Visiting the Floating World: Tracing a Cultural History of

Games Through Japan and America

Mia Consalvo
Ohio University
9 South College Street
Athens, Ohio 45701 USA
consalvo@[Link]
ABSTRACT has historical and cultural roots as well as strong business
The goal of this paper is to establish a framework for better interests in areas outside of the West, and in particular in
understanding the relationships between Japanese and Japan. That influence and power extends to Japanese
American games in relation to that industry, visual styles, companies (such as Nintendo, Sega, CapCom, and Square
and cultural influence. To do that, this paper draws on a Enix), Japanese visual styles (such as super-deformed
larger cultural history of Japan and America, and critiques characters and anime-like images), as well as an extensive
and questions current and potential uses the concept of list of games that have influenced successive generations of
Orientalism in relation to digital games. In doing so, my game designers around the world.
hope is that we can arrive at a more sophisticated, nuanced
understanding of that relationship, and use this framework While game studies scholars are now starting to examine
for subsequent critical analysis. that influence, we are likewise seeing an increase in
scholarly attention to other Japanese cultural products,
Author Keywords including the keitai (mobile phone), anime, manga, and
Japan, art, culture, Orientalism, hybridity children’s toys [1, 6, 14].
Books such as Full Metal Apache; Personal, Portable,
STUDYING JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE Pedestrian; Millennial Monsters; Plastic Culture and
“Sweeter than soy sauce, sourer than plum wine” is the tag endless volumes on anime all attempt to explain a “new”
line for the July 2004 EGM International section (in Western fascination with Japanese pop culture. A new
Electronic Gaming Monthly), profiling two Japanese games research annual titled Mechademia has been launched by
that never made it to Western shelves. A regular column in the University of Minnesota Press, which is devoted to
Edge magazine discusses “Something about Japan.” The studying anime, manga and other fan-arts. Popular books
October 2002 issue of PSM magazine noted the “Clearly about specific Japanese game companies have been
cooler” translucent version of the PS2 available in Japan, published (Game Over; Revolutionaries at Sony) as have
“but you may still be able to find one for yourself at larger more general books about the influence of Japan on the
import game shops or online.” And in Wired, there is the game industry (Power up: How Japanese video games gave
perennial trend-spotting “Japanese school girl watch.” the world an extra life).
Japanese games, consoles, technology and fashions are an
integral part of the global games industry in ways both Yet most of those books have a limited focus on recent
explicit and implicit. popular culture products, and in particular media products,
which suggests that popular or sustained interest in
The goal of this paper is to establish a framework for better Japanese culture is a somewhat recent phenomenon. The
understanding the relationships between Japanese and examination of games, technology, movies and television
American games in relation to that industry, visual styles, shows implies, for example, that those were the first
and cultural influence.* To do that, this paper draws on a elements of Japanese culture to become popular in the West,
larger cultural history of Japan and America, and critiques or the first to achieve widespread recognition. And while
and questions current and potential uses of the concept of Allison [1] does point to a longer history, such as the export
Orientalism in relation to digital games. In doing so, my from Japan of tin toys after the Second World War, such
hope is that we can arrive at a more sophisticated, nuanced efforts are generally couched as isolated in their influence
understanding of that relationship, and use this framework and limited in their ability to “transmit” aspects of Japanese
for subsequent critical analysis. culture abroad, for as Allison explains,
Unlike more traditional forms of popular culture in the “the influence of export greatly shaped the early
West such as film and television, the digital games industry designs of postwar toys. For example, Newsboy, a

Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference

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commercial use requires specific permission from the author.

