Since the twenty-fi rst century, Japan has seen the emergence of hundreds of contemporary art projects and festivals in rural regions. These initiatives aim at revitalizing the severely depopulated communities by attracting visitors and media exposure in the hope of attracting young migrants to ameliorate the demographic crisis. Inaugurated in 2010, the Setouchi Triennale in Kagawa and Okayama Prefectures is one of the famous showcases. Taking place within twelve island communities in the Seto Inland Sea, each edition of the Triennale reportedly received approximately one million visitors and generated tens of billions of yen of economic ripple effects. This paper adopts Akira Ōno’s concept of “marginal village” and examines the Triennale’s contribution to the survival of these communities. Shifting the focus away from the Triennale, this paper investigates the continuation of community functions by comparing ethnographic cases of local festive events on the islands of Teshima, Ogijima, and Inujima. By doing so, this paper demonstrates the potentials and limitations of the Triennale in helping depopulated communities to survive.
Shiu Hong Simon Tu (Tue,) studied this question.