Andreas Niehaus

Ghent University, Japanese Language and Culture, Faculty Member

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Address: Ghent University
Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent
Belgium

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Sport in Society, May 1, 2011

The French historian Pierre Nora introduced the theoretical framework for mapping lieux de mémoir... more The French historian Pierre Nora introduced the theoretical framework for mapping lieux de mémoire, the places of remembrance that shape both our knowledge of history and our history-shaped identities. The concept has been used to describe inventories of memory for different countries in the last two decades. Nora’s work was translated into Japanese in 2002/03, and several publications concerning Japanese realms of memory in Japanese as well as in English subsequently followed. The publications on memory in Japan so far focus on war and war responsibility. But the Japanese lieux de mémoire are certainly not limited exclusively to these issues, as Sven Saaler and Wolfgang Schwentker have suggested. By applying the concept of lieux de mémoire to sport in Japan, this issue hopes to clarify and verify the role sport has as an alternative marker in understanding and mapping memory in Japan. Japanese history and national construction has been full of sports landmarks since the end of the nineteenth century. Western-style sports were introduced into Japan in order to modernize the country and develop a culture of consciousness about bodies resembling that of the Western world. Japan’s modernization has been a process of embracing Western thought and culture while at the same time attempting to establish what distinguishes Japan from the West. In this context, sports functioned as sites of contested identities and memories. The Olympics, baseball and soccer have produced memories in Japan, but so too have the martial arts, which by their very name signify an attempt to create traditions beyond Western sports. Modes of memory in Japan act in two ways: they are engaged in trying to ascertain Japan’s place in modernity, while simultaneously asserting her singularity against the West. Because modern sports form bodies of modern citizens and at the same time offer countless opportunities for competition with other nations, they provide an excellent ground for testing and contesting national identifications. But it is not only international competition that serves as a lieu de mémoire in sports. National tournaments, which begin with local competition then proceeded to regional and finally national elimination rounds, have also been influential in shaping the conception of national territory, just as the Tour de France, for example, has served to shape the domestic conception of France. In analysing the realms of memory in Japanese sports, five dimensions serve as focal points: identity, tradition, body, commodification and irony. The first four of these dimensions prove that realms of memory are closely linked with the transformation of

Kano Jigoro : the 'father of the Olympic Movement in Japan

Takitsukegusa, Moekui, Keshisumi: An Annotated Translation

Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University

“I want to bring this light to those in despair” – the Tokyo 2020 torch relay and the creation of Olympic legacies

Contemporary Japan

Hope lights our way'? The uncanny torch relay to the Tokyo 2020/21 Olympics

Ergon eBooks, 2021

Welcome Note

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So gibt es nichts Schändlicheres, als illiterat zu sein': zur Literalität der Kriegerklasse (bushi) im frühmodernen Japan

Foreword : revisiting and understanding 3.11

Leben und Werk Kaibara Ekikens: Anmerkungen zur praktischen Lebenspflege im Japan der Edo-Periode (1603-1867)

Regeln zur Lebenspflege (Yōjōkun): …, 2010

I throw a light into the darkness of the world": the question of cultural and national identity in the process of including judo into the olympic program

Olympic Japan: ideals and realities of (inter) …, 2007

... the olympic program. Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: Record Details.... more

Denki ni okeru shintai-Kanô Jigorô no shôgai no kaidoku (Body in Biography-Reading the Life of Kanô Jigorô)

Taiikushi kenkyu_, 2005

Denki ni okeru shintai - Kanô Jigorô no shôgai no kaidoku (Body in Biography - Reading the Life o... more

3. Leibeserziehung als Moralerziehung und die Suche nach einem universalen moralischen Grundprinzip

Leben und Werk KANO Jigoros (1860-1938), 2019

현대 일본의 지역, 국가, 국제 정체성 사이의 오키나와 가라테

Published in 2020 by UNESCO ICM, 2020

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B Übersicht über die Entwicklung der Techniken des jūdō in der Frühphase

Leben und Werk KANO Jigoros (1860-1938), 2019

1. Zum historischen Kontext: Die Entwicklung der Leibeserziehung und des Sports in Japan von der Meiji- bis zur frühen Shōwa-Zeit

Leben und Werk KANO Jigoros (1860-1938), 2019

Introduction: Reconsidering Japanese Food

In December 2013, washoku was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list of the United... more In December 2013, washoku was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list of the United Nations, and Japanese cuisine was thereby acknowledged as a social practice that provides the Japanese people with a sense of identity. Starting from this perception of Japanese cuisine, this introduction shows that food not only contributes to a person’s identity and communicates a sense of social belonging but that it is also productive in the construction of local and national identities. The construction, reconstruction, assertion and promotion of a ‘national cuisine’ in Japan reach beyond the aims of tourism and trade and are easily applied as a soft power instrument in the hands of those fostering nationalism. The narrative of a ‘pure’, natural, authentic and timeless cuisine, as it will be argued, successfully shaped a Japanese national-cultural identity, which centred on the ideas of homogeneity and uniqueness. Finally, this introduction will also map the scope of the contributi...

Home Work: Post-Fukushima Constructions of Furusato by Japanese Nationals Living in Belgium

Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging, 2015

Rogers Brubaker remarks that “as a category of practice, ‘diaspora’ is used to make claims, to ar... more Rogers Brubaker remarks that “as a category of practice, ‘diaspora’ is used to make claims, to articulate projects, to formulate expectations, to mobilize energies, to appeal to loyal- ties.” It is in times of crisis and trauma, we will argue in this paper, that these practices con- struct and intensify an awareness of community, generated by emotion, feelings, and affect. When the 3/11 Triple Disaster struck Japan in 2011, Japanese nationals living abroad took a dia- sporic stance and immediately showed their commitment and loyalty to the homeland by organ- izing fundraising and charity events as well as moral support activities. Interpreting these events from the perspective of gift-giving (Marcel Mauss), it can be argued that remittances and material gifts served to show solidarity of an individual as well as a group to the homeland (furusato) and thus strengthening the feeling of belonging to it. Yet, what is the “homeland” that they support? The idea of homeland is a concept that is culturally and thus historically negotiated, and dia- sporic communities tend to develop a romantic idea of it. In Japanese, the English term “home- land” would be captured by the term furusato, which already embraces a strong element of nos- talgia and memory (similar to the German “Heimat”). It originally refers to one’s place of birth and is recently used to point to the “idea of originary, emotive space.” Based on fifteen in-depth interviews with both short-term and long-term Japanese residents in Belgium, this paper sets out to analyze the effect the triple disaster of 2011 had on the Japanese diasporic communities in Belgium.