736
 doll made by Nikko Toys in the late 1940s with a Such practices and interests help us see that the influence of
celluloid head and a body built from tin cans, was Japan on the West has a much longer cultural history than
clearly designed for an American audience. All the recent media scholars suggest. And by ignoring that history,
written script (on the package and the newspaper we not only exclude important parts of culture from
held in Newsboy’s hand) was in English, and the analysis, we also bring to more recent cross-cultural
doll’s torso was draped in the Stars and Stripes” encounters a notion that each culture is somehow free or
[1]. pure from past influence.
This paper is one slice of a larger project, intended to lay
out a few of the key concepts to be explored, as well as to
As she concludes, such early goods were designed so that
provide a greater historical context for our understandings
their national origin or “flavor” could be “effaced or deleted
of the global games industry. The overarching question
when goods (particularly cultural goods) left the country”
framing this study is “how have American and Japanese
[1]. Koichi Iwabuchi has coined the term “cultural odor” to
histories, cultures and contexts shaped the contemporary,
describe that element of “Japaneseness” which was often
global games industry?” While that question is too big to be
designed “out” of products intended for export [7]. He
answered in one paper, it does point to the scope of the
argues that a lack of such cultural odor was what led to the
project, and suggest that to better understand our global
success of products such as the Sony Walkman, which
industry, we need to examine many histories and many
conveyed ideas about sleekness and portability, and effaced
contexts, both within the field of games as well as through
references to its point of origin. Other cultural products,
disciplines that might not immediately seem relevant.
such as television shows and films, have had a more
difficult time finding global popularity, due to their closer This project also grapples with some key theoretical
cultural connections to Japan, including use of the Japanese understandings—namely Orientalism and hybridity.
language, attention to Japanese holidays, and different Edward Said’s foundational work demonstrates the
genre conventions. politicized, ideological ways that “East” and “West” are
constituted within specific configurations of power,
But particular cultural goods have always been designed,
influence, and presumptions of dominance [10]. Yet, Said
implicitly as well as explicitly, to leave their country of
himself argued that Orientalism was likely a different
origin, whether to meet the demands of a particular foreign
experience for the United States than it was for Europe (and
market, to find a larger audience, or in the service of the
principally Britain and France), as the US primarily related
souvenir and tourist trades. However, other cultural
to Japan and China (and did not colonize either), rather than
products and practices were of course meant to remain, or
India or Egypt. We can also question particular
perhaps move back and forth between Japan and other
interpretations of the concept (or if it can be reworked at
locales without losing any (or most) of their “essential
all) to game culture and the game industry, where
Japaneseness.”
traditional West-rest power relations are confused or altered.
If we refocus what we mean by “Japanese culture” beyond
Likewise, this project questions if hybridity could be a
popular media culture, we find other avenues where cross-
better theoretical entry point for understanding such
cultural encounters and exchanges have taken place. We
interrelations. Typically used in relation to identity
can see, for example, that Japanese art has long exerted
discussions, can the term and the concept describe an
strong influences on Western art, and been a subject of
industry or a practice? What is gained or lost in such a
fascination since well before the purported official opening
move? Finally, are there other concepts that would better
of Japan to the West in the 1850s [12].
contain or explain what is happening in Japan and the
Such interest was even given a specific name-- United States in relation to games?
“Japonisme”—coined in 1872 “to designate a new field of
To reiterate, there’s been a surge of interest lately in
study of artistic, historic, and ethnographic borrowings from
Japanese popular culture, both in its reception in other parts
the arts of Japan” [9]. That interest, particularly in areas
of Asia, as well as in the United States [1, 6, 7, 14]. While
such as ceramics, textile design, and furniture making,
such work does provide a framework for understanding the
extended from Europe to the United States [9]. Even before
appeal of popular culture products transnationally, it also
a term was coined to understand or contain the phenomenon,
couches that argument in a somewhat ahistorical manner. It
practices arose in the West to try and imitate, if not copy,
also fails to address, in any depth, the centrality of digital
particularly expensive or rare forms of Japanese art. For
games to that circulation. My interest in games is obvious,
example, popular attempts to imitate the expensive and
and that omission is my gain—as a central part of what Ito
beautiful lacquer ware products created in Japan led to the
terms a ‘media mix’—games are a central element of
fad of “Japanning,” which involved using imitation lacquer
Japanese popular culture that enjoys worldwide circulation,
and was thought to be, in the late 1600s, “a fashion and a
and corresponding study [6].
social accomplishment for a young lady” [9].
Drawing from the world of art history, we find a long
tradition of cross-cultural interests and cultural borrowings

