A talkative uncle boasts and delusions of grandeur
It's very interesting. After all, it is the part dealing with "sex". Interesting enough to read Koichiro Uno. Koichiro Uno is fiction, but this is non-fiction. That's why it's interesting. No pure fiction, no pure non-fiction.It cannot be said that there is no "creation" in Mr. Akamatsu's narrative.
There is also a place like the "bragging story" of a talkative uncle.
It would be strange to call what is written in this book "utopia", and I cannot confirm that it is "true". However, I think you can imagine that things that are not the norms of today's society are "possible". Perhaps, even if you ask grandpa and grandma, it is rare to find someone who has "experienced" or "heard of". I don't think there are many people around who experienced the war anymore. The number of people who experienced the post-war food shortage is also decreasing. Many of those who have experienced it will have the experience of "I was always hungry when I was a child." But children are hungry. Adults are the same. It's a living thing to get hungry, so if you're always full, it's strange, and you have to think about why. I'm usually hungry, but it's time, so I have to eat, isn't it natural?
History and Facts
More than half of the content of this book is the author's experience. After that, the story that the author heard from the parties. Also, I don't know if it's true or not.
The author observes and hears the customs (folk customs) of various places while traveling around western Japan. However, it is not "licking notebooks and pencils".
If an inexperienced collector licks a notebook and a pencil and asks if there is a Kodomo-gumi, it would be natural for them to say, "Well, I'm sorry." Whether it's the "children's group" or the "young people", the residents of the village feel calm and unimaginative, and usually don't care. Therefore, even if an outsider asks me, so to speak, a standard language, I do not know what they are asking me. (P.141-142)
The residents of the area should not be vigilant. I haven't heard anything in fact. Even if the other party tries to answer with sincerity, the name is different depending on the region (village), and the age of the children's group is also different. And above all, if the residents are not "conscious", there is no way to answer.
Mura residents are sensitive to the central people who use standard language and the organization and rules decided by the central government. From long ago, I have suffered from their organization and rules, and in order to protect the village community, I think I feel the need to follow the customs of the village and be wary of "outsiders." .
History, at least until modern times, was written by rulers and rulers. Only those in power, or those who served those in power, could use letters. In other words, it was only "public history" and "official history." Those without power could not learn to write, nor could they buy expensive paper. Most of what is written in textbooks as "the customs and customs of the time" are the customs and customs of the politicians and those in power. There is no written record of how the other people lived.
In modern times, the literacy rate has increased and the customs of the common people have been depicted, but in short, people don't read them (laughs). This is the relationship between literacy and literacy. For the time being, the reference "Structure of ”Kyuichi Kikuchi, Keiso Shobo
"Eel on the Midsummer Day of the Ox", "Ehomaki", "Valentine's Day Chocolate", "Christmas Cake"... It is fresh in our minds that things are made. "Hinamatsuri" and "Shichi-Go-San" are not traditional Japanese customs.
Since there is no such thing as a society without discrimination or hierarchy in any era, the discriminated side and the discriminated side, the poor and the rich should all maintain the same manners and customs. There is no Rituals with strong personal elements such as ceremonial occasions are more likely to be divided by discrimination or class. In our memory, until the early Showa period, the so-called Shichi-go-san celebration was not so popular in cities, and was a custom of a very small part of the wealthy class. In general households and farming villages, there would have been little chance. It was after the war and after the period of high economic growth that the explosive popularity began due to the advertising activities of commercial capital such as shrines and department stores. (P.115)
Because there are records of the customs of the emperor, the customs of the court nobles, and the customs of the samurai, you can see the differences. The customs of villages are different between village headmen and tenant farmers, and of course they differ from region to region and village to village, but these are only partly transmitted through paintings and the like.
Hyojin
"I protested that Kunio Yanagida and others did not discuss sex, the yakuza, and the folklore of the emperor, and I wanted to use the perspective of the historical view of class struggle and fieldwork." He published a research paper on the folklore of "Honmin" using a research method centered on it. (Wikipedia)
"Tono Monogatari" is Yanagita's success story. In addition, it seems that there are many works dealing with "folk tales" such as "The Birth of Momotaro".
The thing I hate most these days is the coined word "folktale". Why can't we continue with the old 'mukashi banashi' (old tales)? If you think that just adding "folk tales" and "folk" will make all the old tales good stories for the people, stories that the people have gladly passed down from parents to children, it is completely unwise. I can't help but say. Junji Kinoshita's "Evening Crane" and other "folk tales" such as Miyoko Matsutani's replacement of bones and wombs cannot all become good stories for the people. Most of the folktales were not created by the common people from their daily lives, but were passed on for the purpose of edification, which the rulers of the time painstakingly learned over a long period of time to find out how to raise and create people who were convenient for them. is. (P.56-57)
In The Birth of Momotaro (1942), Yanagida used "myths," "folk tales," "legends," "old tales," "folk tales," and "fairy tales." (P.6 ~ "National Diet Library Digital Collection". Kadokawa Bunko, 1951, p.
