2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Use and change of the marine resources from the viewpoint of funeral rites for marine life ; construction detabase on monuments to pray for marine life

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21652072
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Cultural anthropology/Folklore
Research Institution	Tokai University
Principal Investigator	TAGUCHI Rie 東海大学, 海洋学部, 准教授 (70390713)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KATO Noboru 東海大学, 海洋学部, 教授 (70349330) SEKI Izumi 東海大学, 海洋学部, 准教授 (20554413)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	物質文化 / 海洋教育 / データベース
Research Abstract	Japanese folklore studies concern Kuyo for non-human being as reappearance of Buddhism. Animism or original recognition of nature and life in Japanese culture. Especially, we deal with monuments for life in water and explore how and why people monumentalize life in water. From 1300 cases, we examine many varieties among monuments, the kind of animal prayed, total of monuments on each region, and background of them. Comparing total numbers of monuments at each age, it would be evident that the greater part of them were made in modern age, and Kuyo for life in water is not old tradition, but keeping up by now, according to development of modern fishery.