737
and appropriations that should be included in any successful in maintaining clear boundaries for what was/is
examination of East-West exchange, in the study of popular “Japanese” and what is/was “American” [16].
culture. As Cohen argues in relation to the influence of
And finally, by exploring the evolution of two different
Japanese and Chinese art in America in the eighteenth and
forms of culture—one deemed “high” and one deemed
nineteenth centuries, “[a]sian aesthetics have affected
“popular” (or even “low” by some critics)—this paper
American taste and the American conception of what
argues for their ultimate connection, as well as the problems
constitutes art and beauty; they have influenced American
with making such distinctions at all. Cultural studies seeks
architects, painters, and potters. Art is one part, one more
to explore why we make those distinctions, and how they
piece of evidence for demonstrating that … the study of
are constructed to maintain particular forms or articulations
Western Civilization is not enough to explain American
of power. In drawing a connection between art and digital
society” [3].
games, Japan and America, this paper explores that
While perhaps not rivaling the commercial scale of popular genealogy, and how it has been deployed in relation to
cultural artifacts of the past decade, Japanese art found a discourses of Orientalism.
ready audience in artists and art collectors from first Europe
and then America, who all contributed to the success of ART HISTORY, EAST MEETS WEST
Japonisme, “the late nineteenth century taste for exotic In constructing a history for the popularization or spreading
Japanese aesthetic properties” [16]. That fascination led to acceptance of Japanese art in the West, and in the United
incorporations of various types—including the use of States in particular, certain themes or practices emerge.
Japanese props (such as fans, kimonos and cherry While at first most Japanese art was simply considered
blossoms) in paintings, the borrowing or adaptation of foreign, slowly, American art collectors and museum
Japanese styles or motifs, and then finally, the directors began to draw distinctions between various forms
dissemination of those markers into American art more of art, and make judgments concerning its quality. For
generally. But what does that have to do with digital example, the popularity of Japanese porcelain (which began
games? to be manufactured in the seventeenth century) in Europe
led to a situation where “some pieces were especially made
I believe there are a couple of reasons this linkage (and for the export trade, depicting Dutch merchant ships and
study) is important. First, it demonstrates a continued brocaded ‘Japan’ patterns” [9]. The popularity of Japanese
cultural crossing or inter-weaving of Japanese and art did not abate over time. “The enormous demand in
American cultural influences. Even though many of the Europe and America for Japanese fans radically altered
artists most strongly affected by Japonisme were European, production methods. Mass-production techniques were
those artists were considered the dominant, most influential brought in from the early 1860s when vast quantities of fans
practitioners of their time—the Impressionists, for example, were exported in order to satisfy the ever-growing demand
are still regarded as masters of color and light in painting. for ‘something Japanese’” [9].
To explore how the aesthetics, artistic practices, and context
of Japan played a role in their artwork also helps us With that growing influx to the West, more serious dealers
understand Western culture and aesthetics. More close to and collectors as well as museum directors learned to take
home, American artists drew from those same sources, with greater care in seeking out “serious” quality pieces of
similar results. How have those elements of culture carried Japanese art, rather than the cheaper “export” models that
over into American game design? How “American” is an were beginning to proliferate.
American video game?
Yet, that popularity was not uncritical, or unshaped by the
Second, the linkage is an articulation (in Hall’s sense), biases and particular interests of individuals with the
drawing together, conjoining, two separate areas of inquiry authority to make purchases or influence the tastes of others.
or artifacts, to demonstrate their connections [5]. Even Thus the painter John La Farge “sincerely admired many of
during the time of Japan’s alleged isolation from the world, the Japanese art objects with which he came in contact,
artists and merchants from the West traveled there to do [but] he tended to favor small, intricate objects such as
business and gain inspiration. That led to cultural sword guards of refined miniature metalcraft. …[T]his
borrowings and appropriations on both sides. Events such focus on diminutive qualities of Japanese culture was often
as World Fairs and Expositions gave a wider audience to constituted as a gendered contrast with American
Japanese art and culture than the art world or traders. It masculinity” [16].
suggests that the recent success of Japanese media products
Along with collectors and dealers traveling to Japan,
globally is not a historical anomaly, or a new phenomenon.
Japanese art began to appear in exhibitions and museums,
While both periods of history draw from different types of
in both regular and special collections as well as traveling
culture—high culture and popular culture—they both
shows based on particular themes. In 1876 at the Centennial
demonstrate the hybridity that culture cannot escape. The
Fair in Philadelphia, the Japanese government “devoted
“artistic nationalism” that Winther-Tamaki argues Japanese
tremendous resources to stage an impressive show of
and American artists tried to preserve was never fully
Japanese arts and crafts for the first major introduction of

