Music and Disaster Relief in Post-3.11 Japan A
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Performing Recovery: Music and Disaster Relief in Post-3.11 Japan A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Nana Kaneko June 2017 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Deborah Wong, Chairperson Dr. Margherita Long Dr. René T.A. Lysloff Dr. Jonathan Ritter Dr. Christina Schwenkel Copyright by Nana Kaneko 2017 The Dissertation of Nana Kaneko is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements It took an enormous crew of supporters to make my research possible. What follows is just a brief recognition of those who have generously contributed to this journey. Infinite gratitude goes to my advisor, Deborah Wong, who believed in me throughout my six years as a graduate student at UCR. Thank you for constantly challenging me to take my work to the next level, and for enthusiastically guiding me and getting me to the completion of this project. I hope this dissertation is at least a small reflection of the ways in which you have shaped me as a scholar, thinker, and researcher. To my committee members: Mimi Long, René Lysloff, Jonathan Ritter, and Christina Schwenkel, I had the privilege of taking seminars with each of you that inspired me deeply and prepared me to embark on my fieldwork and research. Thank you to all for your vital input and advice on this project. At UCR, I am also grateful to supportive colleagues, mentors, and staff who helped make my overall graduate studies experience a very positive one. This project would also not have been possible without support from the UCR Graduate Research Mentorship Program award (2014-2015) and the Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship (2015-1016), which made it possible for me to spend a generous two years conducting fieldwork in Japan for this project. I am equally thankful for the University of California’s President’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship (2016-2017), which granted me the gift of being able to devote myself to the writing of this dissertation upon returning from the field. Furthermore, the continuation of my graduate studies as well as iv the ability to conduct a two-week preliminary research trip to Japan in summer of 2013 were made possible through the UCR CHASS/GD Dean’s Continuing Student Fellowship (2013-2014) as well as multiple Gluck Fellowships. In Japan, I am most indebted to Oshio Satomi, my mentor and sponsor of two- years. Thank you for welcoming me into the community at Miyagi University of Education where I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed interacting with your students and participating (and learning shamisen) in your classes. Thank you for always informing me about all things of relevance to this project, and for joining me on several fieldwork excursions to festivals and concerts. Without your encouragement and support, this project would have been completely different (and surely not as good!). At Miyagi University of Education, I would like to extend my gratitude to Ichinose Tomonori and Suzuki Rikako at the Center for International Understanding for supporting my position as a visiting researcher and for providing opportunities to engage with local elementary school students and visitors from abroad. To Suganami Kumiko, thank you for warmly welcoming me and showing me around Sendai, and for introducing me to your impressively large network of friends. Thank you also to the students in the music department and beyond that I had the pleasure of meeting and learning about cultural trends and slang terms that I would otherwise have been clueless about, and to the accommodating staff at Urban Castle dormitories for providing a pleasant and comfortable living experience. The heart of this dissertation lies in the journeys toward recovery of those who were so generously willing to sit down and share their disaster experiences, hardships, v opinions, inspirations, and goals with me. I could only imagine that it was not easy to talk about certain topics and I cannot thank you enough. I extend my deepest gratitude to: Chiba Shū, Chida Yūta, Hamada Naoki, Horie Junko, Kaketa Hironori, Katō Asako, Kodani Ryūsuke, Ono Keiko, Ōsawa Takao, Ryū Shinichirō, Satō Nami, Shiraishi Yū, Takahashi Akira, Takayama Tomoyuki, Watanabe Kazuo, Yoshida Junko, and to the countless others who shared experiences and shaped my thinking in contexts outside of formal interviews. I also extend my gratitude to those who facilitated my preliminary research trip and helped me make decisions about where to base myself to conduct this research including but not limited to: Yōko Boucher, Hasegawa Eiji, Shige Higashi, Onodera Maki, Suzuki Kazumi, Suzuki Keiko, Suzuki Kenji, and Takai Fumiko. To my mother, my lifetime cheerleader and sounding board, thank you for giving me the opportunity to pursue this path and for consoling me during times of regret and frustration. Thank you to my brother for obliquely cheering in the background. Kore kara mo yoroshiku. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Performing Recovery: Music and Disaster Relief in Post-3.11 Japan by Nana Kaneko Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Music University of California, Riverside, June 2017 Dr. Deborah Wong, Chairperson The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident that struck Northeast Japan on March 11, 2011 (3.11) prompted an array of local, national, and global musical responses. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork primarily in Sendai, Japan, I examine how musical performance serves as a community building mechanism in the wake of a disaster with a focus on music’s place in earthquake and tsunami recovery efforts. I treat music as a cultural tool to navigate towards post-disaster recovery, demonstrate post-disaster solidarity (albeit in sometimes problematically self-fulfilling and exploitative ways), and begin to rebuild and restructure post-disaster identifications, normalcy, and livelihood. I outline musical responses to 3.11 from a variety of different angles including songs that vii have become anthems of the disaster as representations of recovery and solidarity, songs newly composed shortly after 3.11, the revival and development of localized folk performing arts and matsuri festivals, musical activities by outsiders for disaster victims, staged performances that showcase disaster survivors, and musical objects that help prolong memories of 3.11. I highlight the issues and challenges that have arisen with each type of musical response, while also showcasing the ways that these activities are contributing to the region’s recovery. By putting these activities in conversation with each other and by demonstrating how they interconnect and address varying facets of post-disaster recovery, I aim to show how musical performance and recovery in all its forms from personal, local, cultural, social, economic, and national, are interconstitutive. I offer a broad yet detailed framework of the types of musical support activities developed in response to 3.11, examine the carefully constructed structures of each type of support, and show how they abide with cultural and national expectations of recovery. I suggest ways that the cultural particularities of post-3.11 musical activities could be reinterpreted and applied by readers to help rebuild and sustain the musical cultures of their own communities in the event of a catastrophe, and consider what “hope” means in the aftermath of tragedy. viii Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Existing Scholarship on Music and Crisis ...................................................................... 9 Witnessing and Listening as Methodology ................................................................... 18 Dissertation Outline ...................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 1: Songs of and in Response to the 3.11 Disaster .......................................... 32 First Exposures to Music: The Radio and Television ................................................... 34 First Instances of Music Making Reported at Evacuation Areas .................................. 38 “Anthems” of Recovery and Perseverance ................................................................... 41 Banned out of Respect .................................................................................................. 48 “Hana wa saku” ............................................................................................................. 49 “Ubukoe (See the Light of Day)” ................................................................................. 55 Ubukoe Project .............................................................................................................. 61 “Arahama Callings” ...................................................................................................... 67 Conclusion: Songs as a Way to Navigate Towards Recovery ...................................... 72 Chapter 2: Reconstituting Community through Localized Folk Performing Arts and Matsuri Festivals ............................................................................................................. 75 Post-3.11 Revival .......................................................................................................... 79 Locality of Japan’s Folk Performing Arts .................................................................... 85 Support for the Folk Performing