City Promotion via Heritage & Media Collaboration: Mishima City and Emerging Female Audiences
ラスト エステル/RUST, ESTELLE（慶應義塾大学）
Keyword： 文化振興、地域文化遺産、女性【問題・目的・背景】

annually since 2016, combining artistic exhibitions【 問 題 】 Regional institutions such as museums,of both locally owned and borrowed sword collections

heritage sites, parks, etc, are vital in the culturalat the Sanno Art Museum and Mishima Shrine withlife of towns and cities. There is a need to encourage

promotional activities targeting fans of Touken Ranbu.

not only new visitors to regional institutions, butThese collaborations include promotional activities

to ensure that these visitors return. By nurturing aat Mishima institutions, such as the aforementioned

returning audience, regional areas can cultivate

Sanno Art Museum and Mishima Shrine, as well as thesteady income of both financing and people, andlocal history museum and park grounds. Stamp rallies

further support the continuation of local community.

encourage fans of Touken Ranbu to explore the city andOne way by which new visitors can be encouraged toits attractions, provide revenue to city institutions,engage with regional areas is through examining

and encourage visitors to engage with locals andpreviously overlooked and emerging audience groups.

businesses.

This presentation will discuss one such emerging

businesses are encouraged to participate, withaudience group: that of young women. This group isself-produced artworks and collaboration material

described as ‘emerging’ due to the increasing

encouraging visitors to further interact with thevisibility of such women in history-focused museum andlocal community and economy. These collaborations

gallery spaces. By examining this audience, further

successfully connect new visitors to the city’squestions can be asked of regional city promotion;

cultural assets, well as provides valuable arenas forprimarily, how considering these audiences impact

interaction between audience and history, audiencecity promotion, how promoters themselves acknowledge

and city, and audience and local population. By

and

this

showcasing Mishima’s attractions, visitors areconsideration may influence the effectiveness ofencouraged to interact with the city in a deep manner.

actions to convert new/overlooked audiences toAdditionally, it provides sites of interactions withrecurring visitors of regional institutions.

locals, especially when visitors interests are tied

【背景】This research considers the ways in which

to objects of the area’s local history. In this manner,

Mishima City has targeted this emerging audience ofthe city has appropriated interest in historicalyoung women through annual media collaborations. This

fiction to facilitate its own internal promotion, toresearch will look at the collaborations between

visitors from all over Japan. Finally, collaborative

Mishima City and the media franchise ‘Touken Ranbu

events also provide benefits for the local community,ONLINE’(刀剣乱舞―ONLINE―). Touken Ranbu is a

not only with the recreational benefits of the stamp

women-focused multimedia franchise, whereby namedrallies encouraging locals to explore their city, butJapanese swords are personified and utilized toalso by providing events with mascot characters, which

re-tell famous episodes in Japanese history. Thiseven families and those unfamiliar with Touken Ranbu

franchise originated as an online game in 2015, withcan also enjoy. Through this small case study, a numbera current playerbase of over 80,000 people. Since then,of interesting avenues regarding audience interaction,it has expanded to a number of successful film andcity promotion, and the use of existing culturalstage productions targeting a female audience.

assets can be explored.

Mishima City has collaborated with Touken Ranbu【目的】The purpose of this research is to consider

considersuchaudiences,

andhow

Additionally,localresidents

andhow collaboration with mass media, as well as the1) Free-form interview with organisers, discussing

audience it engages, can be utilized for regional city

not only the processes behind event/exhibition

promotion. It seeks to analyse the ways in which media

creation, but to understand personal reactions tofocuses audience attention and how that attention canevent activities and participants.

be utilized for city revitalization. In doing so, it2) Social media evaluation of both official

considers not only the objects of ‘media’ andpromotional accounts and audience interactions and‘city’, but the persons, experiences, expectations,recollections of Mishima during the event period.

and potential assumptions held by visitors and city

3) Participant-observation of collaboration events,

promotion workers. Thus, the purpose of this research

focused on observing visitors as they interacted withis as follows:city assets and facilities. In addition, observing theestablishing

movement and gathering activities of these visitors,

collaborations with targeted audiences, the processes

how locals activities may impact the paths they take,by which they can utilize existing city assets andand how such paths may increase opportunities forinfrastructure, and how they can be designed for city

direct allowed for direct visitor/local engagement.

promotion.

