Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho

Koichi Hagimoto

Description

In the early twentieth century, historical imaginings of Japan contributed to the Argentine vision of “transpacific modernity." Intellectuals such as Eduardo Wilde and Manuel Domecq García celebrated Japanese customs and traditions as important values that can be integrated into Argentine society. But a new generation of Nikkei or Japanese Argentines is rewriting this conventional narrative in the twenty-first century. Nikkei writers such as Maximiliano Matayoshi and Alejandra Kamiya are challenging the earlier, unapologetic view of Japan based on their own immigrant experiences.

Compared to the experience of political persecution against Japanese immigrants in Brazil and Peru, the Japanese in Argentina generally lived under a more agreeable sociopolitical climate. In order to understand the "positive" perception of Japan in Argentine history and literature, Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho turns to the current debate on race in Argentina, particularly as it relates to the discourse of whiteness. One of the central arguments is that Argentina's century-old interest in Japan represents a disguised method of (re)claiming its white, Western identity.

Through close readings of diverse genres (travel writing, essay, novel, short story, and film) Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho yields a multi-layered analysis in order to underline the role Japan has played in both defining and defying Argentine modernity from the twentieth century to the present.  

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Ignacio López-Calvo
Introduction
Part I: Transpacific Modernity: An Asia-Latin America Perspective
1. Argentine Chronicles on Japan: Hygiene, Aesthetics, and Spirituality in Eduardo Wilde and Jorge Max Rohde
2. Empire Across the Sea: Narratives of Japanese Imperialism in the Writings of Manuel Domecq García and Yoshio Shinya
Part II: Nikkei Literature as Counternarrative
3. Hybrid Nikkei Identity in Héctor Dai Sugimura’s Buscadores en mis últimas vidas and Maximiliano Matayoshi’s Gaijin
4. Gendering Orientalism and Female Agency in Anna Kazumi Stahl’s Flores de un solo día and Alejandra Kamiya’s Los árboles caídos también son el bosque
5. Visual Representations of Japan in Contemporary Argentine Cinema
Conclusion
Notes 
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Histoire
• Manuel Domecq García
• Juan Domingo Perón
• Eduardo Wilde
• Argentina
• Cinema of Argentina
• List of newspapers in Argentina
• Japanese nationalism
• Overseas Chinese
• Russo-Japanese War
• Orientalism
• South America
• Latin America
• Japan
• Juan Perón
• Lucía Puenzo
• History
• Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
• Orientalisme
• China
• Lafcadio Hearn
• Argentine

