Profile
- Research Subject
Research on the representation of fear and body, and the representation of the relationship between individuals and systems in postwar Japanese films and related fields.
- Research Fields
- Visual culture studies, Japanese film studies
- Faculty - Division / Research Group / Laboratory
- Division of Humanities / Research Group of Cultural Representations / Laboratory of Visual and Modern Culture
- Graduate School - Division / Department / Laboratory
- Division of Humanities / Department of Cultural Representations / Laboratory of Visual and Modern Culture
- School - Course / Laboratory
- Division of Humanities and Human Sciences / Course of Linguistics and Literature / Laboratory of Visual and Modern Culture
- Related Links
Lab.letters
J-horror terror concepts that develop the expression of ghosts
There is a terror portrayed by modern Japanese horror films where there is fear that something like a ghost has been photographed or filmed, or that there is something in a place where nothing should be, which makes the audience realize the existence of someone or thing that is “other” and that is breathing in a place unknown to us, and in turn this entraps the audience into a double fear of terror of the medium of video which itself is capturing it.
Based on the research of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a practitioner of the original horror idea of J-Horror, I am currently engaged with the analysis of post-war Japanese films that developed from it. Using Yuzo Kawashima’s body of work as a starting point, I want to reinterpret post-war Japanese films from a broad perspective of “the powerlessness and lives of individuals in systems and communities.”
Crossing work with XXX and transforming it into academic study
Anyone can freely express their thoughts and impressions of images, movies, and pop culture, but the key to transforming them into studies that incorporate academic thinking is to have a questioning perspective on “what a target work is related to.” However, the actual definition of “what” will depend on your interests, such as history and philosophy. It is important to habitually touch upon a variety of things in order to expand one’s options.
The basis of research in the field of images is to “see something as it is.” Without reading between the lines or adding an interpretation that isn’t there, first of all you have to take an image as it is. This is not easy, but I feel that the most effective method right now is for me to “work together” with everyone so that we can all stand at that same starting point.
Message
I conduct research on movies, but I do not know anything about them. The more I watch pieces, and the more I study about various things, the less I understand about the object of my research. This is always. It is a struggle. However, I also think that ideas only begin from that point. Moreover, I know that when I can feel that I’ve been able to give that enigma the most appropriate wording, I receive a sense of fulfillment and happiness that couldn’t be greater.
I would like you to be involved in this world of “I don’t know” at universities and graduate schools. In particular, images and modern culture are close to us all, and seem to be “somehow familiar” to us. This is why the starting point is to take time breaking down that “somehow.” “I don’t know” is fun (even though I just wrote that it is a struggle). This is to re-encounter what is familiar as something other, but in that process to also become unclear about yourself. Make yourself complicated, and try becoming a person who is a bit of an enigma themselves. This is a struggle, but at the same time it is fun. Moreover, surviving such a time should become a real thrill of learning.