‘Homeplace of the Heart’ Fireflies, Tourism and Town-Building in Rural Japan Ellen B. Haugan JAP4691 – Master’s Thesis in Modern Japan 60 Credits Spring 2019 Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) UNIVERSITY OF OSLO June 1st, 2019 II ‘Homeplace of the Heart’ Fireflies, Tourism and Town-Building in Rural Japan Ellen B. Haugan III © Ellen B. Haugan 2019 ‘Homeplace of the Heart’: Fireflies, Tourism and Town-Building in Rural Japan Ellen B. Haugan http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo IV Summary This thesis discusses hotaru no sato (firefly villages) and the various ways in which they relate to fireflies and regional revitalisation. Fireflies have long wielded the imaginations of Japanese people, from featuring as aesthetic subjects in art and poetry to being caught or sold as commodities. They became endangered in the early 20th century, due to overharvesting, river pollution, and habitat destruction due to urban developments, which eroded the satoyama landscapes in which they dwelled. To counter the decline in fireflies, firefly protection groups emerged in the 1960s. Simultaneously, urbanisation and rural decline has caused local governments in rural towns and villages to attempt to ‘revitalise’ themselves through promoting unique aspects about themselves. Some towns use fireflies as a crowd puller, arranging firefly festivals in order to attract tourists. Firefly protection groups thus became entangled with regional revitalisation projects in the 1990s. In this thesis, I examine firefly festivals and their importance for town-building and the local community, and discuss how nostalgia imbued in the ideologies of furusato and satoyama impacts how people relate to fireflies. The thesis aims to answer the question of whether the wish to protect fireflies is compatible with their use as tools for town revitalisation. While I find the answer is often a complex interaction between the two, there are instances in which firefly ecology is ignored, for instance in the case of importation of foreign firefly species. Additionally, I find that a third element – affect – is also of significance, as people often structure their relations to fireflies around fond childhood memories. Throughout, I make a case for the importance of protecting insects in this age of mass extinction of insects and animals due to anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems. I therefore argue that firefly villages are only appropriate if they incorporate protection of firefly habitats as a main goal. V VI Acknowledgements The past ten months have been a rewarding, though indeed challenging experience. It is an experience I would not have been without, but also one I could not have completed alone – many thanks are therefore due to the people who have helped me through it. I would first and foremost like to thank my supervisor, Aike P. Rots, for his excellent feedback on my work throughout the writing process. His encouraging and insightful comments have helped me improve substantially upon my initial draft, and I am grateful to him for always challenging my simplistic explanations and never letting me take the easy way out. I would also like to thank my classmates, in particular Ingvild Boberg and Sofie Heggen Munk, for their helpful comments and feedback on my writing. Meeting with you has made the writing an easier and infinitely more enjoyable process. I also express my greatest love and thanks to my family and friends, who have been there for me through it all. Thank you to Valerie and Jennifer, for proofreading my thesis and helping me stay positive; to Harald, for your warm support and kindness; to Lisa, for being an anchor of good food and much laughter (and for physically dragging me out of the sofa when I didn’t want to write); and to Sigve, for always lending an ear and offering words of encouragement. Last, but certainly not least, I must thank the people without whom this thesis never could have been completed: my friends and informants during fieldwork in Japan, some of whom I have created pseudonyms for in this thesis. Special thanks go to Tsuchiya-sensei, Kitagawa- san, Shinobu-san, Harunobu-san, Kageyama-sensei, Suzuki-san, Kakiuchi-san, Kouta-san, Yui-san, the Hirakata family, the Chiikiokoshi kyōryokutai in Tatsuno, Iguchi Yutaka-san, and mayor of Tatsuno, Takei Yasuo-san. Thank you to Mari-san (and the rest of Chikaken) for opening your home to me and being an amazing friend. However, my greatest thanks of all must go to Harumi-san, who has been nothing but exceptionally hospitable and generous since even before my arrival. From introducing me to friends and informants, showing me the park and town, to treating me to meals and even driving me everywhere – I could never have imagined that I would meet such a selfless, kind and hardworking person. Truly, my fieldwork would not have amounted to much if not for you. VII VIII Table of Contents Summary………………………………………………………………….