Joint Research Projects

Research Group 5-1. Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology during World War II and the Occupation

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In partnership with the Japanese Society of Ethnology (JSE; now the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology), which was founded in 1934, the Shibusawa Foundation for Ethnological Studies and its predecessor the Association of Ethnology supported systematic scientific research work with an ethnographic basis. When the Shibusawa Foundation was dissolved in 1999, its collections were transferred to the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture(ISJFC), Kanagawa University. These are the core records that document the JSE’s activities, but the work of deciphering them has not yet begun. The objective of this project is to organize them in a form usable by researchers and utilize them to show how ethnology and cultural anthropology evolved in Japan, mainly during World War II and the Occupation. The results will form the basis for a comprehensive review of the history of these disciplines, drawing as appropriate on related archives dispersed around the country. In addition to close examination of the materials, follow-up field studies will be conducted at the locations of past organized ethnographic studies in order to discover new information, to determine the influence of Anglo-American and other anthropological theories and methodologies, and to clarify the position and role of the JSE in the academic world and the historical context of Japanese society at the time.

Name Specialty Affiliation
PL SENSUI Hidekazu Social anthropology Kanagawa University
PM KIKUCHI Akira Folklore Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
PM KIM Kwangsik Historical Folklore Tokyo Gakugei University
PM KINASE Takashi Cultural anthropology Tokyo University of Science
PM MIURA Keiji The Study of Japan – the Balkans Relations / Rumanian Folklore
PM NAKAO Katsumi Social anthropology J.E. Oberlin University
PM SAKANO Toru Scientific History Nihon University
PM SHIGENOBU Yukihiko Folklore / The Study of Urban Life and Culture National Museum of Japanese History
PM SHIMIZU Akitoshi Cultural anthropology National Museum of Ethnology
PM TANIGUCHI Yoko Cultural anthropology Senshu University
RC TAGUCHI Rie Cultural anthropology Tokai University
RC Wang Jing Folklore
History of Japan-China Relations
Study of Nonwritten Cultural Materials
Beijin University
PL
-Project leader
PM
-Project member
RC
-Research Cooperator

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Kanagawa University
International Center for Folk Culture Studies