Chiara Comastri

My research interests focus on post-war Japan grassroots cultural and social movements, with particular attention to the emergence of the so-called “circles” (sākuru) in the 1950s and the development of mini-communications (mini-komi) among ordinary Japanese people in opposition to mass culture. My DPhil dissertation is centred on the work of Hiroshima-based female writer and activist Yamashiro Tomoe (1912-2004) and her efforts to promote rural women's cultural and social empowerment from the late 1940s to the 1980s.