THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RESCUING
INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
Ryusuke Kodani

Tohoku History Museum / Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University

Introduc�on – The Impact of Disasters on Culture and Cultural Proper�es/Heritage
The tsunami disaster, which occurred on 11 March 2011 as a result of the Great East
Japan Earthquake, destroyed people’s everyday lives and swept their properties out tosea. Besides sweeping away their cultural properties, the tsunami erased many things
people in the region needed for their lives.
‘Cultural property’ mainly refers to properties that are designated as such under theLaw for the Protection of Cultural Properties in Japan. Rescue work was undertaken
for these cultural properties, and many of them were rescued in areas affected by thedisaster. A characteristic of the concept of cultural properties in Japan is that they not
only include art and cra� products with high aesthetic and historical value, but theyalso include folk cultural properties. ‘Folk cultural properties’ are defined in the Law
for the Protection of Cultural Properties as cultural assets ‘essential for theunderstanding of developments in the everyday lives of the Japanese people’,including tools used in daily life, and tools and equipment used for traditional customs
and festivals. Furthermore, these folk cultural properties are not just tangible assets
such as tools, but include intangible assets such as festivals and rituals.
The cultural properties damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Disaster were targeted for rescue work. It can be understood that rescue measures
were taken for the tangible cultural properties that had been physically damaged.
However, what sorts of measures were taken for intangible cultural properties? I
would like to introduce the situation in the areas affected by the Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster.

Measures for Rescuing Intangible Cultural Heritage
To understand intangible cultural heritage in relation to natural hazards, first, it isnecessary to consider how ‘intangible’ cultural heritage is damaged by disaster.
First, let us consider the destruction of the tools and other items used. This can beunderstood as an extension of the cases of damage to ‘tangible’ cultural heritage.
Simultaneously, the seriousness of the damage to intangible cultural heritage can beseen in the loss or cessation of traditional performances and festivals as aconsequence of the destruction of local communities.

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The areas that were inundated by the tsunami in the Great East Japan Earthquake andTsunami Disaster maintain an extremely large number of traditional folk performing
arts, called ‘minzoku geino’, that are held and transmitted among local communities,
and many of them were affected. Therefore, in coordination with the work of rescuingtangible cultural properties, various types of support were also extended to rescue
intangible cultural properties. For example:• A wide range of support was made to restore/renew tools and equipment.
• Cultural events inviting affected performers/practitioners were held in manyplaces.
• Events substituting traditional festivals/ritual events were programmed.
• Increased visit to learn cases of the revitalization of traditional rituals andfestivals• Increased number of volunteers to support festive events

The Case of Ogatsu-Hoin-Kagura
So, what is the significance of these kinds of activities? I would like to address thisusing the example of Ogatsu-hoin-kagura, which is a folk performing art tradition thathas been handed down in the Ogatsu region, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and has
been designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the governmentof Japan. Kagura is a stage performance that re-enacts mythological stories. The
dancers perform while speaking lines, in synchronization with the music of drums anda flute. Kagura is generally performed at festivals and rituals in local communities. Youmight think that many people enjoy Ogatsu-hoin-kagura because it has been
designated as a national cultural property. However, the community people treat thiskagura as an essential part of a festival ritual on a special day set apart from everyday
life, calling it ‘okagura’.
The Ogatsu region suffered huge losses in the Great East Japan Earthquake andTsunami Disaster, and most of the items used to stage kagura were swept away in thetsunami. Despite such diﬃcult situation, the kagura performers (kagurashi) decided toresume their kagura as early as April 2011, and to restore tools and equipment thatare necessary for the performance.
Inspired by the will of the kagura performers, many people supported them andprovided funds so that the restoration of the equipment progressed smoothly. What is
crucial to this series of actions is that the performers succeeded in reviving the kagura
through their own will and efforts. They did not take orders from the Agency for
Cultural Affairs as a nationally designated cultural property. The significance of theiractions is that they did this entirely on their initiative.
Figure 1 shows the festival before the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Disaster. You can see that all ages from children to the elderly are watching, but it is apretty thin crowd for a nationally-designated cultural property. In other words,096

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Figure 1 Ogatsu-hoin-kagura before the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster (le�);and the festival in the same community that was resumed in 2012 (right). Note thatthe la�er is more crowded with visitors outside the local community.
(Source: R. Kodani)

Ogatsu-hoin-kagura was embedded within everyday life. It was not something thatyou sat and watched with full attention.

