Reconsidering Folkloristic Approaches to Commemoration of the War Dead

Abstract

This study reviews folkloristic research on the commemoration of the war dead, highlights the methodological limitations of the relational approach that has focused on “how the living engage with the dead,” and presents a new perspective. In Japanese folkloristics, research on the commemoration of the war dead became active from the 1990s onward, and since the 2000s, has increasingly taken on an interdisciplinary character. This study organizes the history of these theories, and examines discussions on “performative memory,” as well as trends in oral literature, performing arts, and the study of war-related sites. It argues that future research should focus on the processes by which ontological categories relating to the living and the dead are formed, the multiplicity of practices surrounding their relationships, and the plurality of effects that arise from such engagements.