Paper short abstract:

This panel is organized by The Folklore Society of Japan (FSJ).We will discuss the future with/of anthropologies from the Japanese folkloristics perspective.

Paper long abstract:

This panel was organized by FSJ of which I am president with particular panelists in mind. Though the FSJ focuses on folklore, since its inception in 1935, major research themes have set folklife as their main object rather than folklore of oral literature. We have focused on the lives, customs and culture of ordinary people (folk), of which research on oral literature has been only part.

Unlike another Japanese academic society which concentrates on oral literature , and in contrast to the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA, formerly Japanese Society of Ethnology), FSJ has developed to focus on ethnology done in our own culture, much like relationship of Volkskunde and Voelkerkunde (voelker is the plural form of volk) in Germany. Currently, JASCA and FSJ are societies of about 2,000 members each. Once, members of the two societies overlapped, but concurrent membership is now less than 10%.

Japanese folkloristics developed outside academia as a method of self-introspection by ordinary people to identify for themselves, problems of everyday life from the reality of a particular locality, in opposition to dominant discourse.

I have asked Dr. CHUN Kyung-soo (Korea) to act as discussant, as he has done detailed study of the history of East Asian anthropologies and folkloristics, in hopes he can critically relativize the papers presented. We hope that this panel on folkloristics in East Asia, which has been taken as its subject the cultures of civilized society, will be an opportunity to create or project the future with/of anthropologies.

Paper short abstract:

In Japan folklore studies or folkloristics developed as a twin discipline of ethnology. By way of an introduction to the whole session, some major characteristics of Japanese folkloristics are briefly explained.

Paper long abstract:

By way of an introduction to the whole session, I will briefly explain for an international audience of anthropologists some of the basic characteristics of Japanese folklore studies or folkloristics: (1) as elsewhere, it was a product of modern times in which a deep sense of loss of local traditions had moved concerned people to look into their past way of life; (2) folkloristics as an academic discipline emerged in Japan in the 1920s and developed in conjunction with ethnology; (3) under the influence of the founder Kunio Yanagita (1875-1962), Japanese folkloristics has traditionally aimed to trace the development of everyday life among ordinary people, thereby having a close connection with the historical sciences; (4) the scope of folklore research in Japan is much broader than that of its Western counterparts in which the study of oral literature and performance occupies a central place; (5) Japanese folklorists have conducted most of their research in Japan, although the topics being studied today have diversified as Japan is ethnically more complex and urbanized than ever before; and (6) research results are rarely published in languages other than Japanese - a major factor in the isolation of Japanese folklorists and their low visibility in international settings. Regarding the last point, our panel represents the recent attempt on the part of the Folklore Society of Japan to engage itself in dialogue with the wider community of scholars outside Japan.

Paper short abstract:

I examine major historical characteristics of Japanese folkloristics focusing on three aspects of Kunio Yanagita, who is considered to have systematized the discipline: his career as an agricultural bureaucrat, his critical inquiry into modernization from everyday life and his attention to dialects.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation examines the characteristics of Japanese folkloristics from a historical perspective of Japanese modernity. Japanese folkloristics covers a wide range of fields in our everyday life. This situation sharply contrasts with that of western folkloristics, where analyses of oral expressions and aesthetic performances are the central concern.

As Japan was modernized much later than the West, everyday life was changed radically by modern technologies and systems introduced from the West. During the course of such changes there emerged conflicts between local customs on the one hand and homogenized modern systems and life style on the other.

Japanese folkloristics has since its beginning attempted to identify and interpret historical backgrounds of the conflicts and problems caused by drastic modernization. Its wide scope of fields in everyday life resulted from this very root of such problem setting.

I focus on Kunio Yanagita, who is considered to have designed and systematized folkloristics in Japan. Specifically, I discuss the following three phases of his career. In his early career Kunio Yanagita made many inspecting tours as an agricultural bureaucrat and confronted the difficult problems of everyday life in local communities that were exhausted in modernization. Then he groped for a possibility of improvement of everyday life by contemplating its historical change. The specific feature of his method was to grasp the details of the local history of everyday life through vernaculars/dialects. It also reflects his resistance to the standard language policy in the modern era of Japan.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to focus on the characteristics of Japanese folkloristics of which can be regarded as the vernacular anthropology. In particular, it depicts the reciprocal relationships between academic researchers and local residents.

