M.A. - East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/2036

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Beauty beyond the real: On Sōseki's Kusamakura
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2025) McMillin, Tyler; Haag, Andre; East Asian Language & Literature
This thesis aims to reevaluate the place and legacy of Natsume Sōseki’s 1906 novel Kusamakura. We argue that, in addition to challenging the literary norms of its time, Kusamakura serves as a manifesto for Sōseki’s idea of beauty and as a defense of beauty as an autonomous literary and artistic ideal in the age of realism, thus granting it an important place in the history of Japanese literary aestheticism. Through a close analysis of the poetics undergirding the work, the writing technique of shasei (sketching) and the affective dynamics implied in the protagonist’s mindset of hininjō (emotional detachment), we show how and why the novel reforms its basic matter–a romantic situation–into a static image of beauty that transcends, without destroying, the real. We think that Sōseki’s preoccupation with beauty as a literary ideal, as discussed in this thesis, is something that should be taken into account when his legacy is considered, in order to widen our understanding of his thought and imagination, and to possibly point out other avenues of influence in later phases of modern Japaneseliterature.
“Bewail the current – embellish the past": The role of nostalgia, traditionalism, and the past in contemporary J-pop
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2025) Gazarov, Valeriy; Haag, Andre; East Asian Language & Literature
This thesis puts together approaches from musicology, area studies, and media studies to analyze how contemporary J-pop deploys nostalgia, traditionalism, and the past in ways that extend and transform postwar Japanese musical trends. While studies on nostalgia and traditionalism have been well explored in Japanese music in the postwar era, their role in contemporary J-pop remains underexplored. Through the analyses of three primary case studies, REOL’s “YoiYoi Kokon,” Wagakki Band’s “Tengaku,” and BAND-MAIKO’s “Gion-chō,” this study identifies deeply ambivalent uses of furusato, imagined nostalgia, idealization of the past, and estrangement. The feeling of estrangement manifests as two versions of “homelessness,” one that either looks for the comfort of the past, such as the furusato, or one that looks forward to the future, a feeling of “homesickness,” with both indicating a feeling of dissatisfaction and dislocation in the present. Ultimately, this research suggests that contemporary J-pop builds upon inherited musical and cultural elements to novelly explore nostalgia through the universal language of music.
A man obsessed with a “beautiful death” interpreting the main character of the Sea of Fertility, Honda Shigekuni, based on Mishima Yukio’s aesthetic sense
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2025) Takamatsu, Sanae; Haag, Andre; East Asian Language & Literature
This thesis reexamines the role of Honda Shigekuni, the only recurring character in Mishima Yukio’s The Sea of Fertility tetralogy to appear in all four novels, through the lens of Mishima’s aesthetic of a beautiful death. Traditionally regarded as a passive observer or narrator, Honda is reinterpreted here as an active figure driven by a persistent desire to witness the perfection of beauty through death. The study begins by investigating the literary influence Izumi Kyōka had on Mishima, focusing on shared themes such as the perfection of beauty through death and the erotic nature of pain and blood. Building on this aesthetic framework, this thesis critiques prior studies and interpretations of Honda’s role as a savior and instead analyzes his actions as if motivated by an eroticized fascination with beauty and destruction. By the final volume of the series, Honda’s obsessive desire leads to his active intervention in the life of the reincarnated youth, Tōru, whom he adopts and attempts to educate, while also revealing his deep-seated envy and masochistic longings. Ultimately, Honda emerges not only as a witness but also as an active participant in Mishima’s aesthetic ideology. The thesis concludes by considering the real-world implications of Mishima’s suicide on the day of the tetralogy’s completion, proposing that the author himself enacted the ultimate beautiful death to complete the fictional world he had created.
KANSAI DIALECT AS PROTEST: IDEOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM IN KAWAKAMI MIEKO AND NOSAKA AKIYUKI
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2021) Ammon, Nicholas; Haag, Andre; East Asian Language & Literature
Nosaka Akiyuki’s “America Hijiki” and Kawakami Mieko’s Chichi to Ran both utilize Kansai dialect in their investigations of the influence of hegemonic systems of language and power upon the individual’s dialectic of gender and self. Tracing the nature of dialect in each narrative as symbolism complicates and deepens the possible meanings of each texts’ ideological concerns. The hybrid perspective of the narrative of America Hijiki between the present narrative of postwar 1960’s Japan, voiced in 3rd person standard Japanese, and the memories of war and the US occupation, voiced in first person dialect, illustrates the disassociating effect on the self caused by incongruous personal and social memories. The memories that illustrate the emasculated Japanese male ego disrupt the standard narrative of postwar economic success and Japanese virility both linguistically and figuratively. This disruption symbolizes the state of all men who experienced US occupation and victory in WWII now surrounded by a society that wishes to forget. Chichi to Ran, directly translated as Breasts and Eggs, is a multi-voiced narrative from two women’s perspectives detailing the experiences with/of their bodies, society, and each other. These women’s voices struggle with the interpersonal and personal turmoil caused by societal construction. The narrative symbolically protests these same constructions and binaries by positing a hybrid ‘neo-dialect’. The voices of patriarchal norms in the novel are most perfectly embodied by an absent father whose obfuscations of his responsibility to the woman with whom he fathered a child are spoken in the standard Japanese. By contrast, these women’s narrative voices and dialogues are represented in a hybrid ‘neo-dialect’ of Osakan and standard. The content of these women’s experiences but also this hybridity, itself, contests the neat categories of language and gender expectations therein.
CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE MYSTERY FICTION IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION: TWO WORKS OF THE IYA-MYS SUBGENRE
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2021) Cardello, Joseph Michael; Haag, Andre; East Asian Language & Literature
Iya-mys is a subgenre of contemporary Japanese mystery fiction whose name is abbreviated Japanese that means “mystery that gives an unpleasant feeling” and is said to leave the readers with a bad aftertaste at its conclusion. The subgenre has been gaining popularity, particularly since the release of Minato Kanae’s 2008 novel, Confessions (Kokuhaku), which has been translated into English and other world languages, won several awards both in Japan and the US, and has been made into a Japanese-language film. However, there is still a lack of iya-mys fiction in English translation. This thesis presents English translations of one novella by Minato Kanae, “My Dearest,” and one by Michio Shūsuke, “Beast,” in hopes of bringing the subgenre to Western audiences. This thesis also presents discussion of the story analysis and of the considerations necessary for translating iya-mys fiction.
Heartbeat, Heartbreak: Persona 4, Reparative Reading, and Queer Identity in the Japanese Countryside
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) McIntyre, Lillian; Haag, Andre; East Asian Languages and Literatures
This thesis weaves together approaches from queer studies, area studies, and game studies to analyze the 2008 game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 within a broader context of depictions of the Japanese countryside and representations of alternative gendered and sexual identities. While reception of the game’s attempts to explore sexuality have been fraught in both American and Japanese contexts, a survey of how the text is situated within broader histories of queer and rural depictions reveals that this juxtaposition in Persona 4 still belies a hopeful perspective. In contrast to theorizations of the myth of metronormativity, Persona 4 challenges standard teleological coming-out stories and situates the countryside as a place where queer youth can exist. Ultimately, this research suggests that games in broader culture and transnational contexts can encourage new considerations of queer identities beyond the typical identity categories suggested by the acronym LGBTQ+. This thesis also provides an overview of the game’s English and Japanese-language receptions on the fifteenth anniversary of Persona 4.
(Net)Working: Labor and the Internet in Murakami Ryū's Exodus of the Land of Hope and Wataya Risa's Install.
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2017-12) Almony, James J. K.; East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)
This thesis is about two works of Japanese literature: Murakami Ryū’s Kibō no kuni no ekusodasu (Exodus of the Land of Hope, 2000. Hereafter, Exodus), and Wataya Risa’s Insutōru (Install, 2001).
Voiceless Victims: Narratives of Rape in Okinawan Fiction
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2017-08) Reidpath, Hilson G.; East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)
Poetic spirit and internal necessity: an interpretation of the literature and artistic philosophy of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, as understood through the writings of Wassily Kandinsky
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2013-12) Wilder, Nicole Lea
In the first section of "Bungeiteki na, amari ni bungeiteki na" ("Literary, all too Literary," 1927), Akutagawa Ryūnosuke briefly discusses two of the most influential painters of the early twentieth century, Paul Cézanne and Wassily Kandinsky. He uses these two artists as examples to help describe the concept of the 'hanashi' rashii hanashi no nai shōsetsu ("novel with no story-like story"), which he argues is the purest type of novel.1 Cézanne's paintings, he writes, rely more heavily on color than on dessin, or structure, and yet are full of life. Kandinsky goes a step further, as the only artist who manages to do away completely with the need for dessin, as seen in his Improvisations. Though the passage concerning Cézanne and Kandinsky is often cited in critical works that address "Bungeiteki" and the famous ronsō ("literary debate") with Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, of which it forms one side, the significance of this short section concerning dessin, and specifically the mention of Kandinsky, remains largely overlooked. By citing the works of the Post-Impressionist Cézanne and the Expressionist Kandinsky, Akutagawa indicates an extremely important path of influence that has yet to be fully explored in the critical literature surrounding his writing. Consideration of Akutagawa's lifelong engagement with the visual arts is essential to a complete understanding of his career.
