The "Aufhebung" of Folklore Paradox

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24652172
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology/Folklore
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: NAKANISHI YUJI 日本女子大学, 人間社会学部, 教授 (50237327)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SATO Hiroo 東北大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (30125570) ; SHIRAKAWA Takuma 福岡大学, 人文学部, 教授 (70179042)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SUZUKI Ikkei (公財)中村元東方研究所, 研究員 (50280657) ; MATSUO Koichi 国立歴史民俗博物館, 教授 (50286671)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 民俗学 / 宗教民俗 / 中世仏教 / 顕密仏教 / 民俗芸能 / 陰陽道

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A starting point of this study is what Japanese folk culture of religion means, which is able to be trace back historically until the medieval period. Japanese folklorists have regarded it as a culture of folk people, especially agricultural villagers. But our hypothesis in this study is that a culture of masses is not represented in it but historical formation process of folk culture of religion is, and that the subjects of folk culture are not folk people. We conceptualized this contradiction as “folklore paradox”, re-examined folklore date of religious culture by fieldworks and library works, and came to the conclusion that application this concept to it is valid.

Free Research Field

文化人類学・民俗学