著者

小畠 邦江

出版者

The Human Geographical Society of Japan

雑誌

人文地理 (ISSN:00187216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.53, no.3, pp.230-247, 2001-06-28 (Released:2009-04-28)

参考文献数

122

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By paying attention to the hitherto neglected "Map of Japanese Folk Crafts (Folding Screens)" ("Nihon Mingei Chizu Byobu"), the purpose of this paper is to consider the process of YANAGI Muneyoshi's discovery of the local handicrafts that resulted in making the Map on folding screens and writing the book "Handicrafts in Japan."The huge Folding Screen Map, which contains detailed information about 541 places of folk craft products, was completed and first exhibited in 1941. After being shown at the World Exhibition in Osaka in 1970, the Map has been on permanent exhibition at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Osaka. It was specially exhibited at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo in the jubilee years of 1989 (the first year of Heisei) and 2000. The Map is seen as the symbol of the Japanese Folk Craft Movement.For forty years, from his early twenties until five years before his death, YANAGI (1889-1961) traveled constantly throughout Japan, conducting research and collecting artistic items. "A Note on Folk Crafts in Prefectures in Japan" ("Nihon Shokoku Mingei Kenbetsu Oboegaki") has recently been found among the Yanagi materials at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. It is argued that this comprises the basic data that were used in making the large Map. This Note is a valuable source that bridges YANAGI's original research and the resulting map and book. The Map also includes additional information supplied by YANAGI's friend JUGAKU Bunsho (1900-92), and SERIZAWA Keisuke (1895-1984), who painted the screens. A notable feature of SERIZAWA's map is that it is designed diagrammatically (like a railway map) so as to show the relative distance and position of the various places.With the development of mass production and extensive transportation networks, folk crafts were fast losing their idiosyncratic qualities. In response, the Folk Craft Movement searched for utility articles peculiar to individual localities that still survived. These local products were collected and exhibited in urban areas. The Folk Craft Movement made it a principle to avoid wordy explanations about the objects on display. Instead, maps were used as an effective way of supplying information. In folk craft exhibitions, the artisan's name is rarely supplied, and only the product place names are given. We can see here an emphasis on the importance of place with regard to Japanese folk crafts.Throughout the world during the first half of the last century, there was a tendency to extrapolate national characteristics from local arts, and YANAGI in Japan was no exception. In his "Map of Japanese Folk Crafts (Folding Screens)" and in "Handicrafts of Japan, " we can regard his gaze on various regions all over Japan as based on the geographical imagination.