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Japanese culture to the American public, and the response incorporate those forms and techniques, to greater and less
was enthusiastically positive.” Certain museums became degrees, into their own work. And now we can see
known for their extensive collections of Japanese art, American (and European) game designers attending the
including the Boston Museum of Fine Art (which collected annual Game Developers Conference to see post-mortem
over 17,000 works of art from Japan) and the Seattle Art panels and talks for popular Japanese games such as Final
Museum [16]. European and American painters traveled to Fantasy XII, Katamari Damacy, and The Legend of Zelda:
Japan to learn about indigenous styles, as well as to Twilight Princess. They do so to better learn about the
incorporate motifs, styles and techniques, along with forms, techniques and tools used in those productions. And
Japanese props, textiles and artifacts, into their own images. again, that process goes both ways, with Japanese
Exposure to Japanese arts spread, and the styles of that art developers incorporating American styles and elements into
were also diffusing into the work of more Western artists. their own games, furthering the hybridity of digital games.
Such activities are never ideologically neutral, occurring However, while it is useful to draw attention to such wider
with little thought or consideration. Art collectors and histories and speculate as to their relevance, we must also
dealers deemed certain styles and forms of Japanese art keep in mind other power relations, and how they have been
“more sophisticated’ and “more authentic” then other styles expressed both in the past, and in contemporary culture. In
and forms, and thus certain artistic goods were more likely regards to any East-West relationship, questions of
to be considered good or worthy. Japanese art began to be Orientalism, power and influence must be addressed.
popularly associated with particular mediums (wood block
painting, lacquer ware, fans), and particular styles ORIENTALISM AND GAME STUDIES
(asymmetry, vertical rather than horizontal spaces). Art Although race has been a relatively unexplored topic in
collectors as well as consumers were encouraged to develop relation to videogames, at least as compared to gender, a
tastes for particular styles and forms of art, to make few studies have explored the presence of Orientalist
distinctions and judgments. Thus key gatekeepers helped to elements in digital games made in both Japan and the West.
give access to art as well as interpret that art, defining both Christopher Douglas [4] critiqued Civilization III for its
what was available for critique as well as what the terms of imperialist elements, finding in the game ideologies of
that critique should be. Japanese art entered into circulation domination and cultural strangeness while at the same time
in American in a multitude of ways, none of which that possibly containing a “subversive potential to challenge
could be deemed natural or inevitable. notions of Western supremacy.” More recently, Schwartz
examined representations of foreign cultures in four
From Art to Games contemporary games, finding that in the game Suikoden III,
Compare that history of Japanese art to early Japanese for example, “game designers used othering as a narrative
videogames. After the industry crash of 1983, Nintendo was theme” which “emphasizes the natural tendency to define
rightfully cautious in re-entering the North American and fear the unfamiliar” [11].
market. It carefully screened all games made for its system,
Likewise, Tucker writes more broadly about Japanese
determining which would be accepted for production, and
videogame titles, arguing “Orientalism persists as the
which would then be released in the West. Through its
default framework through which gaming depicts Eastern
magazine Nintendo Power, it helped define for readers what
cultures” [15]. That framework can be found, he believes,
a good game looked like, and how to judge or rate games.
in both Western titles that depict ‘strange and exotic’
Nintendo carefully released only certain genres of games,
cultures such as the Prince of Persia series, as well as in
and titles, based on what company executives thought a
games made by Japanese developers themselves, who are
foreign market would find acceptable—not too strange, too
“internalizing and catering to the Western audience’s
foreign, too different [13].
fetish” and thus are “able to commodify their cool, and use
Into the 1990s, Japanese games have become increasingly the marketing power of their cultural archetypes in the
carefully localized, and while certain genres are readily capturing of the electronic gaming market” [15].
accepted (RPGs, stealth games), others still have trouble
While such critiques and studies bring attention to potential
with sales and dominant American opinions about what a
otherings and problematic racial, ethnic and cultural
digital game should be (horse racing, pachinko, board
representations and activities within games, I believe there
games). Japanese games aren’t simply released in the
are some problems with a simplistic use of terms such as
United States, or England or Germany—they are localized,
“the other” and “exotic.” Schwartz, for example, defines
which includes a host of technical, cultural and social
any opponent in the games she studied as “the other”
decisions and changes to be made. Again, this is a process
without careful attention to defining the term or its use.
that is not natural, nor is it inevitable.
When she discusses Shenmue, she writes that although the
Early American (and European) artists studied Japanese art player takes on the role of a Japanese individual who must
and incorporated Japanese images and elements into their avenge the death of his father, he interacts with many
paintings/drawings/artifacts, and they also studied the forms, Chinese characters who “are portrayed as exotic… not
techniques and tools used by Japanese artists, in order to overly negative” [11].

