Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers, Transvestites, Gangsters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes

New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. First American Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/Very Good. 5 3/4" x 8 1/2. 242 Pages Indexed. There is a red remainder mark on the bottom page edges. Most Western commentary on the Japanese people focuses on their business practices or, more traditionally, on their code of manners and the reasons outsiders fail to grasp its imperatives. This book looks beyond these corporate and social behavioral sets to explore what the people wish and imagine themselves to be-and why. By examining the popular media-the films, television, plays, books, and comics-and other cultural institutions that shape and reflect the Japanese collective imagination, Ian Buruma reveals the important influence and interplay of sex roles and sexuality in all areas of life. As such, he offers insight into the rather raunchy, violent. and sometimes morbid side of the Japanese beyond the forms of delicacy with which we are most familiar. This book explains more about the Japanese than most Westerners ever discover. In his lively, stylishly written examination of the popular media, traditional literature, cultural mythology, and the goings-on at such favorite hangouts as beer gardens and strip joints, Buruma explains how sexuality and sex roles underpin the elaborate structures of Japanese culture. He sees how women are traditionally worshipped as maternal goddesses but feared as sexual demons; how they are trained in the art of seeming passive and artificial as dolls, and highly active as prostitutes. He looks at the downtrodden Japanese father; the violent world of the Japanese gangster-hero; the ancient code of honor as conceived by todavs salarvman, and the Quintessential Japanese drifter. And he looks at the middle world of the transvestite, where sex roles are most clearly defined. Along the way, we learn such things as why sadism in Japanese pornographic films is sentimental; why a record album called "The Suicide Pilot's Mother" inevitably hit the top of the charts; how female elevator operators are trained in the art of artificiality; how to interpret the arcane symbols, rituals, and iconography of tattoos.