Volume 22, Issue 1

Regularly and irregularly occurring events at which surprisingly high degrees of physical and mental energy as well as large quantities of goods and money are required, and need to be procured in forms hardly open to individual choice and deliberation, abound in Japan. The corresponding complex rules are especially conspicuous on the level of direct interpersonal exchange, where the uninterrupted balance between outgoing investment and incoming return on investment is considered essential to maintain the close-knit social order that constitutes not just tradition but quite specifically the normative basis for Japan’s self-image as a leading post-war economic power. In many ways this close-knit order contrasts with concepts we might hold about a modern, pluralistic society. Today we face a situation where the continued propagation of correct rules for supplying goods, money and personal energy stands in increasing conflict with the economic and structural means to do so, and with any calculated interest in specific social contexts thus to be maintained

This article refers to an ethnographical study within the framework of a cross-cultural research project in Germany and Japan. It focuses on the ritual staging and performing of family happiness within two countries: Christmas in Germany and oshogatsu, the turn of the year, in Japan. Happiness is hereby conceived as a particular form of well-being that is (intended) to be evoked during the yearly reunion of the family. Through ritual practice, the family members (re)confirm their family bonds and create their specific idea of family happiness. In the German family outlined below, Christmas Day in Germany happens to be the first Christmas Celebration in the new family constellation for everyone, and the family members are about to perform their future life plan. In Japan, oshogatsu relies on experiences and memories within the particular family constellation which allow an emotional proximity between four generations. The analytical approach reveals the social cultural impact on emotions and their performative and amplifying potential in rituals

The text contrasts two eating situations and the sentimental values associated with each: the paper proposes that we can relate eating fast food primarily with present happiness, namely fun, while the traditional family meal is associated with satisfaction and a sense of well-being. Well-being has a stronger emphasis on the emotional dimension of the experience of more or less extensive states and developments of happiness; the concept of satisfaction targets more the cognitive factor of happiness, and fun is defined as an emotion which expresses individual self-determination and self-compliance. The fun in fast food involves the public, the individual experience and the character of the event; the well-being at the dining table involves privacy, duration and the social experience. A modern imperative is expressed in fast-food eating: Live your life now as a happy one: Eat it, be happy and show it!

Is it possible to organize well-being in an educational setting? The paper examines some possible conditions and forms by using the example of Japanese preschools and tries to track down the logic of the organization of well-being. Playful, but systematically learned selective rituals and routines, the specific handling of conflicts and the restraint of the educators create an environment, in which the children are able not only to play enthusiastically, but also to adjust their common activities to a large extent on their own. Well-being in a relaxed and happy social coexistence in the group - on the one hand an indispensable condition for all further educational processes, on the other hand also end in itself - is staged as joint task, for which everybody should try for together.

Across Canada, people commemorate the lives of fallen soldiers by wearing red poppy flower pins for Remembrance Day on November 11. In recent years, Canadians have increasingly taken pride in the symbols used in Remembrance Day, such as poppy flowers and a poem called In Flanders Fields. The day celebrates the notions of sacrifice, belonging, and the nation state of Canada. Japanese Canadians also celebrate this holiday by wearing poppies and remembering the war dead. World War II, however, marked a turning point for the lives of second generation Japanese Canadians. The majority of them were interned in the “relocation camps” during the war years as “enemy aliens” irrespective of their Canadian citizenship status. This paper will describe a present-day Remembrance Day service held in a Japanese Canadian Christian congregation in Ontario, in which its veterans are remembered. The article argues that this ritual of remembrance reverses the historical and social location of Japanese Canadians from those who were the victims of the war to those who were contributors to it, enabling Japanese Canadians to assert their rightful position in Canadian society. This paper also includes a discussion of the author’s personal transformation of historical consciousness about World War II and being Japanese in Canada during this research.

This article is an ethnographic study of contemporary ritual and well-being in the Buddhist 88-temple-pilgrimage on Shikoku Island, Japan, drawing on some findings of my PhD thesis. It will be shown how rituals are employed by pilgrims to gain this-worldly benefits and well-being, such as happiness, assurances about the future, success, and lives that can be lived free from problems and dangers, which mirror how contemporary pilgrims see their obligations and responsibilities in society. Further in-depth analysis of pilgrimage items and related rituals clarify what pilgrims deem ‘sacred’, and how they respond to this, why and through what experiences and actions they set things as ‘sacred’: ‘spaces’, items, and rituals are regarded as very sacred or more or less sacred. This research finds that there is a ‘sacred’ on a continuum, which it labels as ‘spectrum of the sacred’.

The Hanamatsuri and Shimotsukimatsuri of the Southern Japanese Alps are investigated in regard to the diversity of resonances emerging from the performance of these rituals. While the declared aim of these dance rituals is the continuity and renewal of fertility and well-being of nature and humans, it emerges during repeated comparative research in over half of the still extant festivals that the final aim is the re-establishing of communal solidarity. While the much contested objective of these revived dance rituals is the “divine possession”, the underlying notion of well-being or auspiciousness fits very well into other Japanese religious practices to contribute to the maintenance of peaceful social relations. Nevertheless, the contingency of the emergence of divine possession seems to be dependent on lay personnel being in charge of the liturgy as much as on the synesthetic performance’s resonance to generate an affective bodily engagement among all participants. It is argued that even the often criticized increasing influx of city tourists may lead to a new orientation in the self-understanding of the performances as inducing a body imagery which stresses interpersonal “gut-relations” (hara) as a form to escape the daily conventionality of behavioral codes of conduct.

There is a growing awareness in Japan that well-being is closely linked to social relationships. It is often expressed as a call for tsunagari, relationships with a willing mutual involvement. This paper examines what kind of tsunagari can be fostered through folk performing arts which are rooted in a longstanding belief in a sacred beast represented as shishi (lion). The theory of ritualization is employed to approach shishimai (lion dance) as practice which is inextricably connected to the local perception of well-being. The close observation of hamlets carrying out shishimai in Toyama reveals that it reflects the state of a community and of its members, and often generates intimate and integrative social relations. They not only provide useful resources to attain well-being but are also extended to the symbolic and spiritual dimensions.

This ethnographic study explores bullfighting in Oki and its many functions in contemporary life. It examines how mostly elderly bullfighters differ from other Japanese of their age and how they manage to lead their lives to the fullest, maintaining a high level of physical and mental health. With depictions of both the daily routine and bullfighting events, the paper enquires into the meaning of bullfighting and its related activities for actors involved in it, how bullfighters learn social skills in the stables and the arena, and how bullfighting creates well-being both on an individual and collective level. The hypothesis is that the sense of satisfaction of bullfighters accrues from a balance of activities as discrete individual and social interaction, communication, and intergenerational exchange.

This article examines traditional Japanese festivals (matsuri) and the problems they face in remaining socially relevant today by focusing on patterns of participation. While many such festivals continue to follow historical precedent, others have evolved and adapted to current social and demographic trends. Through an analysis of three historically related festivals that have taken rather divergent paths in the modern era, this study attempts to demonstrate how change, including the easing and restructuring of rights of participation, can have beneficial effects. The result can be a modern matsuri which, while still retaining many traditional elements, is capable of engaging a large number of participants and providing them with an emotionally satisfying festival experience.

Shinjo Matsuri in Yamagata prefecture is a 250-year old summer festival recognized as one of the nationally designated Important Folk and Cultural Properties. Besides the procession of a mikoshi from Tenman shrine, 20 decorated floats circulate through the city for two days, by collaboration between the people in the town and farm areas. Characteristically, as the local lord Tozawa allowed people to design the float as they liked at the beginning of the festival, groups of young people in each area still design, finance and construct the float by themselves without any institution’s nor profession’s help. This paper aims to explain how the construction and the spatial assignment of the float work to sustain the community bond between generations and define its local identity in the whole city. Especially, I would like to discuss how people interpret the idea of furyu in enhancing their well-being in the community by creating the extraordinary socio-symbolical space, and by accommodating the festival to the social change.

Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht die nembutsu-Kulte im ländlichen Japan der Gegenwart und argumentiert, dass ihre Rituale eine Form der religiösen Praxis darstellen, die der Verortung von Individuen im sozialen und physischen Raum dient. Die Erforschung der nembutsu-Rituale gibt uns meiner Meinung nach eine Möglichkeit an die Hand, den Begriff der Liminalität als eine Art der Modulation zu re-interpretieren, d. h. als einen Prozess, innerhalb dessen die Teilnehmer von einem ursprünglichen Status in einen neuen Status überführt werden, der viele der Eigenschaften und Kennzeichen des alten Status beibehält. Das in dieser Arbeit behandelte Ritual stellt insofern ein Beispiel solcher Modulationspraxis dar, als die Beziehungen sowohl zwischen den Toten und den Lebenden als auch zwischen den Lebenden untereinander in einer Weise umstrukturiert werden, die diese Beziehungen verändert, dabei aber viele ihrer ursprünglichen Elemente aufrechterhält.

