The researcher’s gaze 研究者のまなざし
The researcher is both observer and observed. Research is an activity born out of relationships between people. How have we approached our relationship with research informants and, conversely, how have these individuals looked at us?
The art of audiovisual storytelling（吟遊詩人にせまる映像話法）
Anthropology has long used participant observation (a research method in which one observes while participating in the society or group of people being studied) as a central research method. Researchers and filmmakers have therefore favoured a style of audiovisual documentation in which they act as observers, pretending not to be involved in the events being filmed. In contrast, the anthropologist Itsushi Kawase has explored a participatory and reflexive mode of audiovisual storytelling in which he often speaks to his subjects, the Azmari, in their argot and makes their interactions an important part of the film.
Itsushi Kawase
Professor, National Museum of Ethnology
Specialties: Visual Anthropology, African Area Studies
About field notes（フィールドノートについて）
Anthropologist Itsushi Kawase has been conducting fieldwork among the Azmari in Gondar, a city in northern Ethiopia, since 2001.
These drawings are scribbles left by Azmari children in Kawase’s field notebooks. The drawings range from ancient Ethiopian warriors to scenes of rural life and religious beliefs.
Music video production process（ミュージックビデオの制作過程）
In order to gain recognition from fans in the world of popular music, it is essential for Azmari to produce music videos and distribute them globally. This video shows anthropologist Itsushi Kawase dancing in a music video by Azmari’s Dereb Desalegn, an Ethiopian-Australian artist from Gondar, a city in northern Ethiopia.
Why Goze culture now—what we have overlooked and abandoned（今、なぜ瞽女文化なのか ― 私たちが見落とし、見捨ててきたもの）
The year 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of braille. There is no doubt that the invention has contributed to the expansion of the job market for the visually impaired. Braille has played a significant role in bringing blind people closer to the “visible world.” On the other hand, blind people sang songs from the mouth to the ear, without using braille. It was goze-uta, or blind people’s songs, that expressed the human mind and the “spiritual world” through sound and voice. As indicated by the versatility of smartphones, modern society is dominated by visual information. Braille, a phonetic form of tactile writing, and goze-uta, which evokes villagers’ imaginations by eliminating images and visuals, should be reevaluated.
Kojiro Hirose
Professor, National Museum of Ethnology
Field of Expertise: History of Japanese Religions, Theory of Tactile Culture
Introduction of goze museum, Takada（瞽女ミュージアム高田の紹介）
Shinichi Saito painted the joys and sorrows of blind women in a vivid and brilliant manner. More than 160 of his paintings were donated to Joetsu City, which led to the creation of the Goze museum in Takada. The building, a repurposed townhouse built in 1937, was designated as a registered national tangible cultural property. In 1901, 89 blind women, under 19 masters, lived in Takada. The museum is working to disseminate the culture of blind women in an era without goze.
About blind women’s studies（瞽女研究について）
During the 1960s, blind people first gained public attention. It should be noted that mostly, the photographic and audio recordings available today are records of goze in their later years. A comprehensive review of goze studies can be found in the work of Gerald Groemer, who analyzed the organizational forms and processes of song production in the early modern period. Tsutomu Mizukami’s novel “Hanare-goze Orin” depicts an image of goze that transcends the “visible/invisible” dichotomy. Today, because the number of people who have heard goze songs is decreasing, new developments in goze studies are unlikely. The study of blind women’s culture must be deepened from multiple perspectives, with “the body” and “the five senses” as the starting points.
Tracking Chronological Changes in Patua（ポトゥアの時代的変化を追って）
A comparison between the 2022–2023 survey in Naya village and the 1988–1991 survey by Ki-Sook Kim (Cultural Anthropologist) reveals changes over time in patas (paintings) and narrative songs, as well as the flexible survival strategies of the Patua in response to the times. This section compares the patas of the snake goddess Manasa from the contemporary pata with the one from around 1988. In various cultures around the world, the snake is a symbol of awe, rebirth, and vitality. Even in Bengal, Manasa is worshipped as a powerful goddess who protects against poison and is depicted in patas.
Emi Okada
Associate Professor, National Museum of Ethnology
Specialty: Ethnomusicology, South Asian Studies
Pata and Story Song from the Village-Traveling Period（村巡り時代のポト絵と語り歌）
In the days when Patuas travelled around Hindu villages with their patas, the story songs were mainly performed by male Patuas as a solo act. At that time, their patas and songs were the medium to educate the illiterate villagers about Hindu beliefs and social morals.
The story of the goddess Manasa begins, “O Manasa, goddess of snakes, praise the goddess who controls poison!” It then tells of the establishment of the Manasa worship in Bengal. The story emphasises the strength of the Manasa, who is comparable to the three great gods of Hinduism, and of the courage of a human woman named Behula. Her love and devotion to her husband and her courage brought Manasa to her knees.
Contemporary Pata and Story Song（現在のポト絵と語り歌）
With the spread of various new media and entertainment in rural villages, the Patua of Naya village have stopped travelling to Hindu villages. The storytelling has changed from male solo singing to female group singing, and the singing can be listened at the Naya village festival, which is often visited by tourists. The style and colour of the patas have become more detailed and vivid, and their size and composition have also changed. Instead of the long scrolls with several frames of the village travelling period, small works for framing and larger works for national prizes are now produced. Consequently, many stories have been lost because of the focus on works on themes in high demand.
