The Structural Transformation of Festivals in Contemporary Japan

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25380697
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Sophia University
• Principal Investigator: HAGA Manabu 上智大学, 総合人間科学部, 教授 (40222210)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 祝祭 / よさこい / 阿波おどり / 都市 / 非日常 / 若者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The traditional urban festival in Japan has been held by every local community. And the organizer, the performer and the audience were the residents of the same community. Therefore, a great variety of festivals have existed in Japan. But, from 1970's the structure of Japanese festivals were transforming gradually, and new type of festivals, for example "Yosakoi Festivals" and "AWA Dance Festivals", were diffusing rapidly in the whole of Japan.
In this study I have investigated these two groups of Japanese festivals, and have made clear the following two questions. First, who is the organizer, the perfomer and the audience of these new type of festivals? Second, what type of merits and demerits for the persons concerned are resulting from the transformation of Japanese festivals?

Free Research Field

社会学