40 years since reversion: Negotiating the Okinawan difference in Japan today
International Okinawa Conference @Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna | November 1-3, 2012
About the conference
About the conference
2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the ‘return’ of Okinawa to Japan. The Japanese Studies Department at the University of Vienna is taking this as an opportunity to reflect on relations between ‘Okinawa’ and ‘Japan’ at an international conference.
The image of Okinawa in Japan has changed considerably over the past half-century. Forty years ago, when Okinawa was ‘returned’ to Japan, politicians and intellectuals were primarily concerned with bringing the Okinawan society into line with Japanese standards. In doing so, they consciously suppressed aspects of Okinawa’s own culture: the local language, for example, was considered backward, and the religious practices in which women fulfil important functions were regarded as irrational. Since the 1990s, however, there has been a noticeable change in the image of Okinawa, and ‘Okinawa’s otherness’ is increasingly being presented in a positive light. Whether this is a sign of showing a multifaceted, heterogeneous Japan, or whether this development leads to the re-stereotyping of Okinawa as the ‘other’ – these and other questions will be discussed at the conference.
The conference aims at bringing together scholars from Japan, Europe, and North America who are experts in the field of research on Okinawa in various academic disciplines, thus stressing the methodological, theoretical and empirical diversity within the field of Okinawan studies. In addition, interactive elements such as artist’s talks and livestream discussions with Okinawan participants will complement the academic program. The conference language is English.
Dates
- Thursday, November 1st 2012, 10:00am~05:00pm (CEST)
- Friday, November 2nd 2012, 09:00am~07:00pm (CEST)
- Saturday, November 3rd 2012, 09:00am~03:30pm (CEST)
Conference Programme
Day 1 – Thursday, November 1st, 2012
- 10:00am: Opening ceremony
Conference organizers - 10:30am~12:00pm: "Remembering 1972 (I)"
- What the 'reversion' to Japan meant for Okinawa
Eiko Asato - Remembering 1972: Where has justice gone?
Masaaki Gabe
- What the 'reversion' to Japan meant for Okinawa
- 12:00~13:30: Lunch break
- 01:30~03:00pm: "Remembering 1972 (II)"
- The development of civil society in Okinawa since 1972 and its characteristics in comparison with mainland Japan
Beata Bochorodycz - Imagining a new community: Okinawa’s reversion to Japan
Gabriele Vogt
- 03:00~03:30pm: Coffee break
- 03:30~05:00pm: "Okinawan studies: Developments and changes (I)"
- Some thoughts on paradigm-shifts in post-war anthropological studies on Okinawa
Josef Kreiner
- Some thoughts on paradigm-shifts in post-war anthropological studies on Okinawa
- 06:30~07:00pm: Departure for dinner at s'Pfiff, Rathstraße 4, 1190 Vienna
Day 2 – Friday, November 2nd, 2012
- 09:00am~01:00pm: "Okinawan studies: Developments and changes (II)"
- The development of rituals for ancestors in Okinawa – Taking account of the state system in folk culture studies
Masanobu Akamine - Ryūkyū Disposition (Ryūkyū shobun) reconsidered
Stanislaw Meyer
- The development of rituals for ancestors in Okinawa – Taking account of the state system in folk culture studies
- 10:30~11:00am: Coffee break
- 11:00am~12:30pm: "Linguistics (I)"
- Nikolay A. Nevskiy’s Miyakoan dictionary in Ryūkyūan lexicology and in endangered language rescuing endeavors
Alfred Majewicz - Towards the moribund languages of the Ryūkyūs: Chances for reconstruction with N. Nevsky’s dictionary of the Miyako dialects
Aleksandra Jarosz
- Nikolay A. Nevskiy’s Miyakoan dictionary in Ryūkyūan lexicology and in endangered language rescuing endeavors
- 12:30~02:00pm: Lunch break
- Video chat with gallery Mintama in Okinawa
- 02:00~03:30pm: "Cultural anthropology: Tourism"
- The discovery of beachscape in post-reversion Okinawa
Gerald Figal - From Hawaii to Okinawa: The expansion of the paradise image and tourism beyond time and place
