Changing impressions

Himeji Castle, families having hanami

I guess what most changed in my impressions is the way that I think about japanese people before come here. At first I had an image that Japanese people should be quiet, reserved and distant.

As my living experience have been sliding I have noticed that there is still this kind of behavior in old people and less in younger japanese, who still is educated to be respectful in whatever environment. Rarely I saw couples holding hands together, hugging or kissing in public for example.

Japanese girls graduating in Kansai Gaidai

However, this kind of behavior do not make japanese people “cold”. I prefer saying that they are really respectful with other people and with their environment too. Naturally brazilians expect that everyone should be smily and friendly. Few days ago I learnt an expression with my friend, Misaki, which is “tanin doushi, reigi ari” and it means something close as “between strangers, there should be respect.” On the other hand I was really surprised with such energetic and “warm” japanese people that I met at university, hanamis, trips, parties and bus stops. Like anywhere in the world there are people who are more outgoing and those who are more reserved. There are brazilian who look more like japanese and japanese that look more like brazilian as anywhere in the world.

Exploring music festivals and making new friends

I got used with green tea in the bottle, I learnt to like miso soup and sticky rice and I discovered that the bus driver are not so naive as I thought before - besides the counting machine they are aware of eventually wrong amount of money. By japanese old ladies I was inspired to have a healthy and fulfillment life. Because of Hiromi Uehara and Yoshida Brothers I discovered that Japanese music goes beyond J-pop and J-rock. Finally, it capsule hotels are not so uncomfortable.

Capsule Hotel in Tokyo

And should be like that. Outside Japan, for who have never been here yet, there is an special atmosphere and I believe it will still be existing for a while. Despite all emerge in globalization dynamic, Japan will still be a curious place to explore and enjoy.

Fishes in the Sky

Between April and May, it is time to let the carps flow. Until May 5th - Children’s Day - the koinobori waves through the wind on the top of houses where there are boys living in. Among many provinces in Japan, there are also giant fishes or great shoal festivals going on.

Koinobori handicraft atelier in Kazo City

This stylish carp, which looks like a type of a kite, it is hanged in masts on gardens, balconies and even on rivers. By this way, it wishes and brings welfare and courages through the children’s life path. Then, during begin of May, there are many of these flowing in front of the houses. Even here, in the neighborhood of Hirakatashi we could see them not only in the houses but in some temples as well.

This habit had grown during the Edo Period (1603~1868), based on a chinese myth about a carp that was transformed in a dragon after a tumultuous River named Ryumon. Chinese people usually associate the dragon as a symbolic representation for power: people who are detached from fear, break the walls and hardness are blessed by success. Under this influence, the japanese, wishing a successful life for their children, set the koinobori as higher as they can seeking to imitate the carp’s vigorous movement.





“If more boys are in the household, an additional blue, green and then purple koinobori are added. The red koinobori's color can be varied as orange or pink. These carp sets are flown above the roofs of houses with sons, with the biggest (black) koinobori for the father, next biggest (red) for the mother, and ranging down to the smallest carp for the youngest son.” ( Wikipedia )

A temple in Tokyo with its koinobori

The koinobori are also a part of japanese handicraft and it shows bright beautiful colors and interesting shapes, made on coarse cotton cloth and handmade drawings. However, nowadays you can find synthetic ones although many people, specially foreign come to Japan still looking for the old style.

Free choice II: Onigiri time!

Having onigiri on hanami time! That one was made by our skilled friend, Sara.

Onigiri (or omusubi, the other name for the same thing), the little sticky rice ball has really become popular outside of Japan, in large part it seems due to its iconic status spread by anime and manga. It is very popular for carry-along lunches and you can easily get it at conveniences shops. Besides that, this particular food can also be part of a meal.

From my research about making onigiri, it must be made with sticky, short- or medium-grain rice. Long grain type rice just will not stick together sufficiently. So, depending on what type of rice used, you cannot have success enough. Concern about the salt is important to flavor the onigiri - either on the outside, with a salty filling inside, or salty sprinkles.



Writings dating back as far as the 1600s evidence that many samurai stored rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves as a quick lunchtime meal at war, but the origins of onigiri are much earlier. Before the use of chopsticks became widespread in the Nara period, rice was often rolled into a small ball so that it could be easily picked up.



Making a traditional onigiri.


This is what arrived in a natural wrapping of bamboo sheath.

