Open AccessReconstituting Communities: Localized Folk Performing Arts and Matsuri Festivals in Post-3.11 Japan
Author(s) -
Nana Kaneko
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of sustainable future for human security
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2187-4506
DOI - 10.24910/jsustain/7.3/211
Subject(s) - the arts , performing arts , folk music , ethnomusicology , tourism , agency (philosophy) , music festival , visual arts , government (linguistics) , musical , folklore , sociology , dance , ethnography , history , aesthetics , social science , anthropology , art , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy
Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork primarily in Sendai, Japan, this paper focuses on matsuri festivals and folk performing arts, which have been documented as one of the earliest musical activities to reemerge in coastal areas of Tohoku, Japan following 3.11 because of their deep rooted history and regional distinctions. This paper presents the ways in which these cultural properties are being supported by government organizations such as the Agency for Cultural Affairs, as well as individual scholars and researchers of Tohoku’s folk performing arts. While localized folk performing arts practices have helped to rebuild local identity and given dispersed communities a reason to regularly reconvene, some post-3.11 festivals such as the Tohoku Rokkonsai (Six-Soul Festival) have developed to also showcase Tohoku’s folk performing arts as a means of demonstrating tenacity to a global audience and to try to boost post-disaster tourism and economic redevelopment. This paper considers how music making can contribute towards relief and recovery in the continuing crisis of disaster and advocates for further consideration of cultural heritage as integral to, rather than, separate from social and environmental contexts that foster human resiliency following catastrophic events. Keywords: ethnomusicology; folk performing arts; disaster relief; Japan