Folklore Hears the Wind, Towns Carve the Law: Rediscovering "Environment and Life" during the Period of High Economic Growth (1955-1980)

Folklore Hears the Wind, Towns Carve the Law: Rediscovering "Environment and Life" during the Period of High Economic Growth (1955-1980)
In the late 1950s, Japan rode the wave of rapid economic growth, and industrialization and urbanization proceeded simultaneously. Behind the prosperity, destruction of nature and pollution became more serious, and environmental problems such as Minamata disease shook society. Folklore studies initially focused on documenting "disappearing landscapes," but after this period, there was a shift toward reevaluating the "wisdom of daily life" and "coexistence with nature.

In 1970, the "Pollution Diet" passed a series of environment-related laws, and the following year the Environmental Agency was created. While the state began to protect the environment by law, folklorists turned their attention to the environmental knowledge that lies "inside" our daily lives. Kunio Yanagida's "Jomin-no Gaku" (The Study of Everyday People) was once again attracting attention, and the forests, irrigation water, and wind festivals of rural villages were being reread as devices for local risk management and sustainable livelihood.

Environmental folklore" was established as a practical study of the relationship between life and nature. In the 1970s, folklore became the ideological foundation for regional revitalization and symbiosis in conjunction with civic movements and pollution lawsuits.