This book examines the phenomenon of war-related contents tourism throughout Japanese history, from conflicts described in ancient Japanese myth through to contemporary depictions of fantasy and futuristic warfare.
It tackles two crucial questions: first, how does war transition from being traumatic to entertaining in the public imagination and works of popular culture; and second, how does visitation to war-related sites transition from being an act of mourning or commemorative pilgrimage into an act of devotion or fan pilgrimage? Representing the collaboration of ten expert researchers of Japanese popular culture and travel, it develops a theoretical framework for understanding war-related contents tourism and demonstrates the framework in practice via numerous short case studies across a millennium of warfare in Japan including: the tales of heroic deities in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters, AD 712), the Edo poetry of Matsuo Basho, and the Pacific war through lens of popular media such as the animated film Grave of the Fireflies.
This book will be of interest to researchers and students in tourism studies and cultural studies, as well as more general issues of war and peace in Japan, East Asia and beyond.
List of Figures List of Contributors Preface PHILIP SEATON Acknowledgements Periods of Japanese history 1 Theorizing war-related contents tourism PHILIP SEATON AND TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA PART I From myths to the middle ages 2 The narrative worlds of ancient wars: Travelling heroes in Kojiki TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA 3 The Mongol invasions of Japan and Tsushima tourism KYUNGJAE JANG 4 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and contents tourism in Aizu-Wakamatsu ALEKSANDRA JAWOROWICZ-ZIMNY 5 History girls and women’s war-related contents tourism AKIKO SUGAWA-SHIMADA PART II The rise and fall of the Tokugawas 6 Satsuma’s invasion of the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609 and Okinawa tourism KYUNGJAE JANG 7 War-related narratives and contents tourism during the ‘Tokugawa peace’ TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA 8 Tōken Ranbu and samurai swords as tourist attractions AKIKO SUGAWA-SHIMADA 9 Castles and castle towns in Japanese tourism YOSUKE FUJIKI AND HITOSHI NAKAI 10 Festivals of war: Travelling the Shinsengumi in 2019 PHILIP SEATON PART III Imperial Japan 11 Hokkaido as imperial acquisition and the Ainu in popular culture and tourism RYO KOARAI 12 The Russo-Japanese War and (contents) tourism PHILIP SEATON 13 Tourism relating to the new culture introduced by First World War German POWs KYUNGJAE JANG 14 Theatre (contents) tourism and war as a backdrop to romance AKIKO SUGAWA-SHIMADA PART IV The Asia-Pacific War 15 Yasukuni Shrine’s Yūshūkan museum as a site of contents tourism PHILIP SEATON AND TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA 16 The sense of belonging created by In This Corner of the World LULI VAN DER DOES 17 Travelling Grave of the Fireflies: The gap between creators’ intentions and audiences’/tourists’ interpretations TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA 18 Tours of Tokkōtai (kamikaze) training bases LULI VAN DER DOES 19 Repatriation and the enka ballad Ganpeki no haha AKIKO SUGAWA-SHIMADA PART V Postwar Japan 20 Kantai Collection and entertainmentization of the Second World War KYUNGJAE JANG 21 The war metaphors underpinning Mizuki Shigeru yōkai tourism QIAODAN WANG AND PHILIP SEATON 22 Shin Godzilla: Tourism consuming images of JSDF, kaiju characters, and destroyed sites ALEKSANDRA JAWOROWICZ-ZIMNY AND TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA 23 Fantasy wars and their real-life inspirations: Tourism and international conflicts caused by Attack on Titan RYO KOARAI AND TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA Conclusions: Patterns of war-related (contents) tourism TAKAYOSHI YAMAMURA AND PHILIP SEATON Index
Takayoshi Yamamura is a Professor at Hokkaido University, Japan. Philip Seaton is a Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan.
