Constructing idealized communities in Japan's countryside: Tourist place-making in Kurokawa onsen

Japanese Journal of Human Geography

Volumn 57, Issue 5, 2005, Pages 61-73

  McMorran, Chris ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

Author keywords

Accessibility; Japan; Onsen; Place making; Remote areas; Sightseeing; Tourism

Indexed keywords

ACCESSIBILITY; DECISION MAKING; SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION; TOURIST ATTRACTION;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; JAPAN; KUMAMOTO; KYUSHU;

EID: 30144445222     PISSN: 00187216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. An onsen is as a spring of water that exceeds 25 degrees Celsius and contains minerals like carbonic acid, iron, or sulfur. Doi, K., Nihon no Atsui Onsen to Chishitsu (Geological Features of Japan's Onsen), Fuji Tekunoshisutemu, 2002. (J). This paper follows common usage and refers to any destination in which one can bathe in such a spring as'onsen'.
2. Asahi Shimbun, 'Machi ha kataru' (Talking about Towns), Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, 2003. (J)
3. URL: http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/FR/FEAT/faces/faces00002.html (9 February 2004) (The Nikkei Marketing Journal). (J)
4. For more on the onsen boom, see Graburn, N. H. H., 'Work and play in the Japanese countryside' (Linhart, S. and Fruhstuck, S., eds., The Culture of Japan as Seen Through its Leisure, SUNY Press, 1998), pp. 195-212,
5. Osaki, N., 'Beaten tracks to secret spas', Japan Quarterly, 35, 1988, pp. 275-278,
6. Neff, R., 'Tradition reigns at Japan's onsen', Japan Quarterly, 46, 1999, pp. 65-75,
7. Graburn, N. H. H., 'The Past in the Present in Japan: Nostalgia and Neo-traditionalism in Contemporary Japanese Domestic Tourism', (Butler, R. and Pearce, D., eds., Change in Tourism: People, places, processes, Routledge, 1995), pp. 47-70.
8. Duncan J. and Duncan N., 'The Aestheticization of the Politics of Landscape Preservation', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91, 2001, pp. 387-409, (p. 387).
9. Agnew, J., 'The Devaluation of Place in Social Science', (Agnew, J. and Duncan, J., eds., The Power of Place, Unwin Hyman, 1989), pp. 9-29, (p. 13).
10. Hashimoto, M. 'Chiho: Yanagita Kunio's "Japan"', (Vlastos, S., ed., Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, University of California Press, 1998), pp. 133-143.
11. Gluck, C., Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period, Princeton University Press, 1985, p. 250.
12. Kurokawa Onsen: Rurubu Gurafu Nippon no Onsen 3 (Rurubu Gurafu presents Japan's Onsen # 3), JTB (Japan Travel Bureau), 15 September 2003, (J)
13. Shukan Nihon no Meiyu (Japan's Famous Onsen Weekly), Shobunsha, 9 October 2003. (J)
14. Ryokan owners express thanks that no one was ever injured by the falling roof tiles or crumbling walls that they couldn't afford to fix during that time. Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun Joho Senta (Kumamoto Nichinichi Newspaper Information Center), Kurokawa Onsen "Kyuseicho" wo yomu, (Kurokawa Onsen's Rapid Growth), Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbunsha, 2000, p. 50. (J)
15. Kurokawa Onsen Kanko Ryokan Kyodo Kumiai (Inn Owners Cooperative Association), Shisatsu Shiryo (Inspection data), 2003. (J)
16. Graburn, op. cit., footnote 4-1), p. 201;
17. see also Graburn, op. cit., footnote 4-4), p. 49.
18. Road Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Japan (1997 statistics). URL: http://www.mlit.go.jp/road/road_e/index_e.html (26 March 2004).
19. Other studies of onsen development have discussed the importance of national expressways, including Tateishi, K., 'Kankoukyaku no Ryudou kara mita Akita-ken Ooyu-onsen no Chiikiteki Tokuiro (Looking at the distinctive regional features of Akita's Ooyu Onsen from the perspective of tourist mobility), Akita Chiri, 46, 1999, pp. 21-26. (J)
20. Kanda shows the clear relationship between the development of Shirahama Onsen, Wakayama Prefecture, and the 1933 opening of a railway link to Osaka. Kanda, K., 'The development process of the Nanki-Shirahama spa resort and images of other places: a consideration of the production of tourism space in the modern period", Human Geography, 53, 2001, pp. 430-451. (JE)
21. I rode the bus to Kurokawa for two weeks in August 2003 and never encountered a tourist.
22. Nakamura, M., 'Kyushu Aso Kogen wo kakenuke yamazato no onsenkyo he' ('Visiting a mountain onsen village in Aso plateau of Kyushu'), Diamond Style, 1998 (Autumn and Winter), pp. 144-147. (J)
23. For more detail on the feelings of displacement and the nostalgia for the countryside see McMorran, C., Inventing Place in Kurokawa Onsen, Japan, Master's Thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2002.
24. Grabum, op. cit., footnote 4-4).
25. Insightful sources on the campaigns include Ivy, M., Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan, University of Chicago Press, 1995
26. Robertson, J., 'Furusato Japan: the culture and politics of nostalgia', Politics, Culture, and Society, 1, 1988, pp. 494-518.
27. Ivy, op. cit., footnote 19), p. 35.
