Final Project

Japanese tourist images directed at westerners and images directed toward Japanese for domestic tourism.

Word Count 3200




When a westerner thinks of Japan the video above is what would likely come into their mind. The standard trope of Japan merging perfectly the past with the high tech future is used. The first half of the video shows images of ancient Japan, with the temples, shrines, and castles. The second half shows all the different high technology that is in Japan with the robots, computers, and video games. What makes the video interesting is that this is what Japanese people think westerners want to see in order for them to entice them to come to Japan. This is quite different from some the images that presented to other Japanese themselves to promote domestic tourism.



This commercial is completely different the one above, yet both are promoting travel to Japan. There seems to be very noticalbe difference in the way images are presented to the west and to the native. While the add directed toward a western audience has a calmness and mysteriousness about it. The Japanese advertisement can be said to be much more direct and to the point without the fluff of mystery and antiquity that was in the western advertisement. The native Japanese seem to prefer tourist information in a way that is more direct in nature. For the Japanese relying on the western trope of Japan merging the past with the present is not necessary. This is because a native Japanese person is living in a world that shows this type of thing everyday. So to show that in an advertisement directed at Japanese people would be redundant. So the approach that is more widely used is to show the most fantastical images possible in a way that stink in a person's memory and entice them to see where these images are coming from.

To get some backgound on why these sorts of images are being used. I want to show the history of tourism in Japan both domestic and foriegn. The information for this section comes from Akira Soshiroda who wrote the essay "Inbound tourism policies from 1859 to 2003."

According to the 2003 White Paper on Tourism, 5.24 million foreign tourists visited Japan in 2002, a figure equal to only 30% of its 16.52 million outbound tourists, placing the country in 35th place for international arrivals, below not only Western countries but also Asian ones such as China, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea. This situation is explained by the fact that the government and the industry have paid more attention to domestic and outbound tourism than inbound tourism for the last 30 years. A full-fledged campaign to turn this situation around began in 2003, the year in which the “Inbound Tourism Initiative” of Japan was launched, with the aim of attracting 10 million foreign tourists to Japan in 2010. However, it is often ignored that Japan used to implement enthusiastic international tourism policies for the purpose of promoting foreign arrivals until a little less than 30 years ago, although various social aspects have changed since then.

From the last days of the Edo Era to the beginning of the Meiji Era (1859–1885), Japan was in turmoil. From 1885, the year the ministry system was established, to 1899, when the mixed residence system, allowing foreigners to live outside the designated settlements, was established, Japan was characterized by social calm and evolution into a modern nation (Oshika 1987). Since the end of the Edo era in 1859, foreigner arrivals were restricted to avoid conflicts with the Japanese. Private sector entities such as hotels and guides serviced foreign tourists.

In 1893, the “Welcome Society” was founded by the financial world and began providing services to foreign tourists (Takagi 1966). Since 1893, the government strenuously aimed at, and eventually achieved, the revision of the Harris Treaty, considered to be an unequal agreement. Consequently, inbound policies were adopted as a means to show the face of a civilized country. The relaxation and ultimate abolition of limitations on foreign tourists gave the Japanese the bargaining power they needed for the revision of the unequal Harris Treaty, and following this accomplishment, the mixed residence system was established in 1899. Thus, the period between 1893 and 1912 can be regarded as an era during which international tourism policies became a part of diplomatic policies, as the government aimed to use them to raise the international status of Japan. Though these periods (from the end of the Edo era to the WWI), Japan did not enforce inbound policies as independent and systematic. However, the government and some politicians made private sector investments for servicing foreign tourists.

