Introduction: Performance, Projection, Provocation! Relational Creativity in Contemporary Japan

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April 29, 2025

Introduction: Performance, Projection, Provocation! Relational Creativity in Contemporary Japan
Introduction: Performance, Projection, Provocation! Relational Creativity in Contemporary Japan

Volume 23

Abstract: This introduction to the special issue “Performance, Projection,Provocation! Relational Creativity in Contemporary Japan” presents ahistory of group-based creative practice in Japan, from the amateur endeavors ofsākuru (circles) to the professional creativity of internationalproduction companies. The special issue applies the concept of“relational creativity” to a series of case studies to betterunderstand how creative practices shape relationships and other social forms,institutional and less institutional.

Keywords: Sākuru, Group Creativity, Relationality, Collaboration

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Volume 23

About the author:

Jamie Coates is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. He is an anthropologist specialising in the cultural anthropology of China and Japan. Jennifer Coates is Professor of Japanese Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. She is the author of Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945–1964 (Hong Kong University Press 2016) and Film Viewing in Postwar Japan, 1945–1968: An Ethnographic Study (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).

Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is a peer-reviewed publication, providing critical analysis of the forces shaping the Asia-Pacific and the world.

    About the author:

    Jamie Coates is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. He is an anthropologist specialising in the cultural anthropology of China and Japan. Jennifer Coates is Professor of Japanese Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. She is the author of Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945–1964 (Hong Kong University Press 2016) and Film Viewing in Postwar Japan, 1945–1968: An Ethnographic Study (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).