Changing Impression on Anthropology

Hello everyone in the class of Visual Anthropology of Japan. This is the final post for this blog, so I’ll try to write a more impressive post than my usual explanatory posts which have some examples and explanations based on my research. Today’s my post will be about my own impression on anthropology.


Through this class, I greatly changed my view of “Anthropology.”
My previous image of “Anthropology” is just like what this picture shows.
I had recognized anthropology to be one of the fields which study just the human evolution until I started to study in this class. How poor my understanding of anthropology was! However, through this class, I knew that anthropology is the study of not only the human evolution but also many other things such as cultures, society, and human behaviors.

If I am told to explain this picture (taken in Asakusa in Tokyo on Golden Week) anthropologically before I took this class, I must have explained as follows:
Humans are walking just with their legs and they are holding various things in their hands. Some people are holding bags in their hands and even there is a woman who is holding an umbrella in her hand. Humans have made great progress in functions of their bodies. I can’t see any image of monkeys in humans in this photo…….etc.

Now I don’t explain in that way. I would direct my attention to not only human itself but also other elements in this picture. I can explain it in terms of cultural elements such as temples or outside shops and also I can describe the relationship between people and those cultural elements.

Anthropology is a much bigger research field than I had expected. I think anthropology is a huge field that covers the whole human society. When I noticed the hugeness of anthropology, I nearly kept away from the study. However, while I had continued to get involved in this class and this blog as one of “native anthropologists,” I found that anthropology is very near to us. That’s because it is the study of ourselves, I think. 　

I feel that anthropology can be studied by any perspectives, in other words, I thought that anthropology is very free and flexible. Even I, a non-expert of anthropology, could be involved in the study of anthropology in this class by examining my experiences or surroundings. Materials for the study are here and there in the human society, that is, as long as the human society exists, anthropology never disappears.

The Rising Sun Flag

I found a national flag of Japan when I was walking around near my town on April 29 which is national holiday. There are still some people who display the Rising Sun in front of their houses on national holidays.

At first, let’s think about when and why the custom of displaying Japanese flags started. Here is the description about Rising Sun Flag written on an elementary school textbook published in 1936.

“There used to be few houses where the Rising Sun Flags were displayed on national holidays. However, about ten years ago, people of whole town had an argument about the national flag and they decided to display the flags at every house.” (translation of mine)

As you can see from the description and the publication year, the custom fixed after the Russo-Japanese War. Before the war (until the end of Edo period), Japanese flags were not familiarized to people’s daily life. However, after the war, a Boshin syousyo (戊申詔書) which was issued by the name of the Emperor in an attempt to build a political and educational system with loyalty and patriotism. The custom of displaying Japanese flags on some special day was established as one of the ways to materialize this issue. Japanese flag was displayed not only on national holidays but also on the day of the Imperial House’s events, return in triumph of soldiers and public office’s celebrations.
At that time, the Rising Sun Flag was a symbol of loyalty and patriotism.

(Information from 歴史教育者協議会編「日の丸・君が代50問５０答」大月書店　１９９９)

However, there are now few Rising Sun Flags displayed at people’s house. My mother said that although there used to be a lot of the Rising Sun Flags displayed in front of people’s houses on national holidays, they are seldom found in recent years. My national holiday, but he also said that he gradually stopped doing that after the war.

http://aboutme.jp/question/show/46805

This chart might be helpful to know how many people still display the flag on national holidays.

Rising Sun Flag often reminds people of wartime and militarism, so quite a few people strongly resist displaying the flags. It is the same thing as refusing to stand for Kimigayo (君が代).

My father said that he comes up with the image of the right wing (右翼: uyoku) when he sees the flag. The cars of uyoku which are displaying Rising Sun Flag are sometimes found on streets. They go around by car, appealing the come back of the Emperor system. They are often playing Kimigayo in a loud volulme.

I have never experienced wartime and I have been grown up in the age of democracy when the individualism is emphasized, not nationalism. So, I don’t have any special image or thoughts about Rising Sun Flag. It reminds me of just sports events or Hinomaru bento (日の丸弁当). The image of Japanese flag is varied from generation to generation.