In 1912, the Japan Tourist Bureau was founded as a mixed joint-stock company and began serving foreign tourists (JTBF 1982). In 1916, the Economic Survey Meeting, a consultative organ of the Okuma cabinet, drafted an inbound promotion plan for the purpose of acquiring foreign currencies, and suggested it to the government (TIC, 1952a and TIC, 1959). In 1930, the International Tourism Office under the Ministry of Railways mainly served foreign tourists. From 1930 to 1941, the government was aiming for comprehensive policies for the acquisition of foreign currencies, and inbound policies were implemented in earnest for this purpose. Because the Japanese economy could not recover from the depression at the beginning of the Showa era, an International Tourist Office outside the Ministry of Railways was established as the main organization for the promotion of inbound policies in the Japanese government for the first time, and a consultative organ called the International Tourist Committee was also founded. The inbound plan and project were approved and implemented during this period of turmoil due to both the China and the Manchuria incidents (ITO 1931). Furthermore, as the government started to implement increasingly militaristic policies vis-à-vis China following the establishment of the International Tourist Office, avoidance of international isolation was added to the aim of foreign currency acquisition, indicating that it was conscious of the effect of inbound tourism on promoting friendship and understanding. Thus, during this period, inbound policies were established as systematic and independent. However, fascism then came to rise and the policies of this period were discontinued, due to WWII, before they could yield results.

Following the end of the war, a tourism administration was launched early on, with the establishment of an office in charge of tourism in 1945, a tourism section in 1946, and a Department of Tourism in 1949 (Cabinet Secretariat Section, 1980 Cabinet Secretariat Section 1980 The 100-Year History of Tourism Administration and 30-Year History of Tourism Policy Committee (in Japanese), pp. 5–29, 49–73. Tokyo: Gyosei.Cabinet Secretariat Section 1980). A Tourist Industry Council was formally created as a consultative organ under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office in 1949, and an All Japan Tourism Association was also established the preceding year (Cabinet Secretariat Section 1980). Thus, policies were newly established to make the most of the tourism resources that survived the devastation of the war, based on the viewpoint that “Japan lost the war, but its mountains and rivers still remain”, despite an occupation where only the development of domestic resources was allowed (TIC 1948). Although the council worked eagerly and drafted numerous proposals, projects made little headway due to the shortage of funds and materials, and to the requisition of hotels and railroad vehicles by General Headquarters
In 1955, the National Tourist Association and the Japanese Tourist Association were founded, and, in 1956, the “five-year tourist industry promotion plan”, passed during a Cabinet meeting, was launched. The policies of the time were formulated and implemented based on this plan (Cabinet Secretariat Section 1980). The Tourism Office, which was upgraded in organizational terms from a department to a bureau under the Ministry of Transport, and the Tourist Industry Council, led and executed the basic policies for preparing and bidding for the Tokyo Olympic Games, and the positioning of inbound aims remained unchanged during this time.

From 1955, Japan’s economy grew at a rapid pace. In 1963, the “Basic Tourism Law” was established, and in 1964, the Japan National Tourist Organization was founded (Cabinet Secretariat Section, 1980 Cabinet Secretariat Section 1980 The 100-Year History of Tourism Administration and 30-Year History of Tourism Policy Committee (in Japanese), pp. 5–29, 49–73. Tokyo: Gyosei.Cabinet Secretariat Section 1980). Inbound policies were actively implemented in anticipation of the Osaka International Expo and the Sapporo Olympic Games, while the substance of the policies remained unchanged (SCHRHC 1964). Japan entered a period of accelerated economic growth after the Expo of 1970 and almost caught up with advanced countries. This shift reduced the significance of acquiring foreign currencies through policies and brought about an explosive growth of international/domestic tourism due in large part to greater disposable income. Outbound departures began exceeding inbound and the focus on the latter policies gradually reduced (PMO 1971). These went on to lose much of their relevance due to the rising economic power of the country between around 1970 and 1985, a period during which the implementation and meaning of policies became out of step and inbound ones grew largely irrelevant.
In the 90s, the bubble economy collapsed and Japan fell into an economic recession, particularly in the last years of the decade. During this period, the government began vigorously promoting inbound tourism, establishing “Welcome Plan 21”, a program to double the number of foreign arrivals, in 1996, and the following year, the “Law to Promote Inbound International Tourism by Diversifying Destinations in Japan”, or the so-called “Inbound Tourism Promotion Law” (PMO, 1997 and PMO, 1998 PMO 1998 White Paper on Tourism (in Japanese). Tokyo: Prime Minister’s Office.PMO, 1998). In 1994, a law to promote tourism by encouraging international conventions and their smooth operation, namely the “Convention Promotion Law”, was passed (PMO 1995). The “inbound tourist promotion law and convention promotion law” differ from past inbound strategies in that they focus on regional revitalization.
This is the state of tourism as it stands today in Japan when dealing with the west.

