The theme of cultural identity crisis in creative works of Tanizaki Jun'ichirō and the concept of "lost Japan" by Alex Kerr

Abstract

The theme of cultural identity crisis became one of the main themes in creative works of the Japanese writer Tanizaki Jun'ichirō during the "Return to Japan" period of his creative life. Cultural identity crisis occurs during the time of dynamic social changes. Processes of modernization and westernization of Japan were the changes that provoked the question of how to find a connection with national culture when your country turns modern and westernesque so rapidly. Tanizaki's novel Some Prefer Nettles (Tade kuu mushi, 1928) was the milestone of his "Return to Japan" and the first writing dedicated solely to the problem of finding a way to your true "Japanese" self in a "westernized" Japan. The main character of the novel, Kaname, is going through a full-blown cultural identity crisis both on the cultural and personal levels. As for culture, Kaname finds solace in the realm of traditional Japanese puppet theatres which bring him back the comfort and happiness of his childhood. The theme of cultural identity crisis in his personal life is represented by the images of three women - Kaname's lover Louise (synthesis of East and West influences), wife Misako ("westernized" Japan) and his father-in-law's lover and disciple O-Hisa (Japanese tradition). Kaname is torn between these women and the vectors of cultural development they represent; in the end Tanizaki does not give a certain answer whom Kaname will choose, what path he will follow. In 1933 Tanizaki completes his famous essay "In Praise of Shadows" (In'ei raisan) where he shows his attitude to the overwhelming damage caused by Western culture to the traditional Japanese culture. The writer uses traditional Japanese aesthetic of "shadow" to build a contrast with Western "light" to show the deep and dramatic character of their conflict which leads to cultural identity crisis. Tanizaki points that Japanese culture will never evolve the way it was supposed to and woes to preserve the world of "shadow" at least in his writings. Tanizaki's ideas about the "world of shadows" found a surprising development in the book Lost Japan (1996) by Alex Kerr, where the author laments the collapse of the traditional Japanese culture at the end of the 20th century. Nevertheless, Kerr states that despite everything that was lost during the modernization and westernization of Japan for some representatives of Japanese culture the cultural identity crisis they went through resulted in finding a way both to preserve the connection with the native culture and to free themselves from its boundaries. The crisis helps Japanese people to determine an attitude to the native culture, find a place in it, understand the importance of the connection to the cultural roots for the personal development in the rapidly changing "globalized" world. The "world of shadows" did not disappear, it merged with the "light", which helped Japanese culture to get a new, modern appearance without losing its connection with traditions.