Join us Monday, November 6th, 3-5pm for a Screening and Discussion by the filmmakers.
In this unique presentation, Naoko Yamada (Kanazawa University, Japan) and Michael Dylan Foster (UC Davis) will show an experimental ethnographic film they made last year in Japan. The film explores a rural ritual called Aenokoto in which farming families invite kami [deities] into their homes to express gratitude for the rice harvest, providing them with a warm bath and a meal of fish, rice, seasonal vegetables, and sake. Questions of vision feature prominently in the ritual. The kami are invisible to human eyes so ritual participants can only imagine their form; the deities themselves have poor eyesight so householders speak aloud, describing their meal; and despite the fact that the kami cannot be seen, tourists flock to the ritual to observe and photograph it. The film creatively explores Aenokoto in terms of tradition and tourism and its multi-faceted incarnation as a “spectacle.”
Before and after the film screening, Yamada and Foster will introduce the ritual and the making of the film itself. They are eager for feedback about the film and encourage active discussion from all participants.
Naoko Yamada is an Associate Professor in the School of Tourism Sciences and Design, College of Transdisciplinary Sciences for Innovation at Kanazawa University. She has a PhD from Indiana University and has taught tourism marketing and sustainable tourism in Japan, Turkey, South Korea, and the US. Her research centers around visitor experiences and heritage interpretation with a focus on resource management at free-choice learning settings.
Michael Dylan Foster is a Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at UC Davis. His research concerns Japanese folklore, intangible cultural heritage, and tourism.
