Anthropologist Marvin Harris says that the Japanese practice of 'white-face' has origins in emulating of the ancient noblemen.
Posted on 02/02/2006 6:15:42 PM PST by blam
MP's warning over 'blue-eyed foreigner' on Japanese throne
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo
(Filed: 03/02/2006)
A senior Japanese politician has attacked plans to allow a reigning empress in case the child of "a blue-eyed foreigner" succeeds to the ancient Chrysanthemum Throne.
The remark by an MP and former trade minister, Takeo Hiranuma, highlighted the way conservatives see the emperor as head of the Japanese race and equate national vigour with racial purity.
The government wants to change the law to allow Princess Aiko, the four-year-old granddaughter of Emperor Akihito, to become second in line to the throne.
Polls show overwhelming support for the plan. But determined opposition has emerged, centred on Prince Tomohito, the emperor's cousin and diehard conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"If Aiko becomes the reigning empress, and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the emperor. We should never let that happen," Mr Hiranuma said in Tokyo.
Conservatives are particularly hostile to proposals to allow matrilineal succession, which they view as a breach of a 2,000-year-old tradition.
Though Japan has had eight reigning empresses, they were widows or unmarried and served as regents until the throne could revert to a son born through the male line.
Traditionalists believe that holy blood, transmitted from son to son over 125 generations of emperors, is central to the well-being of Japan.
However, all nine children born into the imperial family for 40 years have been girls. Even Japanese in favour of reform are aware that finding a suitable spouse for a future Empress Aiko will be tricky.
Japan has no titled aristocracy and the neutrality of the imperial family means it may be difficult for her to marry the son of a political or business family.
THE SAMURAI AND THE AINU
Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu.
Brace has studied the skeletons of about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other Asian ethnic groups and has concluded that the revered samurai of Japan are actually descendants of the Ainu, not of the Yayoi from whom most modern Japanese are descended. In fact, Brace threw more fuel on the fire with:
"Dr. Brace said this interpretation also explains why the facial features of the Japanese ruling class are so often unlike those of typical modern Japanese. The Ainu-related samurai achieved such power and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with royality and nobility, passing on Jomon-Ainu blood in the upper classes, while other Japanese were primarily descended from the Yoyoi." The reactions of Japanese scientists have been muted so. One Japanese anthropologist did say to Brace," I hope you are wrong."
The Ainu and their origin have always been rather mysterious, with some people claiming that the Ainu are really Caucasian or proto-Caucasian - in other words, "white." At present, Brace's study denies this interpretation.
On the other hand, there were numerous intermarriages over the years, and it's difficult to separate the Emperor and his folks from the Samurai and their folks.
The Ya-Yoi, or Chinese origin people, belong to neither group.
I thought the Japanese descended from peoples from the modern-day areas of Korea and China.
Anthropologist Marvin Harris says that the Japanese practice of 'white-face' has origins in emulating of the ancient noblemen.
Someone needs to remind The Traditionalists how Hirohito Ruined The "well being" of japan
Japanese are the most racist people on Earth.
I have to respect the Japanese' love and protection of their culture. They have every right.
Furthermore, to claim that the Japanese were a patrilinear society for 2000 yrs is farfetched. My recollection is that the Yamato people may have been a matrilinear society. There was an Empress Suiko, I believe.
Then, too, as Shishedo demonstrated, coming up with cosmetics for Asian women is a different matter than scooping up red-clay, the common technique in the West.
What about green eyes?
Just insist that the Empress-to-be must marry a Japanese citizen, or else forfeit the right to the throne.
Ping
"The Ainu look like Caucasian people, they have white skin, their hair is wavy and thick, their heads are mesocephalic (round) and a few have grey or blue eyes. However, their blood types are more like the Mongolian people, possibly through many millennia of intermixing."
Not likely. The Hakkas (the guests) made a centuries long migration from north to south China. During that migration any of them with Caucasian features was executed. (for being barbarian)
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