Josō: Male Subculture in Japan the 2010s
- Submitting institution
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The University of Manchester
- Unit of assessment
- 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
- Output identifier
- 185711936
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- A collection of critical work
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- September
- Year
- 2020
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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A - SALC
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- During the 2010s, Kinsella researched Japanese subculture and media interest in young men dressing as girls, in a new mode that raises questions about gendered social roles and sexuality, but which is distinctively separate from LGBT culture, and is instead linked to animation fan subculture (otaku). During this time josō (crossdress) also became a key theme in the mass media. Josō is also the title of an art-documentary film of which Kinsella was the researcher and director: this is included along with an article in this multi-component output. Produced in collaboration with artist-filmmaker David Panos (Jarman Award, 2011), Josō captures the emerging otaku subculture and probes its extremely diverse layers of participation.
Josō was generated by Kinsella who identified film as the ideal medium to capture a subculture emerging from within visual culture fan-activity which specifically identifies itself with two-dimensional screen versions of reality. The web of live and streamed events, animation and participants who introduce themselves as ‘characters’ is evidenced in the film. The documentary communicates to both an academic and broader audience, inside and outside of Japan, equally. It can be viewed alongside Kinsella’s refereed journal article on otaku, which uses among its sources the ethnographic evidence assembled in the process of film-making. Josō was first shown at the British Association for Japanese Studies Conference (Sheffield, 2018). It has been shortlisted for the Liverpool Biennale 2020. This is currently postponed, as is the inclusion of the film in an exhibition at Hollybush Gardens Art Gallery.
The principally digital format of the Japan Forum journal, which is one of the leading journals globally for this area-based research, has allowed a large amount of visual primary sources to be linked directly to footnotes. Therefore, the two modes of exploring otaku included in this submission complement each other.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
