Laughing Japan

Kansai University: Seminar on Humor Research

Before I was finally released into my summer holiday, I enjoyed 4 days of Professor Kimura's humor-research seminar. The seminar really gave me the impression I am at the center of Japanese humor research, which is a wonderful thing for my projects.

Professor Kimura did not do the seminar all by himself, but he also invited several wonderful guests. I already know Professor Inoue, the president of the Japan Society for Laughter and Humor Studies. He gave us an introduction of what he refers to us laughter-studies, what kind of things could be researched and what such research can be good for. I really admire his ideas, his passion and his laugh for "laughing". His spech this time was not really new for me though because I have been visiting his own lessons and I have been reading his books. I am sure I will have the chance to introduce some of his ideas later.

Professor Sekiya is Professor at the literature department here at Kansai University. He is an expert on Kyogen. Kyogen is the comedy-version of Noh, the classical Japanese theater. Compared to Noh, Kyogen is very lively and fast. The characters which appear in Kyogen are very unique. Professor Sekiya gave us a very lively speech, also performing some Kyogen-songs for us. I think studying Kyogen could be very interesting and for me who wants to become an "expert on Japanese comedy" it's a must.

Professor Morishita came all the way from Nagoya to explain his ideas about the relationship between culture, society and laughing. He talked a lot about European culture, referring to topics like the rhole of "laughter" in Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" or German carnival. He also spoke about Till Eulenspiegel, a German legend. Because I am called Till too, of course I love Till Eulenspiegel. Professor Morishita is the Japanese translator of Peter Berger's "Redeeming Laughter", which is my favourite book on humor.

On the last day, several researchers including myself introduced their research and their ideas. For me that day became a bit complicated, because we got into such fields as neurology and psychology. My knowledge of Japanese was put to a hard test when listening to theories about brain-research and cognitive humor. Still it gave me inspiration for my own research. Researching about humor is related to so many issues. Keeping an eye on other disciplines will give me an idea of how to find the right humor theories which are important for my own research in the future.

The birth of a Joke

It is said that things which is on ones mind all the time is very likely to turn into a joke. Schopenhauer or Freud said something like that for the first time (yes, I know I should remember who said that, but I don't have my books with me at the moment...). That can be regarded as one of the reasons why jokes with sexual contence are so succesful and popular all over the world.
These days I have been able to witness the birth of a new joke here in Japan. Responsible for that are the Japanese news.
The Japanese news on the TV are quite obstinate compared to the news in Germany. Once they pick a topic they will report about it for a long time and very detailed, leaving almost no space for other news. Some weeks ago the incident of a high school student being killed in an elevator accident in Tokyo was the occassion for a very detailed coverage on the elevator company Schindler, how the company reacted on the accident in Tokyo and how their elevators have been causing troubles all over the world. Even an incident like "a man being stuck in an elevator for two hours in Northern Japan" would become the main news one evening, adding just one more aspect to the never-ending-story of Schindler. Schindler became something like someone must really be scared of. it was like not only there elevators were extremely dangerous, but also the people in charge did not even seem to care about it. While I felt very sorry for the young person who died in the accident I found the hysteria about Schindler a bit overeacted, keeping in mind that people get into cars without being scared although the possibility of being killed in a car-accident than being killed in a Schindler-accident must be much more higher.
Anyway, once there were no real news about Schindler anymore, we got into the second level. People obviously started to check the elevators around them if they were Schindler or not. The newscaster from FUJI-TV reporting from the world cup in Berlin told the Japanese audience that he was so shocked to see that the elevator in his hotel was a Schindler one. Even I had already noticed that the elevator in my apartmenthouse was manufactured by Mitsubishi by then.
Then, somehow the joking started. When friends visited me I told them "don't worry, it's not a Schindler" - and they would laugh. At the meeting of the JSLHS the first speaker would tell the audience that they could use the elevators at the university without worries, since none of them was a Schindler one - the audience bursted in laughter.
A new joke was born, I am sure people are telling each other the "Don't worry, it's not a Schindler" all over the country now. I can't wait to hear the first comedian telling the audience about the elevators. Huahuahuahua, so funny :)

