“Rice as Self” by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Book Review Example

What is out favorite food? What do we generally eat and what are our cuisine cultural preferences? Does the food we consume tell anything about us as a nation? Keeping in mind these questions and understanding the vital significance of rise as a product in the Japanese culture, book “Rise as Self” goes deep to examine how individuals use the metaphor of their most important food in conceptualizing themselves in comparison to other people. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney in her work outlines the changing forms that the Japanese notion of “self” took over various historical Others that emerged, be it Chinese or Westerners. The writer shows how rice and its importance served as a so-called vehicle for this deliberation. Taking Japan as an example, author offers a unique cross-cultural model of the interpretation of “self” and others.

Published in 1993 at the time of worst rice crop in the postwar Japan, the book “Rice as Self” on the importance of rice in the country’s culture came out at the best time. It was this time period when the Hosokawa government made their controversial historical decision to open up the rice market of Japan to the foreign producers.

In the first chapter of her book Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney starts off by stating that the objective behind her work is to show the unique importance of rice in the culture of Japan. The author aims to explain this significance by showing that rice has become a metaphor of people’s identity despite the fact the Japan has always been a mix of various styles. She criticizes “individual-centered model” of change because it fails to identify cultural limitations on the meanings assigned to various symbols. Her opinion is that projecting a monumental picture of individuals is problematic. However, people might not be separated from the socialcultural context when keeping in mind the formation of the identity as a dialectic process between the others and “self“.

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney provides a solid historical background into the data information about rice in her country. The writer creates her unique symbolic argument that supports her opinion with the evidence of everyday rice customs to high rituals and high culture such as music and poetry. The rice agriculture according to Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney was a preferred form from other traditions as a the central feature of her country when Yamato state developed a set of myths where its divine being, namely Sun Goddess, grew her first rice crop as well as founded Japan as a nation.

Rice has been introduced to Japan through the Asian continent.  However, it was not a primary food source to every level of Japanese society at its most historical period. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney writes that until the Middle period there was a considerable population of people who neither paid taxes or owned a piece of land. The elite of those times was maintaining ties with the rulers.

The ideology has changed dramatically at the Early Modern period when rigid social hierarchy was established. “Agrarian Japan” has strengthened its position. Rice became symbolic and stood for the collective “self” of the Japanese people. It helped to create a strong sense of community. Rice paddies became the representation of space and time in Japan. When this happened, agriculture in Japan as a means of living was declining because the country started to become more and more industrialized. In the time of Modern Period rice also represented the purity of Japanese.

The metaphor of rice transformed historically. As Japanese defined themselves as a nation in comparison to other people who were stronger than them, the importance of rice increased significantly. In the time of collectivization, Japanese needed a symbol which was rice, to help them select a way to defend “the self” of the nation.

For instance, at the time when the US pressured Japan to open up its rice market to the world, Japanese went on examining the Californian rice that contained chemicals. They called it impure, thus, foreign. Japanese were comparing themselves and others as rice-eating against meat-eating people. The writer considers foreign people symbolically comparable to “marebito”, which means stranger deities, and it is a concept that reinterprets other people as “semiotic other” for the Japanese.  In “Rice as Self” Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney paid strong attention to theoretical observations about such issue as the “polytropic” symbol nature or double symbolism such as metaphors.

It is worth mentioning that the work of Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney has been criticized and re-evaluated by other writers and historians. Even though the book gives a splendid insight on the culture of Japan and its peculiarities, some scholars argue that the importance of rice in Japanese culture is just an illusion. Researchers are now examining the mountain and marine cultures of the country in order to find a new explanation and a totally different perspective.

However, no matter the criticism the book of Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney “Rice as Self” is an impressive writing. Providing unique insights into the rice culture as well as its significance for Japanese identity, the book indeed highlights the notion of self as a metaphor of people and their cultural and social background. Since the whole world associates Japan with rice, author used a brilliant approach to represent her country’s symbol neatly and show all its uniqueness and peculiarities.