2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Rethinking Folk Performance in Early Medieval Japan
| Project/Area Number |
19K13054
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
Lazarus Ashton 九州大学, 人文科学研究院, 講師 (20814065)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | 芸能史 / 日本中世文化 / 庶民芸能 |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The research I conducted this past year clarified the political status of folk performance in the early medieval period. Using GoShirakawa's compilation of popular songs, Ryojin hisho, as a case study, I analyzed how political elites interfaced with non-elite performance practices. My provisional findings indicate that the predominantly Confucian social order, despite its general rigidity, enabled a mode of cross-class contact that resulted in new formations of culture. For example, GoShirakawa's long affiliation with women performers and his eventual archiving of their practices transposed a performance culture into a text that remains accessible today. The text thus effaces or “overwrites” the female purveyors of popular songs, while simultaneously indexing the ways in which the songs and associated practices impacted GoShirakawa. The reciprocity demonstrated by this case features throughout elite encounters with folk performance.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I am making smooth progress towards my goal of completing a manuscript based on this research. I continue to write and edit sections of this manuscript, and am furthermore making progress on my translation of Ryojin hisho. I had planned to give a lecture on my research in March 2020, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19 I was forced to cancel my plans. Luckily, since I have spent years attending and recording contemporary folk performances, I have been able to build up a small archive of audio-visual materials that is useful in imagining the older forms I research. This will be a necessary resource going forward since it remains unclear how difficult it will be to travel.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
For this new year, the focus of my research will shift from the political status of folk performance to its social function. While last year I mostly focused on popular songs, I will now move to developing a more holistic approach to the question of how class and performance are related. Archival research, and the writing it inspires, will make up the bulk of my work this year. I also plan to develop a comparative component to this research, looking specifically at how class and performance are entangled in medieval China.
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Research Products
(1 results)
