Yokohama, where this symposium is being held, has been Japanʼs window to the world since its port opened toward the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture, which is affiliated with Kanagawa University, the venue of this meeting, was founded by Shibusawa Keizo. The institute has been a main pillar of inquiry and research on “Japan seen from the sea.”
It is said that Shibusawa strived to complement his forerunner in folklore studies Yanagita Kunio by emphasizing inquiry and research on fishermen versus farmers and material culture and folk implements versus spiritual culture. Above all, he showed that the main subject of academic studies is “jomin (commoners).” With the aim of capturing the daily life of common folks in an authentic and multidimensional manner, he not only conducted joint surveys by researchers in various fields from multiple angles but also attempted to introduce the most advanced video equipment. He emphasized the importance of photographic and video data, as well as encouraged common folks to create their own ethnographies. The fruits of such efforts were catalogued, indexed, and exhibited in museums for all people to use and share. Shibusawa made every effort for the visualization of knowledge and public access to such knowledge.
On the other hand, Shibusawa also actively absorbed at an early stage the trends of another form of folklore studies or ethnology focusing on foreign cultures. He promoted the study of Japanese folk culture with a combination of domestic and foreign perspectives. Today, with the development of IT, not only people and goods but information also crosses the sea in an instant. Folklore studies, which started as “local research,” also needs to transcend the boundaries of race and nation and acquire a new international character as “global study of folk culture.” In this symposium, there will be four presentations on “Shibusawa Keizoʼs view of nature,” “women of the sea,” “railways crossing the sea,” and “potentials of autoethnography,” plus two commentaries to look into this issue.
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