Yamaguchi Studies) Text on Miyamoto Tsuneichi for 23 May 2013
2013/05/16
Students attending my class of Yamaguchi Studies can download the pdf file
attached to this site. Use the password I told you during the class. Fo
r people other than the students, please wait until the paper becomes
accessible to the public.
Abstract
Tsuneichi Miyamoto (1907-1981) studied the folklore and the “forgotten”
history of rural Japan under the influence of Kunio Yanagita and
Keizô； Shibusawa. Miyamoto considered and introduced himself as a
farmer of an island in the Seto Inland Sea, and was welcomed with
enthusiasm by the rural people of the 4,000 communities he visited.
He was very different from his contemporary fieldworkers in his
fieldwork ethics, methodology of participant observation, and
positionality as a scholar-farmer-social activist. The author of
this article had a chance to meet with and be guided by Miyamoto in 1976,
and experienced similar dilemmas in fieldwork ethics, social activism,
and positionality during his stay on the Yaeyama Islands. As predicted by
Miyamoto, on the border islands of Japan (in this case Tsushima and
Yonaguni), ancient cultural traits may still be discovered because
the islanders have often hid their friendly relationships with their
trade partners living on the other side of the border.
MiyamotoEthicsPositionality.pdf (582KB)
