Abstract
In this paper, we discuss the methodological possibilities of conducting ethnographic research as a team. First, we
discuss the Rashomon effect and the collaborative research problem while performing team ethnography. Next, we
determine that there are three forms of teams in existing team ethnography, and then we deal with cases in which
we observe the same objects at the same time or different objects at the same time. Specifically, the ethnographies
describe the process of developing activities in the field, forming a team prior to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes.
Finally, based on these examples, we discuss that team ethnography has four possibilities: (1) to motivate to listen to
new ‘narratives’; (2) to raise new questions by becoming aware of assumptions that have become self–evident in the
field; (3) to have the potential to break down the asymmetric relation of ‘investigator–object’; and (4) to change the
community by bringing new norms.
