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What are birds for the Japanese? T-shaped interdisciplinary approach to the cultural history of bird

Research period:2024.10-2027.3

UDA Shuhei

Keywords

Japanese archipelago , Cultural history of birds ,T-shaped interdisciplinary approach

Objectives

The objective of this research project is to reveal whether there is a specifically Japanese use of birds, its characteristics, and background by comparing cases related to the cultural history of birds on the Japanese archipelago, as detailed below.
The cultural history of birds that this research project will focus on is an approach for understanding the products of human cultural activities related to birds such as subsistence, food culture, folk performing arts, religion, painting, and plastic arts. Specifically, the project will be an interdisciplinary inter-university research project that will synthesize and analyze the outcomes gained from the following approaches: (1) diachronic approach that includes consideration of archeological artifacts, historical materials, the history of painting, and food culture related to the use of and representation of birds, (2) contemporary (synchronic) approach related to folk performing arts, religion, subsistence, imaginary worlds, and the use of and representation of birds of the Ainu and in the Ryukyu Islands, and (3) natural science approach related to the state of bird distribution in the Japanese archipelago, physical characteristics of birds, and the introduction and spread of poultry. The applicants confirmed that this methodology is effective in an inter-university research project on the culture of cormorant fishing (2020-2023). In this project, we collectively call the above three approaches a T-shaped interdisciplinary approach.
Based on the above approaches and methods, the members of this project will (1) create a chronological table on the relationship between Japanese people and birds, (2) shed light on the generational continuity or discontinuity of bird use, factors facilitating change, commonalities and differences across species, the characteristics of species included and not included in the cultural history, whether or not they have been domesticated, and more, taking into account the outcomes of individual research, and (3) explore whether there is a specifically Japanese use of birds and its characteristics by comparing it with cases from other countries.