Video Utilization Initiatives amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

SUZUKI, Kota (Assistant Researcher, Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties)

 

My name is SUZUKI, Kota, and I work as an assistant researcher at Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. Today, I would like to give a presentation titled “Video Utilization Initiatives amid the COVID-19 Pandemic.” I hope it piques your interest.

In my presentation, I will be introducing a number of case examples of video utilization during COVID-19, to illustrate an overall trend in how stakeholders of intangible folk cultural properties throughout Japan are utilizing video as a tool. However, a vast wealth of videos exists, as they are utilized in diverse ways in various parts of Japan. Thus, please note that in this presentation I will be introducing only a small handful of examples that I have selected arbitrarily.

 

  1. Intangible folk cultural properties amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Before I begin introducing my case examples, I would like to briefly discuss the impacts that the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has had on intangible folk cultural properties.

As you all know, COVID-19 began to also spread throughout Japan from around January 2020, and a state of emergency and semi-emergency measures were issued a repeated number of times to contain the spreading infection. People were encouraged to refrain from making non-essential outings, and society at large was asked to observe various restrictions, including restrictions on travel and holding events.

The most salient feature of this pandemic was that it restricted people from gathering, as expressed by the slogan, “Avoid the 3Cs” (closed spaces, crowded places, close-contact settings). For this reason, festivals, which potentially attract large crowds, were frowned upon as being inappropriate during these times and were told to exercise voluntary restraint as other events are doing. This applied to both large-scale festivals and small local festivals, and restrictions were imposed not only on the actual festivals but also on their preparation and rehearsals, out of concern for the 3Cs. As a result, stakeholders of intangible folk cultural properties are facing a situation where they are unable to engage in their activities as before.

Fig. 1 shows a photo of a Hibakojin Kagura performance in Hiroshima Prefecture, which I have been studying for many years. In the program called “Dance of the Transfer of the Country,” a figure representing the god Daikoku-san and members of the local board throw packets of mochi rice cakes to the audience. As shown in the photo, more than a hundred people gathered in a community center to watch the performance all through the night. Such a scene used to be a common part of the Kagura, but I would have to say that unfortunately, such gatherings can no longer be readily held today.

Festivals where crowds of people gather used to play an important role in building relationships among people in the community, handing down traditional knowledge and techniques, and otherwise maintaining the community. Additionally, festivals also required a variety of items, including tools such as lanterns, straw sandals, masks and costumes, and musical instruments such as flutes and shamisen. As Ms. MAEHARA, Megumi and Mr. YADA, Naoki have noted in the meeting of the Conference held last fiscal year, craftsmen who indirectly support festivals are also experiencing hardships as a result of a decline in orders due to the cancellation of festivals.

In this way, the loss of opportunities to hold festivals and folk performing arts are also leading to social and financial losses. Next, let us see how video technologies and video recordings have been used to make up for these losses.

 

  1. Creation of online bonds through festivals and performing arts

What first caught my attention was that videos of festivals and performing arts have created various bonds online.

At the early stage when COVID-19 began to spread, a certain festival music was performed online. It was a video posted on YouTube by an organization called Aomori Nebuta Gairyukai, titled “‘We tried performing Nebuta music online!’ #001” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DaKnJL7474, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). The performers are wearing earphones, so some type of tool was probably used to put on a live performance, or rather, to play in concert online. By releasing this video, the organization made it known that they are continuing their performance activities even in the absence of festivals. As with this case example, COVID-19 has prompted a significantly increasing number of folk performing arts organizations to create official accounts on YouTube and other social media and post videos of their performances.

