Ad hoc Japonisme: how national identity rhetorics work in Japanese advertising. Issue 4 (4th July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Minowa, Yuko; Belk, Russell W.
• Is Part Of: Consumption, markets & culture. Volume 20:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 329
• Page End: 349
• Publication Date: 2017-07-04
• Subjects: Visual rhetoric -- national identity -- advertising -- gifts -- critical visual analysis -- Japan; Consumption (Economics) -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Consumers -- Attitudes -- Periodicals; Marketing -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 306.305
• DOI: 10.1080/10253866.2016.1239085
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1025-3866

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study examines how a variety of national identity rhetorics are formed with the nuanced aestheticization. We focus on visual rhetorics. We use advertisements for traditional, seasonal gifts in post-postwar Japan as the context of inquiry. Two research questions addressed are: (1) how different rhetorics of national identity are formed between the gifts advertised and the audience, focusing more on visual than merely verbal elements, and (2) how visual genealogy – specific cultural and historical references in contemporary images – is used in rhetorical figures. Underpinned by a critical visual analysis, we apply Western and Japanese art canons to a visual social semiotic approach in order to interpret variations in the semantics of national identity. We discuss three types of rhetorics of national identity: rhe-transfiguration, rhe-truculence, and rhe-trepidation. The study suggests that national identity rhetorics activate a "deep subjectivity" resulting from the aestheticized experience reinforced by the nation's consumption ritual.