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 * From Festival Setting to Center Stage: Preserving Japan’s Folk Performing Arts. **By Barbara E. Thornbury. __Asian Theatre Journal,__ Fall 1993. 10.1. pp 163-178.

In this short article Barbara Thornbury addresses a unique conservation effort ongoing at the local, prefecture and national level in Japan- the diverse and fervent array of programs dedicated to preserving local folk performance art styles. Unlike ‘mainstream’ performance styles such as // nō, kyōgen, kabuki, //and // bunraku //, traditional folk art performance styles do not have the luxury of being nationally recognized and performed in specially reserved theatres, and often must be preserved and performed only by dedicated regional troupes of scholars and artists. As a professor of Japanese language and culture, Ms. Thornbury herself is dedicated to studying and preserving the complexity of traditional Japanese artistry.  Folk traditional performance is hardly a defined category- it can consist of anything from dance drama, puppetry, ritual performance, or a wide variety of other art styles specific to times and places across the entire country. Traditional performances are suffering, however, as the younger generation of Japanese people move away from rural environments, and focus more on modern entertainments and concerns. In order for these traditions not to be lost, local performers have tries to arrange performance festivals to occur on national holidays or Sundays, so that more working people will be likely to attend. In other cases festivals have been greatly cut back, so that traditionally month-long celebrations may be observed in a few days.  Most preservationists belong to associations such as the Nihon Minzoku Geinō Kyōkai (Japanese Folk Performing Arts Society). Comprised of artists and scholars, the Society attempts to categorize and preserve dance techniques, songs, and music from all over the country. The Japanese government funds much of this preservation, and the National Theatre (which is generally reserved for kabuki and bunraku) has been showcasing traditional performance art styles as well as teaching “appreciation classes” since 1966. There is great hope for the preservation of these specific performance styles, as approximately 155 unique Japanese performance styles are currently considered nationally important intangible folk cultural assets.  Thornbury does address the controversy behind this seemingly noble preservation effort, if only in brief. Many artists and historians criticize the centralization and in some cases bastardization of traditional folk performance styles. In many cases the mere act of staging a performance in a darkened theatre is going against its original intentions and context, and staging it at a time or in a place unrelated to traditional context is seen as disrespectful. For example, does performing ceremonial harvest performances from the Miyazaki prefecture during midwinter in Tokyo really count as “preserving” the tradition? As Thornbury points out, many troupes also subtly alter the content and aesthetic of their performances in order to make them worthy of presentation to urban, paying audiences. Considering that many performance styles are funded by tourist interests, in addition to this “displacement” and alteration, it is understandable that many traditional performance scholars are upset by the current state of the preservation movement.  Although Thornbury’s scholarship seems complete, and she discusses a wide variety of attempts in the past several decades to preserve and renew interest in traditional Japanese folk performance art styles, she seems to skim over the important issue of the preservation controversy. These folk traditions are rightly considered nationally important cultural assets, but so are the Japanese traditional adherence to honor, aesthetic, and sacredness of place. To preserve the performance style without recognition of traditional aesthetic and context is to dishonor tradition, and yet to let these performance styles die out is an equal crime.