This German-Japanese ethnographic study shows how important happiness and a satisfying life are for people, as well as how important the family is in this context. In an ethnographic study we examined the Christmas rituals of three families in Germany and the New Year rituals of three families in Japan. The goal of our study was to find out how family members create their well-being and happiness in rituals. In their mise-en-scène and staging of the happiness language and imagination, corporeality and performativity, mimetic processes, rituals, and gestures play an important role. We discovered and also analyzed transcultural elements of family happiness: the sacred foundation of the family, the importance of the communal meal, the role of the exchange of gifts, the function of narratives and memories, and the importance of time for each other to create togetherness.

The aim of this paper is to provide perspectives on conducting an international comparative study of happiness. This comparative survey, which the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and Kyoto University began jointly in 2008, is a truly international, interdisciplinary research project that designated Japan and Germany as sites for anthropological fieldwork where experts in philosophy, sociology, and pedagogy would jointly tackle the same field. Employing a historical and cultural anthropology perspective, this research project starts with the assumption not to seek to identify a model of happiness or well-being that goes beyond history and culture. Rather, the main focus of the research has been on how happiness and well-being are constructed in interactions among family members in the course of their various daily practices as well as in the ritual practices involved in families celebrating a festive occasion. First, in addressing family happiness, we examined the Christmas period for German households as typical seasonal festivity celebrated by families.

Contemporary cross-cultural happiness research commonly defines the concept of culture in regard to nation states. This paper takes up anthropological criticisms of this traditional culture concept arguing that the view on national cultures needs to be complemented by a view on transnational cultural movements. These theoretical reflections are applied to a qualitative case study that examines the transnational “Outward Bound Schools” in Japan and Germany. Based on document reviews, interviews, and observations two cultural patterns in Outward Bound Japan are reconstructed. The first one refers to an emphasis on ecstatic happiness. As this emphasis is found in Outward Bound Japan as well as in Outward Bound Germany it is analyzed as a transnational cultural pattern. The second pattern refers to an emphasis on what is often called “ganbarism” in Japan, i.e., the virtue of endurance. The analysis shows that this emphasis is unique in Outward Bound Japan and that it can be linked to the broader Japanese cultural context. With this empirical study the paper thus draws the attention to the complexity of cultural patterns in regard to cross-cultural happiness research.

To trace joyful emotions in the practice of the Japanese art of fencing is quiet complicate and uncommon. As a former martial art Kendo is straightly connected with the mortal sword fighting of the Middle Ages. Today the fight with sharp swords has been replaced by a competition trough using the sportive protection armor and bamboo sword. The serious contest between the opponents with the reference to the life-or-death constellation of ancient times marks the activity in Kendo. The primary aim is the verification of the individual development, arising from the combination of an adult character and sportive skills. At the highest level of Kendo the development of a positive personal relation to the partner is being created via the hard and battlesome competition. Under specified conditions the fight yells harmony and empathy in a social interaction through the body activity of two individuals.

By bringing Schechner’s analytical concepts of ‘script’, ‘theater’ and ‘performance’ (2003) to bear on the analysis of a contemporary performance of Kyōgen, a form of traditional Japanese theatre, and by examining the play and interplay of these three dimensions through Turner’s theory of ritual (2005), I will discuss how performances of Kyōgen present notions and topoi of individual and collective well-being and may actually contribute to a state thereof. In doing so, I aim to arrive at a better understanding of what the notion of well-being may mean for Japanese people.

This article describes risk taking and well-being in corporate Japan. A case study of a research intensive manufacturing company shows how a corporate management can design its business strategy to contribute to the well-being of the employees. An in-depth expert interview with the company’s Chief Executive Officer and a qualitative content analysis of official company documents present and discuss the firm’s employee well-being policy. Findings show that the organization employs its business philosophy to promote a working environment that encourages constructive risk-taking. This leads to technological innovations and improved competitiveness on the market. Furthermore, the company is successful in contributing to the well-being of its employees and other stakeholders.