Description of the Screens of the Pata “The Snake Goddess Manasa”（ポト絵「モノシャ」 の各画面解説）
*The 11 scenes are explained from right to left.
1. The bearded Chand Bene worships Lord Shiva and denies belief in Manasa, the snake goddess.
2. Manasa gets angry and poisons six of Chand’s sons.
3. A seventh son, Lakhinder, is born to Chand. When he is old enough, he marries Behula, the daughter of Saybene.
4. Lakhinder and Behula are married (the basket is a symbol of marriage).
5. On the wedding night, Manasa appears as a snake in Lakhinder’s room and bites the sleeping Lakhinder, who then dies of poison. Behula is sad to be widow despite her new marriage and decides to bring her husband back to life.
6. When Chand defies Manasa, Behula asks him to prepare a boat of banana trunks.
7. As Behula takes the boat down the river, she finds old man Goda fishing on the bank and dogs swarming on the stone steps.
8. At the bottom of the stone steps on the riverbank, washerwomen are washing the god’s clothes. Behula joins them and washes them devotedly.
9. Behula pleads with Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva to bring her husband Lakhinder back to life.
10. The gods grant Behula’s wish, her husband Lakhinder and his six brothers come back to life and they all return home on boats.
11. Chand reformed his lack of respect for Manasa, and from then on began to worship her.
A retrospective study of 1982 research data（温故知新―1982年調査資料からの遡求）
In 1982, the “The Scientific Research in Ethnomusicology” team led by Professor Emeritus Tomoaki Fujii of the National Museum of Ethnology conducted research on the music and lifestyle of the Gandharbas (then called Gaine, now derogatory) in Nepal, and produced several films including “Gaine: Bards of the Himalayas.” It is 34 years later, in 2016, when we visited Batulecaur, a major research site of the team, screened the films, and provided them with DVDs. We are also following up on the transformation of the research site and producing a new video work, “Revisiting Batulecaur after 34 Years: A Village of Musicians in Nepal.”
Makito Minami
Professor, National Museum of Ethnology
Specialty: Ecological anthropology, South Asian studies
Database “Saarangi Music of Nepal”（データベース「ネパールのサーランギ音楽」）
The National Museum of Ethnology has a database called “Saarangi Music of Nepal” on its website, which collects Saarangi music from Nepal by player. The main contents of this database are 177 pieces by 57 players recorded in the 1980s by the “East-West Music Exchange Academic Research Team,” led by Professor Emeritus Tomoaki Fujii of the National Museum of Ethnology. In the course of follow-up research, we will include videos of gandharva musicians (approximately 63 pieces by 23 players) that we have filmed since 2016.
About the 1982 survey report and cassette tapes（1982年調査報告書、カセットテープについて）
The report of the survey team and the source materials “Academic Survey Team for East-West Music Exchange” recorded 464 60-minute cassette tapes of ethnic music from all over the world; the dubbed recordings are stored in the National Museum of Ethnology. Of these, 30 were from the Nepalese Gandharva caste of musicians. The survey covered Kathmandu, Bhatrechor, Dhankuta, and Sikkim in India. The research team published two large reports, the essays of which were reprinted in books and other publications, and some of the compositions were recorded.
Encounters with Female Bauls（女性バウルとの出会い）
Through our research on Baul, I caught glimpses of death and life, the soul and its vessel, the body, in the narratives of two female Bauls. We are busy living our daily lives amid our desires and ties. However, death comes to all of us, without exception and life is fleeting. Touching the life, philosophy and songs of the Bauls, we naturally reflect on the fact that we are living in the present moment, the soul after death, and the state of our own body and mind. This may be why Bauls are respected, even though they are considered out of the ordinary and why Baul songs resonate with the Bengali people of today.
Emi Okada
Associate Professor, National Museum of Ethnology
Specialty: Ethnomusicology, South Asian Studies
Parvathy Baul – Talks about “The Unknown Bird”（パルバティ・バウル ―「見知らぬ鳥」について語る）
Parvathy Baul has captivated audiences through her stunning performances in various parts of the world. She talks about the poet Fakir Lalon Shah’s “The Unknown Bird” as an example of Baul songs, which are said to be difficult to understand. It is a metaphorical song about the human body and the soul inside it. The “cage” is the body, and the “unknown bird” is the eternal soul (moner manush = man of the heart), and Baul’s ultimate goal is to catch this unknown bird. However, this is challenging.
Maki Kazumi – the Japanese Woman who Became a Baul（かずみ まき ―バウルになった日本人女性）
In the autumn of 1991, this museum’s special exhibition focusing on the Hindu world of India featured a Baul performance led by Sadhan Bairagya (subsequently renamed Fakir Sadhan Darbesh). The performance was well received, and indeed, Maki Kazumi, who was in the audience, was inspired to become a Baul and relocate to India to become a disciple of Sadhan Bairagya.
In January 2023, more than 30 years later, upon conducting research on the Bauls, I observed a female Baul singing high beside her guru. In July of that year, Guru Sadhan suddenly passed away. At a farewell ritual, practitioners from across Bengal gathered to mourn him with Baul songs. One of the practitioners stated, “Despite the physical demise of his body, his spirit persists in the hearts of his disciples.”