| Research Abstract |
This project is a combination of research and translation. The editor selected and translated five stories by Tsugaru authors (two by Kyozo Takagi and three by Hideo Osabe) on vital aspects of Tsugaru culture and invited four Japanese-based scholars and one ethnomusicologist in New Zealand (Otago University) to contribute essays adding new insights into the stories.
The report opens with a short introduction by the editor that outlines the history of the area and suggests various reasons for its lasting cultural independence. This is followed by Kyozo Takagi's short story "Grannies' Lodge," which forms the basis for Anthony Rausch's contribution, in which he investigates particular examples of social and topological phenomena that determine the image of the Tsugaru area as a culturally different locality.
"Tsugaru Jonkarabushi," the award-winning story by Hideo Osabe, describes the career of mythical Tsugaru-shamisen player and is followed by a contribution by Henry Johnson (Otago Univer
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sity) that explores the fairly recent history of this musical genre. Johnson also looks into possible reasons for the unremitting appeal of Tsugaru shamisen, even to younger audiences. He describes live houses in Hirosaki and elsewhere and concludes with an analysis of Tsugaru shamisen within the context of contemporary Japanese popular music.
"Tsugaru Yosarebushi," the second award-winning story by Osabe, traces the career of the legendary singer and shamisen player Momo from Kase (Momotaro Kurokawa, 1886-1931), who exerted tremendous influence on Tsugaru folk music. The four songs and ballads that play a particularly important role in this story and in other parts of the book are then translated and analyzed by James Westerhoven, who investigates their origins and concludes that this once vibrant folksong tradition has atrophied.
"A voice in the Snow," the third Osabe story in this book, explores the reasons why a mother should kill her son at the suggestion of a medium. This is followed by an essay by Takefusa Sasamori, who clearly establishes the difference between itako and kamisama and also refers to a third shamanistic tradition, that of the yori, Sasamori also traces the history of the shamanistic tradition in Tsugaru and investigates medical and psychological phenomena related to itako.
These four stories are followed by two short Tsugaru legends featuring oni, or ogres. Oni play a role in many Japanese legends, but the accompanying contribution by Atsushi Hatakaeyama gives 23 legends that can be divided into six types. It is argued persuasively that in Tsugaru, oni represent a dim memory from a natural religion that antedates the coming of Shinto or Buddhism and may go back all the way to prehistoric times.
The concluding story, Takagi's "Yasaburo's House," symbolizes the determination of the Tsugaru people not to give up in the face of adversity.
The bibliographical section lists many Japanese resources that have never before been accessed in English-language research, while the appendix gives a wraith of detailed biographical and geographicl information, some of it for the first time.
With the exception of Takagi's "Grannies Lodge," which appeared in an earlier translation by James Kirkup and Michio Nakano in 1974, all fictional and most of the traditional materials in this volume: are presented in English for the first time.
The repott is illustrated by 37 plates in color; most of them original materials. Less
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