Sign poetry is the artistic expression of the poetry that arises in the body of a Deaf person in his or her own language, sign language. This session will review the definition of sign poetry and discuss the current status of sign poetry in Japan and abroad, and the need to promote poetry by Deaf people themselves.

This paper discusses the conflict between d/Deaf and hearing people over song signing performances in Japan. Focusing on the domain of music and taking into account the diversity within the deaf category (i.e., congenital, late-deafened, and hard of hearing), the paper addresses the following theoretical questions: What is singing for the d/Deaf, and how does it differ from hearing? With an emphasis on the kinetic lines in sign language, I refer to cultural anthropologist Tim Ingold's discussion on line and perception and introduce his perspective of “the process of line creation in correspondence to the environment in the all-sensory perceptual experience.” I propose the possibility of considering d/Deaf singing as an orientation to the process of kinetic line creation itself. I conclude that the lack of such a perspective on line creation is one of the main causes of the musical problems of the song signing conflict.

Is there no "music" for the deaf, whose lives are based primarily on sight and Japanese Sign Language, whose bodies are not dependent on sound, and who have no concept of sound? It is from these questions that the film "Listen" was created. Eri Makihara and Dakei were convinced that there is "music" for the deaf, and tried to make people aware of it. It has been five years since that film was released. From the discussions and conversations that have taken place during that time, I have examined the "music of the Deaf" by replacing "Deaf music" with "Deaf playing no sounds" and have scratched out the elements. Based on this, we will explore the possibilities of "Deaf singings".