BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Japan Foundation, Toronto - ECPv6.6.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://tr.jpf.go.jp
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Japan Foundation, Toronto
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Toronto
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240730T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240730T201500
DTSTAMP:20261003T235347
CREATED:20240718T160041Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240729T170611Z
UID:95295-1722362400-1722370500@tr.jpf.go.jp
SUMMARY:Remembering the Island of the Gods: Izaihō in Film\, Memory\, and History
DESCRIPTION:Reservations are now closed. Thank you for your interest. We will have a rush line before the event\, and will start to release unclaimed seats 10 minutes before the event. \n \nRemembering the Island of the Gods: Izaihō in Film\, Memory\, and History \nTuesday\, July 30\, 6:00PM (ET) \nDoors open 5:30PM | Film Screening & Lecture Event | In-Person | JFT Event Hall \nNOMURA Gakuya’s film Izaihō vividly captures the rhythms of everyday life on Kudaka Island\, as well as the planning and performance of one of the final Izaihō. The experience of watching the film is so fascinating that we might not give much thought to its historical context. And yet\, in 1968\, the main island of Okinawa\, only a few kilometers to the west\, was in the midst of significant social and political turmoil. Ordinary people still struggled to come to grips with the consequences of the Battle of Okinawa\, only two decades earlier\, in which 150\,000 Okinawan civilians were killed\, and most cities and villages destroyed. Unlike mainland Japan\, Okinawa remained under American military occupation. Rebuilding homes and businesses was difficult\, and the future was unclear. Charged debates over independence\, continued subordination to the United States\, or return to Japanese rule took place everywhere\, from public meetings to the kitchen table. Citizens took to the streets to protest economic disparity\, the use of Okinawan bases to fight the war in Vietnam\, and their lack of political self-determination. How does an understanding of this context shape our understanding of Nomura’s film? How can the film help us to have a more complex understanding of that moment in time? \n\nSpeaker Profile: \n \nChristopher T. Nelson is a cultural anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For nearly three decades\, he has done ethnographic fieldwork in Okinawa\, Japan. His work focuses on the relationship between history and memory\, and he has a deep interest in storytelling\, ritual and performance. \nHis new book\, When the Bones Speak: The Living\, the Dead\, and the Sacrifice of Okinawa\, an ethnography of laborers\, artists\, ethnologists\, political activists\, shaman and the dead in Japan\, will be published by Duke University Press in the spring of 2025. \n\nAbout the film: \n \nIzaihō \nDirected by NOMURA Gakuya • 1967 • Documentary • 49 minutes • Presented in Japanese with English subtitles • Trailer \nKudaka Island is a half-agricultural and half-fishing remote island where the men run the fishing industry and the women do the agriculture. Life on the small island is not easy. They share the scarce water and share the land fairly with an allotment system. When the boys become men\, they all go out the sea. The women come together around the rituals\, praying for the safety of the journeying men and protection of the island. The men are fishermen and travelers\, and the women are priestesses who protect them. Kudaka Island has long been known as the “island of the gods\,” and 30 yearly rituals embedded into island life are solemnly passed down by the islanders even to this day. Held once every 12 years on the year of the horse\, Izaihō is Kudaka Island’s greatest ritual. During Izaihō\, women from the ages of 30 to 41 who were born on and live on the island become gods.  \nThis film captures the Izaihō performed in 1966. The ritual was held once more in 1978 and then vanished — an unusual occurrence. While many of Japan’s festivals and rituals are becoming mere charades as they transform into tourist attractions in order to survive\, Izaihō disappeared while it was still in practice and remained representative of the spirit of the people of Kudaka Island. \n\nThis is the final event of our Keep Dancin’\, Okinawa! film series\, in celebration of Okinawan stories\, culture\, and history. \nFree admission. Register below.
URL:https://tr.jpf.go.jp/event/izaiho/
LOCATION:The Japan Foundation\, Toronto\, 2 Bloor St. East\, 3rd Floor\, Toronto\, ON\, M4W 1A8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Film Screening,Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://tr.jpf.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/remembering_izaiho-square.png
ORGANIZER;CN="The Japan Foundation%2C Toronto":MAILTO:info_jftoronto@jpf.go.jp
GEO:43.6710659;-79.3857432
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=The Japan Foundation Toronto 2 Bloor St. East 3rd Floor Toronto ON M4W 1A8 Canada;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=2 Bloor St. East\, 3rd Floor:geo:-79.3857432,43.6710659
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR