The Imperial Family turns into a broad topic, because there are many aspects to how they are represented in media--on film, in photographs, in illustrations, etc. There are eras and shifts in how they are presented, grand strands of time, and the infamy of Emperor Showa/Hirohito and his position in the Pacific Theater and WWII.
Here I will concentrate mostly on the evolution of the Imperial Family with a focus on the present, primarily through photographs, and their representation for the public--clothing, hairstyle, colors, setting, inter-relationships, expression, etc
A brief overview of the current family and their relation to each other can be found, as always, at the wikipedia page.
Emperor Hirohito, understandably, went through a rather significant change from pre- to mid- to post- war. But what about the subtle shifts of attention in the images with the birth of the children and the control of the IHA? Who are making these images and for what purpose? What does the prevailing opinion on the Family have an affect on how they are portrayed in official venues? What do the standards of Royal Living of other families have to do with the Japanese Royal family? Who makes what, in what way, and why were they chosen for that purpose?
What is "accessibility" and who decides it? What can the public see and not? The restrictions of 'sight' imply power relations and emphasize the mysteriousness of the quality, like the unseen Buddhas, that emphasize the rarity and sacrity, but also the limitations and separations of "normal" and "not-normal." But it also keeps them out of the public eye as individuals and keeps their separated 'status' as symbols. If we take them as symbols as the constitution names them, then what sort of image does the IHA wish to project?
There are rules of contact with the Emperor and Empress highly regulated. The appearance of their visage to the public tightly controlled. Thus those times that they can be seen become intent, focused events for those who are dedicated to the idea.
Take the New Year's Greeting ceremony. Once a year, the family stands on the balcony of the palace and greet the people. This ritual did not begin until 1948, contemporary with the Occupation, and now includes only part of the day the whole family. The way they stand in the three sections of windows also denote the importance of the constituent parties, a visual reaffirmation of the centrality of the rising brothers, marked off sharply from their wives, and only the rest at the edges and distant from the Emperor and Empress.
This Year: Crown Princess Masako Moves Inside the lines
Then she doesn't
Previous Years:
"Family Portraits"
December 2008 - young prince is central
Young Prince, center of attention
2007 - see the shift?
The girls still sit center stage.
Older Photos:
Hirohito and his sons, grandchildren
Pre-children Emperor Akihito and sons, wives, and daughter
"The Family Units" and the politics of family
Crown Prince Naruhito, Crown Princess Masako
(Note how Masako's appearance changes over time, including her body language, expression, and the nature of what she wears.)
A collection of family moments..?
The larger family unit
Several collected images of the whole family, and the Emperor/Empress, out and about
Crown Prince and Princess + Dog and Child sanpo shitaaa
1887 - Print Not sure who, precisely, but
Meiji, Emperor of Japan A complete family photo
WHERE are they mediated, and WHEN?
The main access point for the royal family (today) is through the greeting ceremony, photographs, and video. They become a medium pressed behind glass, viewed clearly by few outside of politics, family, and the IHA.
IHA serves as prime 'public' mediator for the Royal Family.
Emperor and the Empress
Pictures of them both, including an old one from being married(?)
A list of all the official images released by the IHA on the IHA's website
Emperor Hirohito and the Empress
Emperor and Empress stand together
Compare to: Hirohito, etc
Pre-war Hirohito and Empress Standing with attitude
Post-war Hirohito and Empress Post-war
Together on the IHA webstie
Another family portraiture
Let's compare with the White House Photos...
The Official Photostream for the Whitehouse
Personal Portraits in Court clothes
Emperor Hirohito : From his times cover appearence
Simple portrait of Hirohito
Emperor Akihito : Wedding photo
-- Emperor Portraits --
Hirohito
Astride his white horse, Shirayuki
Akihito, as a kid
Childhood to adult
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
"High" and "Low" "Cute Art" Comparison
Edit: Comments back to my lovely commentors, whom are amazing, now in the comments
Good thing it was Earth: Rei Sato
Image from the KaikaiKiki website, artwork created by Rei Sato. Image maybe found at this link.
Unexpected Faces are the loose theme here.
Rei Sato's work on the KaiKaiKiKi website concentrate on photographs with ink and gel pen faces floating on the surface of the images, inserting ghostly lines into apparent snap shots. The sacred space of the photograph, of art, is trespassed through child-like scrawling that looks at first glance more like graffiti intruding on the photograph's face. Whether or not the photograph is made by Rei Sato, or taken from different negatives, or just found--because her drawings own the image and add ghostly figures transparent to the context. In terms of Murakami's 'Flat', the picture plane becomes disharmonious.
The night sky's blending of colour would normally create this sense of extensive depth and realty of some beautiful landscape, but the ink lines emphasize the reality of the photograph's literal plane of flatness. This disruption of the fakery of space brings in a tension between how we have been taught to accept the reality of the photographic plane and the reality of the object itself. In a way the drawings ignore the photograph's content, including the usual composition of such a picture plane and the way the sideways image splits the photograph's content in half.
The bright white eyes pop against the darkness, and the title informs the interpretation of the earth. "Good thing it was the Earth," the title goes, and this implies some sort of potential tragedy that's been narrowly escaped. Yet the figures smile--the earth beams, but the girl/boy face glance away with a shy smile. Here lays the potential 'cute', perhaps--the wide, bright eyes, the large forehead and bulbous shape of the girl. The manner of the drawings also evoke childhood with the apparent simplicity and lack of structure in the forms to imitate 'reality'. Instead, it depends on just very disjointed symbols of 'people' or 'identity' of the eye an the mouth and remain perfectly readable even though they appear overtly simplistic. This simplicity, however, is also part of the cute--looking for the child forms and the child products, reducing symbols down below the uncanny valley and distance them from actual human form. The naive quaintness of our childhood drawings on the fridge push against the aesthetic beauty of the photograph (photos being adult objects because of the expense and complexity of the device) and evoke this distant yearning dream-space of child hood.
