The Miyashinbun Database is a compilation of accounts and other materials about Intangible Folk Cultural Assets in the coastal areas of Miyagi prefecture before and after they were affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. The database is the result of the survey work conducted by the Center for Northeast Asian Studies (Tohoku University) from November 2011 to February 2013 at the request of the executive committee of the Miyagi Prefecture Regional Cultural Heritage Reconstruction Project. The database content consists of interviews with local people, photographs, and other illustrative materials. “Miyashinbun” is an abbreviation of key elements of the long Japanese name of the survey.

The database is built entirely in Japanese, but it is meant for use by anyone who can read or understand Japanese. We welcome access and use by all scholars, students, and citizens interested in the traditional culture of Japan’s local areas and in the affects of the March 11, 2011 disaster.

The Center for Northeast Asian Studies conducted the “Investigation of the Damage to Folk Cultural Assets from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Miyagi” as a project commissioned by Miyagi Prefecture from November 2011 through March 2013. The survey was conducted in about 23 districts hit by the tsunami along the coast of Miyagi prefecture regarding folk performing arts, festivals, annual events, traditional occupations, and other intangible folk cultural assets, in the attempt to determine their state before the March 11 disaster, affects of and state following the disaster, and process for restoration. We were able to collect numerous accounts from a large number of people of the disaster zone and by participating in and observing festivals and other traditional events following the disaster we were able to collect material relating to folkways in the region.

The project was led by a team of 22 researchers from Tohoku University, Tohoku Gakuin University and other institutions around the country. They were specialists in qualitative sociological surveys and fieldwork mainly from the fields of cultural anthropology and folklore studies, but also religious studies, environmental sociology, and local studies. Ten students were also involved in the project to assist with the surveys. During the year and a half of the project, surveys were conducted on 154 days and 253 interviews were conducted.

The following works were published regarding the results of the survey:

• (1) TAKAKURA Hiroki, TAKIZAWA Katsuhiko, MASAOKA Nobuhiro, eds. Higashi nihon daishinsai ni tomonau hisai shita minzoku bunkazai chosa 2011 hokokusyu [2011 Fiscal Year Report of Documentation Project for Investigation of the Damage to Folk Cultural Assets from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami]. Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, 2011.
• (2) TAKAKURA Hiroki and TAKIZAWA Katsuhiko, eds. Higashi nihon daishinsai ni tomonau hisai shita minzoku bunkazai chosa 2012 hokokusyu [2012 Fiscal Year Report of Documentation Project for Investigation of the Damage to Folk Cultural Assets from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami]. Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, 2012.
• (3) TAKAKURA Hiroki and TAKIZAWA Katsuhiko, eds. Mukei minzoku bunkazai ga hisai suru to iu koto: Higashi Nihon daishinsai to Miyagiken enganbu chiiki shakai no minzokushi [The Impact of Disaster on Intangible Folk Cultural Assets: The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Ethnographyof Local Society in Coastal Areas of Miyagi Prefecture]. Tokyo: Shinsensha, 2014.

Printed copies of (1) and (2) above were donated to local and public libraries in Miyagi prefecture and to university libraries around the country where they are available for public use. In addition, a PDF version is available for downloading from the Internet at the following url:
http://ir.library.tohoku.ac.jp/re/handle/10097/53891

This database makes available to the public information about intangible folk cultural assets in Miyagi prefecture prior to the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, immediately after the disaster and in the continuing process after the disaster for the purpose of supporting research, survey, and educational uses. The quantity of material collected in the survey includes transcripts of the interview accounts totaling approximately 1,500 400-character genko yoshi pages (roughly 1,000 250-word pages if translated into English) and 250 photographs and other illustrative materials.

The construction of this database is intended to expand the potential for use of the resources resulting from the survey. The value of the immense amount of information the survey yielded, which is significant enough in the form of the printed report, may have even greater potential as a searchable database. Depending upon the curiosity or background knowledge of the individual user and on free association between various fields of knowledge, the fragments of information contained therein can be freshly connected in ways, thereby acquiring new meaning that might transcend any one editor’s scheme.

We therefore envision that this database will be used by citizens, students, children, and researchers interested in the way intangible folk cultural assets of Miyagi prefecture were affected by the disaster. The search system allows users to locate information collected by preset keyword (e.g., locale, festival, folk performing art, occupation, etc.) and also by freely chosen words. Links are also provided to related outside databases.

This database is designed to support information collection for the study of the disaster in the schools as well as disaster research in universities and research institutes as well as for citizen-driven surveys. We hope that such study of the intangible folk cultural properties affected by the disaster by citizens, in the schools, and at research institutions will help to enhance interest in the tsunami-affected region and promote the reinvigoration of local activity in those regions.

The construction of this database was supported in part by funds under the FY2013 Agency for Cultural Affairs project of Local Revitalization by Utilizing the Advantage of Cultural Heritage (Bunka Isan wo Ikashita Chiiki Kasseika Jigyo).