Abstract
In considering the Japanese Diaspora in Brazil, I will examine how European ideas of Orientalism mediated the Brazilian cultural elite’s perceptions of Japan, Buddhism in general, and Zen. Rather than viewing Japanese immigrant communities in Brazil as a source of the “exotic East,” Brazilian artists and intellectuals – and eventually the general public, - were inspired either indirectly by ideas of Orientalism originating from cultural centers in the West such as France, England, and the United States, or directly through assumptions about the “authenticity” of Japan itself. As a result, Zen was never confined to the narrow boundaries of the temples established by Sôtô Zenshû (the only Japanese Zen school in Brazil), but has been disseminated in elite culture.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Orientalism and Identity in Latin America: Fashioning Self and Other from the (Post) Colonial Margin |
Editors | Erik Camayd-Freixas |
Place of Publication | U.S.A. |
Publisher | University of Arizona Press |
Pages | 200-216 |
Number of pages | 17 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780816529537 |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Keywords
- Zen Buddhism
- Brazil
- Japan
- Orientalism
- postcolonialism