Departures

1) One way the book describes how they were able to have multiple religions was “because Shinto did not have strict doctrines, and because there were many points in common between the two religions, Japanese were able to combine Shinto and Buddhism without much difficulty. They are able to do this because of a tradition of taking elements from foreign cultures and adopting the best parts of them. The book calls this litoko-dori which is described as the “habit of adopting the most useful borrowings.” Therefore people are able to have multiple religions because they take the parts they like from both religions and mesh them together to have their own personal spirituality.

2) Litodori is the process of taking elements from foreign cultures. One scene that shows this was when the main character asked what type of music he should play for Christmas. The man said he didn’t care Buddhist, Christian, etc”. This showed that the Japanese have a variety of traditions rooted in foreign cultures.

3) The job was to prepare dead bodies to be cremated. At first Daigo is ashamed of the job and won’t tell anyone about the job. But in the end he likes the job and lets his wife leave him so that he can keep the job. From the parts of the movie watched in class, Daigo’s wife is always disgusted by the job and does not want her husband to continue it.

4) The biggest difference is that the rituals for preparing the body are public in Japan, but private in America. In America someone takes the body to a mortician and the family does not see the body again until the funeral. However, in Japan the family is present and the preparing of the body is part of the ritual.

5) This movie showed an interesting view of Daniyo Kankei between Daigo and his wife. In the beginning of the movie she acts as expected by supporting his decision to move and to quit the cello. She also acts as expected when she does not get a job because of Daigo’s new job. However, there are also scenes when she breaks the tradition of the woman being completely subordinate to the male. For example, she left him and stood her ground on her opinion that he should not be working with the dead.  Moreover, she demonstrates how the social status of women is becoming more equal to men.

6) Thus far the movie has made me think about how American society views souls versus how Japanese does. The film shows many grieving families and it made me think about how I would like my funeral to go. Overall, I found this movie to be one of the more interesting ones that we’ve watched, and I am curious to know how it ends. 

litokodori suskiki

Litoko dori

“Japan has a long established tradition of adopting elements of foreign culture and adapting them for Japanese use” (127) This reminded me of Americanized food. Even when restaurants are advertised as authentic Mexican, or Chinese, or Thai, etc, they rarely are. I saw this when I worked at an authentic Mexican restaurant. At the end of the shift when the cooks would cook for the employees the type of food they made was completely different: the food for the employees was authentic and the food served was Americanized. The way America takes food from other cultures and adopts it is similar to Litoko dori.

“Japanese students will not oppose bullies… because they are afraid of speaking out individually without a group consciousness to back them” (131) This reminded me of a social experiment I learned about in sociology class. A guy was placed in a room with eight or so actors of the experiment. The guy thought that he and the actors were there to do a study on visual perception. The group was shown a picture of three lines with differing lengths, and then an actor asked each of them individually to say which the shortest line was. The actors were instructed to purposely choose an obviously wrong answer. Then, because all the actors chose the wrong answer, the guy did too. I find this interesting because it shows that all of humanity has a need to stick with the group consciousness.

Sushiki

“Respect and honor for the souls of one’s ancestors.” In general, American culture values the souls of the dead; however, I personally do not believe in souls. American culture is rooted in Christianity which is why in America we have phrases such as “they’re in a better place now.” That is an American way of respecting dead souls. But, I am atheist and do not agree with American beliefs regarding death and afterlife.

“Cremation was a better way to purify death.” I would like to be cremated, and I like the Buddhist view that this is a way of purifying death—it seems almost poetic. American norm, though, is to be buried in a coffin. However, cremation isn’t necessarily deviant. If America had the same lack of land that Japan had then cremation would probably be more common. 

Essay

1.       Early nineteenth century American Landscape paintings and Edo period Japanese landscape woodcuts.

2.       Wabi Sabi, the do spirit

3.       The reason that these two landscape pieces are stylistically different is  because Japan’s approach to nature was influenced by Buddhism and wabi sabi; whereas, America’s approach to nature was influenced by romanticism and transcendentalism.

4.       MLA

5.       Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson, n.d. Print.

R      Roque, Oswaldo. "The Oxbow by Thomas Cole: Iconography of an American Landscape Painting." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: n. pag. Print.