How Cultural Resources Transformed into Industrial Forms?

— The Reproducibility of Multifaceted Talent Development as Seen in Ōji Hiroi―

Abstract

＜Abstract＞ This research note examines how cultural resources can be transformed into industrially operable forms through the creative practices of Oji Hiroi. Cultural resources are understood not only as traditional culture, but also as bundles of pre-commercial experiences, including local memories, family history, food, urban space, songs, theatre, modern history, cross-cultural representations, and media memories. Hiroi’s practice connected these resources to games, stage performance, voice acting, music, printed media, and fan participation. The analysis focuses on a repeatable process for developing composite creative personnel: collecting cultural resources, reading media constraints, designing portable character components, embodying them through voice, song, and stage, and sustaining them through communities of reception. The case of Li Kohran in Sakura Wars is treated as a key example in which memories of modern East Asia, including Li Xianglan, Manchuria, China, and family history, were translated into an acceptable and repeatable character form.