Although exhibits of mingu, or folk materials, are occasionally found in the collections of Japanese immigrant history museums in Brazil, no comprehensive study focusing on such items has ever been conducted. Meanwhile, although the history of the lives of Japanese immigrants in the colony of Registro is being documented in commemorative magazines and other publications, these records tend to overlook mingu, which are clearly an integral part of the immigrants’ lives. The purpose of this study is to conduct intensive research on mingu that remain in Registro’s immigrant settlements and to build up historical records of the immigrants’ lives there by documenting relevant information such as procurement routes, production methods and the use of mingu. Using the records of Registro colony’s mingu as a basis, the study also aims to establish a foothold for a comprehensive comparative study of the mingu stored in various Japanese immigration museums around Brazil.
There are two expected outcomes of this project, the first of which is a research report. It is important to note that Portuguese is the most commonly used language among Japanese Brazilian communities at present. The study will therefore produce a research report in Japanese and Portuguese so as to contribute to the documentation of mingu in both Japan and Brazil. The second expected outcome is the mingu that will likely be discovered in the course of the study. The mingu collection in the Museum of Japanese Immigration to Brazil in Registro, Sao Paolo, is extremely small, but we hope to gain information on existing mingu in the colony and help the museum expand its activities.
| Name | Specialty | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PL | FUKUZAWA Kazuoki | Local history | Brazil-Japan Cultural Association in Registro |
| PM | HIJIOKA Akemi | Architecture | Instituto Federal de São Paulo - Câmpus Registro |
| PM | NAGAI Miho | Japanese Folklore | Shibusawa Memorial Museum |
| PM | SENSUI Hidekazu | Social Anthropology | Kanagawa University |
| PM | SHIMIZU Rubens Takeshi | Agricultural engineer | Brazil-Japan Cultural Association in Registro |
| PM | YOSHIMURA Ryu | Social Anthropology | Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University |
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PL-Project leader PM-Project member