午夜剧场

Since my student days, I have conducted field surveys of various shoen (manors). Primarily focusing on Japan's hilly and mountainous areas, I map out irrigation channels for rice paddies, investigate the locations of stone structures, and visit houses one by one to conduct interviews. When these results form a coherent picture, the walks along the ridges of rice fields in the sweltering heat feel rewarded, and the faces of the people who helped me come to mind.

It happened while I was conducting interviews in a village in the Chugoku Mountains. The road leading there was a grand four-lane highway until partway through, so impressive it was hard to believe it was in the mountains. However, from about two kilometers before the village, the road became so narrow that cars could barely pass each other. These final two kilometers were hindering the movement of various people. I was told it hindered not only commuting to work and school but also the passage of ambulances and fire trucks.

An elderly couple in their mid-80s said, "If only this road were connected, our children would surely come back. We want it to open as soon as possible." However, during the eight kilometers we drove to reach this village, we did not pass a single car.

Whether extending the road was truly necessary for this region or not was a conclusion I, raised in the city, could not reach. At this rate, this village will likely return to the mountains within the next 10 to 20 years.

I co-teach the elective course "Digital Humanities" at 午夜剧场 Futsubu School with a Japanese language teacher specializing in folklore. 午夜剧场 Futsubu School students convert early modern gazetteers into text data, assign location information on GIS (Geographic Information Systems), create their own databases, and then conduct analysis based on their individual interests. Some make new discoveries by actually walking the ground, while others gain unique perspectives through literature research alone; their presentations are always intriguing to listen to. They have truly become discoverers of one aspect of a region.

In recent years, I feel that the word "region" (chiiki) is being used as a magic word to solve the problems facing modern society. It is certainly true that regions have functioned to protect the lives and property of those who live there.

However, history is full of examples where individuals have been sacrificed to maintain the region as a whole. This is true whether the region was organized from above or formed spontaneously. Young people will face the questions I could not answer in the past. I sincerely hope they will sense the diverse ways of being through their eyes for looking at a region, weighing the group against the individual.