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Community Studies in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Richard K. Beardsley
Richard K. Beardsley
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

Studies of Japan and the Japanese have tended to deal in large proportion with phenomena and problems of the nation as a whole rather than with its component parts. In contrast, community studies focus upon some of the smallest social units of a nation. Community studies have been attempted as an approach to understanding Japan and the Japanese only recently and by relatively few foreign scholars. Moreover, even though a recent survey of work done by the Japanese lists 126 localities from which data at the community level have been gathered, no fully rounded community study has yet been finished by Japanese social scientists. Western scholars, following beaten paths, simply have not ventured into communities for small scale studies, whereas in the case of the Japanese the partial intellectual isolation which delayed the arrival of some of the concepts basic to community studies seems largely responsible for the low returns from so much field research.

Type
Community Studies in Japan and China: A Symposium
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , November 1954 , pp. 37 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1954

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References

1 Izumi, Seiichi —, “Nihon shakai no chiilci sei” (Regionalism in Japanese society), Nihon Chiri Shin Taikei (New Outline of Japanese Geography) (Tokyo, 1952), 2:37–76.Google Scholar

2 Bishop, Isabella L. B., Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (London, 1880), 2 vols.Google Scholar; Morse, E. S., Japan Day by Day (Boston, 1917), 2 vols.Google Scholar; Robertson-Scott, J. W., The Foundations of Japan ([?], 1922).Google Scholar

3 Suye Mura. a Japanese Village (Chicago, 1939).Google Scholar

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5 Iwao Ishino, mimeographed report (Tokyo, 1951). This Ibaragi Prefecture study centers on labor boss organizations.

6 All these are reported to be unpublished as yet.

7 Grad, Andrew J., Fukaya, a Japanese Town (New York, IPR [in press]).Google Scholar

8 Niiike: a Study of the Rural Foundations of Japan (joint study, ms. in preparation); Norbeck, Edward, Takashima, a Fishing Community of Japan (Salt Lake City, 1954)Google Scholar; Cornell, John B., Matsunagi, the Social Life of a Japanese Mountain Community (Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Michigan, 1953)Google Scholar; Smith, Robert J., Kurusu: a Changing Japanese Agricultural Community (Ph.D. thesis, Cornell Univ., 1953).Google Scholar

9 e.g., “Zushu Nakaura gyomin shiryō” (Historical materials on the fishermen of Nakaura, Izu Shizuoka Prefecture ), Achikku Myūzeamu Ibō (Attic Museum Reports), 20, 24, 28, 1937–1939Google Scholar; “Oga Kampū sanroku nōmin nichiroku” (Journal of a farmer at the foot of Mt. Kampū; Ōga), ibid., 16, 1940.

10 e.g., Omachi, Tokuzo, Hachijō-jima (Hachijō Island) (Tokyo, 1951).Google Scholar

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18 The thirteen communities of this report were selected from widely scattered spots in all four islands, to avoid distorting generalizations on a national scale by a regional bias. The report is in no way a study of regional variation, but by presenting the data for each village apart from the generalizing sections it does give some indication of the differences among communities.

19 One questionnaire was carried out in the hamlets immediately adjacent to the farm village of Niiike; another went to thirty villages statistically selected by random sampling from the entire drainage area of the Inland Sea, and a third was given to 1100 persons i:. the prefecture of Okayama.

20 Oka, Masao “Shalcai chōsa” (Social research), Minzokugaku Kenkyū (Japanese Journal of Ethnology), (1952), 1:5.Google Scholar

21 e.g., Ono, Takeo Nibon Sonraku-shi Gaisetsu (Outline of Japanese Village History) (Tokyo, 1936).Google Scholar

22 Compare the nostalgia of Yanagida, Kunio and Miki, Shigeru , Yukiguni no Minzoku (Folklore of Snowland) (Tokyo, 1944)Google Scholar, for example, with the reform-mindedness of Furushima, Toshio , Sanson no Kōzō (Organization of a Mountain Village) (Tokyo, 1949).Google Scholar

23 Izumi, Seiichi, Aru Sanson no Monogurafu (Monograph on a Mountain Village) (Tokyo, 1951)Google Scholar, and ibid., Aru ljū-son no Monogurafu (Monograph on a Village of Migrants) (Tokyo, 1952)Google Scholar; Fukutake, Tadashi, , Amerika-mura (America Village) (Tokyo, 1953).Google Scholar

24 Yanagida, Kunio and Miki, Shigeru Yukiguni no Minzoku (Folklore of Snowland) (Tokyo, 1937)Google Scholar; Kumaya, Motoichi — Ochimura (Ochi Village) (Tokyo, 1938).Google Scholar