Japanese (F)art

Mäneka,Sat Jun 25 2022

My seventh grade history class was the only one that covered anything outside of U.S. and western European history. In addition to Medieval times, the class included units on the history of Islam, West Africa, and feudal Japan. Of course, this being Piedmont Middle School, it's not like there weren't problematic bits, like the Arabian Bazaar. During this event, held during lunch on the pickleball/basketball courts, students dressed up in bedsheets to put on a sort of carnival- street market mashup. There were homemade stress balls and cupcakes for sale as well as a booth staging fake weddings among tweens. Apparently, this was supposed to enhance our understanding of Arab culture.

During most units, each student in our seating group was assigned a corresponding historical role. These titles were not merely ornamental. My relegation to serfdom during our Medieval unit meant I had to fetch items for the lord and hand in assignments for our table. Thankfully, during our feudal Japan unit, I moved up in the scheme of things by attaining the role of lady courtier.

Over the course of the unit we were to keep a diary from the point of view of our historical avatars. After learning that courtiers in feudal Japan enjoyed live entertainment and music during their free time, I focused a diary entry around this highly vague, but probably loosely accurate, fact.

In this entry, my courtier lady described a raucous night of entertainment featuring Pharto the Great, who artfully combined dance, music and flatulence. His number A Little Song, A Little Dance, A Little Seltzer Down Your Pants, was a hit with me and my love interest, Subaru. The evening really brought us closer. At the time I believed that what I'd written was certifiable comedy gold.

It took me by surprise when the teacher pulled me aside a few days later. I was accused of lacking knowledge of and respect for Japanese culture. A character named Subaru was unrealistic and insulting. My assignment was unacceptable. Little did she know, that being of Japanese descent, I had a greater than average knowledge of Japanese culture and an accompnaying high level of respect for it. And indeed Subaru can be a given name (opens in a new tab). After I revealed these facts, the conversation ended quickly.

All of this to say, I recently came across a blog post (opens in a new tab) that, in addition to bringing a delightful piece of art to my attention, provided some vindication. Of course, these scrolls are from the Edo period, while our classe focused on feudal Japan. But I refuse to believe that Japanese people hundreds of years earlier would not have been equally amused by farts. While there may not have been the type of daring and innovative performances I described in my diary entry, I believe the he-gassen scrolls show that my version of events wasn't so terribly far-fetched.