The UNESCO Effect: Confidence, Defamiliarization, and a New Element
                    in the Discourse on a Japanese Island

Foster, Michael Dylan

doi:10.2979/jfolkrese.48.1.63

Cited by 18 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Most visitors return to the mainland the following day, the first of Janu ary. 17 Discussion: Depopulation, Tourism, and the Future of the Island I have argued elsewhere (Foster 2011) that one effect of the UNESCO designation is defamiliarization: the fact that a global body had taken note of Toshidon and added it to a list of similarly important examples of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) around the world makes islanders step back and view their own tradition from a different perspective.…”

Section: On-the-ground Perspectives: Excitement Concern Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imagined UNESCOs: Interpreting Intangible Cultural Heritage on a Japanese Island

Foster¹

2015

Journal of Folklore Research

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Toshidon is a "visiting deity" (raihōshin) ritual that takes place every New Year's Eve on a small island off the southwest coast of Japan. Performed for purposes of education, Toshidon is an event in which groups of men, masked and costumed as demon-deity fig ures, walk from house to house frightening and disciplining children. In 2009, Toshidon was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List, a significant occurrence for this relatively isolated community. Based on on go ing fieldwork on the island, this essay explores specific events and discourses that emerged from this recognition. I conclude that the UNESCO inscription becomes a floating signifier within the community, one of many elements in an ongoing discussion about the broader future of the island itself.Location: Shimo-Koshikijima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan Toshidon takes place on the island of Shimo-Koshikijima in Kagoshima Prefecture. Kagoshima is in the southwest of Kyushu, one of the four major islands of Japan. Shimo-Koshikijima is the south ernmost of three small islands known collectively as the Koshiki Archipelago (Koshiki rettō). While Kagoshima Prefecture has numerous islands, most are located to the south, between the mainland and the Okinawa region. In contrast, the Koshiki Archipelago is approximately twenty miles off the west coast of the prefecture and therefore somewhat culturally distinct from the mainland and from other islands. Shimo-Koshikijima currently has a total population of 2,459 residents (1,516

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Section: On-the-ground Perspectives: Excitement Concern Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imagined UNESCOs: Interpreting Intangible Cultural Heritage on a Japanese Island

Foster¹

2015

Journal of Folklore Research

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“…Since the early 2000s, the Vietnamese authorities have been actively involved 18 On the establishment of the ICH List, and Japan's role in the process, see Aikawa (2004); Akagawa (2014). For examples of the effects of ICH inscription on particular ritual traditions, see Foster (2011); Kikuchi (2013); Salemink (2016, forthcoming). More can be said about the successful universalisation of the category 'intangible heritage,' and its consequences for state-religion relations in different contexts, but it is beyond the scope of the present article to do so.…”

Section: Comparative Notes: Sacred Heritage and The Nation-state In East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, these transformations raise a number of questions about the nature of ritual practice. When a local matsuri is listed on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List, and its rituals are standardised, commodified, and performed for new audiences (e.g., Foster 2011;Kikuchi 2013), is it still the same practice? Or has it become a secularised tourist spectacle, a purely performative affair, from which personal devotion has largely disappeared (Salemink 2007)?…”

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confidence: 99%

World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia

Rots

2019

J. Relig. Japan

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The category “heritage” is quickly gaining importance for the study of religion, not least in East Asia. Since the 1990s, Japanese governments, entrepreneurs, and NGO s have invested heavily in heritage preservation, production, and promotion, and other East Asian countries have followed suit. UNESCO recognition is sought after by various state and private actors, who see it as a useful tool for validating and popularising select historical narratives and for acquiring national and international legitimacy. These developments have led to far-reaching transformations in worship sites and ritual practices. Drawing on recent Japanese examples, and comparing these to cases elsewhere in the region, this article constitutes a first step towards a theory of the heritagisation of religion in East Asia. It argues that the heritagisation of worship sites often entails a process of deprivatisation, turning them into public properties that are simultaneously secular and sacred. The article distinguishes between three patterns, which many worship sites and ritual practices that have been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage or Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, in Japan and beyond, follow: 1) heritage-making constitutes a type of secularisation, 2) it gives rise to new processes of sacralisation, and 3) this enables mass tourism that can lead to far-reaching transformations. Focusing on the first two patterns, the article shows how heritage-making leads to the reconfiguration of sites and practices as national, public, and secular sacred properties.

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“…My description here is based primarily on Toshidon in the communities of Motomachi and Fumoto. For more on Toshidon and UNESCO, see Foster 2011;2013;2015. I have been researching Toshidon since 1999and have observed the ritual in 1999, 2000, 2009, and 2012; I have also conducted fieldwork on Shimo-Koshikijima at other times of the year and lived full time on the island from December 2011-May 2012.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Intangible Lightness of Heritage

Foster¹

2022

We Are All Survivors

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Although my own fieldwork site in Japan is far from Tohoku, where the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011, my research in a small rural community helped me to place the narratives of survivors into a context I could better understand. Against this backdrop, I consider the role of certain forms of "heritage," such as local festivals and rituals, in the aftermath of disaster, suggesting that the infrastructure created for the practice of traditional activities during normal times can, in times of trauma, become a template for more urgent forms of organizationsuch as setting up shelters. Moreover, the fact that many communities persist in performing festivals and rituals soon after disaster suggests that the very practice of such traditions, even when the context has changed, has symbolic and practical value. Ultimately, however, for heritage to work under these circumstances communities must maintain flexibility and a "light" approach.

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The UNESCO Effect: Confidence, Defamiliarization, and a New Element in the Discourse on a Japanese Island

Cited by 18 publications

References 17 publications

Imagined UNESCOs: Interpreting Intangible Cultural Heritage on a Japanese Island

Imagined UNESCOs: Interpreting Intangible Cultural Heritage on a Japanese Island

World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia

The Intangible Lightness of Heritage

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