This September I have been spending most of my time in Kyushu. Until now, I had been deeply fascinated by the Jomon period and was often drawn to northeastern Tohoku, where distinctive Jomon culture can still be traced, but although I had visited Kyushu several times, I had rarely spent enough time there to think, reflect, and gain deeper insights into its rich history and culture. However, as I spend a significant period here this time, I have come to realize many things. Above all, Kyushu is a large island. Since ancient times, Kyushu has been divided into multiple cultural spheres, and to interpret them correctly one must first dissolve the collective illusions that often obscure them.
What has historically been a major obstacle in gaining insights into Japan is the tendency to centralize our perspective—treating an island nation as if it were a continent and centering everything around Yamato, Kyoto, or Edo. This mindset becomes the hidden premise for understanding “Japan” and “Japanese,” but ignoring this obstacle is impossible, and as long as we are Japanese, we must confront how to engage with it and how to open up new realms beyond it. Because the impression of Japan as merely an island nation has become excessively strong, it has indeed become difficult to cultivate other perspectives, but precisely for that reason it is imperative to incorporate the movements of people across the historical seas far more than we currently imagine.
The attitude of seeing Japan from the perspective of maritime tribes is not a new attempt in itself, but during the era of prewar imperialism, when Japan had to justify itself, and later during the postwar years when Japan had to rebuild rapidly, this question was never taken seriously. Even today, the perspective that emphasizes the sea remains almost ignored in archaeology and history, though in folklore studies, which rely heavily on fieldwork, it has been consistently advocated. In this sense, incorporating the folkloric viewpoint while building upon the achievements of archaeology and history demands from each of us a difficult steering of perspective in how we view Japan.