Obscured by War: Female Contemporary Artists Question Japanese Society

Knudsen 1

Mint Museum Symposium 2016

Camille Knudsen

March 7, 2016

Upon entering any Japanese culture course or reading articles on Japanese studies, the idea of Post War Japan is visited by scholars again and again. Most academics agree upon the notion that, unlike other countries involved in the Second World War, Japan is still in the Post War period and the Japanese national psyche has been damaged by the traumas of war and subsequent occupation by American forces (Harootunian 99). Supposedly this ‘Post War stasis’ is responsible for all sorts of social ills: the absence of the Japanese father in home life, the creation of the otaku subculture, and the nation-wide craving for cute or kawaii things (Yoda 238-274). In essence the emasculation of Japan by the American military through occupation created a national culture of weakness. Not only has this theory been explored by academics, artists address it as well.

The fascination of artists, like Murakami Takashi, with the apparent emasculation of Japan and the trap of Post War stasis created a marketable art culture for consumption by the international art world. Within this market, art that does not conform to the ideas of otaku aesthetics, militarization, and Japanese exceptionalism is ignored on a national and international level. However, creators, critics, collectors, and consumers have forgotten that what is often taken as normative is in reality a theory with both an infrastructure of support and detractors who see Japanese contemporary society and art practice in a different light.

By focusing on issues of masculinity depending on a nation’s ability to make war excludes the multiple groups that make up Japanese society other than able bodied men. Women, children, the elderly, and men whose identities are not dependent on toxic masculinity, the idea that men lack empathy, sensitivity, or cooperation, become barriers to political goals of war minded people; their needs and wants fall to the wayside in favors of policies and measures meant to restore the “manhood” of Japan.

While men and women both face social issues and often overlapping issues, this paper focuses on female artists and issues for the sake of brevity and narrowed scope. Japanese men’s issues, such as strict adherence to hierarchy, self-worth, and removal from the household, are also critiqued by artists and hopefully future research will expand interpretations of these themes. Women’s and queer issues are often overlooked by patriarchal societies; works by women artists are often not included in shows, which are typically run by men, and their works’ deeper meanings are overlooked in favor of their aesthetic appeal. Women artists tend to also be labeled as strictly female and therefore set as distinct from their male peers. When women artists discuss female issues, this does not set them apart from their male peers or make them unique due to a supposed inherent tendency to certain artistic styles, materials, or imagery. Instead the label of female is merely a descriptor of the artist not their work (Borggreen 184).

This paper will initially establish the historical record of the hyper-militarization and hyper-nationalism of the Meiji and Taisho eras, World War II, and Post-Occupation Japan in effort to outline the situation of contemporary Japan. Then the next subject of focus will be social issues that arise out of the Post War Period and the status of Feminist movements and theory. To conclude the paper, several Japanese artists’ works will be analyzed on a formal and critical basis on their relation to the social issues Japanese women face in Post War Japan.

Contemporary Japan

Contemporary Japan is marked by the start of the Heisei era and intense societal and cultural change. To recover from the economic downturn of the 1990s, many companies re-evaluated the way business was practice in Japan for decades. Some companies held fast to Japanese corporate structures, some followed the examples of foreign companies; either way, most companies rebounded by 2006 (Pyle 365). By incorporating global strategies, Japan acknowledged the need to integrate into the international, globalized economy. Concurrently, Japanese Prime Ministers attempted to integrate Japan into another global issue: war.

Japan’s Self Defense Force has increasingly sent support for UN Peacekeeping Operations that allow the Force to take advantage of interpretations of Article Nine, a section of the constitution that declares that Japan will not engage in wartime activities or form a standing army, since these missions are not technically wartime engagements for Japan. By aiding America during the Iraq War and purchasing air craft and carriers, Japan has slowly built up the Self Defense Force while waiting for a Prime Minister to successfully pass a revision of Article Nine (Pyle 266-268). While on paper Japan’s defense budget, or military spending, is less than one percent of the nation budget but it is actually estimated to be one of the top five largest budget’s globally (Pyle 368). The Japanese government desires to re-enter the global scene not only as an economic power, but an armed one as well.

