Japan's Name Culture

Japan's Name Culture
Author: Herbert E. Plutschow
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1995
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781873410424

This is the first comprehensive study in English of Japanese names - their history and evolution, and ontological implications. Its main purpose is to understand the development of the nomenclature in its religious (animistic) and socio-political contexts. We learn, for example, how belief in the animistic-symbolic property of names developed into extensive taboos and, in connection with these taboos, into the custom of revealing names in case of marriage or territorial surrender. Whereas private (religious) use of surnames was tolerated, commoners without public functions were prohibited from public use of surnames. In the Meiji period (1868-1912), on the other hand, the government enforced the universal registry of surnames to conform with its policy of universal conscription, education, taxation and the postal service. The book will be of particular interest to students of Japan and Japanese nomenclature. It will also appeal to the general reader drawn to learning more about Japan by looking at its history, religion and culture through the names of its people.

Chaos and Cosmos

Chaos and Cosmos
Author: Herbert E. Plutschow
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 302
Release: 1990
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9789004086289

Chaos and Cosmos

Chaos and Cosmos
Author: H.E. Plutschow
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2023-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004420576

The Japanese Theatre

The Japanese Theatre
Author: Ortolani
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2022-07-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004484140

An up-to-date cultural history of the Japanese theatre in all its forms including primitive rituals, court and popular dance-drama, puppet shows and westernized plays, is narrated here for the first time in English by a western authority in the field. The book underlines Zeami and Zenchiku's secret tradition of the nō, explaining Zen-inspired spiritual teachings for the actor's training on the way to enlightened performance. It also gives relevance to the transformation of an anti-establishment entertainment by prostitutes into spectacular kabuki stagecraft, and to the modernization process which created shingeki modern drama, and moved it into the context of world theatre. The final chapter summarizes the history of western discovery of the Japanese stage. The illustrations, the indexes, the glossary and the extensive bibliography — including all major literature in western languages until 1989 — also contribute to make this volume a must for all students of the Japanese theatre, and for anyone interested in a better understanding of Japanese culture as mirrored in its theatrical component.

Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan

Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan
Author: Herbert Plutschow
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134247052

Contribution to Western understanding of the nature and manifestations of Shinto through the vast galaxy of historic festivals (matsuri) that are here categorized and analysed.

Shinto

Shinto
Author: Helen Hardacre
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 721
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190621710

Helen Hardacre offers for the first time in any language a sweeping, comprehensive history of Shinto, the tradition that is practiced by some 80% of the Japanese people and underlies the institution of the Emperor.

Performing Ethnomusicology

Performing Ethnomusicology
Author: Ted Solis
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2004-08-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0520937171

Performing Ethnomusicology is the first book to deal exclusively with creating, teaching, and contextualizing academic world music performing ensembles. Considering the formidable theoretical, ethical, and practical issues that confront ethnomusicologists who direct such ensembles, the sixteen essays in this volume discuss problems of public performance and the pragmatics of pedagogy and learning processes. Their perspectives, drawing upon expertise in Caribbean steelband, Indian, Balinese, Javanese, Philippine, Mexican, Central and West African, Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Jewish klezmer ensembles, provide a uniquely informed and many-faceted view of this complicated and rapidly changing landscape. The authors examine the creative and pedagogical negotiations involved in intergenerational and intercultural transmission and explore topics such as reflexivity, representation, hegemony, and aesthetically determined interaction. Performing Ethnomusicology affords sophisticated insights into the structuring of ethnomusicologists' careers and methodologies. This book offers an unprecedented rich history and contemporary examination of academic world music performance in the West, especially in the United States. "Performing Ethnomusicology is an important book not only within the field of ethnomusicology itself, but for scholars in all disciplines engaged in aspects of performance—historical musicology, anthropology, folklore, and cultural studies. The individual articles offer a provocative and disparate array of threads and themes, which Solís skillfully weaves together in his introductory essay. A book of great importance and long overdue."—R. Anderson Sutton, author of Calling Back the Spirit Contributors: Gage Averill, Kelly Gross, David Harnish, Mantle Hood, David W. Hughes, Michelle Kisliuk, David Locke, Scott Marcus, Hankus Netsky, Ali Jihad Racy, Anne K. Rasmussen, Ted Solís, Hardja Susilo, Sumarsam, Ricardo D. Trimillos, Roger Vetter, J. Lawrence Witzleben