28. For more on furusato projects see Robertson, J., 'It takes a village: internationalization and nostalgia in postwar Japan' (Vlastos, S., ed., Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, University of California Press, 1998), pp. 110-129,
29. Robertson, op. cit., footnote 19)
30. Graburn, op. cit., footnote 4-1),
31. Ivy op. cit., footnote 19), especially pp. 29-65
32. and Knight, J., 'Rural kokusaika: foreign motifs and village revival in Japan', Japan Forum, 1993, pp. 203-216.
33. Robertson, op. cit., footnote 19), pp. 498-499.
34. Creighton, M., 'Japanese Craft Tourism-Liberating the Crane Wife', Annals of Tourism Research, 22, 1995, pp. 463-478, (p. 465).
35. Harvey, D., The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Blackwell, 1989, p. 292.
36. Creighton, M., 'Spinning silk, weaving selves: nostalgia, gender, and identity in Japanese craft vacations', Japanese Studies, 21, 2001, pp. 5-25.
37. Kelly, W., 'Rationalization and Nostalgia-Cultural Dynamics of New Middle-Class Japan', American Ethnologist, 13, 1986, pp. 603-618.
38. Kawamori, H., 'Nostalgia Tourism in Contemporary Japan: an art of making in the tourist setting', Minzokugakukenkyu (Journal of Ethnology Research), 66, 2001, pp. 68-86. (J)
39. McMorran, op. cit., footnote 17),
40. for more on the invention of tradition, see Hobsbawm, E. and Ranger, T., The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
41. Graburn, op. cit., footnote 4-1),
42. Osaki, op. cit., footnote 4).
43. Kanda, op. cit., footnote 14).
44. The list of guidebooks, magazines, and websites devoted to onsen is extensive. Of note are JTB, op. cit., 9),
45. Shobunsha, op. cit., 9).
46. Kanda, op. cit., footnote 14),
47. Ura, T., 'Current business trends of the small sized ryokan (Japanese Style Inn) in Kurokawa, Nagayu Spa, Kyusyu', Journal of Osaka Meijo University, 1, 2001, pp. 1-10. (J)
48. URL: http://www.miki55.com/onsengakkai/htm/home.htm (J) (17 February 2004).
49. Clark, S., Japan, A View from the Bath, University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
50. For example, Sasaki shows that Kusatsu Onsen experienced a "high pitched economic development in [the] 1960s and 70s" (p. 64) which led to the replacement of the traditional hot spring landscape with a landscape dominated by big hotels. Sasaki, H., 'Changes of Cultural Landscape in Kusatsu Spa in Gunma-ken, Japan', Tsukuba Studies in Human Geography, 21, 1997, pp. 39-67.
51. Kurokawa's smallest ryokan can accommodate up to 26 guests.
52. Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun, 'Aso ga attoteki ninki', ('Aso's overwhelming popularity'), September 28, 2003, p. 6. (J)
53. Numerous magazine articles and guidebooks have featured Kurokawa Onsen, including op. cit., footnote 16),
54. Weekly Toyo Keizai, 'Chosen to katsuro' ('Finding a way out of a challenge'), 6 April 2002, pp. 112-114, (J)
55. Asahi Weekly Shimbun AERA, 'Suro-na kyaku' ('Slow customers'), 2 September 2002, pp. 8-11, (J)
56. JTB, op. cit., footnote 9),
57. Shobunsha, op. cit., footnote 9 ),
58. Ultra-House, Totte oki no Kurokawa Onsen (Treasured Kurokawa Onsen), 27 June 2003, (J)
59. op. cit., footnote 10).
60. Herzfeld, M., A Place in History: Social and Monumental Time in a Cretan Town, Princeton University Press, 1991.
61. Ben-Ari shows how the concept of furusato as community continues to inform the social construction of new neighborhoods in Japan, not only tourist areas. Ben-Ari, E., 'Contested identities and models of action in Japanese discourses of place-making: an interpretive study', (Hendry J., ed., Interpreting Japanese Society: Anthropological Approaches, Routledge, 1998), pp. 68-87.
62. Graburn, op. cit., footnote 4-4), p. 55.
63. This is said to hide the village's "boring" reforestation efforts. op. cit., footnote 10), pp. 48-52,
64. Ura, op. cit., footnote 32), 2001, p, 3-4,
65. Weekly Toyo Keizai, op. cit., footnote 37).
66. The one exception to the resort's similarity was a white concrete hotel, built in 1973 and reminiscent of those in larger onsen. In a 2003 incident that made national headlines, this hotel refused to accommodate former victims of Hansen's disease (leprosy). One month later it was removed from the ryokan association (as well as its maps and website). Despite repeated apologies, the hotel was not readmitted. The hotel closed its doors and then was demolished later in 2004. This case shows the power of the ryokan association in controlling the image of the onsen and access to visitor information.
67. Graburn, op. cit., footnote 4-4), p. 61.
68. op. cit., footnote 5), pp. 388-389,
69. see also Duncan, J. 'Elite landscapes as cultural (re) productions: The case of Shaughnessy Heights', (Anderson, K. and Gale, F., eds., Cultural Geographies, Longman, 1999). In these cases, the authors are not talking about tourist place-making, rather they are describing a kind of residential place making similar to that discussed in Ben-Ari, footnote 39), in which the image of a traditional community is modeled and enhanced for current residents. While these are not, therefore, examples of tourist place-making per se, they are instructive in their use of elements of traditional communities to appeal to contemporary residents.
70. op. cit., footnote 38).
71. Kurokawa Onsen, Kurokawa Chiku Machi-zukuri Kyotei (Kurokawa Area Town-making Agreement), 2004. (J)