This paper examines the function of the concept of shumi in Kunikida Doppo’s short narrative ‘Musashino’, which was first published under the title ‘Ima no Musashino’ in Kokumin no tomo in 1898. At first, the narrative seems to be no more than a simple travelogue, an account of the narrator’s strolls around the area of Musashino. However, there is more at stake in the narrative. The narrator is not simply describing what he sees but is guiding the eye of the reader along the landscape through the lens of shumi. The concept of shumi is used both to map the undetermined physical space and borders of the Musashi plain, while also serving as a mediator of an enjoyment of the landscape. This duality, of the rational versus the sensual, is reflective of the essential function of shumi within the narrative of ‘Musashino’. It simultaneously constitutes the physical world and mediates our perception of it, effectively evoking new horizons of human experience. This paper attempts to dissect the mechanics of this duality.
This paper attempts to situate the notion of shumi as a rhetorical device used by modern Japanese department stores as part of their marketing strategies. Although often equated with the concept of ‘taste’, I demonstrate how shumi both overlaps with and differs from the concept of taste, as it is often discussed in critical theory in the context of consumerism. I do this by examining how shumi was used in the PR-magazines of various department stores and other related forms of print media. Special attention is paid to the PR-magazine of Mitsukoshi, which is perhaps the most innovative department store in modern Japanese history. Subsequently, I analyze three short stories by Mori Ōgai (1862–1922) published in Mitsukoshi’s PR-magazine between 1911 and 1912. Mitsukoshi printed short stories by acclaimed authors in their magazines, mostly as a form of lighthearted entertainment and branding. Yet, when read closely, Ōgai’s three stories also form a profound observation of the skewed moral reality of a market-driven economy. Each of the narratives under scrutiny in this paper shows the human cost of a system in which social relations are dictated by consumer objects. The cultivation of the urge to consume was carefully framed around the rhetoric of shumi and was thus not merely a marketing tool to increase profit margins but also a mechanism to manipulate the desires and anxieties of consumers. A reading of Ōgai’s three short narratives reveals the ambivalent morality produced by the rhetoric of shumi, which in turn engendered and validated the identities of an emerging middle class through the consumable object-as-sign.
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