This methodology has been designed in order to gain2) To examine how such collaborations facilitate

an understanding of organizational motives, as wellinteraction between visitors and city throughascuration, planning, and the creation of areas ofexperience, which is vital in evaluating the successinteraction between visitor and local. In doing so,of culture-based events.

I will also analyse how such interactions can benefit【 研 究 内 容 】 Interview data, including personal

positive associations with place and people.

responses of curators and managers; record of3) To argue for further developments in city/regional

community engagements and visitor/locals activities,

promotion that considers new, non-established voices

including any influence to or temporary modificationinparticularlyof the spatial arrangement of Mishima city; record ofimportant with emerging audiences, as establishedaudience action, movement, conversation (betweenvoices may continue to overlook their importance andselves and with local residents), reaction to event

validity as cultural actors.

activities and city space, and audience experiences1)

Toexplainthebenefits

activities/planning.

Thisofisunderstanding

ofvisitors

perspective

andundertaken during the collaboration event.
【研究方法・研究内容】【研究方法】This research was conducted during the【研究・調査･分析結果】

collaborative event held by Mishima City and Touken【 分 析 結 果 】 The results of this research have

Ranbu for the 2019-2020 period, using qualitativeinteresting implications for the use of collaborative

methods. While similar research based around tourism

events in city promotion, especially in regards tomarketing has been conducted in the past using

cultivating a returning visitor base. The conclusions

statistical and data analysis (Ono, 2020), thisdrawn from these results are as follows:

project seeks to understand the ways in which internal1) Collaborations were successful in decreasing thesubjectivities

gender gap in Sanno Art Museum’s attendance for

impactpromotional/curatorial

decisions on the side of organisers, and the sense ofhistoryexhibitions.

Whilegallery

managers

connection/positive associations with place on theemphasized that the number of young female visitorsside of visitors. As such, I have employed researchin the 2019-2020 period were less than when the media

methods that emphasise thoughtful response andfranchise was at its peak in 2016-2017, theyobservation of interactions between people and event

nonetheless remarked upon how such events continued

space. These methods were as follows:

to increase the presence of women in exhibitions

previously dominated by male audiences. One in

Mishima City. In particular, events such as stamp

particular remarked that gender differentiations inrallies encouraged visitors to visit local parks

audience were now more equally represented, as opposed

hosting festivals, and to participate in culturalto pre-collaboration male dominance. This reveals notevents at Mishima Shrine alongside locals during theonly the potential such events have in cultivating new

new year period. The positioning of collaboration

audiences, but also shows how attention to existing

activities alongside normative social/event practice

yet overlooked audience bases can provide immediatein Mishima city has a potential positive effect on how

benefits for cultural institutions (as in Black, 2005,

visitors view the civic life of the city, givingand Egberts & Alvares, 2018). That female audiences

emotional resonance not just to the direct media

have been retained shows that exhibitions for Japanesecollaboration, but to the setting (city and its

history to not have to be geared to the traditionalassets) within which the collaboration occurred.

audience to find success, and connection with media

4) Local business involvement in events provides

can allow cultural institutions to utilize not only

economic

an overlooked audience (women) but a younger, highly

engagement which may reframe assumptions held byinteractive, and travel-conscious audience of media

locals/visitors. Local businesses participated in thefans (Okamoto, 2015).

collaboration event through hand-made signage, as2) There is a need to reevaluate gendered boundaries

well as through selling or displaying official

in promotional practice – that is, to determine themerchandise. These impacted the movement patterns ofimpact managerial voices have in the successes orvisitors, with many observed to deviate from thefailures in creating appealing destinations for

direct-most path of the event stamp rally to engage

non-traditional audiences. This research considers

with participating businesses. Some businesses

the importance of organisers acknowledging theretained promotional material from previous years

validity of non-traditional avenues of interest incollaborations, indicating the long-term benefits,

history and cultural assets, and how that interest canhoweverbe geared for new/emerging forms of city promotion.

collaborative period. In addition, these businesses

This point of validity is particularly important whenprovided space for locals and visitors to interact,considering the potentials of female audiences, as

sharing details of travel, recommended spots, andeven in previous studies of ‘otaku’ travel (Ono,anecdotes surrounding the objects on display at the2020; Okamoto, 2015), women have been largely

collaborative sites. This interaction follows with

underrepresented due to the way in which their

Ono (2020), which suggested a growing motive for media

interests are regarded on societal levels. As such,

fan travel lies with the opportunity to connect withit argues for the importance not just for attracting

locals. This interaction may change not only visitors

newnew,

opinion of a regional city, but also impact how local

inbusiness owners consider visiting fans and the valueaudiences,non-traditional,butorinestablishing

non-establishedvoicesbenefit,small,andremainedpromotes

acrossinteraction/

theentirepromotion and planning.

of their own city’s cultural assets.

