Research Paper
wut85ne64246
GEAS2018Allen_SakamotoSushiReversesCourseshow.ppsxSushi Reverses Course: Consuming American Sushi in Tokyo
Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto (2011)
Global cuisine/Culinary culture
Tues. 2/6: Sidney W. Mintz, “Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)
Today: Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto, “Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo.” japanfocus.org (2011)
Wed. Feb. 14 Recitation
Upload Chap. 2 response paper to Sakai Assignments
Deadline: Tues. Feb. 13, 10:oo PM
Clicker quizzes 1 pt.
Scoring is based on:
(1) participation
(2) correct answers
Globalization in history
Steger Chap. 2 “Globalization in history: is globalization a new phenomenon?”
Sidney W. Mintz, “Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)
Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto, “Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo.” japanfocus.org (2011)
Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Prehistoric: divergence
Globalization dynamic
Prehistoric: multidimensional divergence
Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Contemporary: convergence (global-local nexus)
Globalization dynamic
Contemporary: multidimensional convergence
Globalization dynamic (Steger & Mintz)
Multidimensional/Present superimposed on past
Allen & Sakamoto
How do they theorize the contemporary globalization dynamic?
Electronic devices OFF
Sushi’s global reach
Estimated 20,000 sushi restaurants outside Japan
45,000 in Japan
Sushi mystique: murasaki (soy sauce)--agari (green tea)
Conveyor belt sushi 回転寿司
“How to make sushi rolls”
“How to make sushi rolls”
Sushi is a “Japanese” dinner or appetizer (finger food)
“Classic” sushi rolls: California roll (with avocado); Philly role (with cream cheese)
Or, invent your own combination
Sushi is as “creative” as it is delicious
Sushi as “glocal” product
http://www.foodiggity.com/tag/sushi/page/2/ Foodiggity website
Bullet Train (conveyer-belt) sushi
Sushi Tacos
Star Wars soy sauce dishes
Kit-Kat sushi (=kitto-katsu “surely win”)
Culinary globalization
“Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo”
“Reverse import” (gyaku yunyū) 逆輸入
American sushi in Tokyo
Rainbow Roll Sushi (Azabujūban)
Industrial chic décor, high prices, emphasis on fun
Genji Sushi New York (Roppongi Hills)
Signs in English, modest prices, emphasis on health (using organic brown rice and etc.)
“Otherness” (Difference)
American sushi is exotic in Japan, and this inspires Japanese young people to consume it.
“Fetish”
The marketability and desirability of American sushi in Japan is primarily from its symbolic (fetishized) value.
Example: French pastry in Japan
Symbol of sophisticated taste
Eating French pastry shows the consumer’s appreciation of high culinary standards
Mille feuille (Napoleon) Japan
Hybrid sushi “Napoleon”
Two kinds of culinary symbolic value (in Japan)
Fetishized “other” (French pastry)
Fetishized “self/other” (American sushi, hybrid sushi Napoleon))
2 types of culinary hybridization
McDonalds-type
Non-McDonalds-type
“McDonaldization” (Ritzer 1993)
McDonaldization meets consumer’s needs or desires in forms that are:
Efficient
Standardized
Tightly controlled
1. McDonalds-type
McDonalds-type culinary hybridization leads to such products as the teriyaki chicken burger
Teriyaki chicken burger
2. Non-McDonalds-type
Production and consumption of American sushi in Tokyo represents a different type of culinary hybridization:
Creative (not efficient)
Unpredictable (not standardized)
Playful (not tightly controlled)
2 kinds of culinary hybridization
Standardized, predictable (“McDonaldization”)
Creative, unpredictable (“Sushification,” from the verb: sushify something)
Origin/destination binary collapses
When Philly sushi roll with cream cheese and California roll with avocado is served as “Japanese” in the US, and “American” in Japan, where is the origin, and where is the destination?
Localities cannot be defined as simply the “origin” and/or “destination” of a cultural artifact or practice.
Rather, localities contribute to the production of something that supersedes both (or multiple) localities, with the product even returning to the point of origin in refreshing new forms.
Globalization processes
Cultural globalization is not a uni-lineal (in one direction) process of hybridization, often through localization, but involves back-and-forth movement in cultural flows.
Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Contemporary: convergence (global-local nexus)
Globalization dynamic
Contemporary: multidimensional convergence
Globalization dynamic (Steger & Mintz)
Multidimensional/Present superimposed on past
Globalization dynamic (Allen & Sakamoto “back-and-forth movement”)
Divergence/convergence, multidimensional/superimposed
Jerome Charles White, Jr. (b. 1981)
Stage name: Jero (ジェロ)
African-American, Japanese grandmother
First black enka singer in Japan
Enka is often viewed by the music industry as commercially obsolete, but Jero revitalized the genre by blending it with hip hop
Many enka singers wear kimono in their performances; Jero’s hip hop image (later, 1930s Harlem Rennaissance style) is one of the many factors that contributes to his popularity
Origin/destination binary
Allen & Sakamoto: Localities and even people cannot be defined as simply the “origin” and/or “destination” of a cultural artifact or practice.
Rather, localities and people contribute to the production of something that supersedes both (or multiple) localities, with the product or person even returning to the point of origin in refreshing new forms.
But in case of Jero, he seems to be locally isolated in his new origin/destination, not globally connected.
Jero’s websites (Japanese market)
http://www.jero.jp/pc/ (official website in Japanese)
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Artist/A021548.html Victor Entertainment (not available in US)