I will now go into domestic tourism in Japan. To give one an idea on how it operates. The information used for this section comes from Peter Siegenthale who wrote the essay "Japanese Domestic Tourism and the Search for National Identity."

Japanese domestic tourism, recreational travel by Japanese within the home
islands, is a huge industry and one of the primary recreational activities
undertaken by Japanese in all walks of life. As of the early 1980s, it was
estimated that Japanese each year took nearly 150 million leisure trips within
the country but outside of their home regions, just under 1 .5 trips for every
Japanese citizen of all ages and nearly thirty times the number of overseas
trips taken. More than 40 percent of those trips were taken by women and
"a large percentage" by people aged 20 to 39 years. Nearly 35 percent of
those tourists traveled in large (bus-sized) groups, 35 percent in small groups,
less than 30 percent in family groups, and the remainder (less than 5 percent
of the total) alone. With a population of only 150,000 people, Nara at that
time received an average of 4 million visitors per year; Kyoto, a city of 1
million, received between 50 and 60 million visitors per year (Graburn, To
Pray, Pay, and Play 3).

There is a fundamental part of Japanese tourism that is very important and it involves gift giving.
By requiring the tourist to carry with him or herself both the structures of the
home (in the guise of the group tour) and the obligations of the individual to
the group (in the form of senbetsu and omiyage), "takes place within an
accepted, approved and known cultural structure" and therefore is essentially
always a "reaffirmation of Japaneseness" (Graburn 60), rather than an
escape into an Other (see, for example, Frow 129) . Domestic tourism, he
concludes, is most clearly seen as an effort on the part of Japanese to "seek
nostalgic confirmation of their cultural landscape" This idea of a "reaffirmation of Japaneseness" is very similar to the ideas talked about by Tanizaki who always wanted Japanese people to get back to their roots as a culture.
Central to the analysis of tourism is the observation that Japanese
domestic tourists are primarily engaged in a search for "nostalgic confirmation
of their cultural landscape" (To Pray, Pay, and Play 63) . Since
the 1970s, one of the most important symbols in that nostalgic search for
the national identity has been the furusato, literally the "old village" but
more closely translated as "home" or "native place."
From the point of view of the inhabitants ofrural areas, the termfurusato
refers to the "sentimentalization" of rural culture . As the years put distance
between the villages themselves and the image of the mura as the spiritual
heart of an imperialist Japan, "the quaintness of farmhouses, the integrity of
farm work, and the bonds of the village community . . . are celebrated rather
than castigated" (Kelly, "Rationalization and Nostalgia" 606). The countryside is caught between competing discourses of