As a well-known example of a video during COVID-19, many of you probably remember the “Let’s dance at home” video by artist HOSHINO, Gen. This type of video also became popular in the folk performing arts field, and also included “relay videos” where snippets of people performing in various parts of Japan were connected together into a single full performance. For example, in Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, a video was created showing diverse people dancing the Bicchu Takahashi Matsuyama Odori in relay format (Takahashi City Tourist Association “Bicchu Takahashi Matsuyama Odori version of Let’s Dance at Home!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAKpmCOads, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). The project office asked residents to take and send in videos of themselves dancing the dance at home or in small groups and pieced together snippets of these videos into a single performance video. Many such videos were created by organizations of Bon-odori dances that are characterized by people dancing the same sequence in unison.

The above example was a relay of video recordings of dancers across the city, but there were also live streamed videos in relay format. One was of a recent event called “1st Online Nationwide Local Theater Summit in Yamagata Sakegawa.” The summit was organized by the Nationwide Local Theater Liaison Council composed of local theater preservation organizations throughout Japan. In 2021, these preservation organizations and stakeholders throughout the country got together via Zoom and deepened exchanges online.

In the live-streamed video, organizations throughout Japan each performed a section of a famous Kabuki program called “Shiranami Gonin Otoko” in relay format. It was an undertaking that uniquely suited local theater, as it fundamentally inherits and hands down a common style of performance. At a time when face-to-face exchanges were difficult, a new relationship was born online among preservation organizations by using Web conference tools that became popular during COVID-19.

Another case example I wish to introduce is “Arama Channel,” which aims to retain the population of stakeholders of Arama Odori via online festival. Arama is a folk performing art that is handed down through the generations in Imabetsu Town, Aomori Prefecture. College students and alumni affiliated with a traditional performing arts club in Kyoto who hold an interest in Arama used to make regular visits to Okawadai district, one of the places of tradition, to take part in the local annual summer festival by dancing the Arama they learned from the local residents. This exchange that continued for more than twenty years was disrupted by COVID-19, but with the wish to somehow resume the exchange, stakeholders launched “Arama Channel” using Facebook’s live streaming feature (Living in Aomori – Aomori Relocation and Exchange Portal Site “Gather together, all festival fans and Tsugaru fans!! Arama Channel will begin! [First stream: July 16 (Fri.) from 19:30]” https://www.aomori-life.jp/kankeijinkou/cat50/post_9.html, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). The video of the first stream that is archived on YouTube shows the chairman of the local preservation society in Aomori on the left side of the screen and members of the Kyoto club who have been making regular visits from afar on the right side. In addition to video exchanges between these two locations, viewers from throughout Japan also participated by sending comments, so exchanges also took place with these viewers (Operation Beloved Okawadai “🐴 Arama Channel Vol. 1 🐴 Mr. and Mrs. Takuji and Miyuki Shimanaka, advisors to the Okawadai Arama Preservation Society, Live streaming 21/7/16” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyvwjZ8Lo6Q, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). This case example shows how the relationship that was based on regular visits was interrupted by the cancellation of the festival but is being maintained by using the digital technology of video streaming.

Festivals like the above had previously attracted people from inside and outside the region, but holding the festivals online was an attempt made in various regions to similarly retain the interest of torchbearers and other people concerned. From among such case examples, I would like to introduce a unique example that I find is worthy of mention. That is the “Online Michi Junee,” produced by Ryukyu Shimpo in the summer of 2020 by combining Google Earth and YouTube (Ryukyu Shimpo Digital “[Special Feature] Island-wide Eisa × Google Earth – Come and see an Okinawan summer tradition online!” https://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/zento-eisa-special.html, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). If you look at Fig. 3, which shows a website page run by Noborikawa Young Men’s Association in Okinawa City, you can see the locations where the association engages in its activities on a Google Earth map. Documentary videos taken in the past by the organization can be viewed by clicking on the link on the right side of the screen. The videos had already existed previously, but by combining aerial photos and images through a number of different services, a new system was created that lets viewers experience a virtual festival in a visible way. Of course, this is in no way an alternative to the festival itself, but it can be appreciated as a valid attempt to retain people’s interest in the performing art and thereby protect the tradition itself by evoking memories of where it is normally performed.

