Japanese Women Writers

The following discussion about contemporary works by Japanese or
Japanese-American women dealing with gender, class, and ethnicity
in a modern context took place on WMST-L in May 2005.  For
additional WMST-L files available on the Web, see the
WMST-L File Collection.

Hello,

I am searching for contemporary works by Japanese or Japanese-American women
(translated in English), preferably autobiographical, that deal with issues
of gender, class, and ethnicity in a modern context. They can be either
novels, short stories, or other literary genres. I am teaching a course
entitled "Global Perspectives of Gender, Class, and Ethnicity" at a Japanese
university to students with an intermediate to high-intermediate level of
English proficiency, about 70% of whom are women, and most of whom will
study abroad at an English-speaking university a year from now. They are
currently reading "A Woman" by Aleramo (along with articles and other
materials), but they are finding it difficult, both from a linguistic as
well as a cultural standpoint, being that the novel takes place in Italy 100
years ago. While I will continue to use "A Woman" for this course, I would
like to be able to supplement it with literature by Japanese or
Japanese-American women, as well as take into consideration possible
literary works to use for the next academic year.

Thank you in advance,
Steve

--
Steve Silver
Kansai Gaidai University
Room 1428
16-1 Nakamiyahigashino-cho
Hirakata, Osaka 573-1001
Japan
sgsilver  AT  spamcop.net

One of my favorite novels to use with students is MY YEAR OF MEATS by Ruth
Ozeki.  Protagonists are a Japanese-American woman documentary film maker
producing a cooking show sponsored by the American Meat Council for Japanese
TV, and a Japanese woman breaking away from her abusive husband.

Leslie Li from Saxtons River has writted a "loving ode to family and
food, Daughter of Heaven a Memoir of Earthly Recipes is an exquisite
blend of memory, history and the senses. Daughter of Heaven is a
powerful touching memoir written by the granddaughter of Li Zongren, the
first democratically elected vice president of China. In her memoir she
recounts the sights smells and tastes which her grandmother Nai-Nai
brought when she came from China to their house in New York City.
Nai-Nai^-s tantalizing exotic cooking opens up the heart and mind of her
American granddaughter to her Chinese heritage -- and to the world.
Interspersed throughout her intimate and loving memoir are the author^-s
personal recipes, which add a delicious dimension to the work."

Kyoko Mori's Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures
(New York: Henry Holt, 1998) by an alumna of my campus now on the
creative writing faculty at Harvard about growing up in the heartland
here.  One of my favorite quotes is in her excellent analysis of how
even language can be a barrier to an Asian-American girl growing up
"caught between cultures." She writes, "in Japanese, I don't have a
voice to speak my mind."  As a writer, she analyzes the the linguistic
gulf between the very differently gendered languages of English and
Japanese in ways that might be especially apt for your students.  And
as a teacher of creative writing, she writes as concisely as a haiku
and as engagingly as a good teacher can -- but with a lovely flair
that, I think, reflects the artistry of her heritage.

Enjoy the cherry blossoms.  I saw video on CNN from the most famous of
the cherry blossom festivals, being held right now at the height of
the bloom, and the beauty of the scene was beyond belief.

________________________
Genevieve G. McBride, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
gmcbride  AT  uwm.edu

"Let all the dreamers wake the nation. . . ."
                                           Carly Simon

Hi, Steve,

There are a couple of anthologies of fiction by Japanese that are good:

This Kind of Woman (I think out of print) and
To Live and to Write.

There are a number of other books that you could look at.  A book I
co-edited with Prof. Mizuho Terasawa from Waseda U, The Outsider Within,
has a mid-length bibliography.

As for Japanese-American women writers, these books come to mind right
away:

Desert Run
Seventeen Syllables
Obasan (Japanese-Canadian)

I could look up more information once I am done with the semester (in a
week), so please feel free to e-mail me back then.

Tomoko Kuribayashi

Kyoko Mori's Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures
(New York: Henry Holt, 1998) by an alumna of my campus now on the
creative writing faculty at Harvard about growing up in the heartland
here.  One of my favorite quotes is in her excellent analysis of how
even language can be a barrier to an Asian-American girl growing up
"caught between cultures." She writes, "in Japanese, I don't have a
voice to speak my mind."  As a writer, she analyzes the the linguistic
gulf between the very differently gendered languages of English and
Japanese in ways that might be especially apt for your students.  And
as a teacher of creative writing, she writes as concisely as a haiku
and as engagingly as a good teacher can -- but with a lovely flair
that, I think, reflects the artistry of her heritage.

