Portfolio categories: <span>Asian Studies</span>

Food as Contact Zone: Navigating the Ainu/Wajin Encounter in Golden Kamuy (2014-)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role and representation of food in the Japanese manga and anime series Golden Kamuy (Gōruden Kamui, 2014-present) by Satoru Noda. While ostensibly an action-packed narrative about the hunt for indigenous Ainu gold, Golden Kamuy has earned a reputation among fans as a gurume, or gourmet, manga, and anime. Cooking scenes of both Ainu and Wajin food feature prominently throughout the series. This paper analyzes the rhetorical role of food in the fictional narrative and its connection to official and unofficial ideologies about ethnic harmony between Ainu and Wajin communities in Japan.

Citation

Spiker, Christina M. “Food as Contact Zone: Navigating the Ainu/Wajin Encounter in Golden Kamuy (2014-).” Verge: Studies in Global Asias 9, no. 2 (Fall 2023): 245-271. https://doi.org/10.1353/vrg.2023.a903029

Art, Materiality, and the Making of Modern Asia

This seminar will introduce students to what Asia has been in the past and how Asia came to be in the present, focusing on material histories. We will critically examine the circulation of objects, art, ideas, and people across borders and bodies of water. We will trace the circuitry and paths of various artifacts to explore the implications of exploration, global movement, and material flows. The seminar aims to help students interrogate their assumptions about Asia to develop a broad foundation for future study of or travel to the continent. As a writing and rhetoric course, students will write in multiple genres and engage in writing as a systematic, interactive process for different purposes and audiences.

Image Credit: Sebastian Munster, First-printed map of Asia. c. 1550.

Asian Conversations: Imagine Asia

“Imagine Asia” explores the concepts of “self” and “other” in both Asian and American contexts, taking them as entry points for engaging with the histories, cultures, and communities of the region. We will examine how Asia has been integrated into the global circuits of meaning, imagination, and (mis)representations and what popular media can reveal about power, race, gender, sexuality, and national identities. As a writing and rhetoric course, students will write in multiple genres and engage in writing as a systematic, interactive process for different purposes and audiences. This is the second course in a four-course Conversation Program.

Image Credit: Photograph taken by author, 2006.

Japanese Woodblock Prints

Explore the history and evolution of Japanese woodblock prints from their inception to current applications in contemporary art. How do we read woodblock prints? How do we understand the diversity of traditional subjects–from actors to courtesans to landscapes? How were these prints interpreted (and appropriated) by audiences outside of Japan? And how do prints influence popular culture? This course offers a deep dive into the dynamic history of one artistic medium.

Image Credit: Yōshū (Hashimoto) Chikanobu, Nobility in the Evening Cool (Koki nōryō no zu), 1887. Polychrome woodblock print. Metropolitan Museum of Art.