Heritagiza�on of Local Culture
Cultural heritage (cultural properties) are defined as elements the government has
decided to preserve and to be transmitted to future generations. On the other hand,
culture is something that is shaped by constant changes. These changes occur ineveryday life, gradually with the flow of time. In other words, changes are not noticed
as they occur. Therefore, one of the challenges in Japanese cultural property
protection administration is how to relate cultural change to the preservation andsafeguarding of heritage.
A�er the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster, a movement to save
cultural properties was evident, regardless of whether they were tangible orintangible, to be transmitted to future generations. The projects of rescuing culturalproperties was not just for tangible cultural properties, but also included intangible
cultural properties. It was a movement in which cultural elements that should beprotected from disasters and transmitted to future generations were discovered andpreserved as cultural heritage. I call this ‘the heritagization of local culture’.
An important point here is that cultural heritage (or cultural properties) is to bepreserved and transmitted to future generations, whereas local culture is somethingthat changes over time. In the very concept of intangible cultural heritage, there is noelements of intangible cultural heritage that does not change. However, for a certain
cultural element to be defined as a cultural heritage it becomes necessary to specify
what exactly is to be preserved, and in this respect culture takes on the nuance ofossification. The movement has grown in this context, in which elements that were
not recognized as cultural properties have become recognized as cultural heritage andtargeted for preservation.

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Figure 2
Ogatsu-hoin-kagura being
performed on stage.
(Source: R. Kodani)

Figure 2 shows Ogatsu-hoin-kagura being performed on stage. You can see that theatmosphere in which it is performed differs greatly from the community festival wesaw on Figure 1. For a folk performing art that has been held and transmitted in localcommunities, in particular, becoming cultural heritage means that it is separated fromthe local community to be performed on a stage, as seen here. This is because thisparticular component of the event is what has been defined as cultural heritage.
Therefore, ‘heritagization of culture’ also means that the element could be preserved
independently of the local community.
From a viewpoint emphasizing its link to the local community, it is not preferable foran element to be separated from the local community by heritagization. Conversely,becoming an independent cultural heritage could be an advantage when settlements
were lost, as was the case for the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster.
In other words, protecting culture as cultural heritage enables to preserve at least apart of the local culture even if the local community physically disappears. However,protecting cultural heritage actually enables to preserve the local culture, leading to
the reestablishment of new local communities? This is the final point I would like todiscuss.
Figure 3 shows a scene of Ogatsu-hoin-kagura being performed before the disaster. An
old man who had too much to drink got on the stage and started to dance, telling thekagura performer, ‘hey you, you’re a terrible performer, let me take your place’. A
person would be really brave if he could do that on the fancy stage we saw on Figure
2. That kind of happenings are quite common at the okagura in the Ogatsu region;even the kagura performers say that these are the most thrilling and enjoyable part ofthe okagura.
Such relationship between the performers and the community members is the biggest
difference between the okagura that is part of daily life in the community and theOgatsu-hoin-kagura as intangible cultural heritage. Protecting only the heritage aspect

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Figure 3
A scene of Ogatsu-hoinkagura before the Great East
Japan Earthquake andTsunami Disaster.
(Source: R. Kodani)of Ogatsu-hoin-kagura would lead to the loss of its connectedness with the people ofthe local community. For protecting and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage a�er
the disaster, it is very important to consider how such community-linked aspects ofkagura could be maintained and transmitted.