………................V Acknowledgements...…………………………………………………....………...............VII Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………..............IX Table of Figures...………………………………………………………………………….XI 1 Introduction to Firefly Villages..…………………………………………………....1 1.1 What are hotaru no sato?..............................................................................................1 1.2 Main Research Question and Subquestions……….…………………………………7 1.3 Conceptual Framework ……………………………………………………………...8 1.4 Multispecies Ethnography ………………………………………………………….10 1.5 Summary of Earlier Research .………………………………………..…………….11 1.6 Methodology: Summary of Fieldwork ……………………………………………..16 1.7 Discussion of Reflexivity and Limitations ……………………………….…....…...19 2 Biology and Cultural Significance of Fireflies.………………..………………......23 2.1 Biology of the Firefly………………………………………………………………..23 2.2 History and Cultural Significance of the Firefly in Japan………….……………….30 3 Economy or Ecology? Japanese Firefly Festivals ……………………..………….40 3.1 Why Nature Tourism? ………………………………………………..…………......40 3.2 Case Study: The Firefly Festival in Tatsuno …………………………..………...….43 3.3 Economic Significance of the Festival …………………..…………………….........53 3.4 Criticism of the Festival: Views of a Biologist ……………………..…………........55 3.5 Comparison with Other Firefly Festivals ………………………..……….………....58 3.6 Insect Festivals and Conservation …………………………………..……................60 4 Firefly Protection Activities and Their Origins ………………………..……….....62 4.1 Events Leading to the Endangerment of Fireflies ……………………..………...….63 4.2 Early Origins of Firefly Protection …………………………………........................66 4.3 Current Activities of Firefly Villages ………………………………..…………..…71 5 Nature and Nostalgia, Fireflies and Furusato ………………………………....….79 5.1 ‘Nature’ in the Japanese Context …………………………..…………………..…...79 5.2 Furusato, Fireflies and Nostalgia ……………………………..……….....................82 5.3 Firefly Villages and Furusato Nostalgia ……………………………………..…..... 85 IX 5.4 Children, Memories and Nostalgia ………………………………………………....90 6 Satoyama Sustainability ……………………………………..…………………...94 6.1 Environmental Policy and Sustainability …………………………….…….............94 6.2 Environmental Plans and the Satoyama Initiative ……………………….………...96 6.3 Regional Revitalisation as Sustainability ……………………….………………....99 6.4 Economy or Ecology? Problems with Firefly Villages …………….………….....101 6.5 Conclusions …………………………………………………………....................105 Bibliography …………………………………….………………………………….…..109 X Table of Figures Figure 2.1: Genji firefly eggs in moss. Picture from http://www.tokyo- hotaru.com/picture/photo/firefly_egg.html .............................................................................23 Figure 2.2: Genji firefly larva. Picture from http://www.lake- biwa.net/hotarunomori/newpage321.html ...............................................................................24 Figure 2.3: Genji firefly pupa. Right: Glowing pupa. Pictures from https://blog.goo.ne.jp/hotaru-net/e/2b72a4345a0877a705772a09230aa283 ...........................25 Figure 2.4: Adult Genji firefly. The glow from its light emitter is faintly visible on the end of its abdomen. Picture from https://okazaki- kanko.jp/mizutomidori/hotarunosato/feature/hotaru-school/about-hotaru .............................27 Figure 2.5: An Edo period woodblock print of women catching fireflies: “Beauties viewing fireflies” by Toyokuni III, ca. 1848 ………………………………………………………….30 Figure 2.6: A fighter plane is visible in the background of the poster for Grave of the Fireflies ……………………………………………………………………………………..................35 Figure 3.1: Pikkari-chan. Left: Author’s photo. Right: From http://www.town.tatsuno.nagano.jp/pikkaricyan.html ............................................................44 Figure 3.2: Part of the takeakari display in the firefly park. Author’s photo………………...46 Figure 4.1: Insect-selling in art and real life. Left: From https://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/kiymagu/diary/201209010000/. Right: From https://mag.japaaan.com/archives/11445. The character on the cart reads ‘insect’ ……........63 Figure 4.2: A promotional picture found on Tatsuno’s website ‘Tatsuno kurashi (Tatsuno life)’. The text reads “Let’s live in firefly village Tatsuno” …………………………………73 XI 1 Introduction to Firefly Villages On a damp, thundery night in late June, I found myself in a car with seven Japanese people, parked on a small bridge overlooking a patch of rice fields and a little brook in the mountains of Gunma prefecture. We had turned off the car lights and were staring silently into the dusk. All of a sudden,