The Emotional Functions of Natural Disaster Folklore in Japan Thesis
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Beyond Mitigation: The Emotional Functions of Natural Disaster Folklore in Japan Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Alexander Edward Jania, B.A. Graduate Program in East Asian Studies The Ohio State University 2015 Thesis Committee Philip C. Brown, Co-Advisor Ying Zhang, Co-Advisor Katherine Borland Copyright by Alexander Edward Jania 2015 Abstract In contemporary Japan folk and religious explanations of natural disasters, rooted in pre-modern beliefs about the environment, continue to persist despite the understanding of modern day science. Previous scholars have examined these folk/religious beliefs in relation to their ongoing effects on scientific fields like seismology, and their continued influence has been characterized as ahistorical and detrimental. However, scholars have not asked the important question of why these beliefs continue to have cultural currency. Through examining pre-modern Japanese literature, early modern print culture, and the modern folktale “The Rice Bale Fire,” I argue that the continuity of folk and religious explanations of disasters is due to their emotional functions as coping mechanisms for an unpredictable and destructive natural environment. Natural disaster folklore achieves this by being both a vehicle for the portrayal of, as well as a tool utilized in, moral emotional practices. Ultimately this indicates, like modern science, culture was used to order and understand nature and humanity’s relationship to it. ii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to the kind-hearted people of Minami Sanriku. iii Acknowledgements This thesis was completed in part thanks to friends, family, colleagues, university staff, and mentors who offered their help and support during my two years at The Ohio State University. I am especially grateful for being awarded the generous Distinguished University Fellowship by OSU, which funded my time in Columbus, allowing me to focus on my classes and research. My project benefitted greatly from the input of the three mentors that made up my thesis committee and university staff members. Philip Brown, in addition to being a wonderful advisor, helped me hone my topic and challenged me to be a clear, concise, and accessible writer.Ying Zhang facilitated many aspects of my academic development with the intellectual rigor of her classes and advisement sessions. I received my introduction to folklore in academia from Katherine Borland, whose classes were informative and always enjoyable. In addition I would like to thank Maureen Donovan, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library, and the Inter-Library Loan staff for all their help. To my colleagues in the East Asian Studies program, whether we discussed coursework, ate meals together, or watched Ohio State win the national championship, each of you offered great friendship. I thank all my friends in Columbus for the good times, especially Xiao, who offered his support when I needed it most. Finally I would iv like to thank Amanda and my family for all of their love, support, and understanding from the beginning of my program to the end Vita June 2009........................................................Cedar Park High School 2013................................................................B.A. History, Baylor University Field of Study: Japanese History Major Field: East Asian Studies v Table of Contents Abstract...............................................................................................................................ii Dedication...........................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................iv Vita.......................................................................................................................................v List of Figures....................................................................................................................vii Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Defining Disaster in Pre-Modern Japan...........................................................19 Chapter 3: Monsters, Messengers, and Omens..................................................................34 Chapter 4: Burning Rice to Save Lives..............................................................................53 Chapter 5: Concluding Thoughts.......................................................................................79 Bibliography......................................................................................................................87 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Catfish being subdued by the deity of the Kashima shrine using the “foundation stone.”................................................................................................................................38 Figure 2: Whale-like catfish approaches Edo as onlookers beckon it...............................39 vii Chapter 1: Introduction At 2:46 pm (JST) on March 11, 2011 the Northeastern coast of the main island of Japan (Honshu) was struck by a magnitude 9.0 mega-thrust earthquake which occurred roughly 70km offshore and at a depth of 24 km. Although the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake was the fourth strongest ever recorded since the development of modern measurement and the largest to hit Japan, the damage from the earthquake itself was relatively minimal due to Japan’s seismic building codes. However the earthquake created tsunami that hit the Tōhoku coast and reached heights of 10-15 meters, which destroyed towns, caused the spillage of numerous chemicals into the environment, and led to a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor.1 Especially hard hit was an area of Tōhoku called the Sanriku Coast that not only has a long history of relatively frequent tsunami disasters (five large scale tsunami events have occurred there in the past 400 years), but also coined the term that became common usage in both Japanese and English for the phenomenon of seismically caused sea waves.2 1 Ian Stimpson, “Japan’s Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami,” Geology Today 27 (2011): 96-98. 2 The first extant usage of “tsunami” is found in a Tokugawa-era (1600-1868) journal that records the news of the Sanriku earthquake of December 2, 1611, before this time other terms like oshio (large tide), takanami (high wave) and kaisho (roaring and resounding sea) were used. The journal entry recounts the destruction of property and loss of life in Mutsu (in modern day Tōhoku, encompassing land now divided into Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Aomori prefectures) by a large wave, reporting that locals “call it a tsunami.” In addition, in 1896 the Sanriku region was hit again by a devastating tsunami, an event reported by the journalist Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore in National Geographic, who introduced the Japanese term “tsunami” to the everyday English speaking world for the first time. Julyan H. E. Cartwright, Hisami Nakamura, “Tsunami: A History of the Term and of Scientific Understanding of the Phenomenon in Japanese and Western Culture,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 62 (2008): 151-166. 1 The frequency of tsunami on the Sanriku coast has significantly shaped the cultural responses to natural disasters. For example, in the wake of the 3/11 disaster refugees who were being sheltered at the Akasaki Fishing Village Center in Ōfunato, Iwate Prefecture were interviewed about a newly circulating belief that a local Tsunami memorial stone was cursed and causing the village to be inundated by tsunami. The stone monument stands about 5 meters high, and carved upon its surface are the cautionary words, “If there is an earthquake beware of a tsunami, if a tsunami comes, go to a high place.” Originally erected near a mountain shrine two years after the 1933 Showa Sanriku Earthquake and Tsunami using leftover donations from those collected and distributed to affected villages by the Asahi Newspaper Company of Tokyo, the stone was later moved to the side of a coastal road. In 1960, the waves of the Chile Tsunami surged past the stone, swallowing it up, so the stone was moved further inland some 50 meters away from the shoreline. During the 3/11 disaster tsunami waves surged yet again to the location of the stone.3 The legend that the tsunami marker stone was being chased inland by increasingly large disaster events led some refugees to ask “wouldn’t it be better if we sunk it into the sea?” Even those who recognized the educational value of placing the stone memorial in a visible place in the town seemed certain that tsunami were chasing it and admitted that perhaps “there is some sense in those who say ‘sink it into the ocean.’”4 Although the refugees of Ōfunato likely have at least a basic understanding of the modern scientific Gregory Smits, When The Earth Roars: Lessons from the History of Earthquakes in Japan (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 27-28. 3 “Oo tsunami ga oikakete kuru to iu norowareta tsunami kinenhi densetsu,” Shūkan Shinchō 2788 (2011): 41. 4 Ibid., 42. 2 explanations for earthquakes and tsunami it is obvious this folk explanation held some sway over their contemporary conception of natural disaster. The case of the Tsunami Memorial Stone legend of Ōfunato is indicative of a larger phenomenon: despite Japan’s