The above image is taken courtesy of Mainichi Bento from the March 2009 posts, a Japanese website run by a woman who teaches people about creative bento techniques and every day uploads either and image of the bento she's made that day, usually for her young child, or other photos relevant to her day.
Bento-Cute has it's own presence in culture, with a multitude of products designed for the purpose of creating cute faces and forms out of food for the purpose of lunches. Especially when aimed for children, products are often brightly decorated with characters, and there are the many books about how to create 'cute food'. This woman is one of the people who are a part of this greater system.
The visual systems associated with the different times of year are drawn on here with the smiling sakura blossom (this being the time for hanami), such an ever present symbol within the visual lexicon in Japan that in spring it appears everyone. That's not to mention the historic high culture poetry connection, the fetishized Japan imagery and so on that the sakura appear within. Fresh foods and bright colour create an attractive combination, and the faces are perfect examples of the 'cute' of the kyara, or chara, as has been described earlier--reduced features with emphasized eyes and a need to be taken care of. The fact this is meant to be eaten is not as important as the visual deliciousness where the idea of cute as consumer object becomes literally. Bright colors are devoured by both eyes and mouth as indications of freshness and youth. The time put into the creation of these bento are also a status marker of a mother who has time and skill to give her children delicious and appealing food, which also serves the purpose of encouraging the children to eat food they may not otherwise find appealing. The effort of creating bento thus carries a status marker (often female associated), which is compounded by the 'cute' factor that can be easily connected to the idea of woman, womanhood, and the skills of the household.
Good thing it was Earth: Rei Sato
Image from the KaikaiKiki website, artwork created by Rei Sato. Image maybe found at this link.
Unexpected Faces are the loose theme here.
Rei Sato's work on the KaiKaiKiKi website concentrate on photographs with ink and gel pen faces floating on the surface of the images, inserting ghostly lines into apparent snap shots. The sacred space of the photograph, of art, is trespassed through child-like scrawling that looks at first glance more like graffiti intruding on the photograph's face. Whether or not the photograph is made by Rei Sato, or taken from different negatives, or just found--because her drawings own the image and add ghostly figures transparent to the context. In terms of Murakami's 'Flat', the picture plane becomes disharmonious.
The night sky's blending of colour would normally create this sense of extensive depth and realty of some beautiful landscape, but the ink lines emphasize the reality of the photograph's literal plane of flatness. This disruption of the fakery of space brings in a tension between how we have been taught to accept the reality of the photographic plane and the reality of the object itself. In a way the drawings ignore the photograph's content, including the usual composition of such a picture plane and the way the sideways image splits the photograph's content in half.
The bright white eyes pop against the darkness, and the title informs the interpretation of the earth. "Good thing it was the Earth," the title goes, and this implies some sort of potential tragedy that's been narrowly escaped. Yet the figures smile--the earth beams, but the girl/boy face glance away with a shy smile. Here lays the potential 'cute', perhaps--the wide, bright eyes, the large forehead and bulbous shape of the girl. The manner of the drawings also evoke childhood with the apparent simplicity and lack of structure in the forms to imitate 'reality'. Instead, it depends on just very disjointed symbols of 'people' or 'identity' of the eye an the mouth and remain perfectly readable even though they appear overtly simplistic. This simplicity, however, is also part of the cute--looking for the child forms and the child products, reducing symbols down below the uncanny valley and distance them from actual human form. The naive quaintness of our childhood drawings on the fridge push against the aesthetic beauty of the photograph (photos being adult objects because of the expense and complexity of the device) and evoke this distant yearning dream-space of child hood.
The above image is taken courtesy of Mainichi Bento from the March 2009 posts, a Japanese website run by a woman who teaches people about creative bento techniques and every day uploads either and image of the bento she's made that day, usually for her young child, or other photos relevant to her day.
Bento-Cute has it's own presence in culture, with a multitude of products designed for the purpose of creating cute faces and forms out of food for the purpose of lunches. Especially when aimed for children, products are often brightly decorated with characters, and there are the many books about how to create 'cute food'. This woman is one of the people who are a part of this greater system.
The visual systems associated with the different times of year are drawn on here with the smiling sakura blossom (this being the time for hanami), such an ever present symbol within the visual lexicon in Japan that in spring it appears everyone. That's not to mention the historic high culture poetry connection, the fetishized Japan imagery and so on that the sakura appear within. Fresh foods and bright colour create an attractive combination, and the faces are perfect examples of the 'cute' of the kyara, or chara, as has been described earlier--reduced features with emphasized eyes and a need to be taken care of. The fact this is meant to be eaten is not as important as the visual deliciousness where the idea of cute as consumer object becomes literally. Bright colors are devoured by both eyes and mouth as indications of freshness and youth. The time put into the creation of these bento are also a status marker of a mother who has time and skill to give her children delicious and appealing food, which also serves the purpose of encouraging the children to eat food they may not otherwise find appealing. The effort of creating bento thus carries a status marker (often female associated), which is compounded by the 'cute' factor that can be easily connected to the idea of woman, womanhood, and the skills of the household.
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