Japan-Korea Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Exchange Project in 2025
Training room of the Gangneung Danoje Educational Training Center (equipped with musical instruments and costumes for training)
Theater associated with the Gangneung Danoje Educational Training Center
Dissemination Performance of Hahoe Byeolsingut Mask Dance Drama performance, fully occupied (temporary space, as the theater is under construction)
The outcome presentation held on the last day (at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Bureau of the Korea Heritage Service)
The Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) has been conducting research exchanges with the Korea Heritage Service (formerly the Cultural Heritage Administration) of the Republic of Korea since 2008. As part of this project, we conduct human resource exchanges by mutually dispatching researchers for research. In 2025, Ms. MAEHARA Megumi, Head of the Intangible Cultural Properties Section, conducted research in Korea on the theme of “Systematic Approach to Promoting Traditional Performing Art Training and Education Without Reliance on Heredity.”
Like Japan, Korea is experiencing a declining birthrate. This situation can impact the transmission of traditional performing arts to the next generation. Considering this circumstance, the research at this time focused on the activities of preservation societies for traditional performing arts in Korea and the “National Intangible Cultural Heritage Training” system, in which universities selected by the government participate in nurturing successors for traditional performing arts and others.
Gangneung Danoje festival (selected as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage of Korea: formerly 13th National Important Intangible Cultural Property) held in the Dano festival on the Lunar calendar and Hahoe Byeolsingut Mask Dance Drama (selected as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage of Korea: formerly 69th National Important Intangible Cultural Property), in which dancers wearing wooden masks perform welcoming dances for deities of villages, are both listed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. Both preservation societies of these traditional performing arts have educational training centers and performance spaces (Figures 1, 2, and 3), and conduct performances and exhibitions for their dissemination, establish various curricula to nurture successors, and hold presentations of their activity outcomes at their centers. Furthermore, Gyeongsang National University, Chonnam National University, and the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, which were selected in the “National Intangible Cultural Heritage Training” system, make efforts to organize training for potential successors of traditional performing arts and craft techniques as a part of the university education, exploring ways to collaborate with preservation societies, though they are different organizations.
We recognized that we can learn a lot from these environments and systems to pass down traditional performing arts in Japan. Obviously, the participants face various challenges: how to manage an academic career while performing art skills, problems of over-tourism, how to build comprehensive collaborative relationships, and so on. We believe that Japan shares these challenges. We will make efforts to find ways to contribute to the transmission of traditional performing arts in Japan while further understanding traditional performing arts of Korea.
We thank the members of the Intangible Heritage Bureau of the National Heritage Service of the Republic of Korea for their heartfelt support from the research to the outcome presentations on the last day of the research trip (Figure 4).