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Iwakura Ichiro
Dedicated to Kikaijima Island folklore research
Memorial Monument of Iwakura Ichiro in Aden Village, Kikaijima Island
Aden Village is a community on Kikaijima Island that has many coral stone walls left behind. Along the coastline there, there is a memorial monument of Iwakura Ichiro (actual name Toraichiro), who studied the southern islands and made great contributions during the early period of Japanese folklore ethnology.
In 1904, Iwakura Ichiro was born in Aden, Kikaijima. He enrolled into Shibushi Junior High School in Kagoshima prefecture and had interests in local dialects and folk tales. However, he contracted tuberculosis and took a rest to heal in Shizuoka. After recuperating, he studied Chinese classics in Osaka and went to Tokyo to visit Iha Fuyu, also known as “The Father of Okinawan Studies”, who was a famous Japanese ethnologist of Okinawa and the southern islands. Iwakura was praised by him for his sense of linguistics and gained more enthusiasm to continue studying southern dialects.
However, because of exhaustion from overworking and poverty, his tuberculosis had a recurrence in 1931. While Iwakura was resting in Niigata, his wife’s hometown, and Kikaijima, he published, in magazines, a collection of old folk tales that he had collected. A pioneer of folklore studies and ethnology, Yanagida Kunio, had an eye on his articles and made Iwakura a member of the Osaka Folklore Colloquium.
Iwakura had a keen ear for distinguishing between various Japanese local dialects. With his gentle character, he received many folk tales from storytellers with ease and was one of the rare people who could record the speaker’s information down faithfully, using shorthand, as it flowed out of the speakers’ mouths.
In 1935, through a discussion group, he became acquainted with Shibusawa Keizo, grandson of Shibusawa Eiichi, a successful businessman. Keizo was not only a businessman, but also an investor. He spent a lot of his own money to support researchers of ethnological studies and folklore.
Soon after Iwakura lost his daughter in a car accident, he decided to become a researcher to find an environment where he could focus on his studies. Even though it was a turbulent time and there was a sense that the war was coming closer, with the kind support of Keizo, Iwakura was able to establish an excellent research environment.
After his disease recurred, Iwakura moved back to Kikaijima, not for just recuperation, but to complete comprehensive research about the ethnology of Kikaijima. For a year and a half, starting from 1935, he focused on conducting local surveys with great cooperation from people on the island. “Kikaijima Daikanki (Kikaijima Magisrate Record)”, “Kikaijima Nenju Gyoji (Kikaijima Annual Events)”, and “Kikaijima Gyogyo Minzoku (Kikaijima Fishing Folklore)” were published as pioneering and valuable documents of the southern island.
In addition to those, under Yanagida’s instruction, Ichiro also successively collected and published “Kikaijiima Mukashibanashi Shu (Collection of Kikaijima Old Folktales)” in 1943, “Okierabu Mukashibanashi Shu (Collection of Okierabu Old Folktales)” in 1940, “Kikaijima Hogen Shu (Collection of Kikaijima Dialects)” in 1941, and “Koshikijima Mukashibanashi Shu (Collection of Koshikijima Old Folktales)” in 1943. He said that those felt like a “sudden magnificent beam of light”.
Despite all of this, his sickness kept growing steadily worse and worse. After changing hospitals repeatedly late in the summer of 1943, at 39 years old, Ichiro’s life came to an end. His character and talent were loved by many people. Even today, because of his work, visitors and researchers from all over the world visit Aden Village. I can’t help but feel like his soul is still watching the scene unfold from afar.
Posted on Minami Nihon Shinbun ”Southern Kyushu Bungaku no Ishibumi(Monument of Literiture)” April 6th, 2024
References
- Iwakura Ichiro Kenshohi Kenritsu Kinen Shi (The magazine of the construction committee of the Iwakura Ichiro Memorial Monument), (Doritsu Committee, 1996)
- Nihon Jomin Seikatsu Shiryo Sosho 24 (Japanese Folk Life Material Series #24), (Sanichi Shobo, 1973)
- Kokubungaku Kaisyaku to Kansho No.47 Vol.9 (National Literature, Interpretation and Appreciation, No. 47 Vol. 9), (Shibundo, 1982)
- Tabisuru Kyojin (Traveling Giants), (Bungei Shunshu, 1996)
- Shibusawa Keizo Sensei to Watashi (Mr. Shibusawa Keizo and I -Days at The Attic Museum), (Heibonsha, 2007)
- Amami Kyodo Kenkyu Kaiho Vol.38 (Amami Local Studies Newsletter Vol. 38), 2002
Monument information:
In 1996, the director of the town library and villagers were impressed by Ichiro’s achievements, so they gathered and built the memorial monument at the nearby sea in Aden Village, to coincide with the opening of the new Aden Fureai Park. The inscription was written by Koshirae Kaichiro, who accompanied Ichiro during his surveys on the island.
person who wrote this
Yuriko Hamada
Born in Tokyo in 1953. Graduated Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. After working at a major general publisher, emigrates to Amami Oshima after marriage and becomes a freelance writer and editor for trade papers and ladies’ magazines. While assisting her husband Futoshi Hamada in photography, Hamada also worked in planning and editing a sightseeing poster and brochures for the Amami group of islands among many other printed materials.
In August 1995, she becomes the editor-in-chief of Horizon, a magazine passionately dedicated to the Amami archipelago and launched to cover the nature, culture, history and life on the islands.
The publication was awarded Honorable Mention in the 13th Zenkoku Taunshi Festibaru (sponsored by NTT West Japan) in 1997, and the Local Communication Prize the following year. Last published in 2014, Horizon magazine survives in eBook form in 40 issues to date.
Co-authorships include Manten no Hoshi no Gotoku…, a magazine commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Reversion of the Amami Islands to Japan (published by Kagoshima Prefecture), as well as Amami Archipelago Tourism League Guidebook, Seimei Meguru Shima: Amami, and Amami no Shoku to Bunka, all published by Minami Nihon Shimbunsha. Former Kyodo News Enterprise correspondent. Instructor of Amami City Lifelong Learning Course.
