This dissertation examines the link between anarchism and agrarian thought in modern Japan through the investigation of the life and ideas of radical intellectual Ishikawa Sanshiro (1876-1956). I track its emergence from the time of Ishikawa's involvement in the socialist movement in the early 1900s to its development during his exile years in Europe between 1913 and 1920 and then after his return home through to the end of the Pacific War. I show how concern for the traditions and condition of farming communities informed a certain strand of non-violent anarchism premised on environmental awareness and cooperative principles fostered through the practices of everyday life. By rescuing from near historiographical oblivion a major dissenting figure of modern Japan, this study gives prominence to a distinctive anarchist intellectual contribution. I examine both the theoretical premises and related socio-political applications, highlighting Ishikawa's role for over five decades as a creative force of social change and a bulwark against authoritarianism. Thus, this work puts forward a more nuanced understanding of the movement of popular agrarianism that marked the interwar period, often pigeon-holed by historians as an adjunct of radical nationalism. I also probe the ecological critique embedded in Ishikawa's vision of the man-nature interaction, which remained vital over the decades and has direct relevance to presentday concerns. The tracing of Ishikawa's connections, both transnational and within Japan, provides the main methodological axis of this study. It appraises dissenting politics through the lens of actual praxis rather than categorization of ideological differences. Likewise, transnational connections are given agency as a mutually creative process rather than as a unidirectional transmission of ideas and values from West to East.

This dissertation focuses on the production and development of a conspicuous, widespread culture phenomenon in contemporary Japan, which is characterized by numerous young, mediapromoted personalities, or pop-idols, who are groomed for public consumption. The research, based on eighteen months of in-depth fieldwork in the Japanese entertainment industry, aims to contribute to the understanding of the allegorical role played by pop-idols in the creation of youth culture. Pop-idols are analyzed as personified symbols that function as vehicles of cultural production. The principal issues suggested in this research include: the criteria of popidol production; the ways in which pop-idols are produced; the perceptions of pop-idol performances by producers, performers, and consumers; the ways in which idol personalities are differentiated from each other; the ways in which pop-idol performances are distinguished from other styles or genres; and the social, cultural, political, economic, and historical roots as well as consequences of pop-idols' popularity. These issues are explored through the examination of female pop-idols. The single, most important function of pop-idols is to represent young people's fashions, customs, and lifestyles. To this end, the pop-idol industry generates a variety of styles that can provide the young audience with pathways toward appropriate adulthood. They do this within their power structure as well as their commercial interest to capitalize on adolescence - which in Japan is considered the period in which individuals are expected to explore themselves in the adult social world. The stylized promotion, practiced differently by promotion agencies that strive to merchandise pop-idol images and win public recognition, constitutes a field of symbolic contestation. The stage is thus set for an investigation of the strategies, techniques, and processes of adolescent identity formation as reified in the construction of idol personalities. This dissertation offers a contextualized account of dialogue that occurs between capitalism, particular rhetoric of self-making, and the lifestyle of consumers, mediated by pop-idols and their manufacturing agencies that function together as the cultural apparatus. The analysis developed in this dissertation hopes to provide theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of celebrities in other social, cultural, and historical settings.

This is the first doctoral level Ainu study outside Japan from an indigenous perspective, and the first academic Ainu study ever from a female perspective. This study examines the indigenous history and shamanism of northern Japan, Hokkaido andTsugaru, in the context of the Ainu culture complex. Tsugaru was the last autonomous stronghold of the Ainu people in Honshu, remaining largely independent until it came under the control of the Japanese state, the Edo government, in the seventeenth century. Tsugaru has developed a distinct hybrid culture as a result of gradual mtermixing with non-indigenous populations, though an Ainu consciousness has never completely died out in the region. A comparison between Hokkaido Ainu shamanism and Tsugaru shamanism reveals the relative recentness of their contemporary characteristics, their shared roots prior to the Edo period, as well as changes in gender roles and aspects of gender inequity. In both traditions, shamanism has been transmitted primarily by the female population, and in the past, indigenous women played an essential role in maintaining social and spiritual integrity. The centrality of women came to manifest itself differently in the two regions, due mainly to differing socio-historical circumstances which transformed two originally similar cultures into divergent forms. This study questions the stereotypical ethnic opposition between the Ainu and the "Japanese," and sheds light on the intricate relationship among the Ainu and other indigenous groups in northern Japan. It also questions the powerful Ainu male myth and narratives which shaped much of the Ainu's cultural revival movement in the past century. Firthermore, by revealing a significant level of shared spiritual beliefs and practices between the past and present inhabitants of the Japanese archepelago of Japan and the traditional peoples of Northeast Asia and byond the Bering Strait, the study will point to a need for both Ainu study and Japanese study to be placed within the larger cultural domain, namely, the northern circumpacific region.

