Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2022
Publication Title
The Journal of Japanese Studies
Department
Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages Program
Abstract
This essay traces the transformations of Japan’s self-image through the figure of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. As Japan in the late 600s replaced its name granted by China—“the land of dwarfs”—with “the land of harmony,” its desire to positively repackage its smallness illuminates how the “short and ugly” Yoshitsune in Heike monogatari (fourteenth century) morphed into a “small but beautiful” youth by the fifteenth century. Furthermore, the modern imperial regime repurposed the child Yoshitsune (Ushiwaka-maru) for propaganda by inundating children’s media with the image of Ushiwaka-maru fighting Benkei, which symbolized the “small but mighty” Japan subjugating the massive “West.”
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/jjs.2022.0004
Original Citation
Schmidt-Hori, Sachi. “Yoshitsune and the Gendered Transformations of Japan’s Self-Image.” The Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 48, no. 1, 2022, pp. 93–121.
Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation
Schmidt-Hori, Sachi, "Yoshitsune and the Gendered Transformations of Japan’s Self-Image" (2022). Dartmouth Scholarship. 4363.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/4363