From the Kamakura period to the early Edo period, onigiri was used as a quick meal. This made sense as cooks simply had to think about making enough onigiri and did not have to concern themselves with serving. These onigiri were simply a ball of rice flavored with salt. Nori, the seaweeds leaves, did not became widely available until the Meiji period when farming of nori and making them into a sheet became widespread. Then, having onigiri is also a continuity of history, even though it had changed its shape and fillings.

Wabi-sabi in everyday balance

It seems that in every facet of life, the Japanese devote themselves to bringing about that sense of peace and harmony, of warmth and comfort, which they feel to be an essential part of beauty and balance. The intense feeling of texture, colour, form and space is intended to satisfy the spectator’s need for emotional assurance and calm. Appreciation of the such subtleties lead us to the enjoyment and understanding of japanese culture in general, what I believe is relevant as anthropologists and of its arts which in particular, brings very interesting quotes for me as a graphic design student.

Japanese art is often focussed on nuances of emotion, and works tend to be so charged with tension that altering the position of any part would drastically change the overall effect. Based on aesthetic conception, from the roots of zen-budhism, the appreciation of wabi-sabi remains the beauty of invisible, impermanent and incomplete.



Wabi connotes rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, and can be applied to both natural and human-made objects, imperfect quality or understated elegance. Sabi is imperfect reliability, beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs. In this sense, wabi-sabi it is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things. Wabi-sabi demotes the role of the intellect and promotes an intuitive feel for life where relationships between people and their environments should be harmonious.



Stepping-stones, for example, slow the visitor’s pace. In a temple interior, a feeling of calm is generated by the asymmetry of the space and the warm hues and textures of the surfaces; the essence of the potting processes with quirks and accidents such as finger prints remark uniqueness; the sumi-e prints, which follows the mood of its brush strokes enhance the natureless. The perception of the inter-relationship of human being and objects which permeates japanese life, and which causes their “worship of the imperfect”. Indeed, there is no nervousness about symmetry or glossy surfaces; actually there is a relaxed sophistication often lacking in the arts of the ruling classes.

Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey

Searching for our best performance as visual anthropologists, our teacher Dr. Steven Fedorowicz presented to us two of the most famous photographers in recent times, Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey. Indeed, they have a strong sense of esthetic and an astonishing technique but their photograph is also dynamic and intense, a mixture that makes them a reference in human being representation. This post is about these photographers and what we can learn about them to improve our skills as students.

Born in 1949, Annie Leibovitz enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute intent on studying painting. It was not until she traveled to Japan with her mother the summer after her sophomore year that she discovered her interest in taking photographs. When she returned to San Francisco that fall, she began taking night classes in photography. Since then her photographs gave her a chance to go out in the world and become one of the most famous photographers known today.

In 1970, impressed with her portfolio, Jann Wenner, founding editor of Rolling Stone gave Leibovitz her first assignment: photograph John Lennon. Two years later she was named Rolling Stone chief photographer and then she began to work in Vanity Fair where she became known for her provocative portraits of celebrities. Later, in her book Women (1999), she included images of famous people along with those not well known revealing that Annie Leibovitz is not only a “celebrity photographer”. In her words: ”I’ve always been more interested in what people do than who they are, and I hope that my photographs reflect that. I have the opportunity to work with people who are the best actors, and writers, and athletes, and dancers—a broad spectrum. I feel like I’m photographing people who matter, in one way or another.” (LEIBOVITZ, Annie)

As expected, her work brings up what life is supposed to be or what we wish it would have been: beauty, wealth, poetry and why not, fantasy. In contrast, “people who matter” in James Nachtwey’s perspective, are those who keep struggling to survive in the world rather than enjoying cheerful moments. James Nachtwey is a determined witness of the human condition in its dramatic circumstances, catching our eyes’ attention with distinct technique. His work, which appears frequently in Time and The New York Times magazine, won him the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal an unprecedented five times.

He shows us what is happening in private behind closed doors. Through photography, James Nachtwey thinks about the “first impact and, by far, the most powerful impact, to be about an emotional, intellectual and moral reaction to what is happening to these people”, he told Salon magazine. It is not about esthetic appreciation. It is about creating a profound human communication and through this creating public awareness and, finally, consciousness. Furthermore, Nachtwey intends to provoke a sense of the same compassion that has been moving him through the world.