Osamu Tada
- The discovery of beachscape in post-reversion Okinawa
- 03:30~04:00pm: Coffee break
- 04:00~05:30pm: "Visual and media studies"
- The visual representation of Ryūkyū on Ryūkyūan postal stamps from 1948 to 1972
Sepp Linhart - About Okinawan faces: Representations of uchinaanchu in literary texts ad visual media
Hidehiko Motohama
- The visual representation of Ryūkyū on Ryūkyūan postal stamps from 1948 to 1972
- 05:30~06:00pm: Break
- 06:00~07:00pm: Artist talk Mao Ishikawa (photographer)
Day 3 – Saturday, November 3rd, 2012
- 09:00~10:30am: "Linguistics (II)"
- Japanese as foreign language? - The history of standard Japanese in Okinawa's school education in the Meiji era
Sayaka Yoshimura - Near-dialectization of the Ryūkyūan Abstand languages
Patrick Heinrich
- Japanese as foreign language? - The history of standard Japanese in Okinawa's school education in the Meiji era
- 10:30~11:00am: Coffee break
- 11:00am~12:00pm: Video chat with Bairon Fija (lecturer of uchinaaguchi at Haebaru Well Culture school, guest lecturer at Okinawa University)
- 12:00~01:30pm: Lunch break
- 01:30~03:00pm: "Literary studies"
- Shamanism as a representation: Identity politics in films and literature of Okinawa
Ryōko Shiotsuki - Writing back: Literary texts by authors from Okinawa as postcolonial literature
Ina Hein
- Shamanism as a representation: Identity politics in films and literature of Okinawa
- 03:00~03:30pm: Closing discussion
Publications
Beiträge zur Japanologie Band 44 (2015)
40 years since reversion: Negotiating the Okinawan difference in Japan today
edited by Ina Hein and Isabelle Prochaska-Meyer
Contents
- Ina Hein and Isabelle Prochaska-Meyer: Introduction: Negotiating the Okinawan difference in Japan today
- Stanisław Meyer: “Ryūkyū shobun”: A difficult chapter in Okinawan history
- Gabriele Vogt: Setting out to imagine a new community: Okinawa‘s reversion to Japan
- Beata Bochorodyz: Social movements in Okinawa since 1945: Was the reversion a threshold in the development of civil society?
- Message from Okinawa I: Eiko Asato
- Patrick Heinrich: Language or dialect? The place of the Ryukyuan varieties in the Japonic language family
- Sayaka Kawasaki: Japanese as a foreign language? The introduction of the Japanese language in Okinawan primary schools
- Aleksandra Jarosz and Alfred F. Majewicz: Retrieving a moribund language: Nikolay A. Nevskiy and his miyakoan dictionary in Ryukyuan lexicology and in scholarship
- Sepp Linhart: Deigo and Shureimon: The visual representation of Ryukyu on Ryukyuan stamps (1948-1972) compared to that of Okinawa on Japanese Stamps (1972-2012) and Japanese regional stamps (1989-2012)
- Ina Hein: Writing back: Literature from Okinawa – a postcolonial perspective
- Ryoko Shiotsuki: Shamanism as a symbol for Okinawan-ness: Identity politics in Japanese films and literature depicting Okinawa
- Message from Okinawa II: Mao Ishikawa
- Masanobu Akamine: Development and evolution of ancestor worship in Okinawa: Taking account of the state system in folk culture studies
- Osamu Tada: From Hawaii to Okinawa: The expansion of the paradise image and tourism beyond time and place
List of Participants in Alphabetical Order
- Masanobu Akamine | University of the Ryūkyūs
- Eiko Asato
- Beata Bochorodycz | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
- Gerald Figal | Vanderbilt University
- Bairon Fija | Haebaru Well Culture School
- Masaaki Gabe | University of the Ryūkyūs
- Ina Hein | University of Vienna
- Patrick Heinrich | Dokkyō University
- Mao Ishikawa
- Aleksandra Jarosz | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
- Josef Kreiner | Hōsei University
- Sepp Linhart | University of Vienna
- Alfred Majewicz | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
- Stanislaw Meyer | Jagiellonian University, Krakow
- Hidehiko Motohama | Okinawa Christian University
- Ryōko Shiotsuki | Atomi University, Saitama
- Osamu Tada | Hitotsubashi University
- Gabriele Vogt | University of Hamburg
- Sayaka Yoshimura | University of Vienna