Cultural diversity and folklore studies in Japan: a multiculturalist approach

Under the heavy influence of the ideology of the nation-state, Japanese folklore studies has been largely incapable of examining the cultural diversity that exists within the Japanese archipelago. There have been some exceptions, but even then research has suffered from problems of cultural essentialism, of taking the concept of 'Japan' as axiomatic, stopping at the level of independent research, or lacking synthesis or theorization. 'Multiculturalist folklore studies' is a reconfiguration that attempts to overcome these problems, and to raise research on cultural diversity in folklore studies to the level of a methodological system. This is a new folklore studies paradigm that, in treating folk tradition as human culture, attends to universal differences associated with class, region, gender, and individuality, and aims to achieve the kind of analysis that fully considers the politicality of culture. This development is anticipated as a folklore studies paradigm that is suitable for a new era in which the nation-state is relativized - a so-called 'New Middle Age' society - and that is attuned to the social conditions of this era. Reprinted by permission of Nanzan University Anthropological Institute