In contrast to these government desires are the stances of many Japanese people. Japan has many citizen groups dedicated to awareness about issues like nuclear power, global peace, and education. The No to Constitutional Revision! Citizens’ Network was established to oppose revision of the constitution; Prime Minister Abe’s nationalist and conservative views have made this a serious issue. The Article 9 Association was founded by scholars, writers, and philosophers with diverse political leanings to spread awareness about the impacts of potential revisions (Chan 158-160). In a related issue, groups have sprung up to champion “comfort women” or military sex slaves who were taken from Korea, China, and Taiwan by the Japanese military. The government has been remiss in accepting responsibility for the crimes against women. The revisions to textbooks about Japan’s colonial efforts are also a topic of contention (Chan 167-170). Overall there appears to be disconnection between the wants and needs of the Japanese government and the wants and needs of the Japanese people.

Feminist Efforts in Japan

When discussing Feminism in a global context it is important to remember that there are multiple Feminisms. Too often are only the voices of white, upper class, heterosexual women heard while the multitude of issues that arise from race, class, and queer sexuality are ignored. While certain issues are more relevant for one demographic that does not negate the struggles of a different group. This is especially the case when comparing and contrasting the status of women in multiple countries or cultures. Japanese feminism developed in direct response to the increasing amount of contact with other countries from the Meiji period onward

The organized beginnings of the Japanese Feminist movement can be traced to the literary organization Seitosha. The early 1900s marked a time when gender roles of both men and women were evaluated and challenged. To support the nation, women were expected to be “good wives and wise mothers” (Lowy 2) in the private sphere while men were to adopted Western practices in the public sphere. This gender division was implemented to support the imperialist goals of the nation, not to benefit people individually. It is important to note that both men and women varied in their opinions and applications of the ‘New Woman’ (Lowy 3).

The Meiji era promoted and made legally binding the Ie system for all classes, not just the aristocrats and large clans. The Ie system was based on Confucian doctrines relating to filial piety and patriarchy. The eldest male in the family excised dominion over his relatives; the family head decided on succession, revised the family registry, and made decisions for his relatives about how they lived their lives and who they married. Women were second class citizens, unable to receive inheritance, could be divorced at will, and were servants to their fathers, husbands, and in-laws. In addition to this strict family system women were legally unable to join or organize political groups and could not even attending meetings. This Law on Associations and Meetings was passed during the newly founded Diet’s first year in 1890. This sudden conservancy could be in part due to Japan’s need to exert control over the population to encourage dedicated nationalism and suppress the voice of those most affected. (Lowy 4-6)

Even though early Feminists were hindered by laws and social expectations they established magazines and newspapers, wrote books and plays, and spoke out in public. The legal status of women, rights to education, and moral character of the nation were all subjects of early activism. The Seito magazine, or Bluestocking, was initially published in 1911 and funded by using editor Hiratsuka Raicho’s wedding savings (Lowy 10). Seito marked the first time a Japanese magazine was written by women for use by women. The magazine critiqued literature, plays, and promoted the idea that women could be more than a “good” wife.

The next era of change was ultimately due to the American Occupation, 1945 to 1952, after the war. The US authored constitution granted universal suffrage that included women, legally ended the Ie system, granted freedom to marry or divorce, given equal rights as parents, legalized abortion, and made prostitution illegal which women often sold into by family members (Yamamoto 131). Many Japanese women were unsure of their new rights and how their lives would change. Grassroot organizations emerged for the purpose of uniting these women and were successful in influencing urban issues. Even today many women’s groups are politically active as anti-war and anti-nuclear activists (Yamamoto 153- 180).

Current Japanese Feminism was defined during the 1970s. Women’s access to abortions was challenged by possible revision to the Eugenic Protection Law. This period of Japanese feminism also sought to challenge sexism in Japanese culture and attain “sexual liberation” (Gelb 29). The work of these groups, like the International Woman’s Year Group, also helped to pass the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, an equal employment law. The Asian Women Association was established in the 1970s with the goals of ending male sexual exploitation of women through sex tourism, calling attention to “comfort women”, and building unity among Asian women (Gelb 30).

Feminists today address multiple issues, some like those of the past and some that are unique products of contemporary Japan. For example, the now 1.4 birthrate is increasingly called a “women’s problem,” a moniker that seems to assume women are able to reproduce independently with nor regard to personal desires, career goals, and monetary stability. Childless women have been called selfish and undeserving of tax money funded pensions by Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Yet, women in Japan who given birth are not guaranteed maternity leave or job security upon reentering the work force (Chambers 173). Even with equal employment women state that they feel as if they must work twice as hard as men to gain any respect or hope at receiving a promotion.

