Who Needs the Shishifuri Lion Dance?: Interpretations and Changes to Intangible Cultural Heritage after the Great East Japan Earthquake

• In Event: The Futures of Communities and Intangible Heritage: Social Pressures and Local Responses in Korea, Japan, and China

Abstract

The Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami in 2011 tore through the country’s north-eastern coastal communities, killed almost 16,000 people, and destroyed the lives of thousands more. Despite the pain of losing homes, families, and neighbors, some residents of the disaster-stricken Izushima and Takenoura districts decided to go on performing the lion dance Shishifuri, local intangible cultural heritage that has been handed down through generations. This paper focuses on why some residents of the devastated area were determined to continue to perform the local lion dance even post-disaster. I examine how an item of indigenous culture, Shishifuri, has become a symbol of a hometown in the discourse of the government, public heritage actors, and the mass media and its significance and challenges for the disaster-stricken community. I track pressure for the performance from government bodies such as the Reconstruction Agency and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, public foundations like the Japan National Trust, and the mass media. Agencies, foundations and the media see the continuation of Shishifuri as visually indexing the possibility of a return home. Unfortunately, some residents cannot be involved in performing the lion dance, particularly the large group of performers who were fishermen, who are coping with the loss of their boats and gear, and searching for new jobs. The lion dance represents the conflict between the elderly residents who locate in Shishifuri the hope of a return to their hometown after community restoration, and the younger residents who want to build a good life elsewhere.

Author

• Hyeonjeong Kim, Tohoku University