Paper long abstract:

The Miyako Island has been well known for its practices of the village rituals, but its inheritance to the following generations became difficult in the 1990s. Under such condition, the folklorists from mainland Japan and local folklorists established the Society for Researching Deity and Forest of the Miyako Island in 1994. The analysis of this activity clarifies following five points. Firstly, the folklorists outside the field and local folklorists as vernacular intellectuals collaborated and established the group to research present, future, and past of the local folklores. Secondly, this group provided an opportunity to discuss about the local rituals by organizing symposiums with local residents. In this context, the local residents are not merely informants, and play their role as consultants. Furthermore, the accumulation of exchanges promoted revivals and inheritances of the local rituals. Thirdly, as a result, it created trusting relationships between researchers and local residents. It was clearly observed when a folklorist who was a core member of the group was sent off to the heaven (tokoyo常世) by local residents. Fourthly, the mutual understanding among them was achieved through the detailed communications by sharing the same language (Japanese). In particular, the local residents can access to the researchers' writings and the researchers constitute knowledge by expecting such interactions among them. Fifthly, the folklore can be defined as the vernacular anthropology in the sense that the main site of knowledge constitution is based on the relationships with vernacular intellectuals and local residents as consultants.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines community-based elder care on a small Okinawan island, specifically analyzing the conflicts between family members and neighboring “family-like” care workers. By comparing attitudes of and about elderly people, I will discuss certain features of the family in Japan.

Paper long abstract:

Following the enactment of the Long-Term Care Insurance Act in 2000, the role of caring for the elderly in Japan has shifted from family members to care workers. However, as underpopulated regions may have fewer care resources, the Japanese government has promoted the construction of community-based elderly care systems in such areas. As a result, some people in Hateruma, a small island in Okinawa have begun working in elder care. In such a situation, conflicts can arise when elderly people are cared for by neighbors in the same way they might formerly have been cared for by family.

Through the examination of case studies, this paper focuses on emerging conflicts between family and neighboring "family-like" elder care workers in Japan, with a focus on the cultural notion of ie. In Japan, the concept of ie is an important characteristic of the family system, connoting a successive, multi-generational family lineage; under this ideal, the lineage is continuous and condensed, so that individuals are perceived as merely bridging a short period between continuing generations. How do such notions influence emerging elder care conflicts, especially in Hateruma, where people have great respect for ie? Considering this context, this paper analyzes the causes of elder care conflicts and discusses certain features of the current family in Japan.

Paper short abstract:

I trace the process of how “traditional” commercial practices in a small (a city is by definition local) Japanese city develop. I focus on the establishment, the development, and the subsequent re-contextualization of several local family businesses.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I trace the development processes of "traditional" commercial business practices in a small Japanese city. I focus on the establishment, the development, and the re-contextualization of several local family businesses. Yanagawa City in Fukuoka is home to several small and medium sized family businesses. My research centers primarily on the historical aspects of traditional commercial practices of owners and managers of retail businesses.

As with many other cities in Japan, there are many small- and medium-sized family businesses in Yanagawa. However, in contrast with many other cities where there are business districts established 200 or even 300 years ago, in Yanagawa there are very few long-established businesses. Nevertheless, many contemporary commercial practices being carried out in these stores today are perceived as "traditional" practices. My research has sought to address two key interlinked questions. How were these "traditional" practices carried out in the past and how are they being carried out in the present? Through the marriage of historical and ethnographic approaches I attempt to answer these questions in this paper.

After tracing the history of these "traditional" commercial practices, two points must be emphasized. First, "traditional" commercial practices have been chosen as "business strategies" due to local limiting conditions. And second, commercial practices are being re-contextualized in the present tense. Moreover, it is especially important that these traditionalized commercial practices are considered to be effective both for well-being of the elderly and for local revitalization under the city administration.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines approaches to history as a synthesis of past and present by Japanese folkloristics, through showing the new display of the National Museum of Japanese History “Gallery 4”. It explains characteristics and effects of the method of Japanese folkloristics.

Paper long abstract:

The National Museum of Japanese History, known popularly in Japan as Rekihaku, is a general museum of Japanese history and culture. Rekihaku's display is built on the basis of collaborative researches between history (in the strict sense, relying principally on written records and other documentary materials), archaeology, and folkloristics. Therefore, Japanese folkloristics and the folkloristic section of the display of Rekihaku has two kinds of relationship with history. One is the broad sense history of Japan from the prehistoric time to the present. And the other is the present as the result of historical transition.

This characteristic of researches and display of Rekihaku originate from the birth of Japanese folkloristics. Kunio Yanagita, founder of Japanese folklolistics, insisted that it is impossible to demonstrate the history of everyday life of Japanese people only by written records and other documentary materials, in 1910's. And he proposed to take un-written materials, for example oral expression, performances as folkdances, sense of everyday life, etc. In other words, Japanese folklorisitic is an alternative to narrow sense history.

This is the origin of Japanese folkloristics, and Rekihaku's method of research and display partly reflect the Yanagita's perspective.

This presentation examines approaches to the broad sense history as synthesis of past and present by Japanese folkloristics, through showing the new display of Rekihaku Gallery 4 (Folk Cultures of the Japanese Archipelago), renewedly opened on March 19, 2013. It explains characteristics and effects of the method of Japanese folkloristics, concretely.