| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000)
Fiscal Year 1994: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This research is an investigation of Okinawan popular culture, especially youth culture as it offers a model of Okinawan identity that simulate the forms neither of ethnic absolutism nor of assimilationism : the reconstruction of Okinawan identity in historical terms is a case of the former, while the replacement of Okinawan reality with the standard of Japanese mainland is a case of the latter. Against these powerful narratives of origin by the recovery of memory and of unity through assimilation posited is the narrative of "third space, " as it were, the space the youth culture creates. Okinawa city (Koza) is the source of this creation : this city is full of music, theater, and other cultural activities. By examining the activities of the theatrical group, Shochiku Kagekidan, I have tried to came to terms with the newly emergent aesthetic form that critically engages in the issues of intellectual concern : namely, the question of Okinawan identity.
In order to discuss their activities I relied theoretically on the series of concepts articulated in cultural studies : Fernando Ortiz's notion of "transculturation" and Nestor Carcia Canclini's "hybrid culture." These notions highlight a process, rather than a product, of cultural creation that occurs in the interface of multiple cultures with uneven power. Thus, the youth culture in Koza, for example, is a product of negotiation between the powerful forces of narratives proposed to rearticulate the contradiction in the Okinawan life.
In comparison with other "regions" and other "histories, " I have noted that what I have described for Okinawan youth culture is not unique but common : for example, the creation of Harlem Renaissance in the twenties among the African Americans in the United States. I will present in the future a call for "Okinawan Modernism, " a contemporary aesthetic and political movement.
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