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Blackface was originally a style of theatrical makeup in the United States that depicted a comic travesty of a black person, particularly in a minstral show.^[1] In Japan, the term refers to tanning or darkening the skin and hair. This is different from the fashion known as ganguro where the skin is tanned and the hair lightened.

The popularity of musical genres such as jazz, funk, rock ‘n’ roll and hip hop in Japan has inspired the blackfacing phenomenon. Its purpose is to create a new identity that contradicts the well-established image of Japanese people.^[2] In a highly conformist society, this attempt to adopt African American "coolness" is a form of rebellion.

Blackface has attracted many artists and others. One popular Japanese group known for wearing blackface makeup is The Gosperats.

Contents 1 Controversy 2 Social significance 3 Historical connections 4 References

[edit] Controversy

Some Japanese hip-hop artists fear that blackfacing will be tied to Japanese hip-hop in general and make it seem imitative and not authentically Japanese. Those artists believe that Japanese hip-hop has its own style and is not imitating American Hip-hop; thus they make fun of the "black wannabes."^[3] One such artist is Banana Ice^[4]. He raps about the disgrace that young people bring to their ancestry when they try to imitate a different race and culture than their own. Banana Ice released a song in 1995 called ‘Imitation + Imitation = Imitation’ in which he ridicules young hip hop fans who darken their skin as a sign of respect toward African American musicians” ^[5]. He raps with the frame of mind that a Japanese youth “can never be the black person (they) want to be.”^[6].

[edit] Social significance

Blackfacers in Japan lay claim to an important and controversial social space. While it may seem that their sole motivation to dress and look the way they do is to identify themselves with African Americans, hoping to reflect the notion of African American "coolness," there are other, less obvious reasons at work. For one, when blackfacers tan themselves and dress in a stylistically hip hop fashion, they are able to partake in a mainstream hip hop culture, which is seemingly exclusive and therefore appealing. At the same time, their style can be seen as a form of political defiance and an affirmative embrace of black culture. For example, when asked during a post-performance interview by Patrick Macias how wearing blackface made him feel, a member of the blackface group Gosperats replied, "strong. Like a light that's been turned on." ^[7] Joe Wood postulates that “just as the white/White Negro acted out his racial and sexual fantasies in a bid to transcend Whiteness; so the current Japanese obsession with blackness allows Japanese youth a freedom of expression they are unable to experience in their circumscribed social role as ‘Japanese’”^[8].

According to Ian Condry, author of the book "HIP-HOP Japan," it was "when Japan began its march toward modernization, imbibing the ideologies of Western imperialists, [that] prejudices toward blacks were imported..." ^[9] Therefore, some Japanese people tend to view the blackfacers as very inauthentic and embarrassing. These people, because they sometimes view African Americans as inferior, associate blackfacers within the hip hop culture as an inauthentic embodiment of blackness, a blackness which, according to them, should not be embodied in the first place. These racist views might be what blackfacers seek to target with their overt cultural politics. Joe Wood, author of an article entitled The Yellow Negro, corroborates this idea when he concludes that "the source of Mikako's sincerity, her belief in the mask of Japanese homogeneity, had to be the very thing blackfacers were poking fun at with their silly get ups."^[10]

[edit] Historical connections

Evidence exists that suggests Blackfacers in Japan may have taken on this method of tanning and painting their faces black as a carryover of the long time tradition of the Japanese to wear masks and have painted faces during forms of entertainment like bunraku puppet theater^[11].

[edit] References