On the other side of the spectrum, men in Japan are not encouraged to look at employment options outside of the typical corporate work force. In a recent 2016 controversy over this subject, manga artist Higashimura Akiko attempted to publish a series called Himoxile, chronicling the efforts of men attempting to become house-husbands. The manga, a Japanese comic, was met with strong resistance and Higashimura decided to reexamine the script in order to respectfully treat the extremely sensitive subject of men who do not conform to gendered work norms. It is clear within the current popular culture landscape that Japanese Feminism is mostly concerned with the reversal of strict gender roles that negative impact both men and women.

The Status of Contemporary Art in Japan

Japan’s highly gender divided society is reflected in its art scene. One of the most well-known contemporary artists to come from Japan is Murakami Takashi. Murakami represent a movement known as “Superflat”, part of a larger category of Japanese Neo Pop, as defined by art critic Sawaragi Noi. Sawaragi states that “Neo Pop…visualizes the historical distortion of Japan for the eyes of the whole world” (Sawaragi 205). In this phrase, Sawaragi is referencing his assertion that “the memory of war has only been preserved in the realm of Superflat.” Sawaragi’s statements are polarizing and debatable in an art historical context since other artists depict effects of the war in photography, painting, and performance without conforming to Superflat. And this preoccupation with the masculine dominated interpretations of war excludes alternative voices. Nevertheless, this estimation of the Japanese art world accurately reflect the attitudes of Murakami.

Murakami possesses a rather nihilistic view of Japanese art. To him Japan is flattened, “society, customs, art, and culture: all are extremely 2-D” (Murakami 153). He blames this flattened society on the trauma of Japan’s defeat in World War II and the American occupation; to Murakami the metaphor of Japan as a little boy in a world of mature countries has truth. Both Sawaragi and Murakami commiserate on the so called rejection of Japanese art and Japanese artists’ status as “‘less than human’ in the eyes of ‘humans’ of the West” (Murakami 161). Murakami’s international success makes this statement questionable.

Katy Siegel’s article “In the Air” lists Murakami’s ultimate goals: to have a great impact on culture, to be important, to make money, and to have his ideas and images everywhere (Siegel 277). Murakami respects the prior examples of Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and Damien Hirst as superstar artists. As most Pop artists do, Murakami uses imagery and themes of low-culture or subcultures for his work. Yet Murakami’s appropriation of imagery and labor from the originators created a distance and dissatisfaction among the otaku, the masculine subculture he is most directly linked to within Japanese culture.

Murakami often states that he is an “otaku who could not truly become one” yet identifies with the group. Otaku are a collective group of mostly men who dedicate their lives to watching anime and collecting merchandise of their favorite characters; otaku hold negative connotation due to their rejection of Japanese social convention and supposed sexual perversion (Miho 107). Superflat in a simple sense is a reinterpretation and adaption of otaku aesthetics into palatable work for sale in the high art world. Indeed, otaku often volunteer to work in Murakami’s workshops as free labor to create figurines. Yet otaku criticize Murakami’s work and speak about his surface level understanding of otaku culture. There is a decided tension between this sub-culture and Murakami, who has expressed the view that otaku as a negative result of Postwar Japan, a symptom of Japan’s cultural weakness. (Azuma 63-66)

Murakami’s works and opinions dominated the market and hold public interest due to the easily accessible yet exotic nature of his works paired with an overwhelming number of artists who easily fit into the Superflat label. At Art Basel Miami in 2007 and Murakami’s curated show Tokyo Girls Bravo, Murakami presented Japanese women marketed as “girls” whose work complimented his Superflat aesthetic. He used the fetishization of “girls” to broaden his international appeal while giving his paternal approval to a select few female artists. This paper is concerned with female artists who work outside of the confines of Murakami’s labels. (Favell 33-36)

Feminist Art in a Japanese Context

The show Global Feminisms, produced by the Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklynn Museum, included a range of artists from Asia, including several Japanese artists. The goal of the show was to present the multiple feminisms that are expressed by a transnational, multicultural selection of female artists in response to their individual issues. The differences that arise from race, class, ethnicity, and culture were celebrated by selecting a diverse body of work for the show. The curators stated that they hope to encourage future endeavors both for artists and future culture change.

One of the catalogue articles, by Michiko Kasahara, entitled “Contemporary Japanese Women’s Self-Awareness” postulates that contemporary Japanese art is becoming more aware of gender issues in a modern context. Based on a history of feminism, mentioned prior in the essay, Kasahara focuses most on the photographic work of Miwa Yanagi, who is known for her criticisms of the commodification of women in the form of elevator girls and the celebration self-determined old women imagined by their younger selves. Kasahara states that Japanese women long for self-awareness and work like Yanagi’s will lead contemporary women in their journey for selfhood and social rights. (Kasahara 96-105)