modernization and sentimentalization.To perhaps all but the people who live within the villages labeled with
the term, the concept of furusato carries with it an unshakable aura of nostalgia
Symbolic of a "pristine native culture" the "primordial landscape of a nostalgic imagination. Furusato embodies also the sense
of change, in point of fact a process of change for the worse: "This `pure'
culture is presumed to have existed in pastoral tranquility until vitiated and
transmogrified by outside forces - such as westernization, industrialization,
urbanization, and today, internationalization."
The nostalgia of the furusato, however, is not a simple one. the concern for furusato is really a "nostalgia for nostalgia"
(Robertson, "Fursato Japan" 495), since the person experiencing the loss
has most likely never really experienced what he or she is mourning. Members
of the younger generations were likely born and raised in urban areas,
but even for the older generations, the villages from which they came to the
urban areas are utterly changed. "With the rapid urbanization of the countryside
since the postwar period," Robertson argues, "the Japanese `can't
go home again' . . . . There is no particular place to `go home' to; consequently,
there is no particular place to feel nostalgic toward."
A number of observers have remarked on the fictiveness of the relationship
between the domestic tourist, generally, living in an urban area, and the
imagined furusato . Robertson describes the practice of selling "honorary"
memberships in rural villages as the creation of an "imagined community."
The honorary villagers, "who pay an . . . annual residency fee of about $50,"
are included in village events and activities, including "picking mushrooms
and flowering ferns, slopping hogs, and planting rice seedlings," but remain
distanced from the concerns of the rural residents in that they do not have "to
actually depend on agriculture for a living" (Robertson, "Furusato Japan" 509).
Knight locates the same practice in terms of the marketing strategies of the
tourism industry. Describing furusato as "an idiom through which those unrelated
to the village can be metaphorically incorporated into it" (Knight 207), he
sets the selling of memberships in "the context of the commercial competition
between villages for the patronage of urban consumers" (Knight 208). The
rural areas are caught in a paradox, he notes, in that they "have learnt the importance
of marketing themselves as accommodating furusato for the urban
population . . . but have also learnt that they must have a diacritical identity
that distinguishes them from other furusato."
An example of this playing out of different furusato can be seen with the 1988 initiative of the Takeshita government, which gave a one-time grant of 100 million yen to
every village and town to use as they thought would best serve the interests
oftheir community (McCormack 101-4; see also Takamatsu). The responses
to the initiative covered an impossibly wide range, from construction of the
longest stone stairway in the country, to the purchase of a 63-kilo lump of
gold, to restoration of a village's natural environment to attract fireflies .
Many of the projects shared an intention to "capitaliz[e] on their exotic,
almost foreign quality in relation to urban Japan" (McCormack 103), attempting
to recreate themselves as versions of the ultimate furusato -manipulations
of the constellation of signs that makes up the concept of the
furusato - and at the same time distanced from the "vain and extravagant
world" of the bubble economy that provided the financing for the projects
themselves. This is where domestic tourism stands as of today in Japan. The main idea is for Japanese people to get back to their roots and get away from the urban culture which most people live in.

Going by this history of tourism in Japan one is able to explian the images that are directed at westerners and native Japanese. Japan for much of its history was hostile towards foreigners in their country and so the images that are presented today try to dispell that by showing nothing but welcoming images and calm atmosphere. As explained before to show these images to a native Japanese would be redundant. So the images shown to native Japanese are of the most spectacular and exciting things which is used to grab their attention. This brings in the different furusato that towns have. While the furusato can be used to attract foreign tourist, it is mostly intended for native Japanese domestic tourists.

Ganguro Girls Presentation

Rough Outline

Japanese tourist images directed at westerners and images directed toward Japanese for domestic tourism

I plan to look at the development of tourism is Japan and how tourist policies have changed over time. So I am looking at both domestic and inbound tourism. I want to see if there is a difference between what is presented to westerners in order to entice them to come to Japan: Also, what is used to influence Japanese people to explore their own country. If there is not much difference, then I want to see what are some of the similarities in the presentations presented to the two sets of people.

I want to try to connect some of presentations directed at westerners to orientalist ideas and maybe even imperialism and its lingering effect on western perceptions of Japan. Also, I think I see a link with Tanizaki and his idea of true Japaneseness and pure and unique Japanese culture with Domestic Japanese tourism. From what I have seen in some of my research points to the idea of Japanese trying to get in touch with their roots and "traditional Japanese Culture" as one of draws that is used to influence Japanese people to explore their country.

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/yourguide/eng.pdf

Non-Art Image

This image is using the concept of cut to promote the idea of Valentine's day. The artist creates cuteness in the image by simplifying the line in the image. Also, the eyes are expressing emotions in exaggerated tones, when things become cute in anime usuallt there is either an abundance of detail of a severe lack of it. This image expresses the latter. Since the character in the white hair is angry and has little bows in his hair creates a feeling of kawaisou in the viewer and adds cuteness to the image.