"Grimm's Fairy Tales" is a collection of folk tales that had been handed down in Germany and other countries until then. It's a mix of childish dreaminess and moral elements, and it's not very coherent. From the first edition in 1812 to the final seventh edition in which Grimm was involved, in 1857, there were many rewrites. Many of them are deletion of parts related to "sexual expression" (the cruel narrative is almost unchanged).
Old tales with truly dissident purposes will always be repressed by the ruling class in any age. To a certain extent, it has survived and been passed down because it has been castrated, distorted, and rendered harmless by the former ruling classes. (P.37)
That's pretty poignant. I have never read Kunio Yanagida properly, so I can't say anything about it, but the common people that Yanagita described in "Folklore Studies" were called "ordinary people." If a celebrity's marriage partner is not a celebrity, they say "the other person is an ordinary person." There is also the word ``ordinary citizen,'' which I think is close to Yanagita's ``ordinary people.'' Akamatsu calls those people at the bottom who are not counted among ordinary people "non-ordinary people."
The attacks of the common people, citizens, and ordinary people against the people at the bottom are unrelenting. The cruelty of the workers is nothing short of cruel. However, in the non-human, anti-human world, such remorse and cruelty did not occur. Because when you wake up, you're already "human". Anti-humans and non-humans do not need proper nouns. We offer each other's experiences to seek solidarity, to establish new sexual consciousness, sexual function, and sexual norms. Our experience must be used only to deny petty wedding rituals and prostitution structures. Humans have obscenities, but we anti-humans and non-humans have no obscenities. Let us unite in unearthing and building a new sex race. (P.18)
From reading this book, Yanagida's folklore could be called "official folklore studies" based on "official historical views."
. It's been more than half a century since I can remember, but I've never heard of anyone saying "I crawled at night". However, some people boasted that they had done it with comfort women (some people even boasted how many Chinese people they had killed). In the belt of this book, it says, "The colorful reality of sexual folklore that bursts out." Talk about "sex" always attracts attention. I also bought this book after seeing this obi (probably). My interest in sex is, in Foucault's words, "the compulsion to be sexual." And what readers want is not the kind of sex that appears in health and physical education textbooks, but rather the kind of "imaginary" and "liberating" sex that people call "disgraceful."
Of course, the author must have been conscious that "if I write about sex, people will be interested." However, after depicting sex customs, the author thunders.
Looking at these sex customs, one might suspect that the urban slums are a world of beasts and beasts without sexual morality, but this is a terrible misunderstanding. Rather, I doubt that male and female genitals should be so revered and worshiped. If both parties agree, there is no reason to lend or borrow, and it is natural to buy and sell as a means of living. (P.385)
When it comes to sexuality, the feeling of being “sacred” and the feeling of being “unclean” coexist. It is often said that it is divided into "wives" and "prostitutes." The sacred sex assigned to the wife constitutes the form of the family. For example, "monogamy". The "sex" that the author refers to is not independent, but is closely linked to the family system and social system.
Prospects for a new "matrilineal society" and a new "cooperative economic society"
It was only in the early modern period that the relationship between men and women was fixed by law, confined to the mold of the ``house'', and managed by the state society. It is clear from literature and narratives that in ancient times and the Middle Ages, interrelationships between men and women were extremely fluid and diverse. Marriage was an attempt to fix the relationship between men and women, which is inherently fluid and diversified, with laws for the purpose of national control, and to place them within the frame of the "house" and control them. It was monogamous, and its straightforward stylization was monogamy. Such impersonal stereotypes will only increase the burden on the people in any era. (P.389-390)
If monogamy is seen as a "monogamy" type, it will be reorganized into a "polygamy" type through the solidarity of multiple "men" and "women." Then our sexual social relations will be extremely open, and the sexual world will be greatly expanded. This is the creation of a new free sexual social relationship as a human being, completely unrelated to primitive promiscuous marriage. (P.408)
As long as monogamy is adhered to, women must be slaves to men. (P.408-409)
However, the big problem we face today is the part-time job that attracts housewives. If the creation of new sexual relationships between men and women that we saw in slums, small factory towns, and small shopping districts in the old days was the forerunner of today's part-time work, then in a wide range of part-time jobs, , It can be easily guessed that a new relationship between women is occurring. The equal rights of men and women sought by the so-called "flying women" can only be achieved by confirming this fact, destroying the "monogamy" system that has supported the parent-brother society until now, and establishing this "polygamy" system. In other words, it is a new creation of a "matrilineal society" in which women are responsible for the children they give birth to. (P.409-410)
Polygamy does not allow fixed, privileged, or exclusive unions between men and women. Men are always open to women and women to men, and sexual intercourse and freedom of choice are guaranteed. (P.419)
The patrilineal society that has developed on the premise of a competitive economy is now committing a suicidal act that destroys the earth itself. The only way to reject and deter this is to create and establish a matrilineal society that can guarantee the conversion to a communal economy and its development. (P.420)
The scope of the author goes far beyond criticism of patrilineal society (patriarchy) and capitalist society.
