Yoga-scapes: The Economics of Imagination and Utopian Aspirations of Transglobal Yoga in Japan

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The purpose of the research is to contextualize the consumption of yoga-inflected lifestyles in Japan and other countries of East and South-East Asia. And reorient the academic gaze away from the North America and Western Europe. The aim is to determine how the value-adding of yoga lifestyles in Japan is either different or similar to other parts of the world. Overall, the project was successful in showing particular similarities and differences. Much more could be said, assuming more time was available. A second international conference was organized in Kyoto in July 2019. Several articles have been published. More are forthcoming. Some of the key findings are that the general consumption of yoga in Japan is even more gendered than other countries (99pc to 80pc). This (and the language barrier) actually made conducting fieldwork very difficult. As, in many cases, 99 percent of attendees at yoga classes were women who were too shy or ambivalent to discuss matters related to yoga within an academic. One key difference is that yoga is consumed in Japan for reasons of beauty (as compared to fitness) and relaxation. And, like in many parts of the world, it is conspicuously consumed as a marker of location among 30-40 year-old women of the middle class. While yoga in Japan is similar to other countries, there are curious hybrid formations that are specific to Japan, like お寺ヨガ and 忍者ヨガ. A final difference is the lack of concern regarding cultural appropriation and decolonizing yoga, which are very big issues in North America.