Completed Research Projects

A project sponsored by the DFG (TA 1103/2-1)

Ch. Tagsold, N. Dahl

The idea of the Japanese garden is a product of the latter half of the 19th century. A discourse about gardens in Japan led by Europeans, North Americans, and by the Japanese themselves, combined with gardens exhibited at world exhibitions, led to the creation of the idea of gardens as a national style. This made it a trend in North America and Europe to cultivate Japanese gardens. In the 1930s, Zen Buddhism was used to explain the symbolic effect of these spaces. Research conducted in the last two decades has clearly described this cultural translation between the West and Japan.

So, while the discourse of Japanese gardens outside of Japan has been well researched, not much attention has been paid to the design of gardens within Japan itself. But the new gardens, especially those built between 1890 and 1930, did not develop in a vacuum---they are the counterpart of the translation process. Especially gardens belonging to wealthy industrialists, politicians, or artists were built following new ideas. It is noteworthy that for a long time, the Japanese did not consider these gardens to be particularly Japanese. In the last few decades, however, many of these gardens have been declared national monuments and are now treated as being clearly Japanese.

The project will try to determine the reasons for this shift. Research will be conducted using five sample gardens and based on four stages:

1. Creation context
2. Early reception in the press
3. Discussions on preservation in the 1970s
4. Maintenance, utilisation and "Japanisation" of the gardens

This will show when the category of the "Japanese garden" emerged and how it was introduced into the discussion. A connection to other discourses centring around Japanese self-identification will also surface, with the question of the special Japanese love for nature playing a major role. This topic, which is part of the discourse of nihonjinron ("theories about the Japanese"), will be shown to have only slowly been introduced into the discussion and to stand in opposition to argumentation patterns influenced by Western discussions on conservation. Through archive work and interviews, the project will trace these developments and contribute to the questions of cultural (re-)translation and elements of nihonjinron in practical fields.

Sh. Shimada, J. Spisa, L. Lewerich, K. Fujiwara and C. Spoden (HHU Düsseldorf)  
K. Kuroki, Y. Matsuo, H. Fukuzaki (Kumamoto Gakuen University)

How to care for persons suffering from age-related dementia in a local context is a burning social issue in both Germany and Japan. It has become clear that solutions cannot be found in care homes or through family care alone. Local communities are now facing the challenge of finding approaches to tackle the issue.

Through empirical research in care homes in Düsseldorf and Fukuoka, this interdisciplinary project will map out sociocultural backgrounds for differences in care for patients of dementia in Germany and Japan, while also attempting to develop new solutions within a local context. Previous research on age-related dementia will be supplemented by cultural and sociological approaches.

The project was funded by the DAAD and JSPS under the Programm des Projektbezogenen Personenaustauschs (PPP).

Publications:

Shimada, Shingo; Spoden, Celia; Lewerich, Ludgera (Hg.,2018): Altersdemenz und lokale Fürsorge. Ein deutsch-japanischer Vergleich. Bielefeld: transcript. 

Lewerich, Ludgera (2018): "Demenzpflege zwischen Familie, Pflegeeinrichtung und lokaler Gemeinschaft: das Spezialaltenpflegeheim Takurōsho Yoriai." In: Schad-Seifert, Annette und Kottmann, Nora (Hg.), Japan in der Krise. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. S. 267-293.

M. Mae, K. Hülsmann, S. Klasen, E. Scherer, J. Siep

Japanese pop culture has become very popular among young people across the world. Many pop culture products offer new ideas on gender images and models that appear relevant for scientific analysis. This project will research this hitherto neglected area.

Brave female warriors, single dads, magical school girls---the world of Japanese pop culture seems to allow for a variety of experiments in gender construction. In fact, experimenting with gender roles has become a distinctive feature for Japanese pop-cultural products such as Manga (Japanese comics), Anime (Japanese animation) and terebi dorama (Japanese TV dramas). The increasing individualisation of ways of life as it can be observed in Japan today is also addressed in popular culture. Despite the increasing commercialization of pop culture and its subsequent development towards the mainstream, it still bears a strong subversive potential to change ideas of gender construction. Especially its ambivalence of being situated directly between progressivity and conventionality allows for a variety of interpretative approaches. 

Japanese pop culture encourages its recipients to create individual forms of expression, especially when it comes to the construction of gender identities. These new constructions are, on the one hand, strongly influenced by pop culture, but, on the other hand, are also expressed in a very productive way through these pop-cultural products. These products thus serve as both a mirror (of social structures and developments) and an engine (of societal change).

The project resulted in the following publication:

Mae, Michiko; Scherer, Elisabeth; Hülsmann, Katharina (Hg., 2016): Japanische Populärkultur und Gender. Ein Studienbuch. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Annette Schad-Seifert

Up until the end of the 1990s, Japan was generally seen as a classless society within the social sciences. The standardisation of lifestyles within the middle class is generally seen as a major factor for the spread of sōchūryū ishiki, the mentality that all Japanese belong to the middle class. However, within the last few years, growing social differences have triggered a discourse of Japan as a disparate society or kakusa shakai.

The project analysed whether demographic change has caused the disappearance of the middle class, or if the new forms of inequality and social decline cause a change in the areas of marriage and reproduction. The loss of social security and job qualification for the younger generations in Japan is particularly noteworthy. The project put special focus on the family-related political measures taken by the Japanese government and analysed the relation between the low birth rate, changes within the family, and between the generations, as well as the restructuring of the labour market.

Publications:

(2014) Polarisierung der Lebensformen und Single-Gesellschaft in Japan.  In: Malmede, Hans; Kottmann, Nora; Ullmann, Katrin; Osawa, Stephanie (Hg.) Familie, Jugend, Generation - Medienkulturwissenschaftliche und japanwissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Springer, S. 15-31.

(2013) „Der Ehemann als Luxusgut“ – Japans Trend zur späten Heirat. In: Gabriele Vogt und Phoebe Holdgrün (Hg.): Modernisierungsprozesse in Japan. Tokyo: Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien / Stiftung D.G.I.A., S. 168-185.

(2010) [Hg. Mit: Shingo Shimada] Demographic Change in Japan and the EU – Comparative Perspectives. Proceedings of the VSJF Annual Conference 2008. Düsseldorf: Düsseldorf University Press. 223 Seiten.

(2008) [Hg. mit: Coulmas, Florian; Conrad, Harald; Vogt, Gabriele] The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook about Japan. Leiden, Boston: Brill. 1199 Seiten.

(2007) Japans Abschied von der Mittelschichtgesellschaft: Auflösung des Familienhaushalts oder Pluralisierung der Lebensformen?. In: Peter Backhaus (Hg.), Japanstudien 19 Familienangelegenheiten. München: Iudicium, 2007, S. 105-128.

(2006) Working Paper 06/4
Coping with Low Fertility? Japan’s Government Measures for a Gender Equal Society. Tokyo: Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien / Stiftung D.G.I.A. 30 p.

(2006) Working Paper 06/1
Japans kinderarme Gesellschaft – Die niedrige Geburtenrate und das Gender-Problem (Japan’s low fertility society – The falling birthrate and the problem of gender). Tokyo: Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien / Stiftung D.G.I.A. 40 p.