قصة الكتاب :
Kōdansha (Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko), 2009. 301 pp. ¥1,050.
ISBN 978-4-06-291932-6.
Akasaka Norio
Born in Tokyo in 1953. Folklore scholar, professor at Gakushūin
University, and the director of the Fukushima Museum. After establishing
the Tōhoku Culture Research Center, he founded the journal
Tōhokugaku [Tōhoku Studies] in 1999. Received the Minister
of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize in 2008 for Okamoto Tarō
no mita Nihon [Okamoto Tarō’s Japan]. Has written extensively on
Tōhoku.

When speaking of Japanese folklore studies, the first person that comes to mind
is probably Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962). Yanagita’s research was pioneering in
how it salvaged parts of Japanese culture that had been overlooked in the field of
historiography and how it shed light on the lifestyles of the jōmin (“abiding folk”)—
the folklorist’s term for the common people of ancient Japan, similar to the German
notion of Volk—which had been neglected until then. His research also greatly
contributed to the establishment of fieldwork-based folklore studies.
Like all scholarly research, however, Yanagita’s approach to folklore studies is
not without its flaws. In order to create an image of Japan as a homogenous ethnic
group, he placed rice cultivation and ancestor worship—as well as the common
people who were the agents (shutai, “subjects”) of those activities—at the heart of
Japan’s cultural identity. Using Yanagita’s work as a base, the author of this study
sharply discerns the correlation between the birth of folklore studies and the
contemporary demands of creating the Japanese nation-state.
What fell through the holes of Yanagita’s sieve? In order to find out, the author
set up an observation station in Tōhoku and walked around visiting villages deep
in the mountains, keeping a straightforward account of everything he heard. What
emerged from that was a picture of Tōhoku before rice cultivation and a faith
preceding the reception of Buddhism. The author shows that Tōhoku is much
more culturally diverse than previously thought and that Yanagita’s vision of a
Tōhoku where the common people all grow rice is nothing more than an illusion.
This book, which dismantles the myths surrounding Tōhoku and sheds light
on lifestyles in remote areas and mountainous regions that have not been talked
about previously, is essential for a true understanding of Japan. When it is translated,
it would be helpful to include a clear introduction and commentary about
the context in which this book was written. (CK)