 

  1. Online streaming of festivals and performing arts

Many festivals and folk performing arts have come to be streamed online since COVID-19 began to spread. Large-scale festivals and rituals that attract large crowds have been broadcast live on local cable TV from time to time since before the pandemic, but now, increasing numbers of small festivals that had not been widely known before are being streamed on YouTube and other social media by successors of their tradition themselves. COVID-19 has canceled many folk performing arts competitions last year and deprived performers of precious performing opportunities, but online streaming has grown significantly in their stead. For example, pre-recorded videos of festivals have been posted on YouTube, such as with the “Furusato Festival 2020” in Fukushima Prefecture, and videos of festivals taken onsite have been posted on YouTube by festival sponsors, such as with the “62nd Kyushu Region Folk Performing Arts Competition” held in Oita Prefecture in November 2020. In these ways, COVID-19 has brought a major change to how folk events are held and presented.

Videos of folk events that have been released in these ways vary widely in their streaming method and recording context, such as whether pre-recorded videos or live broadcasts are streamed, or whether they are videos of events that are staged to be recorded or are performed live at a local festival. Among these diverse types of videos, I wish to focus on case examples of live broadcasts without spectators, which have markedly increased amid COVID-19. Needless to say, there are too many such examples for me to cover them all, but I have categorized them into two groups—online streams for visual appreciation and participatory online streams.

An example of an online stream for visual appreciation is the streaming of Kagura performances in Miyazaki Prefecture, and particularly the Shiromi Kagura performed by NPO Higashimera Soseikai in December 2020. The performance has not been archived, but the majority of the programs were streamed extremely clearly using a multiple number of cameras, from four-thirty in the afternoon on the first day to before noon on the second day (Higashimera Soseikai “[Exclusive live video 1] 2020 Shiromi Kagura [Part 1] Kiyoyama – Shogun [Viewing period until 2021/1/10]” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLHRKpSFjww, last accessed on Dec. 20, 2020). The unique aspect of this case example is that money offerings were sought online in conjunction with the video stream. A link to a donation site was provided in the description field on YouTube, calling for money offerings in 3,000-yen units via credit card, bank transfer, or registered mail (NPO Higashimera Soseikai “Offerings page” https://www.livedomain.online/shiromi, last accessed on Dec. 20, 2020).

Many online streams are posted for open viewing, but organizations have also appeared that stream videos for paid viewing. In Ota City, Shimane Prefecture, Iwamiginzan Kagura Association, which supports Iwamikagura preservation organizations, has begun to offer paid streams of Iwami Kagura performances. Viewers purchase an online viewing ticket via the association’s website and access the URL that is sent to them to view the performance. The first stream featured the program “Yaegaki” performed by the Tane Kaguradan troupe at Sahimeyama Shrine in Ota City from 7:00 p.m. on October 31, 2020 (Iwamiginzan Kagura Association “Iwami Kagura of Ota, Shimane” https://shop.iwamiginzankagura.com/, last accessed on Feb. 17, 2022).

While most of the video streams that have been posted during COVID-19 were open streams paid for by their people concerned, streams that combine online streaming and crowd funding are extremely useful references for ensuring the sustainability of festivals.

On the other hand, performing arts events such as Bon-odori dances that welcome the participation of people both in and outside the local community tended to adopt participatory online streaming. It should be noted, however, that there were differences in how the streamed videos were staged. For example, in the live streaming of Gujo Odori in Gifu Prefecture, a small number of people dance in front of a single fixed camera on a special stage that differs from their usual stage. This can be said to be a dance-along video that people can dance to at home (Gujo Odori Steering Committee “Gujo Odori Live Streaming – Uranbon-e (August 14)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8YQ25bqix0, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). In contrast, “Nishimonai Bon Odori Live Streaming 2021” in Akita Prefecture was staged along an entry-restricted main street by pre-registered dancers only, but it took advantage of not having any spectators to produce something much like a promotion video (Ugomachi Future Industrial Exchange Division “Nishimonai Bon Odori Live Streaming 2021” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q60d2Qil3w, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021).

