Vol.64 No.1(2012)

Contents

Articles

HONDA Kenichi
Spatial Structures of Urban Festivals in the Late Early―Modern Period : A Case Study of Kyoto’s Imamiya―matsuri Festival  1

HASEGAWA Shogo
Sites of Interest and Scenery in the Kyoto―Osaka Area in the Early Modern Era : Focusing on Miyako meisho―zue and Settsu meisho―zue edited by Akizato Ritō  19

Review

BA Tu and KONAGAYA Yuki
Implementation and Challenges of Ecological Migration as Environmental Policy in China’s Inner Mongolia  41

Research Note

HIRAMATSU Koichi
Interpretations of an Uncommemorated Site : The Case of Ofuna POW Camp  55

Meeting Reports

Special Presentations in Annual Meeting 2011  71

News  92
Notes for Contributors of the English Papers  99
Subscription  101

Abstracts

Spatial Structures of Urban Festivals in the Late Early Modern Period: A Case Study of Kyoto’s Imamiya matsuri Festival

HONDA Kenichi
Part time Lecturer, Kyoto Gakuen University

This paper considers the relationship between festivals and their surrounding regional societies by investigating the realities of urban festivals in the late early modern period in Kyoto. The paper focuses specifically on the Imamiya matsuri festival, celebrated in the Shinto shrine of Imamiya. The early modern urban festivals were held collectively by local communities （mainly neighborhoods） that became core organizations. While these communities cooperated with each other, there were also cases of unequal hierarchies that resulted in rivalry between the communities. Following this fact, this paper focuses on “manners in which people and organizations participating in the festivals as well as their activities are related through spatial expansions in related regions,” defined here as the “spatial structure of the festivals.” In addition, considering the realities of the local communities in early modern Kyoto, I set up a three tiered regional scale using the macro meso micro model, and sought to understand the spatial structure of the festivals at each level.
As a result of the examination, the following characteristics of the spatial structure of the early modern festivals became clear: First, it is not sufficient to study the spatial structures of these festivals solely as planar multi layered structures as was done in the past. This is because each region possesses complex stratifications in which realities of such relationships as hierarchy, cooperation, and rivalry differ. Next, as the regional scale progresses from the macro to the micro, we see a strengthening of the “magnetism” in which the local communities （neighborhoods） that organized the festivals cooperated with or were in rivalry with one another. It also became clear that within these relationships of rivalry, there existed predetermined harmonious relationships that appeared regularly every year and served to enliven the festivals when seen from a broader perspective. At the same time, there also existed antagonistic relationships that appeared spontaneously and caused intense confrontation. The latter type of rivalry was included implicitly within hierarchical relations.
In the future, it will be necessary to conduct other case studies and discover more universal principles regarding the relationship between festivals and their surrounding region/regional society.

Key words: early modern period, urban festival, spatial structure, Kyoto, Imamiya matsuri festival

Sites of Interest and Scenery in the Kyoto―Osaka Area in the Early Modern Era : Focusing on Miyako meisho―zue and Settsu meisho―zue edited by Akizato Ritō

HASEGAWA Shogo
Graduate Student, Kobe University・JSPS Research Fellow

This research examined two works compiled by Akizato Ritō （alt. Akisato Ritō）, Miyako meisho―zue （An Illustrated Guide to Noted Places in the Capital） and Settsu meisho―zue （An Illustrated Guide to Noted Places in Settsu Province）. The former was a guide to sites of interest primarily in Kyoto while the latter described sites of interest in Settsu Province and Osaka.
This research had two aims. The first was to clarify how Akizato Ritō perceived the places that he selected and symbolized as ‘noted places.’ The second was to clarify how Akizato viewed cities and how Kyoto and Osaka were represented in guides to sites in those cities.
Akizato perceived places and symbolized those places while keeping in mind the goal of depicting places and scenes in illustrations. Although he selected traditional, long―celebrated sites of interest, he also selected places and scenery of interest from a positivist perspective based on firsthand observations.
Akizato’s view of cities was based on an identity and perspective as a Kyoto resident that developed at the end of the 18thcentury. Kyoto’s image as the ‘Emperor’s Capital’ was emphasized and the city was presented as a hallmark of tradition and sightseeing by illustrations depicting sites such as temples and shrines and manufacturing unique to Kyoto. Osaka’s port and canals were often depicted in illustrations, and the city’s image as Japan’s first commercial city was emphasized. Osaka was presented as a city for popular entertainment in forms such as kabuki.