Enjoy the cherry blossoms.  I saw video on CNN from the most famous of
the cherry blossom festivals, being held right now at the height of
the bloom, and the beauty of the scene was beyond belief.

________________________
Genevieve G. McBride, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
gmcbride  AT  uwm.edu

"Let all the dreamers wake the nation. . . ."
                                          Carly Simon

Here are some suggestions.  All works have been published in English translation

Japanese
Sawako Ariyoshi, The Twilight Years
Fumko Enchi, The Waiting Years
Lady Murasaki (Shikibu), The Tale of Genji (This may be the first novel)
Sei Shonagon, The Pillowbook of Sei Shonagon.

Japanese American
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Beyond Manzanar: Views of Asian-American Womanhood.
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, Farewell to Manzanar: A
True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World
War II Internment
Cynthia Kadohata, The Floating World

I also recommend Joy KogawaG^+^+s Obasan.  It is by a Canadian of Japanese descent.
Valerie Matsumoto, G^+^_Two Deserts,G^+^¦ in Making Waves
R[uth] A. Sasaki, The Loom and Other Stories
Monica (Itoi) Sone, Nisei Daughter
Michi Weglyn, G^+^_Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of AmericaG^+^+s
Concentration CampsG^+^¦ in The Big AIEEEEE.  (Very important work
leading up to the belated apology by the U.S. government to the
Japanese American detainees).
Mitsuye YamadaG^+^+s poetry, some printed in Sowing Ti Leaves
Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories
Wakako Yamauchi, Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays, and Memoir

Anthologies
Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian American Women.
The Big AIEEEEE!: An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature
The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian American WomenG^+^+s Anthology.
Sowing Ti Leaves: Writings by Multicultural Women

Literary Criticism

Phillipa Kafka, Un)Doing the Missionary Position: Gender Asymmetry in
Contemporary Asian American WomenG^+^+s Writing
King-Kok Cheung, Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Maxine Hong
Kingston, Joy Kogawa Shirley Geok-lin Lin Lim, Amy Ling, Reading the
Literatures of Asian America
Elaine H. Kim, Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the
Writings and their Social Context
Sau-ling Cythnia Wong, Reading Asian American Literature: From
Necessity to Extravagance


Dr. Phillipa Kafka
Professor Emerita, English
Kean University

Dear Steve:

While many other Japanese American texts came to mind as I read Tomoko
Kuribayashi's response to your E-mail, I would like to add and
recommend Ayako Ishigaki's Restless Wave to Tomoko's suggestion.
Ishigaki's Restless Wave, first published in 1940 and finally
republished by the Feminist Press in 2004, is Ishigaki's only book in
English.  One of the reviews, after its republication, includes the
following:
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2004winter/restlesswave.shtml.

It is a semi-fictionalized memoir of Ishigaki's life (1903-1996) up
 until 1940.  Your students, no doubt, will be able to relate to
 Ishigaki's narrative much more readily and understand her simple but
 elegant prose probably more easily as they do Aleramo's Una Donna.
 I'd think what distinguishes Restless Wave, in particular for your
 students, is that it is a tale of Japanese woman's journey/adventure
 into the world and the making of a strong feminist self in the early
 20th century.  It wonderfully captures Japan politically and socially
 from 1900-1930 from a young girl/woman's perspective.  Very much a
 transnational/transcultural text, Restless Wave also provides, in my
 knowledge, one of the first accounts/analyses of the Japanese
 Americans in Los Angeles in mid-1930s.  The book ends significantly
 with Ishigaki's criticism of Japan's invasion in Manchuria as her
 government's act against humanity, and her patriotic self would not
 allow her to "betray humanity and [her] peopl!  e" (251).


Incidentally, Ishigaki's memoir was translated into Japanese and
published in Japan in early 1990s.  I hope this suggestion helps, and
I will also follow up with more on Japanese American titles.


Best regards,
Tricia

**************************************************************
Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, Ph.D.
Director, Women's Studies
Southern Connecticut State University
E-mail: liny4  AT  southernct.edu
www.southernct.edu/departments/womensstudies
***************************************************************

We have four free copies left and available on a first-email, first
received basis of GUIDE TO JAPANESE WOMEN WRITERS AND THEIR CULTURE,
1892-1992, by Carol Fairbanks,  1993, 110 typescript pages. In it she
discusses 21 novels, 9 excerpts from novels,and 65 short stories
"representing some of the best works of 47 writers." This guide was
funded by a University of Wisconsin System Undergraduate Teaching
Improvement Program grant and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Email me if you'd like a copy (pweisbard  AT  library.wisc.edu); I'll save
one for Steve Silver, since he posed the original question.