In these ways, online streaming of festivals and folk performing arts actually took may forms according to the nature of the performing art or the intentions of the streamer.

 

  1. Videos created by cultural preservers themselves to hand down their tradition

Now, I would like to introduce some videos that were made for a slightly different purpose. Tabayama Village Cultural Preservation Association, a preservation organization of the Sasara Shishimai in Tabayama Village, Yamanashi Prefecture, has recorded and edited videos on their own as tools for handing down their tradition and posted them on YouTube. They consist of two types of videos: one teaches how to play the Shinobue flute, and the other features an expert flutist who provides tips on playing the flute well and advice on practice routines. There are six teaching videos in all, including five short videos for each of the five parts named “Wataribyoshi,” “Chihyaru,” and so on, and one long video of an entire program (17 min. 29 sec.). The camera is affixed to the shoulder of a performer who plays the flute in time to the recorded sounds of an ensemble of drum, flutes, and song, and is focused on the performer’s fingering. The title of the video is also interesting. It is titled “[We asked questions about Shinobue!] Oral tradition [Sasara Shishimai (Tabayama Village)],” mimicking the “I tried this” “I tried that” type of videos YouTubers frequently post, to attract young viewers’ interest (Tabayama Record “[Sasara Shishimai] How to play the Shinobue [Tabayama Village]” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMJM3A5OTGY&t=383s, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021).

Videos created by cultural successors themselves to hand down their tradition, like those introduced above, have also been made by other organizations. One that caught my eye is a case example of Kozawa Shishi-odori in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture. The Miyako City Kozawa Shishi-odori Preservation Society has posted nine videos on YouTube, featuring three categories of performance, including flute, drum, and dance. The videos are highly creatively made, such as by combining videos taken from multiple angles, including from the front, back, right side and left side, and displaying subtitles to a song that is sung to the beating of the drum. It seems they were produced with primary school pupils in mind (Miyako City Kozawa Shishi-odori Preservation Society “★For practice★” Backyard (Side ver.)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNZT0GvPnzk&t=54s, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021).

Up to now, most successors of folk performing arts had opportunities to teach students directly at school in classes that teach local history, but such teaching opportunities have decreased due to COVID-19. This did not stop them, however, from making teaching videos that could be used to develop successors. Such teaching videos correspond to the documentary videos “for tradition and development of successors” that are part of the triple approach produced by the government, as mentioned earlier in the explanation of the purpose of this conference. It is worthy of note that cultural successors have come to produce these types of videos themselves.

 

  1. Progress of archiving

Lastly, I would like to introduce case examples in which the accumulation and disclosure of records concerning folk events have progressed on occasion of COVID-19.

For example, in the “Odori Musubi One Heart Project” launched by the Ono City Community Culture Division in Fukui Prefecture in fiscal 2020, 22 videos were posted on YouTube, featuring Kagura performances and dances that are part of the local tradition, also including those that are undesignated. Four of the 22 videos were edited versions of existing videos, but 22 were newly created with the aim of promoting performing arts activities by offering presentation opportunities (Ono City “Live streaming! ‘Odori Musubi One Heart Project’” https://www.city.ono.fukui.jp/kosodate/bunka-shinko/odorimusubi.html, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021). They place importance on the utilization aspect, such as by staging the performances in tourist spots and strategic locations throughout the city, but what is more significant is that the project has collectively recorded the community’s performing arts on video.

Another interesting case example is the “Kawagoe Festival Past & Present Archive Project” in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture. It is an attempt to gather and disclose records of the Kawagoe Festival online, to safeguard the culture of the festival that has been canceled for two consecutive years due to COVID-19. The steering committee manages a Facebook group to accumulate records by having anyone and everyone upload photos and videos of the festival, whether old or new. It also posts articles of interviews they hold with successors on the information communication platform called Note (“Kawagoe Festival Past & Present Archive Project” https://www.facebook.com/groups/kawagoematsuri.konjaku, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021).

