Ueda Kyoko

Why do people who have just experienced a huge tsunami try to return to the coast? This paper attempts to argue for the rationality of living in a place where a tsunami strikes with apparent frequency. Based on fieldwork conducted in a fishing village where 44 houses out of 52 and, more traumatically, four villagers were swept away by the Great Tsunami of March 11, 2011, this paper attempts to clarify people's reasoning behind returning to their homeland and their attitude toward the sea. Even after a natural disaster of tremendous scale occurs, some victims attempt to remain or later return "home" while inviting the risk of experiencing further catastrophe. As reported worldwide, the Great East Japan Earthquake of magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, resulted in a large tsunami, which inflicted devastating damage on the inhabitants of fishing villages along the Pacific coast of the Tohoku area. The Sanriku-region, situated in a seismically active zone, has repeatedly incurred serious damage from tsunamis. Hence even the tsunami that occurred on March 11 was not unprecedented in its history. So why do people opt to continuously live in areas prone to natural disasters instead of living at a distance from the coastline? In particular, for those who have just experienced a tsunami, what motivates them to make the decision to go back to the coast? Located in the North-East part (Tohoku-district) of Japan, the Sanriku-region stretches along the Pacific Ocean coast. Embracing a sea rich in a large variety of fish, its coastline, named the Rias coast, maintains a geographical vulnerability, which induces tsunamis and amplifies their force.. Hence, not a small number of villages along the Sanriku coast have already repeatedly lived through the devastating damage of tsunamis. In order to examine why people, who have just experienced a tsunami, may try to go back to the Sanriku coast, an attempt will be made to understand the strategies of the inhabitants of coastal villages who, assumingly, somehow find the means to culturally interpret and "domesticate" marine catastrophes into their community history. In conclusion, at least as indicated by the Moune community of the Sanriku coast, people know that life near the coast is inevitably entwined with both the severity and fertility of the sea. In other words, what people in Moune know is that they cannot have one without the other. and that is what they have adapted to. Because of their closeness to the sea, the fertility they enjoy and the vulnerability of a coastal community are inseparable for them, like two sides of the same coin. They know that both are born from the same sea.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the conditions that had to be met in order for the sufferer community of the Chuetsu-Earthquake to become "recovered." This paper is based on fieldwork conducted in the Naranoki hamlet located in the former Yamakoshi village which suffered great earthquake damage. The damage was so immense that every house in the hamlet was totally destroyed and all of the roads leading to the village were completely disrupted. For this reason, there were doubts as to whether the community itself could be sustained. In addition to this immense damage, the return to the Naranoki hamlet requiredpeople to become re-acclimatized to life in a depopulated area with heavy snowfalls afteralmost three years living in shelters located in an urban area. At last, more than half ofthe households decided not to return to the hamlet. However, the remaining 12 households finally chose to return to the village. What conditions were necessary for these twelve households to go back and to maintain the community? This paper attempts to analyze these conditions by looking at their practices for maintaining both their farmland and the former locations of their homes. In conclusion, the vital condition to maintain this earthquake-stricken community was, phenomenally, to sustain the land's productivity or, in their words, "to prevent the land from going wild." This practice was performed by all the households in the community, even those that had chosen not to return to the village. For the people of this community, to keep the land "alive" actually meant to sustain the productivity of the land, but at the same time, it meant the re-productivity of relationships including the victims, the former members and the ancestors in the hamlet.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the context of a community's practice against the production of space by referring to the case of a community effected by plans for the construction of a dam along the River Kawabegawa. In a series of studies by Lefebvre, Harvey and others, these human geographers called attention to a new form of exploitation that occurs in the process of the production of space. Their studies showed that the "production" of space can dominate existing relationships and orders that are based on use values. Therefore, for example, the residents of a community that is forced to move in keeping with the construction of a dam are reduced to a subordinate role in order to accomplish the "production" of the dam. As a result, they become totally "free" either to move to an urban area or to remain near the dam as long as they are in a location that does not encroach upon dam construction. In contrast, this paper describes a community that moved out of their homes as soon as possible, even against the advice of the village's local assembly. Why did they abandon their homes so quickly and without resisting? By answering this question, this paper attempts to analyze how a community might manage to remain independent of the power of the production of space. In conclusion, through their practice, the generation of certain duties was intended among the members of the community. This paper maintains that, after the move caused by the dam construction, such duties of community could release blockading relationships based on rigid land ownership.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a meaning of preservation of folk rituals. In Japan, not a few traditional rituals are held in depopulated rural areas where the communities themselves are having difficulty to remain. Meanwhile, the traditional rituals, which originally were a part of people's daily life, have been attempted to preserve as important cultural heritage or tourist attractions. Thus, the traditional rituals are encouraged to show more people and last as long as possible. However, as is often the case with cultural heritage, the more intentionally they try to preserve their traditional rituals, the more alienated from the rituals they become. What does the "preservation"mean for the people who actually perform the rituals?<br> This paper refers to a small community which refused to "preserve" their traditional dance, Taiko-odori. Because of severe depopulation, their dance was to vanish in near future. Hence their neighbor communities suggested to "preserve" the Taiko-odori by increasing the members of dancers and performing it altogether.<br> Although the Taiko-odori used to be often performed outside of the community, they refused this suggestion. Paradoxically, the community's decision was to perform the Taiko-odori by themselves until when the performers decrease to two as their ancestors' tradition. For the people in this severely depopulating community, the preservation of their traditional ritual was not to merely prolong the history of the dance nor to increase the performers, but to vanish it by themselves in near future. As a conclusion, even if the traditional rituals were valuable enough to attract tourists or to be preserved as cultural heritage, they cannot be essentially preserved when a social order of performer community is invaded.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify, a community's logic of supporting the construction of the Kawabegawa dam. With recent movements against public works and also a growing interest in environmental problems, Kawabegawa dam is now widely questioned if it is really necessary. People in the community are in favour of the dam-plan, even though they had to face an eviction order. Why do they bother to support the plan after experiencing local conflicts and a sudden decline in the number of their community's population?<BR>In response, rationalists would generally explain that the community wants compensation, which is worth the trouble. However, this rationalist explanation is on the utilitarian premise that people always act according to their interests. Hence, whichever action they take, as long as they support the dam plan, the rationalists interpret it as an expansion of their self-interest.<BR>In this paper, an attempt will be made to understand the community's logic of supporting the dam plan, while focusing not on how much compensation they want but on how they want to be in the community. In short, the paper tries to analyse which meaning the dam plan has for those who are in the community for the last 36 years. In clarifying their logic, the paper will look at three local groups that were organised inside the community. Recently, they have come to share the same stance toward the dam plan after going through drastic changes in the community. The paper will focus on the logic of three groups by looking at how they share the same attitude toward the plan, while at the same time distinguishing itself from each other. In conclusion, the paper clarifies the performative meaning of supporting the dam construction as a catalyst for generating relationships in a community.