Comparative Cultural History of the Imperial Vision reflected in the Round Trips between Tokyo and the South and the 50 Years History of the Godzilla Films.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520423
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literatures/Literary theories in other countries and areas
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: INOMATA Kenji 新潟大学, 人文社会・教育科学系, 准教授 (40223292)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 比較文学 / ゴジラ / モスラ / 日本映画 / 戦後日本 / 東京 / 南洋 / 核兵器

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In "Another Cultural History" called the 50 Years History of Godzilla Films beginning with "Godzilla" (1954), there is represented the continuous history of Showa Period of pre-war "Imperial Japan" and post-war "Defeated Japan" in conjunction with the post-war Japanese movies such as Mikio Naruse and Yasujiro Ozu.
Godzilla is existence to make round trips between "Tokyo" and "the South". From two points of view, (a) the historical and geographical characteristics of capital Tokyo which Godzilla films continued drawing and (b) the "Aspiration for the South" (a historical conception of the South) deeply concerned with pre-war and post-war Japan also traced in "Mothra" (1961), it is revealed a comparative cultural history of post-war Japan, by highlighting its "Imperial Vision", which the Godzilla films pictured as a "space of Nostalgia and the Requiem".

Free Research Field

比較文学比較文化