Enfolding Silence

The Transformation of Japanese American Religion and Art under Oppression

Brett J. Esaki

AAR Academy Series

Highly interdisciplinary - spans the fields of religious studies, theology, ethnic studies, anthropology, art, music, history, and psychoanalysis and utilizes innovative methods to decode silence including notation from dance, sign language, and music
Includes in-depth interviews with key contemporary artists who have rarely been interviewed previously

Enfolding Silence

The Transformation of Japanese American Religion and Art under Oppression

Brett J. Esaki

Description

This book demonstrates how Japanese Americans have developed traditions of complex silences to survive historic moments of racial and religious oppression and how they continue to adapt these traditions today. In order to examine Japanese Americans' complex relationship to silence, Brett Esaki offers four case studies of Japanese American art—gardening, origami, jazz, and monument construction—and examines how each artistic practice has responded to a historic moment of oppression. In doing so, he finds that these artistic silences incorporate and convey obfuscated religious ideas from Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Shinto, indigenous religions, and contemporary spirituality.

While silence is often thought of as the binary opposite and absence of sound, this book provides a non-binary theory of silence that articulates how multidimensional silences are formed and how they function. Brett Esaki argues that non-binary silences have allowed Japanese Americans to disguise, adapt, and innovate religious resources in order to negotiate racism and oppressive ideologies from both the United States and Japan. Drawing from the fields of religious studies, ethnic studies, theology, anthropology, art, music, history, and psychoanalysis, this book highlights the ways in which silence has been used to communicate the complex emotions of historical survival, religious experience, and artistic inspiration.

Enfolding Silence

The Transformation of Japanese American Religion and Art under Oppression

Brett J. Esaki

AAR Academy Series

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: "They're Just like White Kids": Genealogy and Theory of Japanese American Non-Binary Silence
Chapter 1: Gardening, the Silence of Space, and the Humanity of Judgment
Chapter 2: Origami, the Silence of Self, and the Spirit of Vulnerability
Chapter 3: Jazz, the Silence of Time, and Modes of Justice
Chapter 4: Monuments, the Silence of Legacy, and Kodomo Tame Ni
Epilogue: "Whiz Kids"?: Racial Shamelessness, the Model Minority, and the Future of Silence
Notes
Bibliography
Appendix: Background Information Sheet and Interview Questionnaire
Index

Enfolding Silence

The Transformation of Japanese American Religion and Art under Oppression

Brett J. Esaki

AAR Academy Series

Author Information

Brett J. Esaki, Assistant Professor of American Religions, Georgia State University

Brett J. Esaki is Assistant Professor of American Religions at Georgia State University.

Enfolding Silence

The Transformation of Japanese American Religion and Art under Oppression

Brett J. Esaki

AAR Academy Series

Reviews and Awards

"Esaki has found a balance between rock solid academic writing and prose that retains life and personality and humanity, essential for exploring the topic he chose. Esaki not only makes an invaluable contribution to scholarship in religious studies and Japanese American studies, he sets a model for how we can approach these beautifully multifaceted presentations of religious resistance, no matter their context." - Kimberly Rae Connor, author of Imagining Grace: Liberating Theologies in the Slave Narrative Tradition

"Esaki provides deeply nuanced readings of silence within the experiences of Japanese Americans and their encounter with racism, violence, and oppression. The focus on religion and the arts enables Esaki to unfold and to skillfully navigate the spaces between resistance and accommodation. A highly original study that deserves wide readership." - David K. Yoo, author of Contentious Spirits: Religion in Korean American History, 1903-1945

"In this original, helpful, and judicious work, Esaki pushes us to rethink silence and vulnerability as strength; equally important is the fact that it does so without neat solutions or triumphalism, but only a realistic sense of struggles for survival in the midst of racialized oppression. This is a majorin fact, path-breakingachievement in the study of Asian American history and religious studies." - Tat-siong Benny Liew, Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies at College of the Holy Cross

"Esaki's book is groundbreaking and a joy to read! This is an important book for anyone who is a scholar of cultural studies, immigration, race, or American history." - Stephanie Mitchem, author of African American Folk Healing

"This fascinating, nuanced study of silence as non-binary communication makes a compelling case for its capacity to transcend words. Through the specificity of Japanese American experiences, Esaki enables us to understand silence in trauma, political resistance, aesthetics, and spirituality and to value vulnerability as awareness of radiant presence in creativity, beauty, and art." - Rita Nakashima Brock, co-author of Saving Paradise

"Enfolding Silence plumbs the depths of silence and reveals its complex nature and startling expression. Through a thought-provoking and sophisticated analysis of the Japanese American cultural arts, Esaki evokes the spirit of a people and their complex language of survival, resistance, and hope. Provocative and profound." - Jane Naomi Iwamura, author of Virtual Orientalism: Asian Religions and American Popular Culture