Cute Images

The first picture is called "Show Girl" by Akane Koide
The second picture is called "Butcher Shop" by Mahomi Kunikata

The first image shows a schoolgirl, maybe of high school age laying on a pile of money inside of a dead looking eye. The title suggests that this girl might be the type of girl who goes out with men for money and shows them a good time. The money she is laying on is the material reward she gets from these ventures, while the fake smile on her face and the eye she is laying in tell a different story. The smile she gives seems sad in nature, almost like the smile one gives when one has completely given up and all you can do is smile to hide the pain. The eye she is laying in represents the stares she might get as she walks down the street or the constant viewing she gets from men all day long. The deadness of the eye represents the emptiness this girl is feeling, I think she is like the walking dead, without a purpose and does not know how to get out the situation she is in now.

The Second image is more disturbing in nature. This image is a good example of using something cute to incite fear or dread. The type of fear being represented here is analogous to the fear some people feel over dolls and the like. The girl in the image is the stereotypical cute Japanese anime character, but the fact that there is blood all over her shirt from the meat she is eating, and the fact that she looks so innocent doing it make the image seem very disturbing. Also, seeing the bloody baseball right next to her feet immediately brings the thought of cannibalism into ones mind and brings another dimension of horror into the image.

Photo Album/Harmony

Going from the bottom to the top I have a picture of a Buddhist priest praying, a Buddhist priest and his disciple, a picture of lanterns, a country scene of a person walking in the forest, and lastly a beautiful picture of a person fishing. The order of the pictures follows the theme of harmony and self-knowledge. the self knowledge is embodied in the pictures of the priests and the disciple. The lanterns are harmonious with their surroundings and seem to belong to the building it is attached to. The two outdoor scenes represent man and the way he uses and is encompassed by nature in everyday life.

First Paper

Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido: Shimosuwa

This photo is copyrighted

This print by Hiroshige is of the post town of Shimosuwa. This prospered as the sole hot spring resort on the Kisokaido and also as the intersection with the Koshu Highway. Nearby were the Grand shrines of Suwa well-known for the “Onbashira” (Sacred Pillar Erecting) festival. The picture is a detailed scene of customers taking a meal in an inn. The man with his back to the picture is said to be Hiroshige. Hiroshige had a habit of putting himself into his prints. The Grand Shrines in Suwa that are close to the location of the print are over 1200 years old. They are some of the oldest shrines of the Shinto religion in Japan. It is mentioned in the Kojiki. It consists of four shrine building complexes, the Kamisha, or upper shrine, Shimosuwa, or lower shrine, or lower shrine, Harumiya, or spring shrine, and Akimiya, or autumn shrine. The Grand Shrine’s component shrines are located in Suwa, Nagano and Shimosuwa. The Grand Shrines are the focus of the Onbashira festival, held every six years.

The famous Onbashira festival last took place in 2004 and will next take place in 2010. The climax of the festival consists of the Kiotoshi (young men ride the as they slide down a steep slope) and the Tate Onbashira (later as they are raised as pillars). The Tate Onbashira is particularly well-known because it was presented at the opening ceremony of the Nagano Olympics in 1998. The Onbashira festival is also known as one of Japan’s big three fanciful festivals. For the Onbashira Festival huge trees are cut from the forest. Each shrine building requires four pillars, one at each corner, so a total of 16 pillars are erected. These huge pillars are called “Onbashira” and mark off the sacred space of the shrine. The festival consists of two parts that take place over a two-month period: Yamadashi (pulling Onbashira trunks out of the mountains) and Satobiki (hauling the Onbashira trees to the shrine's grounds). During this time a festive mood prevails over the whole Suwa area. When the festival was last held in 2004, it attracted about 1.78 million people. In the Yamadashi, which takes place at the beginning of April, 16 tree trunks are brought from the forest. They are cut from 200-year-old Japanese fir trees. The largest are 1 meter across (1.1 yd.), weighing around 12 t and measuring about 16 m long (17.5 yd.). In the Kiotoshi, a part of Yamadashi, people sit on the onbashira and slide down a steep 30- to 40- degree slope that measures about 100 m (110 yd.). This is the most exciting spectacle of the festival at the risk of people's lives. The trunks are rested for about a month until the Satobiki Festival at the beginning of May, when they are taken to the shrine precincts and erected as Onbashira. It takes 3 days to move the trunks a total of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles). Special songs are sung as people haul the trunks. Besides hauling the Onbashira, other festivities include the "samurai" cavalcade and a dance with traditional flower arranged hats spreads over a wide area in parades. At the culmination of the festival, the Onbashira arrive at the shrine buildings to be erected in the Tate Onbashira. Two ropes are wrapped around each onbashira and they are pulled into an upright position with young men sitting on them. The young men, who remain at the top of the onbashira as it rises 16 meters above the ground, perform some feats. The completion of Tate Onbashira brings to an end a festival that, including time for preparation, lasts three years.

