This thesis presents translations of Kazashi no himegimi and Sakuraume no sōshi, two tales belonging to the genre of medieval Japanese narrative known as otogi-zōshi, and of the subcategory known as iruimono (tales of non-humans). Chapter 1 provides context, beginning with a brief history of otogi-zōshi and a description of residual challenges in its research, including the parameters of the genre and problems with its nomenclature. This is followed by a discussion of the typical physical formats of these tales, Nara ehon and emaki, and a brief history of iruimono and plant symbolism in otogi-zōshi completes the chapter. Literary analysis of Kazashi no himegimi and Sakuraume no sōshi in Chapter 2 focuses on the irui characters in each tale, describing their motivations and the effect they have on the humans they interact with. Format, plot, and character are compared and contrasted for each tale, and the textual sources are briefly described. Chapter 3 provides complete translations for Kazashi no himegimi and Sakuraume no sōshi with annotations for obscure words, puns, and meanings that may be unclear in the text. The chapter ends with a conclusion discussing aspects of the tales that might usefully be explored further.

Thirteen assorted fairy tales by early 20th century Japanese poet/author Miyazawa Kenji, collected and translated with an analytical introduction by the translator. The introduction explores the presence of "the agent of the outside" in the majority of the author's work and how this literary concept serves to encourage the reader to escape subjective viewpoints.

No description available.

This thesis addresses the issues of traumatic war memory concerning remembering and forgetting as presented construction of war memory in popular culture by closely examining the Japanese television anime series The Big O. The thesis proposes that the story told in The Big O can be seen as a vehicle for understanding why the Japanese wished to forget traumatic war memories related to the defeat of Japan in World War II. The Big O is a science fiction story that is set in a postwar defeated society. The protagonist of the story is Roger Smith, who searches for his lost memories. He is a social advocate for the people who want to recall their lost memories and acts as a negotiator in Paradigm City, a city that lost its own memories forty years ago. Drawing upon memory studies, the thesis explores various aspects of Japanese ambition and social concerns that emerged in Japan’s postwar society, including the national pride for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the rising economic success, and the revision of World War II’s history in school textbooks. The thesis examines dialogues by the characters in The Big O by paying attention to two major arguments surrounding memories: remembering and forgetting. By doing so, the thesis attempts to elucidate the ways in which war memories are at times remembered and often forgotten by those recovering from the wounds of war.

The goal of this thesis is to examine the theme of community in two translated works, Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow: Our Minamata Disease and Lake of Heaven, by Ishimure Michiko. I analyze how Ishimure defines a community, and I also look at the tension between insiders of the community with outsiders. Next, I look at Ishimure’s use of genre in Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow; she blends autofiction, autobiography, and illness narratives to give different perspectives to reflect on the Minamata disease health crisis. Through this analysis, I also look at the shift in Ishimure’s tone toward outsiders, moving from anger to reconciliation between the texts in question. Lastly, I comment on the change in Ishimure’s public image and discuss a story where she is the outsider experiencing Tokyo.

In Murakami's Norwegian Wood, romance and coming-of-age confront the growing trend of postmodernity that leads to a discontinuity of life becoming more and more common in post-war Japan. As the narrator struggles through a monotonous daily existence, the text gives the reader access to the narrator's struggle for self- and societal identity. In the end, he finds his means of self-acceptance through escape, and his escape is a product of his attempts at negotiating the multiple settings or "scapes" in which he finds himself. The thesis follows the narrator through his navigation of these scapes and seeks to examine the different way that each of these scapes enables him to attempt to negotiate his role in an indifferent and increasingly consumerist society. The Introduction discusses my overview of the project, gives specifics about Murakami's life and critical reception and outlines my particular methodology. In the overview section, I address the cultural and societal tensions and changes that have occurred since the Second World War. Following this section, I provide a brief critical history of Murakami's texts, displaying not only his popularity, but also the multiple disagreements that arise over the Japanese-ness of his work. In my methodology section, I plot my eco-critical, eco-feminist, eco-psychological and deconstructive procedure for dissecting Murakami's text. The subsequent chapters perform a close reading of Murakami's text, outlining the different scapes and their attempts at establishing identity. Within these chapters, I have utilized subheadings as I felt they were needed to mark a change not on theme, but on character and emphasis. My conclusion reasserts my initial argument and further establishes the multiscapes as crucial negotiations, the price and product of which is self-identity.

