Research on concepts and practices over "Japanese food" as cultural heritage

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K17182
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Meiji Gakuin University (2016-2018); Kyoto University (2015)
• Principal Investigator: YASUI Daisuke 明治学院大学, 社会学部, 准教授 (90722348)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 食文化 / 和食 / ナショナリズム / エスニシティ / 文化遺産 / 概念分析 / 実践 / 日本

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I clarified the actual conditions of actors promoting the protection and inheritance of food culture, focusing on Japanese food(Washoku) that is considered to be Japan's “traditional food culture”. Through this survey, I examined what the national movement over Japanese food would lead, and unravel the collective intentions of the modern world to culturalize food. I conducted a discourse analysis of the abstract concept in which "Japanese food" should be protected as "traditional culture" and do a field survey of concrete practices in which activities for protection and inheritance are being conducted. And I, through the analysis of the interrelationship between the concept and practice of “Washoku”, “Washoku” that is embodied as Japanese food that is loosely distributed and individual food, and by the interrelationship between international trends and domestic activities. It clarified what kind of Japanese food image was formed.

Free Research Field

社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、日本の伝統的な食文化としての和食がどのように定義されるべきか、和食の保護・継承がどのように実施されるべきなのか、という道徳的な問いに直接的に答えるものではない。しかし、和食概念が日本の家族制度と結びついており、現在の和食実践がそれを強化するとともに変容させていることを明らかにしている。読者はそこに文化遺産制度を介した親密圏と公共圏のあり方にひとつの見通しを得ることができ、そこに考えるべき道徳的な問題があることがわかるだろう。このようなあらかじめ規範的基準で現実を裁断するのではない仕方で、伝統文化をめぐる問題系についての議論基盤を提供する点で社会的意義があると考えられる。