I had an epiphany while reading this post. My family on both sides came to Hawai'i during the Greater Taisho. They came from HIroshima (Choshu) and Kumamoto (Satsuma), and though not as pastoral as Yanagita's Tono, the places they, and many Japanese immigrants to Hawai'i, were from were far from "modern" Tokyo of even the Greater Raisho. Places which may have been closer to the "soul" of Japan. Maybe we preserved some of this "soul" in Hawai'i with our bumpkinish osechi ryori feasts ladled from huge pots (not the pretty little compartmented boxes today's Japan enjoys) or the mustaches we sport like our great-grandfathers. I've always referred to Japanese American Hawai'i as a "perverse Taisho Snow Globe" because the only Japan most of us knew was through our ancestral lens. The values passed down from our great-grandparents were the strict and conservative rules of yokels. We all had this view of Japan as being full of pretty and not-so-pretty girls who won't kiss on a first date, because that's the way we were taught to be. I'm beginning to meet Japanese scholars of Japanese Hawai'i and they are fascinated by our food and behavior. I feel like Yanagita, trying to capture something win fiction we've lost , in a time before social media killed everything quaint and charming. Thanks for the post; I feel less lonely aout what I write now!
Great post! I could easily see this expanding into a book. Perhaps something on Greater Taisho? It seems like a complex and interesting era.
I had an epiphany while reading this post. My family on both sides came to Hawai'i during the Greater Taisho. They came from HIroshima (Choshu) and Kumamoto (Satsuma), and though not as pastoral as Yanagita's Tono, the places they, and many Japanese immigrants to Hawai'i, were from were far from "modern" Tokyo of even the Greater Raisho. Places which may have been closer to the "soul" of Japan. Maybe we preserved some of this "soul" in Hawai'i with our bumpkinish osechi ryori feasts ladled from huge pots (not the pretty little compartmented boxes today's Japan enjoys) or the mustaches we sport like our great-grandfathers. I've always referred to Japanese American Hawai'i as a "perverse Taisho Snow Globe" because the only Japan most of us knew was through our ancestral lens. The values passed down from our great-grandparents were the strict and conservative rules of yokels. We all had this view of Japan as being full of pretty and not-so-pretty girls who won't kiss on a first date, because that's the way we were taught to be. I'm beginning to meet Japanese scholars of Japanese Hawai'i and they are fascinated by our food and behavior. I feel like Yanagita, trying to capture something win fiction we've lost , in a time before social media killed everything quaint and charming. Thanks for the post; I feel less lonely aout what I write now!