123, 12, 149, 167, 15 Dec. 2022
123, 9, 1, 20, 15 Sep. 2022
264・265, 77, 110, 25 Jan. 2022
Succession to a Former Noble Family of a Shinto Priest in Post-War Japan: The Case Study of Three Chief Priests at Aso Shrine, 307, 33, 67, Aug. 2021, This paper explains the social norms that effect the succession to a former noble family and to a Shinto shrine tradition, describing the activities of Shinto priests in three generations from the pre-war period to the present.
A shrine management was forced to be changed when the State Shinto was abolished by GHQ in 1945. The 90th chief priest of Aso shrine was born in 1923 as a member of a noble family and he acquired all his education before 1945. Because he succeeded to the chief priest of Aso shrine just after the abolition of the nobility system and the State Shinto, he had to manage the shrine without any official supports and changed his attitude to the local people in order to receive their cooperation to shrine’s festivals. For example, he organized Ujiko SeinenKai, a support club of local youth for Aso shrine, and called on local people to ask them to join its member. In addition, he gave a lecture eagerly for a publicity of Shintoism. His son, the 91st chief priest took over his father’s will and did not pursue a profit by increasing the number of visitors but kept on the tradition of festivals and the precept of Shintoism, taking advantage of the governmental support by the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties. The next chief priest devised a practical way to carry on shrine festivals and passed it over next generations, listening to the requests from local governments and local economic organizations. They faced to the downfall crisis of their family and the shrine just after World War 2. That reminded them of their tragic history of the downfall in the end of the Warring States period. They have recognized that it is the most important matter to avoid the downfall of family and shrine and then they collaborated practical ways in accordance with the post-war social situation and hold the tradition of Shinto festivals.
This paper points out three social norms that effect the succession; to meet the expectations of the local people to nobility, to keep on the noble family history, and to live an affectionate life with family members as the common people do.
The indigenous pathogenesis and the folk logic of discrimination defined by medical folklore in Japan: focusing on the concept of Curse and Carma, 258, 61, 89, May 2020
Expression of Folklore in Contemporary Taiwanese Society : Folkloric Investigation of the 2010 Tainan City Council Elections, 31, 4, 32, Mar. 2017
Belief in Inari Deities: Analyzing the relationship between a manager's mind and the History of Textile Manufacture in Hachioji City, 54, 226, 239, 16 Mar. 2011
Classification of Shinto Shrines in Musashino Area: Analyzing a Shinto Shrine Archives in Early Modern Era., 2, 12, 40, 31 Mar. 2010
The concept of a social norm in Wakamori Tarou's folklore theory, En marge de l'histoire, 59, 38, 54, Sep. 2009
The folklore for putting out sorrow: focusing on Jangara Nembutsu Odori (fork dance) in Iwaki city, Fukushima Pref, The Japanese folklore review, 24, 31, 46, May 2009
The formation of consensus in a village council, focusing on the process to form social knowledge from personal knowledge, Bulletin of the Folklore Society of Japan, 254, 25, 56, May 2008, Folkloric knowledge is transmitted from person to person, and is shared by people in a community. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the process of forming consensus.
This paper discusses the council held in Kokuzo Shrine to preserve the “divine tree.” Each representative made comments giving his own personal feelings on the matter. And on occasion, their opinions differed from each other. But the head of the council made statements like “everyone wants to preserve the divine tree,” orienting the discussions in the direction of preserving the tree. Next, talks began regarding the costs to preserve the divine tree. The head of the council stated, “we will distribute water-deity amulets (suijin huda) to the communities that use our water resources [and receive donations for them].” In the history of this region, such amulets were distributed in the later period of Edo era as well. The council representatives, on the other hand, advanced the discussion on the basis of modern norms regarding water resources. Finally, the tree preservation was completed, but the plan to issue water-deity amulets was discarded.
The conclusion is the following three points; (1) attendees present a variety of thoughts, but if a topic is presented as an item of tacit assent, members spontaneously submit to it. If the talk fails to advance, it is the leader who suggests this kind of item of tacit assent; (2) members attempt to find a point of agreement. According, the consensus settles down at that point, and with the passage of time, it is possible that opposing opinions may appear; (3) the council involves the intersection of logic on both the spoken and the unspoken level.
Even though folkloric knowledge is composed of individual thoughts, it transmitted in coordination with the dominant thought of each period and society.
Tips for Hamlet's life: Reading a Trial Documents about a Japanese Ostracism., 28, 47, 64, 15 Nov. 2005
Reading into norm in a Japanese village society - analyzing it around a Shinto priest's life, The Japanese folklore review, 20, 19, 34, Apr. 2005
The Experiences and Norm of a Village Concerning Water Resources, Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History, 123, 103, 127, Mar. 2005, Over time, human beings have altered the environment that surrounds them and have developed it so that it suits their way of life. In other words, a village is a social environment that has been formed in order to maintain the way of life of its inhabitants. A village also has norm that their members must follow. In this paper I advocate a concept for a contemporary village based on this norm.
A village has largely been seen as productive organization where the members of a village share the land that serves as a production base and where communal labor and communal worship stabilize production and daily life. However, when forming a picture of a contemporary village, it is more appropriate to gain an understanding of the management and the use of resources for daily life rather than the concept of land sharing that is assumed of a rural village. Therefore, this paper focuses on running water, which is an indispensable resource for the daily lives of villagers. I have chosen water because it is an indispensable resource in both rural and urban areas. More specifically, I cite an example of the response of inhabitants dealing out limited water resources. I attempt to take a new look at a contemporary village through an analysis of the particulars of norm that regulates their actions and the extent of their impact.
The area studied is Asodani in Aso-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture which is blessed with water resources sufficient for meeting the needs of the inhabitants of the Asodani area. However, the inhabitants are averse to sharing their water resources with other places, and on occasion this causes severe water shortages in these places. But, they allow the inhabitant to use running water who is alienated from their community, so-called Mura-Hachibu. This case indicates that there is norm that inhabitants could not deprive anyone's rights to live. In other cases, they limited the man's use of running water for his strawberry field while the other one was allowed to use as much as needed. Because he has purchased the forest that had ever been Commons. So we also see norm that villagers secure their daily life each other by jointly developing, managing, and maintaining communal resources. This norm is shared by experiences that inhabitants had dealt with communal resources, and they react severely against people that do not share these.
In this way, I submit a concept for a contemporary village as a life society based on this norm.
Bulletin of the Folklore Society of Japan, 237, 67, 83, Feb. 2004