I have started my research with some introduction information of the earlier days of cafes starting in the 1920s. By starting that early, I will learn about the people who used and worked in cafes. I also have done a little research about modernism and moga, or modern girls of the 1920s. I have found a few links and articles by Elise Tipton who did a lot of research about the cafes. Iwill be looking at the differences between kissaten and cafes. Also I am considering research contemporary manifestations of the cafe.
Links:
http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/Tipton.pdf
http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue7/tipton.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_girl
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/~sadami/what's%20new/paper/int-final.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissaten
Riley-san,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you are on track. It's too bad that the book by Merry White, which will be the first full-length study of cafe culture, won't be published until May 1.
Given that you seem to have a handle on the history, the big issue is turning this into a visual culture paper. Of course, some of what you can do would be to look into moga fashion. Also, there is the architecture of Asakusa, which was a center of cafe culture (see the novel by Kawabata Yasunari, "The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa", and other works). You might also want to look for Art Deco images, including from the Japan Society exhibition I mentioned earlier.
By the way, here's a link to something about Sabooru, the kissaten I mentioned in class:
http://www.worldwidecafe.net/cafe_j/saboru/index.html
and here's something else:
http://www.tokyofoodlife.com/?cat=26
You can check out "Doutour" on the web (Japan's largest "native" cafe chain.
And here's something on an older, smaller chain: Cafe Renoir...
http://wrecking95.blogspot.com/2010/07/cafe-renoir.html
Needless to say, there's much more out there! Good luck!