Mr Tomo ISHIMURA

• Head, Audio-Visual Documentation Section, Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan

• Session 2: Presenter 3

Would Inscription on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage Contribute to the Sustainability of Intangible Cultural Heritage?: Cases of “Mibu no Hana Taue” and “Ojiya-chijimi, Echigo-jofu”

The purpose of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage is to protect intangible cultural heritage, but to what extent could inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity contribute to the sustainability of such heritage? This paper shall discuss this issue in reference to two case examples in Japan: “Mibu no Hana Taue, ritual of transplanting rice in Mibu, Hiroshima” and “Ojiya-chijimi, Echigo-jofu, techniques of making ramie fabric in Uonuma region, Niigata Prefecture.”

Mibu no Hana Taue gained increasing recognition in and outside of Japan after its inscription on the Representative List, and local residents became actively involved in its preservation. The Association for Preservation of Mibu no Hana Taue established an NPO to undertake DVD sales, trademark registration and other such profit-making operations, and initiatives were also launched to develop next-generation successors through school education, such that Mibu no Hana Taue has come to be regarded as a model case by similar organizations of dengaku dances (dances related to rice-planting rituals) in other regions.

Ojiya-chijimi, Echigo-jofu also enjoyed increasing recognition and brand power after its inscription on the Representative List, but its production remains extremely limited. This is due not only to the difficulty of acquiring raw materials and securing successors, but also to the decline in the absolute demand for Japanese clothes accompanying major changes in the lifestyles of the Japanese people over the past half-century.

A comparison of the two cases shows that while both regions face such issues as depopulation and ageing, inscription of the regional heritage on the Representative List invigorated the region in the former case, but did not necessarily solve the root of the regional issue in the latter. The two cases also differ in that the former was originally an activity performed by the local residents for the local residents, and the latter was originally an activity performed as a local industry. This indicates that the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage is not a panacea for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, and the implementation of measures suitable to the type of heritage and the actual state of each region is sought to ensure the sustainability of each intangible cultural heritage.

Tomo Ishimura (Audio-Visual Documentation Section, Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan)

Born 1976 in Hyogo Prefecture, Tomo Ishimura completed a doctoral course at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, and earned a Ph.D. as a specialist in archaeology and cultural heritage studies. He engaged in international cooperation for cultural heritage protection at Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties from 2006 to 2015, and took part in projects for cultural heritage protection in various regions, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Federated States of Micronesia. His cooperation was also instrumental in inscribing the Nan Madol site in Micronesia on the World Heritage List (2016). From 2015, he has engaged in the making documentations on intangible cultural heritage, particularly on traditional techniques necessary for the restoration and preservation of cultural properties, as a member of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan. At the same time, he participates in international cooperation projects for intangible cultural heritage protection in Nepal and the Oceania region.