Yesterday was the final episode of the drama "Keisei no Kannin" (I haven't seen the final episode yet). "Billing is bad, competition is good" is a "good and bad" thing. It is a work that does not have the perspective of why it is an economic society or why competition is necessary. As the author of the original work, it would be an idea of "don't cheat" (I haven't read the original). It's the same as "Mito Komon". It doesn't explain why Echigoya has money and why the magistrate has power. And Komon-sama, who has more power than that, admonishes him, "Don't cheat." Even though the Fair Trade Commission is a small government agency, it is a national institution. "Ishiko and Haneo" is over. It was a program with a ridiculous idea that "the law exists to protect the weak."
Competition is not "good" and the law is not "to protect the weak." Those who are able to enter the arena of competition and those who are protected by the law are 'ordinary people' and 'ordinary people'.
It seems that most of the people consider themselves to be "middle class" (the trend seems to have not changed recently. Well, it is possible that many of the people being surveyed are "ordinary people". There is a nature). "Essential workers" have been featured in the corona misfortune. David Graber's "Brushit Job is being misread. But that voice never had power. And the more at-risk worker, the "part-time worker", seems to have been drowned out ("the bullshit job" is not part-time work).
However, the big problem we face today is the part-time job that attracts housewives. If the creation of new sexual relationships between men and women that we saw in slums, small factory towns, and small shopping districts in the old days was the forerunner of today's part-time work, then in a wide range of part-time jobs, , It can be easily guessed that a new relationship between women is occurring. The equal rights of men and women sought by the so-called "flying women" can only be achieved by confirming this fact, destroying the "monogamy" system that has supported the parent-brother society until now, and establishing this "polygamy" system. In other words, it is a new creation of a "matrilineal society" in which women are responsible for the children they give birth to. (P.409-410)
The collapse of the so-called nuclear family and the rapid increase in part-time job families have resulted in children refusing to go to school, school violence, and bullying. (P.410)
Nevertheless, part-time workers are subject to statistics, and the minimum wage is (almost) applied. I don't think anyone would have listened to the voices of prostitutes, who are not subject to statistics and are exempt from the application of any laws.
A thirst for knowledge
I won't talk about statistics and quantifications, but why is it possible to be "sexualized"? . What makes this possible is the Western thirst for knowledge. Foucault mainly draws after Christianity, but modern people in particular are dying to know. I want to know not only academic knowledge, but also God, gossip, and everything. Therefore, "knowing more" becomes "value" and "power".
The power itself is just "memory" or "data", so it is not a physical force. When it becomes scientific knowledge, it becomes physical power.
Why do you want to know "more"? Seeking it out of "curiosity" or "instinct" is the same as not explaining anything. It has become prominent since the modern era, mainly in the West. It is just the self-justification of Westerners and moderns. An unsatisfied curiosity is a "deficit/craving". Is it the community that is not fulfilled? Sometimes the whole community is short of food. It's definitely a deficiency. But how can food not satisfy a community? It would be difficult for Westerners to think about it. It may be difficult even for Japanese people in recent years. When the community is not deprived, there is no one other than the "individual" and the "self" who feels deficient. So what I want to know is about myself, and more importantly about others. "Individual" is "lonely".
Knowing is the most imperative for men, especially if men "must be strong".
Strength, Power
Strength is revealed by comparison. Statistics and quantification are the basis for differentiation and comparison.
Comparing wolves and sheep, wolves are stronger. The idea that "the strong rule over the weak" has already appeared in Judaism and early Christianity as "shepherd power".
Shepherd power presupposes individual consideration for each member of the flock. (“ 〉” by Michel Foucault, Sankosha, p.21)
It transforms into “ruling power.” The theory of evolution is interpreted as 'natural selection' or even 'the law of the jungle'. But if that's true, wouldn't the sheep be gone?
Most humans are weaker than wolves. That's why I have a "knife" and a "gun". That is "knowledge" and "technology (science)". It is said that carrying a weapon is ``inevitable'' for weak people. The same is true in the East. However, in the West, it becomes the "right thing" and it changes to the "strong thing." It is "right" for the strong to dominate the weak. That is the modern “enlightenment thought”.
Recently, there seems to be a lot of news about bears appearing in the city. And the reasons for that are explained differently every year, such as "poor harvest of acorns", "increase in the number of cattle", or "residential areas spreading in the suburbs". I don't know which is true. However, it is very disappointing that it is said that ``bears that attack humans are bad'' and ``humans who shoot bears are right''. When did the Japanese become enlightened?
The rural community is gone, and the minimum community of the nuclear family is also disappearing. People are forced to live as "individuals." How should a lonely and dissatisfied individual treat others? Women's rights and women's social advancement are said to be the "right thing". At the same time, it is said that "women become strong." Is it okay to think of "strong/weak" and "right (good)/wrong (evil)"? As long as there is such an idea, I think that the "male-centered society" ("human-centered", "self-centered", and "individualistic") will not disappear.
I'm not saying that "night crawling" should be revived. I think that what makes relationships between men and women difficult is what makes it difficult for people to interact with each other. I believe that the ``ethnic culture of non-humans'' that Akamatsu's folklore studies reveals suggests the possibility of human relationships.