This case example is interesting in that the Kawagoe branch office of Nomura Securities serves as the project office, and the steering committee is composed not only of organizations from the public sector, such as the board of education, and preservation organizations, but also the chamber of commerce and private companies. The involvement of the private sector has brought flexible thinking to the archive project, but private companies are also benefitting from the opportunity to protect the local folk culture as a social contribution activity that is highly meaningful also from the perspective of the SDGs (Nomura Holdings “Regional Revitalization with Nomura – Kawagoe Festival Past & Present Archive Project” https://www.nomuraholdings.com/jp/sdgs/article/011/, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021).

Lastly, I would like to introduce the “Nanjo Digital Archive” that was released in March 2021 by the Okinawa Prefecture Nanjo City Board of Education Culture Division. Although this is not directly related to COVID-19, it is an extremely forward-looking case example in which photos, videos, and written references on Nanjo City’s history and culture are openly presented online. Among them are numerous videos on folk performing arts, including recordings of performing arts competitions held in the late 1960s converted from 8mm film to digital data. As more and more materials are expected to be unearthed and added to the archive with the cooperation of local residents, it will be interesting to see how the archive will develop in the future (Nanjo City Board of Education Culture Division “Nanjo Digital Archive” https://nanjo-archive.jp/, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021).

 

  1. Summary

Up to here, I have introduced case examples of video utilization in various parts of Japan, albeit only briefly. These examples have shown us the efforts that stakeholders of intangible folk cultural properties are making to regain what they have lost to the pandemic by using video technologies.

One was to re-establish bonds between people that are born from festivals and folk performing arts. These were bonds among cultural successors, between successors and people concerned, between successors and fans (audience), and among fans.

The second was to establish presentation and teaching opportunities that disappeared accompanying the cancellation of festivals. To make up for not being able to gather an audience, video streams were used to secure presentation opportunities. However, recording methods and the completed videos all differed from each other and were dictated by the nature of the performing art, whether they are for visual appreciation or for promoting participation. The objectives of streaming videos were also diverse. Some were to broadcast live events to people who are unable to watch them in person, some were used as PR tools to gain a larger number of fans, and others were offered as paid streams to acquire funding.

The third was to stimulate interest and memories of cultural properties that have been lost accompanying the cancellation of festivals via online means, and to accumulate and safeguard cultural properties by creating a platform. These “memories” have been archived and are gradually being released online.

This ends my somewhat patchy introduction of case examples of video utilization initiatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you very much for your attention.

 

Fig.1   Hattori Myo Ohkagura in Saijocho Town Hattori District in Shobara City, Hiroshima Prefecture; photo taken by the author on Nov. 24, 2013

Fig. 2 Excerpted from GAMAIKE, Takumi and KITAKAWA, Naoko “1st Online Nationwide Local Theater Summit in Yamagata Sakegawa” Nationwide Local Performing Arts Association Bulletin (105) Nationwide Local Performing Arts Association, 2021, p. 9

 

Fig. 3 Ryukyu Shimpo Digital “Online Michi Junee Journey – Okinawa City Noborikawa Young Men’s Association” https://earth.google.com/web/data=Mj8KPQo7CiExRDA2Ty1uaEpCOU0zVFJpUTFjYW4wSWpnblJQVHFOOXISFgoUMDI3RERENkFGMDE1ODgzNDVCNkQ, last accessed on Dec. 16, 2021

Fig. 4 Iwamiginzan Kagura Association “Iwami Kagura of Ota City, Shimane Prefecture” https://shop.iwamiginzankagura.com/, last accessed on Feb. 17, 2022

Fig. 5 Ono City “Odori Musubi leaflet” https://www.city.ono.fukui.jp/kosodate/bunka-shinko/odorimusubi.files/0331chirasi.pdf, last accessed on Feb. 17, 2020