International Center for Folk Culture Studies

Keizo Shibusawa took the initiative in the study of Japanese folk culture in the prewar period. He created and operated the Attic Museum for this purpose. He published bulletins on basic source materials obtained from micro field works and writings on folk culture, as well as established a collection of mingu.

Shibusawa’s research consisted of three pillars: collection of mingu, historical study of fisheries in Japan, and annotation cataloguing(?) of documents. While his collection activities have been examined by many academics because his mingu collection served as a pioneer of folk implement studies, his research activities and publications on the history of fisheries have hardly been reviewed.

This group aims to conduct an in-depth study of Shibusawa’s research on the history of fisheries and mingu between 1935 and 1940 when such studies were actively carried out by the Shibusawa Fisheries History Laboratory and the second subcommittee (of the Attic Museum?) on mingu studies. To this end, this project will undertake the following:

i. Creation of a chronology of the Shibusawa Fisheries History Laboratory
This chronology will show the relationship between researchers at the Attic Museum and their external counterparts who also played a crucial role in the studies. In addition to Keizo Shibusawa, Asakichi Izugawa, Mitsuhaya Kajinishi, Katsunori Sakurada, Toshimi Takeuchi, Toshiyuki Toya, Yukichi Habara, Kikumaro Fujiki, Miyashizu Hori, Tsuneichi Miyamoto, Kazuo Yamaguchi, Saburo Yoshida, Keitaro Miyamoto, and others are also included.

ii. Compilation of basic source materials on the Shibusawa Fisheries History Laboratory
Review the basic source materials on the research activities of Shibusawa’s laboratory for indexing and reprinting.

(FY2015-2017)