But I would like to end our brief overview of the most striking phenomena of Japanese independent culture on a cheerful note. Satanicpornocultshop - under this cumbersome provocative name hide three hooligans who turn music into a farce.
Their repertoire includes strange and, it must be said, poorly played breakbeat, some semblance of garage rock and delusional rehashes of popular hits. All this is performed with a unique Japanese silliness. As they say, it's so bad it's good.
This, to put it briefly, is the state of modern Japanese underground culture, strange, original and invariably attractive, like the Land of the Rising Sun itself.
Maria Al-Salkhani, Eduard Lukoyanov
This day on the calendar. the 3rd of November
IN THE WORLD
Culture Day in Japan . Culture Day is also a national day off, allowing the Japanese to spend time with benefit for the mind and soul. The ancient capitals of Japan Kyoto and Nara, seaside and mountain resorts, national parks and hot springs, which do not experience a shortage of tourists on other days, are ready for a pilgrimage of vacationing Japanese and foreigners on Culture Day. Many museums, exhibition halls and art galleries offer visitors the opportunity to enjoy cultural treasures free of charge.
Panama Independence Day . On November 3, 1903, Panama announced its separation from Colombia. This date became a national holiday - Independence Day, Secession Day.
In 1958, a complex of UNESCO buildings was opened in Paris. On November 3, 1958, a complex of UNESCO buildings was opened on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. It was erected on Place Fontenoy, where the Military School is also located, according to the design of an international team of architects - American Marcel Breuer, Italian Pierre Nervi.
IN RUSSIA
In 1912, a Russian-Mongolian agreement was signed recognizing the autonomy of Outer Mongolia. In December 1911, 4 aimags of Outer Mongolia issued a proclamation announcing the creation of an independent Mongolian state. By this time, strong trade and economic ties existed between Russia and Mongolia.
In 1941, the Assumption Cathedral in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was blown up. The Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was built in 1073–1089 by architects from Constantinople. The laying of the Great Assumption Church took place in the summer of 1073 from the Nativity of Christ, in the days of the blessed prince Svyatoslav, son of Yaroslav.
In 1957, the USSR launched the Sputnik-2 spacecraft with the dog Laika on board. “The first great step of humanity is to fly out of the atmosphere and become a satellite of the Earth. The rest is relatively easy, up to the distance from our solar system,” wrote Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky.
Name day. Aza, Alexander, Alexey, Anatoly, Arkady, Vasily, Vladimir, Denis, Dmitry, Zakhar, Ivan, Hilarion, Konstantin, Nikolay, Pavel, Pelageya, Sergey, Fedor, Julian, Yakov.
Born on this day . (1887) Samuil Marshak, Soviet poet, translator, writer, editor. (1895) Eduard Bagritsky, Soviet poet and translator. (1949) Alexander Gradsky, Soviet and Russian singer, songwriter, composer, People's Artist of Russia. (1957) Dolph Lundgren, Swedish and American actor, director, screenwriter and producer. (1982) Evgeni Plushenko, Russian figure skater, two-time Olympic champion.
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DAY OF CULTURE
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. — article on the website of the Japanese Embassy in Russia. Access date: February 25, 2010. Archived April 18, 2012. - Japanese Autumn Holidays (English). — article on the GoJapan website. Access date: February 25, 2010. Archived April 18, 2012.
- ↑ 12
Culture Day (English). - article on Kids Web Japan. Access date: February 25, 2010. Archived April 18, 2012.
