Panel

4. Seeing from the Neighbourhood: States, Communities and Human Mobility

Session Name: Living “Here and Now”: Ethnographic Insights on Informal Life Politics in the Asia-Pacific Region

3 - Songs beyond Boundaries: A Case Study of Traditional Folk Song Practices in Yakushima, Japan

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)

Presentation Abstract
Yakushima Island, located in the south of Japan, was the first island in Japan to be inscribed as a UNESCO Natural Heritage site and has become a famous tourist spot, attracting many visitors. Historically, however, the national and prefectural governments have one-sidedly drawn complicated boundaries against the island's local people for occupying most of the mountains on the island. This has resulted in partial "exploitation" of the local people in the area of their living space, and the places where people can live are very limited.

Based on this, this presentation focuses on the practice of traditional folk songs(min-yo) by the local people. In recent years, there has been a revival of the songs on the island. Among them, people prefer to sing certain lyrics that contain a strong message, "The mountains of Yakushima must not be neglected”. The power of that message, carried in a melody, enables local people to transcend boundaries, generating a "singing space" in which people and mountains become one.

This practice is not a strong resistance to the occupation. Through the "singing space" generated, people are temporarily released from the order of their daily lives and re-recognize that they are living together with the mountains. In this sense, this presentation will provide an important self-reflective practice for local people living in the "here and now" in a global context.

Presenter(s)

MA

Maho Araki
Kobe University, Japan