Thus, Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey diverge in their perspectives and intentions. While Leibovitz generally enhances beauty and imagination of lifetimes, bringing up virtues and skills of her people, and creating the most accurate ambience as possible; Nachtwey, on the other hand, denies the artistic impulse. His photographs approach numerous inhuman occurrences to get into public conscience. His job is solitary, working alone in the core of action and exposing himself in a risky environment. In addition, Leibovitz is “in the spot”, while Nachtwey needs to be invisible in his core of action. She “photo-graphs” her time whereas he photographs other peoples’ time.

However, they converge in harmony considering their powerful ability to connect people by image consumption. Both of these mass media and magazine photographers have strong beliefs and intentions, which they try to convey through their works. Their determination makes their pictures go beyond the sight. They also dive inside their sense of humanity though their styles differ in focus. Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey have a wide sense of respect and commitment for the person or the group of people being photographed.

So, how can these photographers improve our visual anthropology research? First, considering the photograph registers as an essential part of an anthropological field work, being familiar with its potential is being well versed with its subject of study--people. Then, a fieldwork practice is a mixture of intellectual, emotional and practical concerns that can be constructed depending on your intentions as a visual anthropologist.

In this sense, I believe that Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey, despite all their eloquent techniques, inspire us to make efforts in terms of perception, approach, as well as respect. We should threat our subject of study with care and be sincerely moved by it, says James Nachtwey: "It's all about emotions. The emotions are the source of the image. You can't make a picture which moves somebody else unless you yourself have been moved." (NACHTWEY, James)

http://www.literalmagazine.com/pdf/L15_annie_leibovitz.pdf

http://www.biography.com/articles/Annie-Leibovitz-9542372

http://www.parisvoice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=529&Itemid=33

http://www.americanwaymag.com/annie-leibovitz

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/photojournalism-can-become--a-form-of-art-615064.html

http://ted.streamguys.net/ted_nachtwey_j_2007.mp4

Japanese Portrait

Though my Japanese is really poor, my interest in music and dance is huge and that became one more reason for motivating my research in Japan. One day I saw this group of young girls and boys performing amazing skills for nobody at very late at night in Hirakatashi and it really intrigued me*. Having decided to come back and spend more time with them, I took advantage of the visual anthropology assignments making the first contact after a week - with my embarrassing super basic introduction “watashi no namae wa” - for my surprise they could understand me as long as I tried to show my interest on them. And for sure that was such a relief considering my lack of out-going mood!

Yoshiaki was one of these guys dancing, jumping and falling (on purpose as a part of the performance) frenziedly and he was one of the four guys that I felt more comfortable with to talk and to take pictures of him and concentrating on the environmental portraiture as well. For about two hours I stayed with him he had stopped few times, what shows up a person who prizes concentration, insistence and strength. Furthermore, in his words, presence and poetry is also important in his specially when you are dealing with street dancing style. He had chosen it because he believes on it as a way to communicate his wishes and complains by body and it is energy for the world outside. “What about Japanese hip hop, break dance influences?” At this point I could understand that I have to expected that American urban style was the “coolest” and the “majority” considering the first generation. However, Japan as any other country needs either to seek for free individual expressions thus he practices it as his way of life - at least four times a week in Hirakatashi station.

As expected I made some shots of Yoshiaki performing in what he does his best but above all the poses, falls, slips, jumps and spins we had such interesting exchanges. On that night we switched email address and since then he had suggested me some “classic” japanese hip hop singers as for example King Giddra and Dabo and particularly even though not being my favorite kind of music I am widely glad for having this contact.

*view last post

Pumping in Hirakatashi

Hirakatashi as expected of any shopping center area, is far more busy and crowded. The flow of people and it’s intense lights and billboards compete or attention.Also you will find in Hirakatashi the main taxis points and bus stop, administrative buildings, shopping malls and karaoke.

However this flow of people decreases around 8pm and from that time Hirakatashi receives a different public. Moving contrary to the every day routine, garage bands make their concerts at the corners, an Indian tunes songs without extending the hand and with no hat aside; turning your head to the other side you will see groups of young people exchanging street dance steps as break, house and hip-hop.

One night I decided to go beyond the sight study and spend some time with one of those street dancers group just to have an approach of their feeling and also I was striving on making a conversation. I overcame my shyness and insecurity about communication barriers. Finally I had a deep breath to get in one of the dance circles and the group understood that I had an affinity and interest in them, giving me permission to take pictures as you can check it out.