Investigating various disastrous events and their aftermath in Japan, this open access book reveals a novel philosophy of life in contemporary Japan, which link humans, nature, and different forms of nonhumans including scientific technology.
In light of the various disasters and human interventions that have affected human-nature relations, what could a dynamic theory of life or animism look like?
This book investigates concrete problems in modern Japan, such as extreme pollution, nuclear accidents, and environmental destruction. In their light, the editors and contributors reconsider the works of several thinkers such as Minakata Kumagusu and Nishida Kitaro, who have proposed unique perspectives on the human-nature relationship. They also consider animistic thoughts and practices that can link humans, nature, and different forms of nonhumans in Japan, to create a novel philosophy of life—an anima philosophica.
The book explores how human-nature relations in Japan have been repeatedly transformed not only by unpredictable natural disasters but also by various turbulent human activities including the dropping of atomic bombs in the Second World War, the crisis of environmental pollution during the period of high economic growth, and the nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011. The book argues that in the wake of the experience of such destructive man-made disasters, nature in Japan today contains features that cannot be fully grasped by frames currently existing in the humanities. Nature here is neither the unspoiled environment opposed to culture nor the ancient natural surroundings presupposed by most arguments on Japanese animism.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.
1. Introduction: Towards a novel philosophy of life, Ishii Miho and Fujihara Tatsushi (Kyoto University, Japan)
Part 1: The War, Mourning and the Soul Reviving
2. Symbolism of 'The Sea' in Tomiyama Taeko’s Art, Manabe Yuko (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
3. Science Fiction Films and the Repose of Souls: Narratives and Images of Government, Scientists, Media, and Citizens, in First Godzilla and Shin Godzilla, Arai Takashi (Artist resident in Berlin, Germany)
4. The Whereabouts of Reality in Motion: Soul-summoning rites during WWII, and mourning practices in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Ishii Miho (Kyoto University)
Part 2: Pollution, Waste, Decomposition and Circulation
5. The Forest of Mandala: Minakata Kumagusu’s environmental movement, Karasawa Taisuke (Akita University of Art, Japan)
6. Animism of discarded things: Why Mottainai ghosts and Apaches appeared in modern Japan, Fujihara Tatsushi (Kyoto University, Japan)
7. The reimagined capitalist nation-state and popular ethics: Humanizing and dehumanizing demarcations in the Minamata mercury-pollution patients’ movement, Matsumura Keiichiro (Okayama University, Japan
8. After the Great Flood—Minuma Tambo and the returning dragon: The recurring appearance of the dragon deity, Inose Kohei (Meiji Gakuen University, Japan)
Part 3: The Anima, Politics, and Time and Space of Nature
9. Paradise Lost: Miyawaki Akira, Ota Ryu, and the Environmentalist Movement on the Fringe of the Japanese New Left, Till Knaudt (Kyoto University, Japan)
10. The Fate of the Place: Japanese Experience of Place from Modernity to the Current Ecological Crisis, Shinohara Masatake (Kyoto University, Japan)
11. The Charisma of Mushrooms: Science as Adventure in Entangled Life, Satsuka Shiho (University of Toronto, Canada)
12. Waves Breaking, Palanquins Creaking: Crafting a Temporality of Life on the Edge of the Surf, Kimura Shuhei (Tsukuba University, Japan)
Bibliography
Index
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