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826505712
• Langue: English

Extrait

Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho
Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho
Transpacific Modernity and Nikkei Literature in Argentina
KOICHI HAGIMOTO
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS
Nashville, Tennessee
Copyright 2023 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First printing 2023
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hagimoto, Koichi, 1983– author.
Title: Samurai in the land of the Gaucho : transpacific modernity and Nikkei literature in Argentina / Koichi Hagimoto.
Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023001764 (print) | LCCN 2023001765 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826505699 (paperback) | ISBN 9780826505705 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780826505712 (epub) | ISBN 9780826505729 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Argentina—Relations—Japan. | Japan—Relations—Argentina. | Japanese literature—Argentina—History and criticism. | Spanish literature—Argentina—History and criticism. | Comparative literature—Spanish and Japanese. | Comparative literature—Japanese and Spanish. | Japanese—Argentina—Intellectual life. | Japanese—Argentina—History.
Classification: LCC F2833.5.J3 H34 2023 (print) | LCC F2833.5.J3 (ebook) | DDC 982/.004956—dc23/eng/20230221
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023001764
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023001765
To Daisaku Ikeda
In memory of David William Foster and Elena Gascón-Vera
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Ignacio López-Calvo
Introduction
PART I: TRANSPACIFIC MODERNITY: AN ASIA-LATIN AMERICA PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 1. Argentine Chronicles on Japan: Hygiene, Aesthetics, and Spirituality in Eduardo Wilde and Jorge Max Rohde
Chapter 2. Empire across the Sea: Narratives of Japanese Imperialism in the Writings of Manuel Domecq García and Yoshio Shinya
PART II: NIKKEI LITERATURE AS COUNTERNARRATIVE
Chapter 3. Hybrid Nikkei Identity: Héctor Dai Sugimura’s Buscadores en mis últimas vidas and Maximiliano Matayoshi’s Gaijin
Chapter 4. Gendering Orientalism and Female Agency: Anna Kazumi Stahl’s Flores de un solo día and Alejandra Kamiya’s Los árboles caídos también son el bosque
Chapter 5. Visual Representations of Japan in Contemporary Argentine Cinema
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the extraordinary support and guidance of many people. While it is impossible to thank everyone individually, I would like to mention some of them here. First, I want to thank Ignacio López-Calvo for writing a generous foreword for this book. His vast scholarship on transpacific studies has inspired me on many occasions, and I am grateful for his continuous mentorship and friendship. I also want to thank Gene Bell-Villada who meticulously read the manuscript and provided valuable feedback.
In the last seven years I have been fortunate to be invited to discuss my project at various universities. My gratitude goes to the following colleagues and their institutions: Rosario Hubert (Trinity College), Houchang Chehabi (Boston University), Aníbal González-Pérez (Yale University), Shigeko Mato (Waseda University), and Araceli Tinajero (CUNY Graduate Center). The fruitful dialogues that emerged from these talks allowed me to improve the quality of this book. In addition, I received indispensable feedback at a number of academic conferences, such as the “Japanese Diaspora to the Americas” at Yale University in 2019. I want to thank Seth Jacobowitz, the organizer of the Yale conference, as well as other participants, including Jeffrey Lesser, Eiichiro Azuma, Louise Young, Andre Haag, Nayoung Aimee Kwon, Sidney Xu Lu, Ana Paulina Lee, Zelideth Rivas, and Facundo Garasino. It was an honor to present my work on Argentina’s Nikkei history and literature alongside such distinguished scholars of Japanese diaspora studies. In 2019 I gave a keynote address about Japan through the eyes of Eduardo Wilde and Jorge Luis Borges at the Romanistentag conference in Kassel, Germany. I offer my thanks to Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger, Alexandra Ortiz Wallner, and Hanna Nohe for the kind invitation and for the stimulating dialogues that led to the publication of Geografías caleidoscópicas: América Latina y sus imaginarios intercontinentales (2022).
The Asia and the Americas section of the Latin American Studies Association gave birth to many of the conversations that shaped my thinking about this project. In particular, I want to express my gratitude to Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Debbie Lee-DiStefano, Axel Gasquet, Kathleen López, Monica DeHart, Martín Camps, Juan E. de Castro, Gorica Majstorovic, Melissa Fitch, Laura Torres-Rodríguez, Junyoung Verónica Kim, Chisu Teresa Ko, Kim Beauchesne, Svetlana Tyutina, Aarti Smith Madan, and Paula Park. Most recently, I attended the virtual LASA/ASIA 2022, the first LASA Continental Congress. I am grateful for the exchanges I had with Youngkyun Choi, Jungwon Park, Héctor Hernán Díaz Guevara, Miguel Angel Urrego Ardila, Sarah Soanirina Ohmer, and Minni Sawhney.
