Change and durability of folk culture in island community under the influence of regional development

1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 09610320
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 文化人類学(含民族学・民俗学)
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan College
• Principal Investigator: TAKAKUWA Fumiko Tokyo Metropolitan College, Department of cross-cultural studies, Professor, 文化国際学科, 教授 (90289984)
• Project Period (FY): 1997 – 1999
• Keywords: Koshikijima / island community / change of fishing / depopulation / mobility and migration of fishermen / U-turn / cosmology of fisher-people / community development

Research Abstract

This Anthropological research on maritime society in Koshikijima islands, western Kyushu, was conducted 1997 to 1999. Koshikijima, facing a decrease of population and a decline of fishery, is located in a transportation and commerce route from Goto, Amakusa to Southern Kyushu. Fish marketing system developed by fish marchants from Osaka since 18th century had stimulated fishermen in Western Japan. Fishermen from Goto, Amakusa as well as Satsuma came to Koshikijima for fishing and Koshikijima people were hired as crew members by Ushibuka boat owners. Modern industrialization took young women to textile and fiber factories built in Izumisano and other towns but they came back home for marriage after 3 to 4 years. After World War II, because of decay of fisery in Western Kyushu, male people chose to become net-workers and worked being hired by fixed net (Oshikiami) owners in Miyazaki and Kochi. However, rapid progress of heavy industry absorbed Koshikijima people into urban areas. Since 1 960', men as well as women had left their islands for Amagasaki which is a center of heavy industry. Recently people in Japan have begun to consider and reflect what they have lost in compensation for industrialization and westernization (modernization). Besides that, people who supported industrialization have reached retiring age. They came back from Amagasaki to Koshikijima after many decades. These kind of new-comers are usually against to development plan with calling for the protection of natural environment, and since they live on their sufficient welfare pension, new types of social and economic conflicts have occurred.
Cosmology in Koshikijima can be compared with that in other Southern or Western Kyushu, and we can presume widely mobility and transferance of fishermen. Some deities, such as Ebisu and Funadama, as well as a legend of Jingu-Kogo indicate that not only fishermen but also marchants and priests had come to Koshikijima since olden times. Deities with masks (Toshidon) visit on new year's eve, from the sea or from the top of the mountain. The different notion of deity, between horizontal and vertical direction, should be discussed.