Folklore research on the intersection of life improvement instruction and social education in government-made movements under the wartime regime

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K03215
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology
• Research Institution: Chiba University
• Principal Investigator: WADA KEN 千葉大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (20292485)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 生活改善指導 / 民俗慣行 / 農山漁村経済更生運動 / 官製運動 / 通俗教育 / 通過儀礼 / 陋習

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, I examined the way of life improvement items performed by the rural village economic reform movement and the life improvement movement. The state of the country's intervention in folk practices in the 1930s was clarified and examined. As a result, in the case of taking initiative in life improvement in the village, it became clear that there is a strong tendency to carry out life improvement by making sure that the clear culture by the rules and the mutual support by the relationship between the neighbors are thorough. In addition, about folk customs of passage ceremonies, we give an instruction that we should show the case to be regarded as habitation concretely and should abolish. In addition, there were many cases that worked on the improvement of food, clothing and shelter and hygiene, and it became clear that the actual situation was also progressed with the spread of women's and children's clothes and the improvement of toilets.

Free Research Field

民俗学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、国家による民俗慣行への緩やかな介在の実態について明らかにすることができた。成果について整理すると以下の2点にまとめられる。ひとつは、冠婚葬祭に関わる通過儀礼について、非合理的とされる生活習俗については「陋習」と否定し、その廃止を徹底させる指導をしている。しかしその指導は強圧的なものではなく村や組による相互監視のなかで確守を迫る手法を明らかにできた。もうひとつは、このような生活改善指導により作られた民俗慣行が現在にも伝承されている例が多いことが明らかになったところにある。戦時体制下直前にあたる1930年代が、民俗変容を考える上で重要な時代であることが明らかになった。