Interpreting Shima through song: Whaling songs in the islands of Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

In the south of Japan, 5 of the many islands in Nagasaki Prefecture are home to 27 traditional Japanese whaling songs. Mapping and thematic analysis of these songs in relation to the broader nationwide corpus of folksongs in general, and whaling songs in particular, reveals the importance, geographical spheres and character of the islands of Nagasaki Prefecture within Japanese whaling heritage as a whole. Relative to the rest of Japan, the islands have an abundance of whaling songs. These songs show signs of connectedness, having certain elements in common with (non-whaling) folksongs across the country and also have other elements in common with the songs of other whaling communities. Furthermore, a small number of unique elements are signs of local distinctions. Perhaps most significantly, the majority of themes present in the national corpus are also found in the Nagasaki Prefecture island songs, thus casting islands as an invaluable repository for this aspect of culture. In the Nagasaki case, islandness spawned a high density of whaling communities historically. More recently, the drive to nurture local and national culture has been faceted by differentiated contributions from these multiple communities. As a result, this study finds that small islands are not merely convenient units for research but that they play a central role in the holding of broader cultural phenomena.