| "Folk Art",in the form of an academic concept,officially entered the modern academic sphere of Japan in 1927.Replaced by "Folk Performing Art" in 1952,it ran its course in the new cloak in modern and contemporary academic genealogy of Japan.That is to say,the concept of folk art existed for a matter of 25 years in Japan’s modern academic history,but scholars in the field and drama studies had conducted extensive explorations into the interdisciplinary field of folklore and art,which laid the foundation and provided later generations a comparative perspective for the fields of Folk Performing Art,Folk Craft,Folk Handicrafts and other fields.The academic history of Japanese folk art studies is inextricably connected with the social changes of modern Japan since the Meiji Restoration.social trends such as Europeanism,Nationalism,Taisho Democracy,and Militarism sprang up in modern Japan after the Meiji Restoration.The series of ideological changes caused a complex interaction between scholars and the state and society,which made folk art emerge from the folk and gradually became the object of modern academic research.Generally speaking,Japan followed the path of following the West after the Meiji Restoration.Under the influence of Europeanist ideology,state power intervened in civil society at the beginning of the Meiji period when folk art was regarded as something backward that needed to be transformed.However,by the middle of the Meiji period,the whole society had become aware of the defects of modernity brought about by Europeanism.Nationalism began to rise instead,and for the construction of the modern nation-state,the state turned to folk art wherein lied important spiritual resources.In the Taisho era,there was a boom in Taisho Democracy and "folk studies".In order to challenge the official position of Western studies,civil scholars unearthed traditional culture from the folk.They did systematic studies and tried to collect art hidden in the folk.By the time of the early Showa period,fascist militarism was raging,and the military department took advantage of the indoctrinating function of folk art to shape the ideal imperial people,so as to unify the people and induce their obedience to the domination and allegiance to the militarist state at any time.In the intertwining and entanglement of various social trends,the academic community(centered on folklore scholars such as Yanagita Kunio and drama scholars such as Kodera Youkichi)looked downwards,discovered the folk art that had existed but been left unnoticed for long,and incorporated it into the modern academic research system.They recognized the value of folk art created by ordinary people,paid attention to collecting,recording,and interpreting the folk art creations of ordinary people,and attempted value construction accordingly.However,in particular research processes,differences can be found between scholars of the two fields.On the one hand,folklore scholars aimed to trace the nationality of the Japanese people and reconstruct the history of Japanese culture and the national identity of the Yamato nation by studying the artistic items that had been passed down in the folk.On the whole,folklore researchers were specialized in interpreting the origins of various folk artistic items in the light of the religious background of various art events and,so as to explore the national mentality of Japan.On the other hand,dramatists were different from folklore researchers in research focus.They put the emphasis on interpreting folk art from an aesthetic point of view,"classifying" and recording the actions and performances with aesthetic value.In a word,they made detailed analysis into the noumenal beauty of folk art.Kodera Youkichi,an important spokesman of the drama school,discovered the important role of the aesthetic function of folk art in the aesthetic education and physical and mental recreation for the people,on basis of which he selected local folk art from the standpoint of the central government and had it performed in Tokyo.As a result,folk art became coupled with politics through the specific medium of "stage" and began to be used by the authorities.During Japan’s war of aggression,its role was further extended and became an important tool for the authorities to propagandize the war,comfort soldiers,and carry out cultural aggression in the colonies.Anyhow,both folklore and drama studies were centered on exhaustive detail observation and data collection,which invariably caused a neglect of the study of folk art in the context of regional society,and taking a backward perspective,failed to some extent to follow the real life.In addition,with a departure from material culture,the study of folk art had gradually given way to the study of intangible art,which was closely related to religious belief.At the time when Yanagita folklore was not yet fully established,some scholars came to realize the defects and tried to offer a remedy through other research methods,thus presenting a multidimensional research perspective,including Hayakawa Kotaro’s case study of the Hanamatsuri in the context of regional society,and Konwajiro’s modernology-based observation of the relationship between objects and people’s daily lives and so on.Such studies showed the "anti-hegemonic" tendencies of folklore—gradually obscured by the "authority"of Yanagita folklore,the seemingly "marginal" and "weak" forces had not quit the rebellion against the "center" and "powerful" forces.After Yanagita folklore,Fukuda Ajio,one of the second generation of folklore researchers,rediscovered the importance of regional social contexts for folklore research,and proposed a research paradigm with villages as the matrix.In recent years,contemporary Japanese folklore researchers such as Suga Yutaka have reconsidered the neglected perspective of material culture when exploring the art theory of folklore,and Konwajiro’s research on modernology about 100 years ago has become an important reference material.Although the concept "Folk Performing Art" replaced "Folk Art" after the Second World War,while folk art,dressed in a new academic cloak,continues to be active on the modern and contemporary academic stage.With the implementation of Japan’s intangible cultural property system and the formulation of relevant laws and regulations,the artistic skills of each region have been obliged to strip of the original social context and came to be artified,re-created and staged.Under the influence of the state’s promotion of the protection of intangible cultural property,some researchers attach importance to the universality of culture,emphasizing the appreciation of artistic skills within the scope of the same nation with a common language,that is,the study of artistic skills should be elevated to the level of the nation-state.This point of view echoes the nationalism of the pre-war period,so folk artistic skills in a way continue the national unity function of pre-war folk art.Whether it was requisitioned during wartime or incorporated into the intangible cultural property protection system after the war,the inheritance of folk art was not wholly subject to the modern social structure of Japan.Instead,with constant self-adjustment and self-remodeling,it plays an important role in cultural adaptation between the state and society.Under the influence of the intangible cultural property system,there has emerged the inevitable phenomenon of resource utilization of folk arts and the battle of cultural dominance between and within localities has intensified.This is a new opportunity for folk art to make self-adaptation.It is necessary to improve its adaptability to the social context of the new era to continue its role as a cultural link between national politics and local social development.Accordingly,the academic community should turn its perspective of past-time to the present and connect the future—integrating history and modernity,and devoting closer attention to the aspect how folk art is related to the contemporary life of ordinary people in various regions and how folk art contributes to people’s well-being. |