3) Collaboration events with public assets, such as5) Results ○3 and ○
4 are conductive to return visits

Mishima Local Museum (郷土資料館), Mishima Shrine (三and returning audiences (Black, 2005), benefiting

島 大 社 ), and Rakujuen Park ( 楽 寿 園 ), nurtures

long-term engagement with regional institutions andinteraction between locals and visitors, creatingcities. Such engagement is not limited to those whopositive experiences for both groups (Ono,2020).

directly participate in collaboration events, as

Through the course of this research, visitors wereword-of-mouth potential may encourage others to visit

seen to be interacting not just with prescribedareas of their own accord. For cities such as Mishima,exhibition space, but with other public assets ofwhich are connected by Shinkansen and can operate as

a transfer point for travelers to other areas of Japan,

event viability, and as such, there is a need tosuch positive word of mouth of the city’s own culturalconsider the impact of existing assumptions inassets may increase its visibility as a stopping point

established organizational groups.

in larger travels, as well as becoming a site to visit

2) This collaboration started during the‘rekijo’(歴in its own right. While such conclusions are at this女) boom. Further consideration needs to be given tostage merely a hypothesis, it is worth considering thetheknock-on and larger scale benefits to collaborative

collaborative event, and how the successful aspectsevents beyond the direct in-the-moment impact, for thecan be replicated in other media contexts.

consideration of future development in regional city3) This research was conducted at a single expression

promotion.

of the event, largely from the view of an observer tolong-term

viability

of

this

particular

the event itself. Further consideration should be【考察・今後の展開】

given to organizational and behind-the-scenes actions,【今後の展開】1) Observing similar collaborations insuch as curatorship, that occur outside of the direct

different settings, with differing organizing bodies:

event period.

similar collaborations have occurred in other areas4) This collaborative process occurred in a cityof regional Japan, from the nearby Odawara to(Mishima) with existing cultural assets. Such

institutions in Tohoku and Okinawa. Comparing theactivities may not be replicable by regional towns andimpacts of such collaborations with the (in thiscities

researcher’s view) largely successful efforts atinfrastructure

Mishima may reveal further points of consideration,activities.

thatlackand

Mishima’s
fundingforestablishedpromotional

especially in regards to the impact of organisaitional
values and assumptions.

【引用・参考文献】

2) Further examine the audience reaction, especially・Black, G. 2005. The Engaging Museum : Developingwith return visits. How do long-term opinions ofMuseums for Visitor Involvement. Taylor & Francis.

Mishima and collaboration sites impact future

・Egberts, L. & Alvares, M. 2018. Tourism and Heritage:audience/visitor

Crafting Experiences Through Innovation. Amsterdam

engagement?

How

are

theseexperiences discussed and promoted within media fanUniversity Press.

circles? This aspect of research will require the・ Okamoto, T. 2015. Otaku tourism & the anime

establishment of direct involvement with fan circles

pilgrimage phenomenon in Japan. Japan Forum vol 27(1)and communities.

pp.12-36.

3) Evaluate the role of media producers: are these・Ono, A. et al. 2020. Anime pilgrimage in Japan:

forms of collaboration encouraged? Why/why not? What

Focusing Social Influences as determinants. Tourism

motives and benefits do producers gain fromManagement vol. 76.

undertaking

collaborative

events?

While

thispresentation has considered the collaborative eventas promotion for regional cities, such events are also
advertisements for media products. The motives ofmedia producers, who they chose to collaborate with,and the extent to which collaborative partners areable to influence the direction of events, is an
important aspect of future research as it determines
how far such events can be guided by city managers.
【考察】1) Organisers personal experiences may impact