2016 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Okinoshima, World Heritage, and the Exclusion of Women in Modern Japan
| Project/Area Number |
16F16768
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
DEWITT LINDSEY 九州大学, 人文科学研究院, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-10-07 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | Religion / Buddhism / Heritage Studies / Gender / Area Studies / Cultural Anthropology |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Dr. DeWitt's research examines the multilayered history of Munakata Shrine in northern Kyushu (which in fact denotes three separate shrines). In particular, it focuses on the remote island of Okinoshima, which maintains a religious tradition of women’s exclusion. She used the grant to purchase books and to travel to conduct fieldwork, collect materials, and survey sites and exhibitions in Wakayama prefecture, Nara prefecture, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Kyushu. She conducted interviews with temple authorities, religious practitioners, community leaders, scholars, and tourists. She traveled to the U.S and Canada to meet with scholars and present preliminary research findings at the largest Asian Studies conference in the world. One important result of this work during this grant period was illuminating how the past is recrafted at Munakata Grand Shrine and premodern religious practices (including women’s exclusion) are selectively re-envisioned in modern contexts as a means of exploring how shrine authorities and patrons understand, promote, and reconstruct the past in a much-changed present. The results of this work will help preserve the important histories of the shrines while also shedding new light on the murky historicity of women’s exclusion and the ways it is deployed and challenged in the context of cultural and religious heritage.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
One important result of the research during this grant period was illuminating how the past is recrafted at Munakata Grand Shrine and premodern religious practices (including women’s exclusion) are selectively re-envisioned in modern contexts as a means of exploring how shrine authorities and patrons understand, promote, and reconstruct the past in a much-changed present. The results of this work will help preserve the important histories of the shrines while also shedding new light on the murky historicity of women’s exclusion and the ways it is deployed and challenged in the context of cultural and religious heritage.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Dr. DeWitt will use the grant to purchase materials, conduct fieldwork, acquire materials, attend exhibitions, and present research at domestic and international venues. She is going to focus her research on the effects of “heritagization” on identity, cultural preservation and exchange, and the presentation and representation of history at Munakata Shrine and Okinoshima. Her investigations into the dynamics of the heritage process are centrally concerned with the deployment of ancient histories and practices in present-day (i.e., World Heritage) milieus. She will be surveying and analyzing the multilayered discourses related to religion and cultural heritage at Munakata Shrine and Okinoshima and grounding them in time and place through historical and ethnographic analysis.
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