In Argentina, many thanks go to the staff at La Plata Hochi , Centro Okinawense, Federación de Asociaciones Nikkei en la Argentina, Jardín Japonés, and Biblioteca del Congreso. I had an opportunity to meet with the crew of Samurai , including the director Gaspar Scheuer and the actor Jorge Takashima. I feel lucky to have worked with Anna Kazumi Stahl who invited me to give a talk at NYU-Buenos Aires and who showed me a genuine sense of comradeship from the first time we met. When I think of Buenos Aires, the memories of the late David William Foster invariably come to my mind. He was an extraordinary mentor and friend who taught me, among other things, the richness of Argentine culture and history. In Japan, my research benefited not only from the resources at JICA and the Instituto Cervantes Tokio, but also from my conversation with Alberto Matsumoto, who specializes in the history of Japanese immigration in Latin America. I am also thankful for the time I spent at Waseda University and for the dialogues I had with Roxana Shintani, Patricia Takayama, Pedro Erber, Chie Ishida, and Matías Ariel Chiappe Ippolito.
Wellesley College has always provided me with necessary support during the completion of this book. Conference travel funds, faculty research awards, and the sabbatical program gave me crucial writing time and research support. The publication of this book is made possible thanks to the Huntington Fund. I express my gratitude to Eve Zimmerman for inviting me to participate in the Newhouse Center where I had the opportunity to share my research with a diverse group of colleagues from across campus. I feel fortunate to work with amazing colleagues and friends in the Spanish and Portuguese Department: Carlos Ramos, Carlos Alberto Vega, Marjorie Agosín, Joy Renjilian-Burgy, Evelina Gužauskytė, Inela Selimović, Nancy Abraham Hall, Antonio J. Arraiza Rivera, António Igrejas, Maria del Mar Bassa Vanrell, Jael Matos, and the late Elena Gascón-Vera. I thank my seminar students for giving me challenging questions about Asian Latin American identity. I am grateful to my talented assistant, Regina Gallardo, who helped me with translations and copyediting.
I am indebted to Zachary S. Gresham at Vanderbilt University Press for believing in this project. His enthusiastic support has been truly inspiring since the beginning of our relationship. I am grateful to other staff in the editorial team, including Joell Smith-Borne, Jenna Phillips, and Patrick Samuel. Special thanks go to Gianna Mosser for her superb copyediting. I also want to express my gratitude to the anonymous readers for their careful reading of the manuscript and their valuable feedback. Needless to say, I take full responsibility for all mistakes and shortcomings.
My deepest appreciation goes to my friends and family for their constant support, love, and encouragement. I feel fortunate to be surrounded by an incredible group of friends who have supported me along the way: Junot Díaz, Marjorie Liu, Elena Creef, Thomas Hodge, Robert Goree, Kyung Park, Amitesh Kumar, Kie Shimizu, and Tom Fast. My wife, Alaina Farabaugh, has not only shown tremendous patience during the long duration of this book, but also read parts of the manuscript and offered crucial insights. Our children, Taishi and Mina Hagimoto, never fail to give us joy and laughter with their ever-growing creativity. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the rest of my family in Tokyo, Okayama, Monroe, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. They have been an integral part of this project in ways they never imagined. Lastly, as with my first book, this book is dedicated to my mentor Daisaku Ikeda who has always encouraged me to have faith in myself and in others.
A shorter version of Chapter 1 was published as “Contrapuntos estéticos e higiénicos: Japón y China en las crónicas de viaje de Eduardo Wilde” in Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana (87 [2018]: 161–78). Excerpts from Chapters 3 and 4 appeared as “Beyond the Hyphen: Representation of Multicultural Japanese Identity in Maximiliano Matayoshi’s Gaijin and Anna Kazumi Stahl’s Flores de un solo día ” in Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World (3, 2 [Spring 2014]: 83–108). I thank both editors, José Antonio Mazzotti and Ignacio López-Calvo, for their permission to include them in this book.
Foreword
Ignacio López-Calvo
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED
When one thinks about Nikkei communities in Latin America, the first countries that come to mind are usually Brazil with its 1.9 million Japanese descendants and Peru with 100,000 Nikkeijin. Yet studies like Koichi Hagimoto’s remind us that there are other Nikkei communities in Latin America, such as those in Argentina and Mexico, which, despite being much smaller, have also left an indelible mark on their respective host countries. In Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho: Tra