著者

猪俣 佳瑞美

出版者

法政大学大学院 国際日本学インスティテュート専攻委員会

雑誌

国際日本学論叢 = Journal of international Japanese-studies = 国際日本学論叢 = Journal of international Japanese-studies (ISSN:13491954)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.12, pp.60 (21)-51 (30), 2015-02-27

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Analysis of the use of potted plants in different forms of media has shown that potted plants tend to appear in movies featuring children. One of these is the Japanese film Nobody Knows (Daremo Shiranai, 2004), written and directed by Koreeda Hirokazu. In the film, weeds growing in Styrofoam instant noodle containers are taken care of by abandoned children. This analysis of the use of potted plants in Nobody Knows explores the implicational meanings that potted plants connote and the reason why children and potted plants have often been featured together in certain films. Six symbolic meanings emerge around potted plants. First, the weeds represent the children's status of being "abandoned." Second, the seeds represent the children themselves. As weeds disperse seeds and find new places to grow, the children become free by breaking their mother's rules. Third, the shoots of the weeds represent the children's vitality and resilience. Without any kind of lifeline, the children desperately try to survive. Moreover, Styrofoam containers being used as flowerpots represent the fragile nature of the children's lives. As instant noodle containers are made of polystyrene, they are brittle and easily damaged or broken compared with conventional pottery or earthenware flowerpots. Likewise, the children living by themselves, without parental guidance or supervision, are socially weak. In addition, an important point to note is that pots as containers can be considered female symbols because of their similarity to a womb. Flowerpots offer an environment in which things can grow and live, as the womb of a mother does for her fetus. Finally, caring for plants is a metaphor for personal healing: the four siblings in the film have been abandoned by their mother and must live without parental guidance or supervision? especially the younger two, aged three and five. They are not only absorbed in taking care of their weeds; in doing so, they are also demonstrating how they would like to be treated by their mother.

著者

朴 庾卿

出版者

法政大学大学院 国際日本学インスティテュート専攻委員会

雑誌

国際日本学論叢 = Journal of international Japanese-studies = 国際日本学論叢 = Journal of international Japanese-studies (ISSN:13491954)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.8, pp.27-50, 2011-03-22

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There is no other animal than cats which have a clear difference in imagebetween Korea and Japan. When we turn to "classical literature" with thefeatures of "oral literature" in mind, we will notice the widening gap betweenthe two countries. In Japan, cats are described from two viewpoints, namely,court culture and popular culture. In the former, cats are taken as elegantpets. In the latter, however, they are supposed to be mysterious, describedas the two-tail "nekomata" or the metamorphic cat on the one hand and theyare familiar animals as symbolized in the beckoning cat on the other. But inKorea, cats are not taken as themselves, they are mainly utilized as icons to"criticize" or "ridicule" according to "mores."Through the comparison, it can be said that the difference in the image ofcats between the two nations derives from the difference in religious andhistorical background.In Japan this image seems to have been fixed duringthe Edo Era, based on the history since the Heian Era. Korea, on the otherhand, was in the background of the Joseon Dynasty Period. Particularly, inJapan, the "personification" and "deification" of developed through the"faddish gods", the pet boom, and the Kabuki featuring cats during the EdoEra. In Korea, during the Joseon Dynasty when Confucianism was theformal religion, absolute significance was placed on "mores" (Confucianvalues). Therefore, the behavior of cats was also put to moral judgment, andcats were chosen as objects of criticism. This seems to have formed thenegative image of cats.