Rural Culture in Japan

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

This project is part of the larger Religious Festivals in Asia: Power, Aspirations, and Play research group at the University of Oslo.

While rural regions in Japan are said to be “shrinking,” one could say that the cultural traditions practiced in those regions is vanishing.

I am researching the effects that severe depopulation in rural Japan is having on folk religious festivals, and examining the ways in which practitioners’ interactions with the festivals—and consequently with each other—are also changing.

Central to my research are questions of Authenticity, Authority, Preservation, and Heritage.