Importance of Qualita�ve Survey in Disaster-Aﬀected Areas
Values of some cultural elements was recognized in the post-disaster context by being
or becoming cultural properties; however not all cultural elements became culturalproperties. From an anthropological standpoint, what is called for is to grasp as muchas possible a diversity of cultural phenomena in the local communities, and to identify
based on that knowledge what must be preserved and what is better to be preserveda�er a disaster. While rescuing cultural elements such as performances and festivals
that are more recognizable as cultural heritage or cultural properties, how do we deal
with other elements that are rather unnoticeable? Therefore, it would be desirable toperform a qualitative survey, not just to target existing cultural properties, to gain aholistic view of a diversity of culture that grounds the society and the people’s daily
life in a given community. Based on that, elements that should be continued in therecovered community, that are beneficial for revitalizing the community, and that are
too close to the people’s daily lives and their importance is not recognized, areidentified for safeguarding.
Figure 4 shows scenes that can be found here and there when you walk around theareas affected by the tsunami. Photo on the le� shows the remains of a house that
was about 100 m from the coast, and you can see a small shrine stands alone in thecorner. This is Myojin-sama, the god that protects the house and the compound. This
scene suggests that the god has to be re-enshrined even when people are devastatedby tsunami and evacuated far away from their ground. The image on the right side isthe Myojin-sama I came across at Minamisanriku-cho. The god appears to have been
properly enshrined by tying tree branches together in the shape of a torii gate. It

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Figure 4

A small shrine for Myojin-sama inside the remnant of a house (le�); and the one seenin Minamisanriku-cho. (Source: R. Kodani)

looks like the members of the household that worshiped this shrine were all killed inthe tsunami, and the neighbors have re-enshrined this god, even though the people
who had once looked a�er it are gone.
Since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster, no one is permitted tolive in these housing areas, and the people have been required to move elsewhere.
However, in the meantime, they continue to make these temporary shrines for thegods. You can see the depth of the local tradition regarding the protective gods oftheir home and land. The culture surrounding the Shinto and Buddhist beliefs as
described here is too trivial to be incorporated into the oﬃcial plan for disasterrecovery. However, it is an essential part of their lives for the people who used to live
there.

Pre-Disaster Local Culture in A Context of New Post-Disaster Communi�esIt would be necessary, along with transmi�ng cultural heritage, to create amechanism to transmit this kind of local cultural elements that are not recognized by
the community people as their own unique culture. Given that such cultures arefostered spontaneously, it is of course possible to think that local culture would
gradually take shape in a different form in the new community. However, I believe that
including those elements in the process of recovery would be highly beneficial forbuilding a new community and local society more smoothly.
Figure 5 shows a diagram of this process. Cultural properties are one part of the local
culture, and by rescuing cultural properties, some prominent part of local culture
could be transmitted (Figure 5, le�). As a matter of course, it is not possible to rescue
everything, but if only a small part is preserved, the amount of culture that aretransmitted becomes smaller. Conversely, it would be necessary to preserve as muchculture as possible for transmi�ng local culture in the process of forming a newcommunity.
Preserving local culture as cultural heritage makes it possible to transmit large areas of100

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Local culture
Limited transmissionof local culture a�errecovery
Cultural proper�esFigure 5

Local culture

More local culture transmi�eda�er recovery
Cultural proper�es

Diagram showing the range of local cultural elements that could be transmi�eda�er recovery.

culture a�er a disaster. On the other hand, modest elements of local culture are also
an important part composing local communities, and we could say that anaccumulation of these modest elements creates local communities. They areindispensable for the transmission of cultural properties to the future generations.
Those of us who are working in the academic fields such as Japanese folklore studies
and anthropology that study local communities should clarify the relationship between
the two aspects of culture, and communicate the importance of both to the people ofthe local communities recovering from disasters.

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