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 She continues that while the depictions of the Chinese “are American otaku, they may be a source of affiliation and
clearly different from the Japanese protagonist,” “this identification with a larger group or subculture.
othering is engaged by the player toward virtual inhabitants
Lastly, how can we, or should we, define Japanese games?
of the game world” [11]. This raises two questions—is
Such a range of titles could include any Final Fantasy or
“different” equatable with “othering,” and is this
Zelda release, in addition to Cooking Mama and Brain Age.
“difference” necessarily bad, particularly since there is
What of games like MySims, which is based on the
nothing “overly negative” about the depictions of the
American game The Sims, but is a reworked, localized
Chinese?
version being created for the Japanese market? And with
Similarly, Tucker paints all games that portray Japan and the extensive localization processes necessary for
the East with the Orientalist brush, no matter their country transnational games, is Final Fantasy XII a “Japanese”
of origin. While it is fair to say that countries and cultures game, is one version of it thus, or is it something altogether
can internalize particular images and beliefs about different? Orientalism is a complicated concept when
themselves that may not be positive, or can be reductive, related to digital games, and it deserves a more careful
that argument is too broadly cast to be helpful. Is Mario analysis than a simplistic us/them reduction.
Orientalist? Is Link? Is there any qualitative difference
Orientalism as a concept or theoretical framework can serve
between American and Japanese depictions of Japan in
us in useful ways, but only if it is properly conceptualized.
games? We need more careful attention to such details
Thus, the relationship between Japan and America is quite
before we can make such broad based assertions.
different from Said’s Middle East and Europe. A traditional
However, my intent is not an extended critique of game colonizer/colonized relationship does not apply, apart from
studies’ references to Orientalism in contemporary games. a (relatively) brief period occupation following the Second
Rather, I wish to bring attention to some of the ways that World War. Additionally, we must recognize the power of
the concept and term have been used, and to complicate that Japan in the digital games industry, a power which is as
usage. So we may see images of samurai and ninjas in much cultural as it is economic. So, some form of
games, and representations of “different” cultures and Orientalist framework or understanding might be helpful,
ethnicities, but those events occur in a context that extends but only if carefully delineated.
beyond a facile application of Orientalism. Part of that is
historical—Japanese and American individuals, businesses CONCLUSIONS
and governments have interacted with one another in more This paper has served as a starting point for creating a more
complicated ways than the dominant/subordinate roles of useful framework for understanding the relationship
European and Middle Eastern countries that Said details between Japanese and American culture—drawing from art
[10]. Before the Second World War, there was not a history and the theory of Orientalism. What it has hopefully
colonizer/colonized relationship like there was in many accomplished is a complication of our ideas concerning
West/East relationships. After the war’s conclusion, originary moments, both in relation to games, as well as in
American occupation of Japan was a key formative event, relation to cross-national encounters.
yet led to economies and cultures tied closely together, on a
Likewise it has pointed to problems with simple
mostly equal footing. And in the digital game industry,
applications of Orientalism as applied to an industry with
much of the power lies in Japanese conglomerates that do
cross-national influences very different from other media
their own naming and controlling. We are also comfortable
forms.
with pastiche and cultural borrowings, which may not imply
any deep strangeness or hidden currents of meaning- What is needed next is a more thorough exploration of
instead simply evocative of a new style or expression, one encounters between Japanese and American art and artists,
anchored in visual elements disruptive of both realist and from the modern to the contemporary era. By further
modernist tendencies. exploring that history, and linking it to the artistic and
economic development of games transnationally, we can
Orientalism likewise suggests a projection of what we deny
build a genealogy of the digital games industry that offers a
about ourselves onto an other, yet in the case of Japan and
better understanding of our digital games, our game players,
digital games, those others had already incorporated aspects
and our cultures, across various oceans.
of modernity when we first encountered them, including
Western art techniques and ways of seeing. Further,
contemporary Western interest in Japanese games and the *I focus on Japan and America based on their importance in
game industry can include a certain element of exoticization, the history of the digital games industry. However, there are
but it is also as likely to include understanding, reworking, certainly other key nations and regions that have
and identification. For some gamers, Japanese games are a contributed to that history, including Europe and other
delightful escape from more “normal” Western games. For regions in Asia. Much of this analysis of America can also
others, they are too strange to accept. For yet another group, apply to the West more generally, but for this preliminary
they are a source of artistic inspiration, and for the argument I wished to delimit my terms more specifically.

740
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