山川惣治「幽霊牧場」における西部劇の再構築

Abstract

Reconstruction of the Western in Yamakawa Soji’s Ghost Ranch Sugimoto, Shogo This paper explores how Yamakawa Soji, a prolific artist known for his adventure books, reconstructed the “Western” genre and represented “Indians” in the work Ghost Ranch, serialized in Shonen from 1950 to 1952. The Western genre, including cowboy films, was very popular in post-war Japan and influenced Japanese children’s culture, especially during the Occupation period. This paper focuses on analyzing Ghost Ranch, a unique Western work that portrays Native Americans not only as wild adversaries but also as victims of Western expansion. While traditional Western narratives glorified Anglo-Saxon dominance and the conquest of the frontier, this work subverts these tropes by placing Native Americans at the center of the story as complex characters with layers of identity beyond mere antagonists. It examines how Ghost Ranch represents the history of the Western frontier and the conflict between white settlers and Native Americans as an example of the acceptance of Americanism in post-war Japan, revealing a dual perspective of empathy toward Native Americans while perpetuating a sense of superiority and colonial attitudes inherited from prewar imperialism.