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| (IPS) - After decades of cold neglect, the distinct and intricate cultures of the tiny islands that surround the archipelago of Japan's four main islands have recently begun to gain public attention. Japan's small island culture is rich in its diversity, given its historical background, which is very different from the mainland. In many ways, the islands reflect a Japan that is ethnically mixed, an image that contrasts with the official depiction of Japan as a homogenous country, says Junko Konishi, a musicologist at Shizuoka University. {styleboxjp}This concept has become very exciting to younger Japanese and has helped islanders to rediscover their culture, adds Konishi, a leading expert on the culture of the Ogasawaras, a group of some 30 subtropical islands that lie in the South Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo{/styleboxjp}. She is also part of a growing team of dedicated people who want to restore Japan's special island past before it disappears forever. In Ogawasawa, for example, the famous Nan'yo dance and songs -- dancers dressed in colourful costumes sway and stamp their feet to the Kaka drums, made from the local Tamana tree, and the ukulele -- can be traced the influence of settlers from Hawaii in the 1830s and to settlers from Polynesia. Various venues have been set up for rediscovery of the diversity of Japanese culture, a notion that had largely been swept aside in the wake of Japan's modernisation period, the Meiji Restoration period from 1868 to 1912. Post-war modernisation -- Japan's rapid economic growth -- also dealt a blow. The island population migrated to big cities on the mainland, adopting new customs and westernised lifestyles. New buildings and roads led to further alienation from historical roots. Researchers point out the Meiji era brought radical changes to the country by unifying it under the Emperor system. Meiji uplifted Shinto, Japan's indigenous religion, as the official religion, a policy that successfully blanked out the abundance of diverse cultures that were thriving in various parts of the country, including on the smaller islands. For example, before the Meiji period, the Japanese people observed religious practices that were both a mix of Shintoism and Buddhism. This was given up when Shinto became the official religion, explained Professor Hiroko Yamamoto, an expert on the culture of Aogashima, an island of 200 people 350 km south of Tokyo. Yamamoto says, however, the strict control extended over the Japanese population by the Meiji government was weak in the smaller islands, mostly because of the physical distances from the mainland. As a result, she told IPS, there are today the remnants of older Japan before Meiji. The only problem is the people who are the practitioners are quite old now. Preservation of the island culture can now only be done by keeping records and visuals of the past, she said. {styleboxjp float=left}Public support, at least, is high, if counted by the packed audience for a concert on Aogashima culture at the ongoing music festival Towards the Islands: Sounds Across the Sea, by Arion-Edo Foundation. The theme was decided as a means of revival of the island culture{/styleboxjp}. The concert featured Kimiko Asanuma, an 84-year-old singer from Aogashima, one of the last among the island's living who knows the lyrics of the original songs. Standing tall in a cotton kimono, Asanuma sang a local song that pays tribute to the natural wonders of the island and romantic love. The concert also showed ancient rituals still performed on the island that display a mix of Shintoism and Buddhism as was the practice of the past. Experts contend the small islands in Japan represent a strong spiritualism such as in the practice of Shamanism and slow movements of dance, in the culture, a key difference with the mainland where western influences have greatly eroded this essence. Konishi says this deep connection to the spirit as well as the dynamism of small islands -- the ability to mix various cultures brought by the different settlers -- is what is attracting younger Japanese who have been leaving Tokyo and appearing in Ogasawara to study the local culture. Okinawa, Japan's most well-known southern island with its own indigenous culture, is only place in the country that displays similar cultural attributes to the smaller islands. Time stands still in Oagawara, Massaki Shibuya, a Nan'yo dancer from Tokyo, told IPS. He added that the community strength of the islanders holds a strong attraction to people like him who find Tokyo too big and cold to live. The Ogasawara culture gained an official place in Japan in 1987 and is supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan government that administers the islands. Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency |
