1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Formation and Diffusion of the Folk Cultures in Chugoku Mountains
| Project/Area Number |
05610250
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
文化人類学(含民族学・民俗学)
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| Research Institution | Shimane University |
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Principal Investigator |
KITAMURA Tadashi Shimane University, Faculty of Law and Literature, Professor, 法文学部, 教授 (60101185)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1993 – 1995
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| Keywords | Village structure / Commonage / Grass field / Pasture / Koujin worship / Tatara / Folk localization |
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| Research Abstract |
I have done this research to analyze the regional features of the central Chugoku Mountains through investigating the actual states and distribution of folk cultures.
The research subject is an incorporating area of Shimane, Tottori, Okayama, and Hiroshima Prefecture. Even though each parts in Izumo, Houki, Bitchu, and Bingo has its own separate cultural traditions since the ancient times, we can verify the strong similarity of folk cultures over this area on the whole. We can mention lots of inter-marriages over the boundaries of prefectures. And most of villages in this area have a couple of families derived from other regions.
We can point out the Koujin worship as the most remarkable religious custom. It shows the local variation, although it spreads out all around the Chugoku Mountains. Many Koujins are worshiped as deities of the section of village communities in Hiroshima and Okayama areas, while they are deities guarding cattle in Okayama, Tottori, and Shimane.
Green manure was indispensable to manage paddy fields in the Chugoku Mountains and forests owned in common were available to provide paddy fields and cattle with grass. It is also a characteristic custom over this area to use the grass fields combined with pastures. The ownership types of pastures are divided into forests owned in common by village and privately-owned forests. The latter is the utilizing form which we can trace back to the mountains availed for tatara, that is traditional iron manufacture.
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