Academic interests
I am a research fellow working on the Religious Festivals in Asia: Power, Aspirations, and Play project.
Title of My Project & Summary:
The Effects of Shifting Demographics on Rural Mountain Rituals in Japan: the Cases of Yamaya Bangaku and the Miyoshi Bonden Festival
This dissertation is an analysis of the contemporary role that ritual has in the social lives of people living in Japan’s quickly shrinking rural regions. The first aim of this thesis is to contribute to the epistemological knowledge of ritual practices that are rooted in premodern mountain worship traditions and have become critical components of contemporary rural heritage. The second aim of this thesis is to develop the notion of “relationality” (Houseman 2006) as a theoretical lens through which to analyze contemporary ritual life in Japan.
The overarching research questions are the following: To what extent have organizers of rural traditions modified the rules of local rituals in response to the current demographic trends affecting their communities? In what ways do ritual traditions continue to be relevant in shrinking regional communities? The long-term low birth rate, patterns of rural-to-urban migration, rapidly aging population, and overall population decline make Akita Prefecture a particularly suitable location in which to situate my research. I then selected the ritual dance Yamaya Bangaku, the Miyoshi Bonden festival, and the communities in which they are performed as fieldsites for this project.
Qualitative research methods form the core of my research approach. Using an ethnographic fieldwork approach, I spent a total of eight months in Akita where I conducted participant-observation, qualitative interviews, and document analysis. Aside from Japan Studies, the interdisciplinary nature of this project makes its findings relevant to scholars in the fields of Rural Studies and Ritual Studies. The outcomes of this research project can also inform policy makers in Japan who continue to struggle with the current demographic trends and the emerging challenges these trends pose to communities throughout the country, especially in the areas of rural revitalization and care for the growing elderly population.
The goals of this research project are to:
・add to the understanding of Akita’s mountain-worship tradition and its role in the greater network of Japanese mountain worship;
・examine the effects of population decline on rural communities’ intangible folk religious traditions; and
・learn the extent to which residents of these shrinking communities have changed or altered the ways that they currently interact with each other through their local festivals.
日本では少子高齢化や若者の都市流出により地方において若者人口が減少している傾向にあります。そのため、伝統文化の継承が課題となっています。その中で、民俗文化をどう後世に受け継いでいくかが研究関心です。
文化人類学的の研究方法によりますとこの問題を研究します。
私の研究は特に秋田県の民俗文化を中心します。
Background
2022–present University of Oslo
Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (Japan Studies)—Doctoral Research Fellow
2023–2024 Tohoku University, Japan
Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Faculty of Arts and Letters—Research Student (October 2023–April 2024)
2017 Akita University, Japan
promoted to Lecturer (June 2017–September 2022)
2012 Akita University, Japan
Center for Promotion of Educational Research and Affairs—Assistant Professor
Autonomous Language Learning Rooms (ALL Rooms)—Co-Director
Akita City, Akita, Japan (June 2012–2017)
2009 Rausu-chō Board of Education
Assistant Language Teacher (through The JET Programme)
Rausu, Hokkaidō, Japan (August 2009–June 2012)
2004 Monsignor Bonner High School
English & Language Arts Department Faculty
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA (September 2004–July 2006)
EDUCATION
University of Colorado at Boulder
M.A., Asian Languages & Civilizations (Japanese Language & Literature)
Thesis title: “Dramatic Accounts of Saitō Musashibō Benkei from Three Kōwakamai: Shikoku-ochi, Togashi, and Oi-sagashi”
Boulder, Colorado
Susquehanna University
B.A., English
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
Regent’s College
Study Abroad
London, UK
Latest Research Activities
2024
March 2024
Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Akita Chapter Guest Speaker
Akita, Japan
presented a paper titled "Language in the Fieldsite: Producing Qualitative Research Data from Local Poetry"
2023
December 2023
Anthropology of Japan in Japan (AJJ) Presenter
Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo
presented a paper titled "Yamaya Bangaku: a Case Study in Rural and Cultural Identity (Notes from the Field)"
November 2023
Tohoku University, Graduate School of Arts and Letters Guest Speaker
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
presented a paper titled "Vanishing Shinto Temporalities in Underpopulated Areas"
August 2023
Lifetimes Conference Presenter
University of Oslo, Norway
presented a paper titled "Vanishing Temporalities in Rural Japan"
European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) PhD Workshop Fellow
KU Leuven, Belgium
European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) 2023 Conference Presenter
University of Ghent, Belgium
presented a paper titled "Mountain Worship & Resilience: Preserving Religious Festivals in Rural Japan" as part of the panel on Religion and Religious Thought titled "Matsuri in depopulating Japan: what is keeping so many of them alive?"
June 2023
Consuming Asia NNC 2023 PhD Workshop Fellow
University of Bergen
presented a paper on the topic "Is population decline really a “crisis,” and what does it mean for Japan?"
Consuming Asia NNC 2023 Presenter
University of Bergen, Norway
presented a paper on the topic "Japan's Population Crisis"