Carol subsequently published a greatly expanded work:  JAPANESE WOMEN
FICTION WRITERS: THEIR CULTURE AND SOCIETY, 1890s to 1990s: ENGLISH
LANGUAGE SOURCES (Scarecrow Press, 2002, 646 p.), which is available in
reference collections in many academic libraries, as is JAPANESE WOMEN
WRITERS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, by Claire
Zebroski Mamola (2 v., Garland P., 1989 & 1992).

[Follow-up: all copies have been spoken for.]

Sincerely,

Phyllis Holman Weisbard, Women's Studies Librarian
University of Wisconsin System
430 Memorial Library, 728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
pweisbard  AT  library.wisc.edu
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/
****************************************************

I have taught Lois Ann Yamanaka's novel Blu's Hanging and would recommend
it.  It focuses on the lives of working class, ethnically Japanese kids
growing up in a multi-ethnic neighborhood in Hawaii after the death of
their mother. It has some pretty painful--and sexually explicit--stuff in
it.  Humor too, thankfully. It directly addresses religious diversity
(esp. evangelical Christianity and Buddhism), class, race, gender, and
sexuality as well as ethnic/cultural identity and mixing. It's narrated by
an adolescent girl and focuses, in part, on her relationship with her
younger brother, Blu. I believe it was published in the mid-late 1990s.

cheers,

Sheila
__________________
Sheila Hassell Hughes
Director of Women's Studies
Associate Professor of English
University of Dayton
300 College Park
Dayton, OH 45469-0322
sheila.hughes  AT  notes.udayton.edu

Hello Steve and other list members,

I just taught a course on Japanese women's autobiography
and self-writing this semester and would be willing to
share the reading list/syllabus with anyone who is
interested. Please e-mail me at <alwyn.spies  AT  ubc.ca>.

In general, I have a couple of suggestions. If by "modern
context" you mean modernism and the effects of
westernization/capitalism on Japanese women, I would
suggest Norma Field's book, _From My Grandmother's
Bedside: Sketches of Postwar Japan_. She juxtaposes
personal writing (about returning to Tokyo to help her
mother care for her dying grandmother) with
political/historical critiques of the 50-year memorial
services for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki --
connecting the issues of women's unpaid care work with
Japan's economic growth and a loss of historical
consciousness. The individual sketches are fairly short
and would allow you to divide them up between students or
groups in an EFL-teaching context, plus introduce North
American academic paradigms and theoretical debates
through the contrast between the academic & personal
writing. It was originally written in English (Field is a
Japanese Studies prof at the U of Chicago) but has been
translated into Japanese.

As well, I really recommend Yamazaki Tomoko's book,
_Sandakan Brothel No. 8_ (thanks T!). It's an
ethnographical study of "karayuki" -- or the Japanese
women from poor rural areas sold to brothels in (mostly)
Asia around the turn of the century. The book is set in
the late 60s when the author goes to Kyushu to visit an
elderly ex-karayuki-san. The transcribed oral account is
interspersed with historical documents and the author's
own personal account of doing the research. The author
lied to the woman to get her to talk, but confesses to her
at the end, which leads to great class discussions on
research ethics and standards -- especially since the
woman's story would never have been published otherwise. I
have taught several classes in Japan with this text, and
had the students read it in Japanese but then read the
translator's intro. from the English edition with all of
the historical background and explanations of the
connections to the sexual slaves of WWII and current human
trafficking issues in the multi billion-dollar Japanese
sex industry. The translator uses no primary historical
sources for her analysis so this also allows for
discussions about academic (cultural) paradigms and
accountability. There is also a film version from 1974
(available commercially on a current DVD re-release in
Japanese, though there are, apparently, older film copies
with English sub-titles kicking around in some university
libraries). The director is Kumai Kei and Kurihara Komaki
is absolutely amazing as the old woman. The brother who
profits from the sale of his sister is made to look nice
in the film -- again prompting great class discussion.
Furthermore, Yamazaki Tomoko has also written and
published her own autobiography (she was a model until a
stalker attacked her and slashed her face with a knife).
It's available only in Japanese, but you could have
students read this and do presentations in English for
you.

Hope this helps,

alwyn spies

Sessional Instructor,
Asian Studies
University of British Columbia


Field, N. (1997). From my grandmother's bedside: Sketches
of postwar Tokyo. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London:
University of California Press.
Hardcover  ISBN: 0520208447

Yamazaki, T. (1999). Sandakan brothel no. 8: An episode in
the history of lower-class Japanese women (K.
Colligan-Taylor, Trans.). Armonk and London: M. E. Sharpe.
Paperback  ISBN: 0765603543