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Title |
The Idea of "the People" in the Folk Magazine Minzoku Taiwan: Takeo Kanaseki's, Tetsuomi Tateishi's, and Kenzo Matsuyama's Investigation on Jomin in the Magazine's Graphic Columns |
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Author |
Chiu, Ya-Fang |
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Professor, Department of Taiwan Languages and Communication, National United University |
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Abstract |
The paper seeks to examine the different approaches carried on by three Minzoku Taiwan editors—Takeo Kanaseki, Tetsuomi Tateishi, and Kenzo Matsuyama—to investigate Taiwan's folklore, as well as their understanding on "the people" of the folklore, with a focus on the magazine's graphic columns. As Japanese in Taiwan, the three editors, who were sensitively aware of the pressure caused by the deteriorating war situation in Japan, sought for a breathing place or a mental utopia in Taiwan's everyday life. Due to their different backgrounds and abilities, the editors developed their own images of the utopia, which were further realized into three types of specific folk graph, that is, Kanaseki's artistic mingei, Tateishi's everyday folklore, and Matsuyama's craft and festival photo. In this regard, the value and meaning of Minzoku Taiwan lie in maintaining Taiwan as a place of healing through the preservation of folklore, in order to resist the Kominka Movement, which threatened the utopia of the editors' own imagining. Furthermore, the three editors regarded "the people," who created the folklore of Minzoku Taiwan, as the real "jomin" (the common people). For these editors, the jomin were Taiwanese, but also not Taiwanese, because the jomin were the "unforgettable people" that could be identified with, and only existed in their mind. |