Saibara: a study and linguistic analysis of the Heian period fūzoku song collection
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Scanlon-Canegata, James William
Saibara is one of several fuzoku 'folk' collections preserved as part of the Heian period court music repertoire. The collection preserves 61 songs in its two earliest extant manuscripts, Nabeshimake-bon and Tenji-bon (12 c.). As a fuzoku collection, Saibara is frequently attributed to regionality and peripheral provinces outside the capital, especially Azuma (eastern provinces). The geographic distribution of the songs reconstructed from regions and place names mentioned throughout the collection are huddled in and around the capital Heiankyō, with the largest number of songs referring to locations in the Kinai and Tōkaidō and Tōsandō regions to the northeast. Speculation based on such historical evidence is both quantitatively and qualitatively limited. In a departure from traditional studies on the collection, using linguistic analysis, this study looks at Saibara in order to shed light on the origins and historical context of the songs--through the language recorded in the text. The primary goal of this study is to give a descriptive analysis of the language of the Saibara songs. There are several imperatives that drive the research undertaken here. To begin, Saibara is a drastically understudied text in Western literary and linguistic scholarship. This is despite the collection's potential merits as an early heterogeneous collection of Heian period literature with ties to texts and historical records from as early as the ninth century. The mysterious provenance of the songs has tantalized early and modern Japanese scholars, but conjecture has yet to give way to substantial theories regarding their origins and historical context. There has been something of a renaissance in serious philological work on Saibara recently, with new studies coming out of Japan that engage the collection as a pre-modern literary work, as opposed to collection of music lyrics (gagaku) (e.g. Fujiwara 2011, Motozuka Wataru 2012). This thesis systematically looks at the writing and language of the text and, based on comparative textual evidence, asserts that the songs recorded in Saibara likely predate the oldest extant manuscripts by at least a century--and further that there is strong evidence for an established transcription system for recording these and other songs from at least the mid-late Nara period. This study's analysis is centralized around the orthography, phonology, and morphology of the text in order to illuminate the language that underlies it. In doing this, a rough dating of the (language of the) text, a better understanding of its origins, as well as the transitional linguistic period of the mid-tenth and eleventh centuries can establish a basis for setting the work within a historical context on its own merits. Thus, this thesis can be divided into two sections: the first section gives a description of the history of the collection, including perspectives on the historical context and provenance of the songs (sections 1.1-1.3, chapter 3, 5, and 7). In this part I will also be looking at extant manuscripts and recensions, as well as giving an overview of previous scholarship. Chapter six is a comparative study of Saibara and the Man'yōshū, as well as intertextuality between the Kokinshū and Nihon shoki. Chapter eight looks at distinct features of the songs, specifically hayashi kotoba. The second section is a graphemic study of the writing and description of phonology and grammar of the text. In large part, this analysis is done vis-à-vis Old Japanese and Middle Japanese, which I have used as an anchor for my analysis. This study uses primarily the four oldest extant manuscripts, Nabeshimake-bon, Tenjibon, Jinchi yōroku and Sango yōroku, with special attention to those written in man'yōgana (Nabeshimake-bon, Tenji-bon). Several other manuscripts and early studies are also used as supplementary texts and contrast is provided when relevant. When available, original manuscript facsimiles were used and typescript copies were consulted.
Historicizing the hinmin: social discourse and fiction in turn-of-the-century Japan
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-08) Kimura, Tomoki
Toward the end of 19th century, the term hinmin (貧民)--which generally refers to "the poor'" or "the needy," and which was almost interchangeably used with saimin (細民)--became prevalent in public discourse addressing "social problems," such as poverty, the slums, and prostitution. In a Yomiuri newspaper article published in April 4, 1890, titled "Ease and Privation" (Rakukyō to kukyō 楽境と苦境), the term hinmin appears in conjunction with another term shakai (society社会) as hinmin shakai (貧民社会). In the article, hinmin shakai is juxtaposed against Tokyō's hyōmen (surface表面), which at that time enjoyed the huge success of the third national industrial exhibition. Beneath the "surface" of Tokyō's prosperity, the author claims, there are those who suffer incredible privations and hardships due to exorbitant interest rates and an increase in rice prices. Therefore, the author adds, the leaders of shakai must not be intoxicated with prosperity and overlook the suffering of hinmin. This particular period of time, as Carol Gluck observes, was characterized by the discovery of shakai mondai (social problems社会問題) by Meiji ideologues. As shakai became specified as the locus of numerous dislocations resulting from Meiji modernity, the term hinmin came into use to represent the "victims" of the new social structure of Japan.
Kanji instruction at a Japanese supplementary school in the U.S.
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008) Yamaguchi, Yukiko R.
