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Paper short abstract

The result of four years of fieldwork, this paper looks into the contemporary transformations, both ritual and social, performed by active members of the Ôtori Mikoshi Group within one of the three great festivals of Japan, Tenjin Matsuri.

Paper long abstract

Tenjin Matsuri, one of the three great festivals of Japan, a two-day extravaganza of artistic performances, masculinity displays, and fireworks, combined with sacred Shinto rituals, has taken place since the end of the 10th century. Whether the official date of the festival is real or not remains to be debated; however, the festival has been part of Osaka life for almost a millennium. The present research is focused on the Ôtori Mikoshi Kô, one of the 24 still active kô (groups) in charge of organizing the festival, and their interaction with both the sacred and the lay community. Its members take pride in the fact that the Ôtori Mikoshi (the "Phoenix portable shrine"), currently one of the three mikoshi that are paraded through the streets of Osaka during Tenjin Matsuri, is the oldest one present in the sacred procession, the object in use today having been crafted in the latter part of the Edo period by a master shipbuilder. Ôtori Mikoshi is also one of the most active (and thus most powerful) kô, being involved in all the events held by Osaka Tenmangu throughout the year, and most of the communal events of the Kannan area.

The present paper will look into some of the most recent changes induced by the members of this group—some of them personally witnessed by the author— and their effect on ritual practices and relationships within the community. Some examples are the kami-oroshi and kami-okuri ceremonies performed around Ôtori Mikoshi and Tama Mikoshi since 2019, the temporary permission given to women to join the group on July 25th as kimono specialists and nurses, and, last but not least, permission given to the author, an outsider (for the first time in the history of the group) to attend all the meetings throughout the year, including a research trip to Dazaifu Tenmangu. The purpose of the research is to clarify the role of the Ôtori Mikoshi group within the community, and the importance of the changes they create within the history and development of Tenjin Matsuri.

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The resurgence of the supernatural creature Amabie has been one of the more notable reactions to Covid-19 in Japan. This paper will examine how the phenomenon has been appropriated and adapted to the current situation, confluently by the public as well as by religious institutions and the state.

Paper long abstract

In 1846 a yōkai (妖怪), a female mermaid monster of a sort, appeared to and spoke to an inspecting official in southern Japan. According to the legend she not only foresaw great prosperity for the community but also offered up a magical protective recourse should disease hit (which at the time was cholera).

The idea of this yōkai, whose name is Amabie (アマビエ), found a very fertile ground in March 2020 as Covid-19 reared its ugly head all over the world. What is of particular interest however is how the legend, and the magical power imbued by those who drew or obtained her image, gained not only general popularity but was quickly incorporated into official scripts such as that of the Ministry of Health, on posters which were circulated all through Japan, as well as adopted by official religious establishments and given or sold as official talismans on their behalf.

This paper will follow the development of the legend, from its rebirth and evolution online through to its consequent migration into various angles of society. Drawing on theories of the liminal and of the cultural power of legends, its development will be examined as well as how it got adapted to a different time and society. The pre-existing elements in Japanese society which allow for such an immediate yet farfetched combination will be examined, especially the religious synchronicity which so defines the Japanese religious attitude and quite happily allows for the supernatural to encroach upon the sphere of normalcy.

The connection between a supernatural monster, Twitter and modern day magico religious talismans may seem tenuous to most, yet in the current Japanese cultural climate it is in keeping with tradition and representative of how folklore still lives a good life in modern Japanese society.

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This paper addresses the pre-inscription phase of the cultural property "Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region" on the World Heritage List, while revealing a constellation of attachments to the place at the level of residents, state and non-state institutions and non-native inhabitants.

Paper long abstract

The World Heritage cultural property "Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region" consists of twelve components (one archeological site, ten villages and a cathedral) spread over Nagasaki and Kumamoto prefectures reflecting the prohibition and revival of Christianity in Japan. The World Heritage nomination was initiated in the early 2000s by the Nagasaki-based Association for Declaring Nagasaki Church Group a World Heritage, proposing the "Nagasaki Church Group" (a selection of churches spread over Nagasaki Prefecture) as worthy of a "universal value", viewing its historical, architectural and "cultural heritage" characteristics. Upon a change of content, the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in June 2018. The "Outstanding Universal Value" of the property stands in the distinctive way in which the Hidden Christians practiced their faith during the ban on Christianity, and concerns their emergence, social organizations and rituals.

My paper addresses the institutional and everyday representations of the World Heritage listing in the liminal phase of the transition from the initial nomination proposal "Churches and Christian Sites in Nagasaki" to the newly - designed one "Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki region", end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, based on exploratory ethnography in Tokyo, Nagasaki and places from the Nagasaki Prefecture. How does the World Heritage label shift the representations of the place? How are objects, places and practices re-defined? How are the elements of the cultural property represented in the late pre-inscription phase and what is the foreseen early afterlife upon the inscription? Upon fieldwork among residents, state and non-state institutional members and non-native inhabitants, this paper argues that there is a constellation of attachments to the place playing out in the narratives: to churches, to its histories or to its projected transformations upon the inscription. Moreover, though content analysis of interviews and promotional materials, I explore specific themes addressed by tourism narratives in the late nomination phase.

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This paper presents a reinterpretation of two main global mythologies of Okinawan karate pointing to the distant past. By a socio-historical approach I unveil imaginations and inexactitudes forming those karate myths, and how they speak about Okinawa's contemporary geopolitical romanticization.

Paper long abstract

Karate, a martial art frequently considered an expression of the Japanese idiosyncrasy, has its origins in Okinawa during a time when the archipelago was a semi-independent state known as the Ryūkyū Kingdom (1429-1879). This historicity has, in fact, placed karate in an ambiguous position in relation to which is considered the proper body of Japanese budō, reflecting thus the peripheral situation of Okinawa and the complexity of its modern integration into Japan. Such a situation has found way in popular mythologies about Okinawan karate, of which the two main ones comprise cultural resistance standpoints and anti-Japanese perspectives: First, that karate is a martial tradition primarily bonded with Chinese martial arts at least since 1392, when 36 families from Fujian were sent by the Emperor to settle next to Naha port; second, that karate was largely developed against the background the Satsuma clan invasion of Okinawa in 1609, and the subsequent abuses imposed upon the local peoples by the Japanese samurai.

This paper reinterprets these two legendary underpinnings of Okinawan karate with a socio-historical exploration of the Ryūkyūs between the 13th and 17th century. At that time, Okinawa was a stratified society dominated by competing feudal lords (aji) in the pursuit of land supremacy trading networks control. Therefore, violence and military are not only inescapable determinants for the formation of the Ryūkyū Kingdom and its maritime empire, but also an important piece of daily life in the East China Sea territories, deeply moulded by piracy and warlords activities.

By analyzing the two aforementioned myths about karate’s past that gained global circulation during the 20th century, this proposal addresses a contemporary core narrative shaping both karate heritage and Okinawan history: romanticized views of the Ryūkyūs as an inherently peaceful land, “a kingdom without weapons”. However, close readings of the historical roots of Okinawan martial arts reveal clear discursive gaps and contradictions, and hence aspects regarding the ideological nature of karate’s representations. Therefore, I argue that through a critical revisitation of karate’s mythologies we can learn about the present geopolitical situation of Okinawa.