Key words : early modern, Kyoto―Osaka area, noted places, Akizato Ritō, Miyako meisho―zue, Settsu meisho―zue

Implementation and Challenges of Ecological Migration as Environmental Policy in China’s Inner Mongolia

BA Tu
School of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University
KONAGAYA Yuki
National Museum of Ethnology, Japan

In China 10 years have passed since the national project of Ecological Migration started officially in 2001. Ecological Migration as an Environmental Policy is based on 2 sets of regulations : One is the Program for Rural Development in China （2001―2010）, and the other is the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Regulations. According to these regulations, the targets for Ecological Migration Policy are areas that are extremely poor because of the paucity of the natural environment, and very fragile lands where human habitation would make the land condition worse. Also included are designated areas such as natural or cultural heritage sites. In actuality, a wide diversity of cases have been implemented. However, no research has clarified these diversities. Now, as of 2010, some administrators have recognized that these projects have already ended. With the termination of these policies, it is all the more important to do after―surveys and assessments. Towards that end, in this article the authors, based on their own field work and a
literature survey of typical case studies, point out the challenges of policy and research on ecological migration in China.

Key words : Ecological Migration, Conversion Program of Cropland to Forest, Inner Mongolia, Western Region in China, Urbanization

Interpretations of an Uncommemorated Site : The Case of Ofuna POW Camp

HIRAMATSU Koichi
Graduate Student, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University
Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

This paper highlights the complex diversity of the interpretations of a site that has not been commemorated. The processes of commemoration of a site has been analyzed as the contestation over the dominant interpretation of the past of the site. However, little attention has been paid to sites that are not publicly commemorated.
Ofuna POW Camp is an example. Its function during WW2 was to provide a center on mainland Japan for the Imperial Japanese Navy to interrogate allied POWs. After the war, many staff members were indicted as “Class B/C” war criminals. At present, a proposal to build a monument to the camp has not progressed owing to disagreements about where it should be built, and what form the monument should take.
The crux of the issue is the camp’s contested legacy : the position of the Allied countries is that the camp should be censured for its inhumane treatment of prisoners, whereas Japan is critical of what it regards as the unjustness of the war crimes trials. However, on closer examination, a more complex picture emerges. This is demonstrated by classifying the respective parties as POWs, guards, interrogators, and neighbors. Each of their interpretations and experiences are then shown to contextualize their perceptions in particular ways ― including some that deviate from antagonisms at the national level. These include the amicability between POWs and interrogators or neighbors, as well as conflicts arising over whether or not an individual was indicted for war crimes, along with their probable degree of awareness of what was going on in the camp. Other cases remain inconclusive because the individual’s interpretations of the camp were too ambivalent.
It is concluded that this uncommemorated site demonstrates the equivocal nature and conflict involved in the attempts to interpret the past of the site. This means there is some evidence that cannot be collected and interpreted to the point where it confirms the stark oppositions that conflict requires. Learning to become attentive to this transitional situation prior to commemoration is one means of ensuring the reinterpretation and verification of existing interpretations. Ofuna POW Camp is not an isolated case in this regard because there is considerable potential to unify the interpretations, so that the open validation by posterity of uncommemorated sites may eventually attain a general significance.

Key words : commemoration, war site, equivocal nature of interpretations, the B/C Class War Tribunal, Ofuna POW Camp