Abstract
This paper reports how community revitalization movement in a small depopulated fishing area has proceeded in 2010-13 since its initiation. The area is located in the Mukatsuku peninsula, Yuya, Nagato city, Ymaguchi prefecture, Japan. Depopulation and aging have been so serious that more than half of residents are aged 65 or more in many villages in the area.
A young person named Mr. Tadate, who returned to his home village to succeed a Buddhist temple master in 2007, played a central role to start the ‘Festival of Fire' in 2011 in which he highlighted a legend that Yang-kuei-fei, who was famous as one of the four most beautiful women in ancient China, arrived at the peninsula after her husband, Emperor Xuan-zong, was defeated by his enemy in the eighth century. He was convinced that the area should decline if he did not do anything, but it was not easy to develop collaboration by his longtime friends. This paper traced the development of collaborative network from the early stage to the present through which the author worked closely with him as his wife. Especially, an impact of a young person who joined the movement as a volunteer from the outside was focused on as changing Mr. Tadate's friends in the way that they should be committed to the movement more actively beyond just following and helping him.
This paper described several difficulties that should be overcome to start and continue the festival in next year. For example, Mr. Tadate's status as a temple master made local government and possible financial supporters hesitate supporting his group because they were afraid that they might have benefit his temple alone or particular religious activities. Moreover, Chinese foreign college students were invited to participate in the festival, but excessive police precautions were arranged due to aggravated relation between Japan and China. The author discusses how these difficulties have been dealt with while she herself has been struggling with them.
