### Shuji Terayama The Power of Words and the Landscape of Shadows: Intersection of Dialect and Yokoji (early 1970s)

### Shuji Terayama The Power of Words and the Landscape of Shadows: Intersection of Dialect and Yokoji (early 1970s)

In the early 1970s, the momentum of Japan's rapid economic growth was slowing down, and the disparity between urban and rural areas and cultural tensions were becoming apparent. As people poured into the cities from the countryside and Tokyo-centered culture became dominant, dialects were often associated with "old-fashionedness" and "boorishness," and the media took for granted the spread of the standard Japanese language. At the same time, advertising, politics, and music were inundated with yoko-ji, symbols of intelligence and progress. Shuji Terayama's narrative was an incisive insight into the language situation of that era.

First of all, Terayama said that words are not transparent vessels, but are always ambiguous and are merely substitutes for value. It is not the words themselves that support trust, but the social relationships and forces that support them. For example, when Sasaki Sarazo abruptly mixes in side letters during his speeches, there is no persuasive power to accompany them. Terayama says that even if he creates a sense of modernity by mixing horizontal characters, it will only sound empty without a social context to support it. The sharpness of his satire highlighted the lightness of language in the political arena.

He goes on to show that whether or not a word works depends on the power behind it. For example, he states that even if "ikuiku" is described as "kurukuru" in foreign countries, the Kansai dialect is acceptable because it is backed by the economic power of Osaka and the power of the Yamaguchigumi. Lurking here is a humorous and wry recognition that social power, including economic and violent forces, rather than the words themselves, guarantee their meaning.

Terayama then goes on to argue against the homogenization of standardized language, and rather that it is the subdivisions of dialects and regional cultures that are interesting and rich. The use of the names of restaurants and movie theaters, such as Chosyuan lunch or Takarazan, as if they were codes that are understood only in that region, creates unexpected "encounters" for people. When someone says, "Tokyo's Houkan is huge" after seeing a Nichigeki theater in Tokyo, it is the incident of laughing or paying attention to it that creates a new relationship.

This view of language was not merely a defense of regional languages, but also looked at the diversity of society and the richness of human relationships. People are formed through a series of encounters, Terayama explained. His attitude that the possibility of human existence lies not in blind faith in homogenized language or side letters, but rather in building relationships with others while maintaining "one's own language," is a biting criticism of the language situation at the time, and continues to resonate with language issues in today's era of globalization and social networking.

This conversation depicted by Shuji Terayama showed an unflinching eye toward Japanese society, which is being swept away by the wave of standardization, to see how language is connected to social power. It was also an incisive and poetic declaration that the local language and the "own language" of the individual should be valued.