Seminar “Walking through Shukunegi as Captured in Photographs of Tsuneichi Miyamoto”

Aug. 20 (Sun) 10:00-12:00

Lifestyle and Culture Research Forum Sado
Kodai Konishi (Tokyo Gakugei University), Kiyoshi Sugimoto (Tokai University), Takehisa Kadota (Rikkyo University)

Sado Island Ogi Folk Museum / Village of Shukunegi

20 people

1,000 yen

Middle school age and up

Commentary will be given in Japanese; however, some English commentary can be added as needed.

Kodai Konishi
Associate professor, Tokyo Gakugei University, Department of Education. His area of expertise is social anthropology.

Takehisa Kadota
Associate professor, Rikkyo University, Department of Tourism. His area of expertise is cultural anthropology and folklore.

Kiyoshi Sugimoto
Associate professor, Tokai University, Department of Culture. His area of expertise is history.

Konishi and Sugimoto have conducted long-term fieldwork together in India. Kadota has conducted fieldwork in Sado for over 10 years. Sugimoto is originally from Sado. These three scholars with different specialties connected through Sado.
Since 2009, they launched the “Closed Schools Project” in order to find new uses for closed school buildings and renew the region. Now, they have multiple research projects running under Lifestyle and Culture Research Forum Sado.
In 2015, together with several graduate students, they oversaw the reactivation of the Ogi Folk Museum in a former Shukunegi elementary school, and in 2016 launched a project based on the photographs of Miyamoto.
Furthermore, in August 2012, they launched the seminar “Shukunegi and Tsuneichi Miyamoto” as a project related to Earth Celebration. A related essay by Kadota and Sugimoto titled “Activism and Innovation – 1970s / the construction of the South Sado Folk Museum and Tsuneichi Miyamoto – the social impact” (Contemporary Folk Studies Research, volume 5, 2013).

Tsuneichi Miyamoto, the folklore scholar, left a body of over 10,000 photographs. His photographs of Sado alone (where he visited over 30 times over the course of his life) number over 3000. A research project utilizing these photographs and conducted by university students and scholars launched in Sado last year.
This project takes the photographs by Miyamoto not merely as a record of the past, but as a medium through which to access the memories and stories of the island residents, and aims to create a clear picture of Sado’s past, present and future though listening and research. The findings from last year is presented as a report and photography exhibit in “Sado as read through the photographs of Tsuneichi Miyamoto”. This seminar is held in conjunction with the photography exhibit at Ogi Folk Museum, and led by the three project leaders and university researchers. The seminar is a walking tour of the village of Shukunegi, based on the photographs taken by Miyamoto.

Please use the Ogi circle bus on the Ogi ~ Shukunegi ~ Tatako-kan route. (Get off at the Ogi Folk Museum bus stop.)

Tickets will go on sale on June 16 (Fri) beginning at 9:30. For details, click here.