This dissertation focuses on the production and development of a conspicuous, widespread culture phenomenon in contemporary Japan, which is characterized by numerous young, mediapromoted personalities, or pop-idols, who are groomed for public consumption. The research, based on eighteen months of in-depth fieldwork in the Japanese entertainment industry, aims to contribute to the understanding of the allegorical role played by pop-idols in the creation of youth culture. Pop-idols are analyzed as personified symbols that function as vehicles of cultural production. The principal issues suggested in this research include: the criteria of popidol production; the ways in which pop-idols are produced; the perceptions of pop-idol performances by producers, performers, and consumers; the ways in which idol personalities are differentiated from each other; the ways in which pop-idol performances are distinguished from other styles or genres; and the social, cultural, political, economic, and historical roots as well as consequences of pop-idols' popularity. These issues are explored through the examination of female pop-idols. The single, most important function of pop-idols is to represent young people's fashions, customs, and lifestyles. To this end, the pop-idol industry generates a variety of styles that can provide the young audience with pathways toward appropriate adulthood. They do this within their power structure as well as their commercial interest to capitalize on adolescence - which in Japan is considered the period in which individuals are expected to explore themselves in the adult social world. The stylized promotion, practiced differently by promotion agencies that strive to merchandise pop-idol images and win public recognition, constitutes a field of symbolic contestation. The stage is thus set for an investigation of the strategies, techniques, and processes of adolescent identity formation as reified in the construction of idol personalities. This dissertation offers a contextualized account of dialogue that occurs between capitalism, particular rhetoric of self-making, and the lifestyle of consumers, mediated by pop-idols and their manufacturing agencies that function together as the cultural apparatus. The analysis developed in this dissertation hopes to provide theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of celebrities in other social, cultural, and historical settings. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This is the first doctoral level Ainu study outside Japan from an indigenous perspective, and the first academic Ainu study ever from a female perspective. This study examines the indigenous history and shamanism of northern Japan, Hokkaido andTsugaru, in the context of the Ainu culture complex. Tsugaru was the last autonomous stronghold of the Ainu people in Honshu, remaining largely independent until it came under the control of the Japanese state, the Edo government, in the seventeenth century. Tsugaru has developed a distinct hybrid culture as a result of gradual mtermixing with non-indigenous populations, though an Ainu consciousness has never completely died out in the region. A comparison between Hokkaido Ainu shamanism and Tsugaru shamanism reveals the relative recentness of their contemporary characteristics, their shared roots prior to the Edo period, as well as changes in gender roles and aspects of gender inequity. In both traditions, shamanism has been transmitted primarily by the female population, and in the past, indigenous women played an essential role in maintaining social and spiritual integrity. The centrality of women came to manifest itself differently in the two regions, due mainly to differing socio-historical circumstances which transformed two originally similar cultures into divergent forms. This study questions the stereotypical ethnic opposition between the Ainu and the "Japanese," and sheds light on the intricate relationship among the Ainu and other indigenous groups in northern Japan. It also questions the powerful Ainu male myth and narratives which shaped much of the Ainu's cultural revival movement in the past century. Firthermore, by revealing a significant level of shared spiritual beliefs and practices between the past and present inhabitants of the Japanese archepelago of Japan and the traditional peoples of Northeast Asia and byond the Bering Strait, the study will point to a need for both Ainu study and Japanese study to be placed within the larger cultural domain, namely, the northern circumpacific region. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

This thesis examines the Japanese military conquests leading up to their attack on Pearl Harbor, including aggression towards Korea, China, and the Pacific islands.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1956 M86 / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / Modern Languages and Cultures / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

abstract / Japanese Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy