The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora Ketty Wong Dale A. Olsen. The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. Xxvii, 342 pp., illustrations, tables, appendixes, glossary, bibliography, index. ISBN: 0813027640. The Chrysanthemum and the Song represents the findings of Dale Olsen's long-standing research of the South American Japanese diaspora between 1979 and 2001 in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. The author draws attention to the central role of music for the survival of Nikkei (people of Japanese descent living outside of Japan) culture. In his words, this book "is about how Nikkei South Americans perceive themselves, remember or learn about their heritage, negotiate their identities, and in effect culturally survive through music" (1). For this purpose, the author provides a comparative study of Nikkei musical practices based on reviews of literature, newspapers, archives, interviews, questionnaires, as well as his own performance of shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) and subjective impressions as participant-observer of musical events, which he refers to as "bimusical participatory reflections." An accompanying website of twenty audio examples, most of which were recorded by Olsen in ensembles with Nikkei performers, provides online sound illustrations of Japanese musical genres and instruments. Japanese immigration to South America started as early as 1899, when a group of Japanese contract laborers arrived in Peru to work in sugarcane plantations. Search for work, progress, and better living conditions have been the main motivations for subsequent displacements of Nikkei, [End Page 232] who are currently one of the most numerous immigrant groups in Brazil and Peru. Olsen argues that the Nikkei have been able to re-create and maintain a Japanese ethnic identity through the agency of cultural organizations that promote Japanese music, dance, and theater. Although the Nikkei have a strong demographic and cultural presence in several South American countries, Nikkei musical practices have received little scholarly attention within the field of Latin-American music studies. From this perspective, Olsen's research pioneers and fills a gap in an area that enlightens our understanding of diasporic identities in Latin America. Olsen borrows his book title from Ruth Benedict's study The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (1946, reprinted in 1967). While Benedict uses the chrysanthemum as a symbol of the Emperor, Olsen adopts it as a metaphor for Japanese immigrants and their "hard work in their 'new world'" (3). In Benedict's study, the sword represents Japan's military power, but it is also a symbol of the samurai's virtue and spirit, two aspects that Olsen sees intrinsic in song. The song in the book title represents all forms of music making that have helped the Nikkei preserve their cultural heritage. The author distinguishes "active music making" (singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments) from "passive music making" (listening to music, watching music videos, or attending concerts) as two effective forms stimulating direct and indirect cultural transmission (3). The Chrysanthemum and the Song is divided into eleven chapters, including an introduction which lays a theoretical background for the study of memory and identity. The author draws mainly on Mark Slobin's (1993) concepts of "superculture" and "subculture," and Jan Assmann's (1995) notion of communicative and cultural memory. Chapter 2 provides a brief account of Japanese immigration to the Americas since the late nineteenth century and a brief overview of Japanese and Okinawan music and musical instruments based on Charles Dunn's model of Japanese class structure before the Meiji period (1868–1912). Chapters 3 through 7 examine each country's migration history, as well as Nikkei musical practices through a series of "mini biographies" of Nikkei musicians and detailed ethnographies of musical events, such as the celebration of the Emperor's birthday and the anniversary of Japanese immigration. Chapters 8 and 9 describe song contests and karaoke singing as vehicles for learning Japanese language and songs by the younger Nikkei generations. A work of such broad geographical scope lends itself to comparative study, which Olsen follows in Chapter 10. He introduces seven social variables for the study of Nikkei identity: ethnicity, social...