Japanese supplementary schools used to consist mostly of students who temporarily live abroad and return to Japan within a few years. However, with globalization, more and more students who permanently live in foreign countries have enrolled in such schools to study Japanese as a heritage language. Due to the diversification of these students' backgrounds, Japanese supplementary schools all around the world face difficulties implementing traditional methods of teaching. One area that has proved particularly challenging involves the instruction of kanji. The present study investigates Japanese supplementary school teachers' beliefs and pedagogical practices in kanji instruction. Through this examination, this study aims to identify the challenges Japanese supplementary school teachers are currently experiencing in relation to kanji instruction and suggest methods to address these challenges. The overall structure of this study is as follows: Chapter 2 examines the previous literature on Japanese supplementary schools, kanji instruction, and teachers' beliefs. In Chapter 3, the research questions are stated, and the methods, instruments, and procedure of the research are described in detail. The participants' beliefs about kanji instruction are identified in Chapter 4 and their instructional strategies are investigated in Chapter 5. Finally, pedagogical and research implications are discussed in Chapter 6.
Pause fillers and gender in Japanese and Korean: a comparative sociolinguistic study
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2007) Kim, Ok-Sim
Impact of scaffolding on L2 learning in the zone of proximal development: collaborative interaction in a Japanese language classroom
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2007) Hoshi, Saori
The present study entails a longitudinal qualitative investigation of ways in which learning is appropriated through socially mediated interactions. While there have been numerous SLA studies within the sociocultural framework that exarmne impacts of assisted interactions on L2 learning and development (Adair-Hauck & Donato, 1994; Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994, 1995; Ant6n & DiCarnilla, 1999; de Guerrero & Villamil, 2000; Donato, 1994; Ohta, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001; Storch, 2002; Young & Miller, 2004), research on evidence of subsequent learner development of L2 competencies beyond the immediate impact of interaction on learning has remained scarce. This study is an attempt to analyze the possibility that learners' abilities gained through interactions with expert speakers (native speakers of Japanese) may have a sustained impact on self-regulation (or internalization) for the learners and thereby may allow the learners to provide assistance or "pass on" their new competence in the subsequent interactions with other peers. vii
Narratives of space and place in three works by Nakagami Kenji
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005) Petitto, Joshua
Rediscovering Musha-ism: the theory of happiness in the early works of Mushakōji Saneatsu
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005) Mochizuki, Yoshihiro
Akutagawa Ryfinosuke (1892-1927), despite being one of the "darkest" voices in modem Japanese literature, admired Mushakoji's literature. When the White Birch School was established, men of letters from other schools mocked its members saying, "What can the spoiled sons of the aristocracy achieve in literary circles? People even made fun of them by anagramming the name of the school "Shirakaba" to "bakarashi" (ridiculous). Moreover, they were famously criticized by Naturalists, the mainstream writers of the time, as "having been born with silver spoons in their mouths."l0 In such an adverse wind for the White Birch School, Akutagawa was one of the few people who stood up for Mushakoji's literature. "Mr. Mushakoji flung open a skylight, admitting fresh air into the oppressive atmosphere of the literary circles," he said. Indeed, Mushakoji's emphasis on happiness and positive egotism brought a new trend to Taisho literature. And perhaps this was something only those born with silver spoons in their mouths could possibly achieve. Mushakoji was able to reach the "skylight" because of his "high" birth as the son of a duke. Rephrasing Akutagawa's famous pronouncement, I hope to "fling open a skylight" on the writings of Mushakoji Saneatsu, which have languished in the shadows of scholarly neglect, and reveal Musha-ism, his theory of happiness.
The founder reinterpreted: Kukai and Vraisemblant narrative
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003-05) Matsuda, William J.; Thornhill, Arthur; East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)
Japanese pitch-accent: cross-linguistic perceptions by speakers of stress- and pitch-accent languages
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003-05) Lanz, Linda A.; Serafim, Leon A; East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)
This thesis investigates the perception of Japanese pitch accent by native speakers of pitch-accent languages and stress-accent languages. In particular, it seeks to determine whether or not pitch accent is a salient feature across language boundaries. An experiment was conducted to compare the correct perception of Japanese pitch accent by native speakers of three pitch-accent languages (Punjabi, Serbo-Croatian, and Swedish) and three stress-accent languages (English, Russian, and Samoan). For several reasons, this study employed the Kyoto dialect of Japanese, rather than the Tokyo dialect. The experiment - conducted either in person or via the Internet - was unable to refute the null hypothesis that neither pitch-accent speakers nor stress-accent speakers would be more successful at accurately perceiving Japanese pitch accent. However, a statistical analysis employing ANOVA revealed that there was a significant correlation between accent category of the Japanese test items and the subjects' performance, regardless of native language.
Machiko: Nogami Yaeko's Perspective on Self-Realization and Marriage
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002-12) Hisamoto, Mayumi; Lower, Lucy; East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)

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