THE UNSEEN FOREST: SPECTACLES OF NATURE AND GOVERNANCE IN A JAPANESE NATIONAL FOREST A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ANTHROPOLOGY DECEMBER 2012 By Eric J. Cunningham Dissertation Committee: Leslie E. Sponsel, Chairperson Christine R. Yano Jefferson M. Fox Mary G. McDonald Gerald G. Marten Keywords: Japan, nature, forests, governance, spectacle for Aki, my constant companion ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The statement of acknowledgements has become a bit of a trope in anthropology. Rightfully so in my mind, as ethnographies are never written in isolation (though it may at times feel like it). This ethnography is no different and throughout the process of researching and writing it I have felt it to be a collaborative work. Thus, there are many who I feel compelled to acknowledge. First and foremost, I wish to thank the people of Otaki for their generosity and willingness to share their thoughts, experiences, and lives with me. This work would be impossible without them. In particular, I would like to thank Mayor Seto Hiroshi for listening to me about my research when I first ambushed him after an event in November 2007, and encouraging me to come to Otaki to fieldwork. His candidness, sense of humor, and unwavering support were invaluable to me during my time in the village. My gratitude also goes out to my friend, Tanaka Hideyoshi, with whom I shared many wonderful meals, drunken conversations, walks, and days on the ski hill, and whose guidance and mentorship continue to shape my research in profound ways. Thank you also to Tanaka-san’s wife, Junko, for some of the best meals I have ever had. I am also grateful to Saguchi-san, my “Otaki mother” whom I am convinced is a bodhisattva. Your hospitality was always a great comfort to me and I do not think there was ever a warmer place in the village then sitting with you next to your old wood stove. Thank you for all of the tea and snacks, and the many many many wonderful conversations. You taught me so much. I must also thank the Tachibana family for welcoming my wife and I into their home on innumerable occasions. The friendship and food you offered us was always more than we deserved. You enriched our lives more than you will ever know. Thank you i also to Tōmi-san. Your bright face and enthusiastic attitude brightened all of my days in Otaki, and you fresh vegetables kept me healthy and happy. There are not enough words to convey my gratitude to all of the other people in Otaki who enriched my life and helped shape my research. Humbly, I offer my heartfelt thanks to Sawada-san and the other members of the Board of Education for their help with various parts of research; Horiuchi-san, Kensuke-san, Shitade-san, Koshi-san, Takeuchi-san, Miyamoto-san, Tajika-san, and Itō-san for your time and thoughts; Ninomiya-san, Kei-chan, my “elder brother” Koyama-san, Noriko-chan, Kaminaga-san, Yuka-chan, and Sayuri-chan for your support and friendship; my English “students” Yoko, Ayako, Hirona, and Tokie; everyone at the Otaki Elementary-Junior High School; and to the many more whose names I have neglected. Thank you for your support and kindness. I miss you all. Lastly, I would like to thank my friend and neighbor, Kuni-chan, whose enthusiastic “welcome” continued throughout my stay in Otaki. Your friendship to both my wife and I is a treasure that we value dearly. Thank you for everything. This work would not have come to fruition if not for the guidance and support of my many professors and advisors. Thank you all for your wisdom, patience, and words of encouragement throughout my education and the writing of this dissertation. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Leslie E. Sponsel for serving as my advisor and committee chair. Your continual support and encouragement, as well as your critical insights, have sustained me and helped to move my work in interesting new directions. I am also grateful to Dr. Christine R. Yano for her words of encouragement and advice, both of which were invaluable to me during what was at times a lonely and frustrating period of ii writing. Thank you also to my other committee members, Dr. Jefferson M. Fox, Dr. Gerald G. Marten, and Dr. Mary G. McDonald, for your support, comments, and time. The first 18 months of my fieldwork in Japan was supported by a Monbukagakusho Scholarship from the Japanese government’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, which was administered through Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies. Dr. Takako Yamada served as my advisor at Kyoto University and I owe a great deal of gratitude to her for her support and guidance. Also, I would like to thank all of the students in her graduate seminar for their patience in allowing me to take part in their discussions. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Noboru Ogata for taking an interest in my research, and also for showing me around the streets of Nara and Kyoto. I could not have completed the writing of this dissertation without the financial help of a Dissertation Completion Grant from the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai‘i. At the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa I also benefitted from the financial support of the Center for Japanese Studies, the Department of Anthropology, and the Graduate Student Organization. In particular I would like to give a big mahalo to Dr. Robert Huey and Dr. Gay Satsuma at the Center for Japanese Studies for their continuous support throughout my graduate studies. In the process of completing this dissertation I have also benefited from the support and companionship of my friends and colleagues at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. A warm thank you goes to Paul Christensen, Kelli Swazey, and Adam Lauer. Your intelligence, humor, and willingness to listen to complaints over glasses of beer iii were just what I needed during some of the more trying times. Thanks also to Toru and Naomi Yamada for reading parts of this dissertation and offering valuable feedback. And to my officemate, Rachel Hoerman, thank you for the wonderful conversations that helped me keep my sanity throughout the writing process. My first encounters with forests came before I could walk, riding on the backs of my mom and dad in the mountains of Utah and Idaho. Thank you both for awakening in me a curiosity about the world around me that has fed my mind and soul more than you will ever know. Thank you also for your unconditional love and support, and for letting me follow my curiosities even when they have taken me far away from you. Please know that you are always there with me, wherever I go. Thank you also to my wonderful sisters and brothers: Kai, Kari, Soren, and Anne for all of your love. 僕の日本の家族へ、長い間お 世話になってありがとうございます。お父さん、お母さん、いつも親切にし、支えてくれてあり がとうござます。色々、ご迷惑、ご心配をかけてしまってすみません。 Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my wife, Aki. You have been the closest to this project, and have acutely felt its many ups and downs. You have made many sacrifices to support my endeavors, following me to places you probably never thought you would go. There have been hard times and you have seen me through them all. Thank you. Your own intellectual curiosities, your beauty and wit, and your gentle attitude have helped me through many times of worry and doubt, and your faith in me has always replenished my soul. On mountain tops and in the darknesses of forests, it is you who has always been there by my side. Thank you for your love and companionship. iv ABSTRACT This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the processes by which forests in central Japan’s Kiso Region are culturally produced among actors and institutions, creating frictions out of which emerge forms of knowledge and meaning that shape human- environment interactions on all levels. I explore national forests in the upland village of Otaki as sites of contention and shifting meanings concerning shizen (nature) and shigen (resources), as well as ideas about what it means to be nihonjin (Japanese) and kokumin (a national citizen). This exploration is framed within the context of the historical development of governing institutions in the region and the use of “spectacles,” defined as various media (such as pamphlets, websites, and reports) meant to communicate ideas, knowledge, and policies. In addition, I ask to what extent conceptual shifts regarding forest natures influence how local residents in Otaki think about themselves and the forest landscapes that surround them. I suggest that through the deployment of spectacles, forests in Otaki and the greater Kiso Region have become visible markers of the state apparatus, which express relations of power by helping to define local subjects as citizens of the nation. My analysis is framed within a broader examination of global discourses of nature, resources, and governance, which I locate within the development of neoliberal politics and free market capitalism. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... i Abstract ............................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................................