The speaker for the September meeting of the Kyoto Asian Studies Group is Ran Wei, who will present “Constructing the Urban Margins: Representations of Kamagasaki in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature, Manga, and Cinema” (see abstract below). The talk will be held on Friday, September 29th, 18:00-20:00 on the Kyoto University Main Campus.
Abstract: Constructing the Urban Margins: Representations of Kamagasaki in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature, Manga, and Cinema
With a long history of marginalization, Kamagasaki is home to the largest number of day-laborers in contemporary Japanese society. With most of its residents being single and elderly male, Kamagasaki is distinctive in its demographic landscape. This talk examines three works that feature the vicissitudes of the lives in Kamagasaki from the modern to the contemporary: Takeda Rintarō’s novella “Kamagasaki” (1933), Arimura Sen’s Manga series “Kamayan Slum District Comic Diaries” (Kamayan Doyagai Manga Nikki, 1987-) and Sato Leo’s film “Kamagasaki Cauldron War” (Tsukiyo no Kamagassen, 2017). I will also refer to other works that are set in and about Kamagasaki, including Oshima Nagisa’s film “The Sun’s Burial” (Taiyō no Hakaba, 1960).
By focusing on the construction of the body in these works, I argue that while the author, artist, and filmmaker illuminate the precarity of Kamagasaki as encroached upon by urban division, they also emphasize the strength, dignity and interpersonal bonds of the local community. Instead of presenting Kamagasaki as a place of grotesque urban spectacles, these works adopt a compassionate perspective of the local neighborhood. Through my examination, I trace the significance and outcome of Kamagasaki's urban marginalization from a time of industrial expansion to a period of neoliberalism. Moreover, I rethink how the margin reflects on the power of the center and serves to counter multiple processes of marginalization dominated by the Japanese government and the global expansion of capitalism.
Ran Wei is a Ph.D. candidate in Japanese Literature with a Graduate Certificate in Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. (Currently Japan Foundation dissertation research fellow at Kansai University)
