READING REPORT ON ASAKUSA’S URBAN SPACE

Posted: August 27th, 2021

READING REPORT ON ASAKUSA’S URBAN SPACE

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Kawabata’s preliminary reading offers an incomplete picture of a particular historical period, considered the undercurrent of Tokyo practiced cultures. Precisely, the author paints Asakusa’s historical cultures as Japan’s greatest center of amusement and entertainment in that the salary-men reshape the societal class. Notably, Asakusa revolves around shrines, place names, images of the Buddha, and accounts of miracles vis-à-vis the amplified nightlife of pleasure[1]. Therefore, the author attempts to describe Asakusa’s urban space, a mix of sacred and profane elements of structures.

As much as Kawabata tries to define what used to happen in Tokyo’s heart through deep linguistic expressions of The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa; however, Wadi describes Asakusa via the dual nature of “I” and film expressions. It illustrates the Scarlet Gang as a group of mystery performers who in theatres. Wadi’s report helps readers understand how ‘the Piano Girl” intends to be regarded as a theatrical that harbors spectacular performances[2]. Instead, the “I” disguises its undertakings as a guider of mystery performances, but it turns out to be a pursuer. Notably, the description of “I” offers a dual nature of the Scarlet Gang membership as it deceptively guides a reader towards a wrong assumption. With “I” as a character or novelist, Asakusa’s undercurrents offer an incomplete mental map to the readership[3]. Therefore, one cannot fully understand the scenery shifts of the surroundings, especially from the Kokotoi Bridge to Okawa and farther to Asakusa riverbank.

All in all, Wadi’s description of the Scarlet Gang of Asakusa offers a chance to reconfigure any reader’s mental map. The imagistic expression from Kawabata’s image of “The Piano Girl” instills an incomplete comprehension among readers[4]. Hence, Wadi offers a clear illustration of Asakusa’s urban space using a more natural linguistic expression.

Bibliography

Kawabata, Yasunari. An Excerpt from Scarlet Gang of Asakusa. Trans. Alisa Freedman. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005.

Wada, Hirofumi. “Asakusa’s Urban Space and the Incompleteness of the Novel – The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa.” Trans. Brian White. Japan Forum, vol. 30, no. 1 (2018): 105-31.

Tipton, Elise K. “Faces of New Tokyo: Entertainment Districts and Everyday Life during the Interwar Years.” Japanese Studies, vol. 33, no. 2 (2013): 185-200. 

[1] Kawabata 3

[2] Wadi 114

[3]Wadi 116

[4]Tipton 192