This print is part twenty nine of the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido. This is part of a series of ukiyo-e works created by Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen. There are 71 total prints in the series (one for each of the 69 post stations and Nihonbashi; Nakatsugawa-juku has two prints). The common name for the Kiso Kaido is “Nakasendo,” so this series is sometimes referred to as the Sixty-nine Stations of the Nakasendo. It is a follow up to Hiroshige’s The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido and he produced 47 of the prints, with Eisen being responsible for the rest.

The Nakasendo was one of the Five Routes constructed under Tokugawa Ieyasu, a series of roads linking the historical capitol of Edo with the rest of Japan. The Nakasendo connected Edo with the then-capital of Kyoto. It was an alternate route to the Tokaido and travelled through the central part of Honshu, thus giving rise to its name, which means “Central Mountain Road.” Along this road, there were sixty-nine different post stations, which provided stables, food, and lodging for travelers.

For some context on why this print and other prints by Hiroshige were preserved I will give a brief biography of Hiroshige. Hiroshige was born in 1797 and died in 1858. In the canon of ukiyo-e there is one name above all others that evokes the tender, lyrical beauty of the Japanese landscape – Hiroshige. Born in Edo as Ando Tokutaro, he grew up in a minor samurai family that belonged to the Edo Castle’s firefighting force. It is here that Hiroshige was given his first exposure to art: legend has it that a fellow fireman tutored him in the popular Kano school of painting. In 1811 at the age of fifteen, the young artist entered an apprenticeship with the celebrated Utagawa Toyohiro and was bestowed with the artist name, Hiroshige after only a year. Despite this, his artistic genius went largely unnoticed with the public until the publication of his "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido," a landmark series documenting the journey from Edo to Kyoto. With the Tokugawa Shogunate relaxing centuries of age-old restrictions on travel, urban populations embraced travel art and Hiroshige arguably became the most prominent and successful printer of the Tokugawa era. In 1856 while working on his masterpiece "100 Famous Views of Edo," Hiroshige retired from public life to become a Buddhist monk. Hiroshige’s work had a profound influence on the Impressionists of Europe: Toulouse Lautrec was fascinated with his daring diagonal compositions and inventive use of perspective, Van Gogh himself literally copied two prints from "100 Famous Views of Edo" in painting. In 1858 at the age of sixty-two, Hiroshige passed away as a result of the Edo cholera epidemic but his work continues to convey the beauty of Japan and provide insight into the everyday life of its citizens.

Compositionally the print has much that makes it very interesting. The use of perspective is very clever. The print makes your eye go from the big space that takes up most of the print to the person in the small space taking the bath. The use of the many layers used to construct the inn makes one want to see the rest of the structure. The layout of the print make the inn seem unbelievably big. There is both vegetable and mineral paint used in the print. The blue is all mineral while the rest is vegetable and according to Dr. Chance this is a sign of transition in the use of paints. Also, considering none of the men have swords it would suggest that the class of people in the print are most likely merchants. The stone in the picture leading up into the inn is most likely used as a welcoming gesture by the artist.