位相

01:08 May 21, 2017 

I'm glad you found it interesting! I was reading a nice article in the Asia-Pacific Journal called "The Global Rightist Turn, Nationalism and Japan," and Okakura Tenshin just happened to come up in this precise context. He was basically a reformer with a vision of Asian solidarity at the time of Europe-dominated modernization.

"Yet regionalism and, more to the point, a conception of East Asian solidarity in the form of Pan-Asianism did emerge from the shambles of the Sinocentric system at the end of the 19th century. That idea was supported by reformers including Okakura Tenshin in Japan, Kim Okkyun in Korea and Sun Yat-sen in China, and expressed the vision of a common/regional response to the challenge of modernization that derived from European modernization."

If you're interested in the article: http://apjjf.org/2017/10/Postel-Vinay.html

04:51 May 20, 2017 

In my view, this link settles the uncertainties we faced as follows:
- introduced as it is as a complement to very different approaches, 位相 cannot be construed in the narrow sense of a particular 'phase' (the selected Tenshin Phase) in the history or evolution of that concept. Port City stands vindicated. It is best taken here in the broad sense of: angle, perspective, approach.
- elimination of the 'phase' option automatically clears any lingering doubt I had about the meaning of "近代文学の位相" as referring to its reflection if any of observable abrupt changes in thinking and outlook on the subject over the period to WWII. "modern literature" usually refers to fiction literature, rather than the academic and specialist one. This take is the one that best fits the real life context where it was used.

Conclusion: the solution you eventually settled for is spot on, concise and elegant.
So, congratulations, Nick, and thank you from us all for your stimulating challenges! :-)

04:48 May 20, 2017 

Nick, only get back to this post discussion if you can spare the time.
Here is one additional pointer that reliably ascertains the ambiguous terms in the title you posted:
http://www.oneasia.or.jp/pdf/pusan2012.pdf

You queried 位相 = ??? (phase/phases/stage/aspects?)
(文学 also concerned me : = fiction literature (reflecting the said theme in the background) ?/ politico-philosophical advocacy work(s) directly dealing with that theme (of which Okura Tenshin's was the original vision)? )

This link provides the real life context which gave rise to the publication of that work (paper lecture No. 8.: a research paper given 5 years ago as part of a series of academic exchanges on the subject from all angles and perspectives (cultural roots and legacy (from/on traditions, language (past and current meanings,) education, life outlook, etc.)

10:28 May 18, 2017 

If you ask me to choose either "standpoint" or "vantage point", I would choose "standpoint". I might even swap it with "position". Why? It's because 位置 and 位相 have 位 (position) in common and 相 here may just mean "how it (位) looks". I know this reasoning isn't convincing. But it's not totally unfounded, either. At least it may fit the context. Anyway, it's just a guess based on available information...
See the first meaning of 相 in the link below:
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/127934/meaning/m0u/

03:07 May 18, 2017 

Interesting to see our efforts to minimise the scientific connotation of 位相 in the title of what looks like a literary criticism paper.
Would use 'standpoint' to characterise a position in a logical/political debate.
The rich contribution of literature is to flesh out the dominant mood, feel or outlook of a particular period through the characters or a society that is living it.
So, perhaps 'standpoint' would gain in being opened up into a wider angled view.
In this case, the author seems to have selected Okura Tenshin as the crystallisation of an emerging idealistic vision of Japan's regional view and of the role it could play in it, which suggests a potential pro-active 'élan', rather than just the opening of a new horizon in front of passive eyes.
In this sense, even 'vantage point' falls short of what the author meant to pin point with 位相. 'Phase' implies a follow-up, or a (forthcoming) contrast between a chain of states, (from 'worm' to 'chrysalis' to 'butterfly'), This we can anticipate as the background of the author's focus, perhaps to extol the potential of what could have been, but as history later showed, was not to be for many decades, under different influences.

08:16 May 17, 2017 

"Standpoint of modern literature in Asian Community" may work in the context as it seems to refer to only Okakura's viewpoint.

07:23 May 17, 2017 

Thank you all for your thoughtful contributions. I have read carefully and am still not sure what English term to use. If I use "phase," it sounds like a historical phase of literature, which is not the intended meaning. If I use "aspects of" it sounds like "characteristics of." The other possibility would be "modern literature perspectives on," but I feel it loses some of the meaning. This is a really tricky one.

03:43 May 15, 2017 

The 'Phase'selection option is all that more compelling since the paper means to explain the foundations and original objectives of this platform as the future pathway/(mission?) of Japan as the Asian nation which has just entered the world political arena, relatively on its own terms compared with the rest of Colonised Asia, after centuries of isolationism.

03:43 May 15, 2017 

The 'Phase'selection option is all that more compelling since the paper means to explain the foundations and original objectives of this platform as the future pathway/(mission?) of Japan as the Asian nation which has just entered the world political arena, relatively on its own terms compared with the rest of Colonised Asia, after centuries of isolationism.

03:14 May 15, 2017 

Would go for the singular form since the title of your paper selects that of Okakura Eizo out of several other contributing persons or groups. See the footnote entry for it in
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/アジア主義 :

岡倉覚三（天心）
ボストン美術館東洋部（中国・日本部）部長。1903年にイギリスの出版社から刊行された英文著書『The Ideals of the East』（東洋の理想）の冒頭に「Asia is one.」（「アジアは一つである」）という著名な句がある。この句は、岡倉の死後、本人の意図とは切り離され、日本によるアジア侵略や「大東亜戦争」「大東亜共栄圏」を正当化する論理に利用されたことが指摘されている。[3][4]

and more on this visionary in :
http://www.yorozubp.com/asiaism/asiatenshin.htm

02:53 May 15, 2017 

In a Physics context, 'phase' (位相) refers primarily to a physical 'state'(gaseous, liquid, solid, or transitional).
From our observation of Nature, given the possible change/reversal of that 'state' from the current one to another, 'phase' may also take on the derivative connotation of 'stage' (段階) in evolutionary contexts in all sorts of fields, which of course implies a reference to a time line (historical approach to anything.) So, even though 'aspect' (局面) might be used for safety sake and covers a lot of the semantic import intended, it shuts off the sense of evolutionary approach that might be a key angle of the literary analysis contributed by the paper. Very often literary analyses tend to account for the genesis and import of the genre and inspiration of the works they want to characterise, and they do so by referring to the events, external influences (whether emerging or resurgent) and international/economic/societal changes of the times concerned.