My debut at the JSLHS

You don't know the JSLHS? It's the Japan Society for Laughter and Humor Studies. The existence of this society is one of the main reasons why I came to Osaka. I got to know their director a few years ago while I was preparing my master thesis about the comedy genre of manzai. The director of the JSLHS Hiroshi Inoue has written some nice books about manzai and I was able to get in touch with him over the internet. He did not only introduce Prof. Kimura at Kansai University to me, but he also invited me to the JSLHS. The JSLHS is open to a wide audience, not only researchers of academics, but also medical doctors, humor producers, writers, teachers, comediens etc. which makes their meetings and activities a wonderful oppurtunity to widen ones network.
This weekend the JSLHS opened its annaully meeting at the Osaka University of Arts. I had decided to make a presentation about my research there. I was a bit nervous but my presentation went very smoothly and I even got some laughs for my boring jokes. I am not really sure if I was able to explain about the theoretical background of my research, but the most important thing was that I was able to introduce myself to the people there. At the little party right after the presentations many people tried to talk to me and I was able to make friends with all kinds of people.
Some of them were...
Prof. Akio Aiba: Professor at the Osaka University of Arts, author of several books, among them books about manzai and rakugo. I had already known his photo from his books, and I was quite excited to get in touch with the real living Professor :) Although we did not have much time to talk, he was very friendly and I hope I have an oppurtunity to talk to him again soon.
Greg Robic: There was another strange "gaijin" (foreigner) among the people of the meeting so it was only naturally we ended up talking to each other. Greg is from Canada and he seems to be active doing "Akkordeon Mandan" - Mandan also being a Japanese kind of comedy. Next year he is planning to come to Osaka to study about rakugo.
Ryota Nomura: Two years younger than me but at least twice as clever as me in terms of humor research. He is using devices to measure the reaction of audience listening to rakugo. I feel that his kind of research is really starting were my wisdom and my thesis ended, so I am really eager to learn more about his research soon. He is a PhD candidate at Kyushu University.
Kazuo Ura: Working in Tokyo as lecturer at several universities, but originally a real Kansai-guy, funny and friendly. He seems to be very deep into academic humor research, was able to recognise the semiotic base of my presentation although I did not present all the academic stuff due to the mixed audience. After the meeting he took me to one of his favourite coffee-places in Osaka and now he keeps sending me advise about interesting articles and books which might be useful for me.
Apart from that I got in touch with Professor Morishita from Kinjo Gakuin University, Reiko Ishiyama a lecturer from Tokyo, the manzai-author Akira Taichi (not really sure how to read his name...sorry if I am wrong...), TV-producer Tomio Kumagaya (not sure about this name either...), Kimie Oshima who is well known for doing rakugo in English language for English learners in Japan but also for foreigners abroard.
This are just some of the people I met. Actually I met so many people that I could not remember all of them when I looked through all the name cards I had recieved the next evening...

By the way, the University of Arts is really an odd place. Its deep in the mountains, and at several corners you can find all kinds of art work and work-in-progress art. Among them colorful lizards were enjoying the summer sun. I am wondering if they are interested in art too...?

Age Check

Before watching the world cup soccer match tonight I went to the convencience store with my friend to get some beer. The man at the counter smiled at me and pointed to a poster behind his back. In Japanese characters it said "We might check the age when selling alcoholc and cigarettes". I could not believe it! Did he really think I was younger than 20? While I started getting my ID-card from my purse he smiled again and pointed at the characters again. What did he try to tell me? In the end I found out he was not worried about my age, but he tried to test my reading abilities, wanting me to read the characters written on the poster. I was so confused I did not manage to read it correctly in the end (^-^;)
By the way, I am not sure about other countries, but here in Japan the tills in the convenience stores have age-buttons where the clarks in the shop make a guess about the age of the customer because it is interesting for the company people of what age are buying which products. Normally they should push the "20s" button when I go shopping. But while I was living in Tokyo, the young shop assistant ALWAYS pushed the "50s" button when I was shopping htere. Grrrrrrrrr...!!!!!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. My name is Till Weingaertner. I have been living in Osaka for three months now. I am here to research about Japanese humor and comedy. In this three months so much has happened. I started to research under the guidance of my Professor, Prof. Kimura, who is really very helpful, interesting, funny and caring. I have joined the rakugo-club of my university. Rakugo is the art of classic comic-story-telling, but they also do other kind of comedy in this club. I have already acted in a short comedy number in front of 300 people :) I have been introduced on national TV as the strange foreigner who is researching about Japanese comedy. I want to tell the world about the Japanese humor, so I decided to write a blog. I know Japanese people are not regarded as "funny" or "humorous" out there, but I want to do my best to let you know about the funny sides of Japan :)