[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-146880-en":3,"doc-seo-146880-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":11,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},146880,8796096645457,"Arica Lee","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/800003749518d68ffe3?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779345340919836971",2,"Literature","The Aging Ame no Uzume - Gender and Humor in Sano Yōko’s Writing","The paper examines how aging, gender, and humor intersect in Sano Yōko’s writing, framing aging as a theme long treated as serious and tragic rather than comic. It contrasts earlier representations—where aged care often centers caregivers rather than older women—with broader modern interest in women’s texts and figures like the “mountain crone.” By situating Sano among contemporary literary responses, the study highlights subversive possibilities of old age expressed through laughter.","“The Aging Ame no Uzume: Gender and Humor in Sano Yōko’s Writing”  \nTomoko Aoyama   \nProceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies 13 (2012): 210–224.  \nPAJLS 13:  \nThe Poetics of Ageing: Confronting, Resisting, and Transcending Mortality in the Japanese Narrative Arts. Edited by Hosea Hirata, Charles Inouye, Susan Napier, and Karen Thornber  \nThe Aging Ame no Uzume: Gender and Humor in Sano Yōko’s Writing  \nTomoko Aoyama  \nUniversity of Queensland  \nOpen it, that rock cave, Amenouzume-san.  \nArai Takako 1  \nShe has laughter inside her and she elicits laughter from others.  \nTsurumi Shunsuke 2  \n“I was born when…,” Mother said,“well, when I was very little.”It reminded me of the time when my son, then three years old, asked me: “When did I first meet me?”  \nSano Yōko 3  \nDespite appearances by some iconic old women in nohand other classic genres, in general, depictions of aging by women and women viewed from a woman’s point-of-view have long been neglected. One of the few exceptions is Ariyoshi Sawako’s Kōkotsu no hito ( The Twilight Years, 1972), which has been widely recognized as a prophetic work on the significance of aged care in women’s lives. However, even in this pioneering novel the aged protagonist is the father-in-law. His wife, who is described asthe ideal “good wife wise mother” dies at the very beginning of the novel (with her hair beautifully done, as she has just come home from the beauty parlor, and apparently considerately selected the most convenient day of the week for the relatives who need to come some distance for her funeral)! She leaves the care  \n1 Arai Takako, Soul Dance, trans. Jeffrey Angles (Mi’Te Press, 2008), 18. This particular poem was translated by Sawako Nakayasu.  \n2 Tsurumi Shunsuke, Ame no Uzume den (1991), in Tsurumi Shunsuke shū zoku 5 (Chikuma shobō, 2001), 11.  \n3 Sano Yōko, Kami mo hotoke mo arimasenu (2003), in Chikuma Bunko (Chikuma shobō, 2008), 142.  \nof her older husband, who is suffering from dementia, to her daughter-in-law, Akiko. As Ueno Chizuko has described it, this isan insightful example of an “aged care novel” or “care giver’s novel” rather than a novel about an aging women.4  \nIn more recent years the theme of aging has drawn much wider interest in literary production and popular/critical reception. Women are recognized and represented not only as caregivers 5 but also as current and future recipients of aged care. One of the most prominent figures to appear in studies of women’s texts is theyamanba (the mountain crone) . Although not necessarily directly concerned with aging, this legendary figure has been the inspiration for many important creative and critical works that highlight the subversive and transgressive power of marginalized female subjectivity, desire and body. There have also been some recent attempts to appreciate the positive and empowering aspects of old age in literature.6  \nUnderstandably, aging has been treated, at least discursively, as a serious personal and social issue—“no laughing matter.” It has tended to be associated with tragedy rather than with comedy. However, humor is an important element in contemporary women’s literature that deals with aging. Uno Chiyo (1897-1996) is remembered for, among many other things, her cheerful remark at age 95: “These days I feel I’ll never die, ha, ha,  \n4 Ueno Chizuko, Oiru junbi (Gakuyō shobō, 2005), 39.  \n5 This has also diverged from the daughter-in-law model to include, for example, narratives of single women struggling to pursue love, work and the care of their aged parents. See, for example, Ogino Anna’s Kenage (Iwanami shoten, 2002) and Haruka Yōko‘s Kaigo to ren’ai (Chikumashobō, 2002/2006) .  \n6 Ogata Akiko and Hasegawa Kei eds., Oi no yuraku: rōjin bungaku nomiryoku (Tōkyōdō shuppan, 2008), for example, celebrates the creative and transgressive power of aged writers, protagonists, and readers. Unlike previous studies, the volume begins with eight chapters on women writers written ","cbCaitBzgjNCQFmF","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitBzgjNCQFmF","pdf",361499,1,16,"English","en",105,"# The Poetics of Ageing\n## Depictions of Aging and Neglect of Women’s Perspectives\n## Women’s Texts, Caregivers, and the “Mountain Crone”\n## Humor, Laughter, and Mortality in Sano Yōko’s Work\n## Biographical Context of Sano Yōko","[{\"question\":\"Why has aging in women’s literature often been neglected in earlier depictions?\",\"answer\":\"Aging by women, and women viewed from a woman’s perspective, has long been neglected, despite some exceptions that focus more on aged care than on aging women themselves.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper distinguish tragedy from humor in narratives about aging?\",\"answer\":\"Aging has tended to be linked to tragedy, yet the paper argues that humor plays an important role in contemporary women’s literature dealing with aging.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does Sano Yōko’s life and career play in the discussion?\",\"answer\":\"The paper provides biographical context—her education, illustrated story production, and essay collections—to ground its analysis of how her work continues to embody humor, individuality, and life until her death.\"}]","The Aging Ame no Uzume - Gender and Humor in Sano Yōko’s Writing | PDF",1787752930,25,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"the-aging-ame-no-uzume-gender-and-humor-in-sano-yokos-writing","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-aging-ame-no-uzume-gender-and-humor-in-sano-yokos-writing/146880/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04","2026-08-26",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":11},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Why has aging in women’s literature often been neglected in earlier depictions?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Aging by women, and women viewed from a woman’s perspective, has long been neglected, despite some exceptions that focus more on aged care than on aging women themselves.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the paper distinguish tragedy from humor in narratives about aging?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Aging has tended to be linked to tragedy, yet the paper argues that humor plays an important role in contemporary women’s literature dealing with aging.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What role does Sano Yōko’s life and career play in the discussion?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The paper provides biographical context—her education, illustrated story production, and essay collections—to ground its analysis of how her work continues to embody humor, individuality, and life until her death.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,119,124,129,132,136],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]