This study was conducted to determine if visualized goal achievement can help enhance East Asian Chinese students‟ motivation in learning and elevate their confidence in reaching their goals thus improving their performance. The goal achievement was visualized on a goal achievement progress chart that was self-created and self-managed by the East Asian Chinese students and the goal creating was under the supervision of their instructor. In this study, literature reviews on the theories, previous research studies in the perspectives of East Asian students‟ motivation in learning, goal setting on motivation, self-determination, self-efficacy, and expectancy theories are conducted to provide theoretical ground and legitimate evidence for this particular research. The researcher conducted an experiment in which students were given a learning task and required to set their own learning goals for that learning task under the supervision of their instructors. In this specific experiment, a total of 106 students from a university that was funded by American Educators in a central province in China agreed to participate in stages one, and two of the study, but some students withdrew from this research and some did not participate in both research stages therefore their data were take out from the data to make research result more consistent. Therefore eventually 72 students were considered eligible to go through the whole process of turning in the questionnaires and participating in the performance test. In this particular goal setting research study, the students were given the freedom of setting their own learning pace iii and managing their own progress on a visualized progress chart. The progress chart was visualized as a climbing/progressing line, which goes from bottom to top (see appendix C) once students achieved their learning goals. At the same time, the instructor provided feedback concerning the students‟ progress. Although some of the research results displayed no statistical significance for motivation and self-confidence during the pre and post session of the research, there is a positive correlation among motivation, self-confidence, and performance outcome. One research result did corroborate the previous research study that goal setting strategy would improve learning outcome.

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has attracted a great deal of interest since its inception, as reflected in a large body of relevant literature; most of the literature deals with TBLT in in-person (IP) settings and a small number of TBLT applications in online settings. The shift from the traditional IP mode to the virtual classroom caused by COVID-19 has made the effective application of TBLT a concern. However, most of the past studies have been conducted from the researcher’s perspective, which cannot meet the urgent needs of language teachers from a practical standpoint. This study examined TBLT in virtual Chinese classroom from the perspectives of teachers and students. The action research was conducted to observe the challenges students encountered in online TBLT sessions. Surveys and interviews were conducted to collect data from participants to understand the students’ viewpoints towards online TBLT. The data were analyzed to determine how teachers made actions to improve the TBLT learning and whether these actions were effective. After six weeks of research, the data from the participants revealed that students encountered many problems in online TBLT session, such as difficulties of applying online TBLT including student’s lack of media literacy and the limitedness of Zoom affordance; the challenges of designing tasks for online L2 TBLT class such as teacher’s lack of attention on taking students’ task preferences, grouping methods and targeted prompts into consideration; as well as the challenges of peer collaboration in virtual TBLT for example the dis-connectivity, peer communication, and response distribution issues. In response to challenges that I observed in my study, I integrated and analyzed the following teacher actions to help improve students’ performance and the effectiveness of online TBLT sessions. I rewrote the prompts to provide students with multiple perspectives on the context and appropriate vocabulary in terms of the pre-task materials. Also, I selected relevant grouping patterns for each task type and grouped them appropriately. Moreover, I reduced the power imbalance between the teacher and students, intervened in the in-task discussions appropriately, provided students with guidance on specific Zoom classroom functions, and effectively managed the time spent on each cycle of the TBLT. Last but not least, I enhanced student meta-cognition, provided students with complete information about the TBLT process, explained the benefits and purpose of the assignment, encouraged interaction and collaboration among the students, and attempted to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for students. To conclude, both students and teachers encounter challenges in this new online learning model environment; thus, we all need to adapt and learn how to learn and teach in this new situation. In this study, I tried different approaches to improve the observed problems and promote the effectiveness of teaching and the learning experience of students through a teacher action research approach. Feedback from participants indicated that the actions were effective. The study revealed that teacher should take the students’ needs into consideration when designing and implementing online TBLT in the future and make a difference through teacher actions. It is hoped that this study can offer some implications on applying TBLT in the virtual setting.

This paper will attempt to evaluate the agricultural production of China, Japan, and Asiatic Russia in the post-World War II period. The appraisal is based on the agricultural productions which are raised mainly for food consumption; however, such industrial crops as cotton, flax, and hemp are considered also. The claims of the Chinese First Five Year Plan, results of the Japanese Land reform, and the land development program in Asiatic Russian are all examined. A comparison is made between the pre-war and post-War periods in an effort to determine the amount of increase in production of agricultural goods, on both gross product and per capita basis. It concludes with en examination of the self-sufficiency of each country, its need for importing and/or exporting agricultural goods and their implication.

Zen Buddhism has followed an extremely tortuous route, both geographically and philosophically, in its development from its Buddhist roots in India, centuries before the birth of Christ, to its present internationally important state of development in the world today. Buddhism, containing the embryo of the yet unborn sect of Zen, moved from India to China during the Sixth Century A. D. Zen came into its om as a Buddhist sect during the renaissance Chinese culture in the 7'ang Dynasty (approximately Seventh through Ninth Centuries, A. D.). The great Japanese Zen master, Dogen, initiated Zen as a movement in Japan in the Thirteenth Century, and now today it ranks as one of the most important sects in Japan, not only an measured by number of followers, but as far as artistic and cultural impact is concerned.