Miyake Lecture

[Midori Sanchez]

I recently visited Japan and had a discussion with a graduate student about Japanese language and the use of hierarchy and gender differentiated language. For young people in Japan, there are several ways that you can address someone who you speak to which can be confusing and time consuming; it is the older generations that truly feel strongly about this system and most likely is here to stay. For example, a woman would say “watashi” and a boy would say “boku”. However, if a woman is speaking to someone who is her senior she would use “watakushi” and a man would say “ore” to show even more respect. Because I was in Japan and it was a business styled program, the coordinator used the highest level of speaking to speak to the students I was with; also because the students were unfamiliar to him. Another story I remembered regarding language was about my grandmother telling me how embarrassed she was when she went to japanese school. Her teacher told her that she “spoke like a man” since my grandmother learned japanese from spending time with her dad and her many brothers. 

In the lecture, she mentioned as well that there are even topics that were once “male dominant” such as venturing into the wilderness versus “female dominant” such as the ideas of longing and waiting since the men were the ones who were allowed to initiate the visits. This can be connected to the ideas in latino culture such as “machismo” where the men have control and are the breadwinners and the women are focused on bearing and raising children, and cooking and cleaning. It is interesting as well that activities such as sumi-e was once male-only; I myself have taken classes when I was in middle school and was not aware that by age and gender 700 years ago this wouldn’t be possible.
 

I am a high school teacher, so Romeo and Juliet is performed/analyzed with my 9th graders. We learn that Shakespeare’s plays also only allowed men to portray women but would use young boys. In Japan, especially during the Tokugawa period and connection to the shinto religion, they ensured that the portrayals were only men. We see in plays the portrayal of mad (jealous) women such as Ophelia as “mad” as well as in Dojoji we see the character maejite (dancer) also slowly losing her sanity. Ophelia we may not perceive as a powerful character since she is controlled by men by being able to pursue Hamlet and then by the death of her father, but the dancer could be seen as powerful as her anger transforms her into a serpent to punish the man who forsakes her. I would analyze the portrayal of women in Romeo and Juliet in addition to their age and then introduce the dojoji piece. We could find examples either in other countries or  in film and TV for a more contemporary portrayal such as with “Frozen” showing the one female character, Anna, being controlled by a man but breaking free of the trope of marrying the first person you meet and realizing that love/friendship and sisterhood is more important.