ABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to clarify the processes of contents tourism promotion and local cultural heritage revitalization using pop culture contents or popular media. Specifically, this article analyzes the potential of games and anime to play a role in the revitalization of regional historical resources. As a case study, it focuses on the case of Shiroishi city, Miyagi prefecture, in northern Japan and the video game and television anime Sengoku BASARA. This article describes how the local community reacted to a tourism boom triggered by the game and anime, and how they took advantage of the renewed interest in their local history created by popular cultural forms to revitalize historical heritage in the city. The findings suggest that a key to the successful use of game contents to promote historical tourism is for the game/anime to be treated as an opportunity, and to have the fans of the game/anime become fans of the local region. Such a process encourages local residents to feel pride towards their local history. These suggestions imply the possibility of new forms of tourism where new cultures can be created by revitalizing local heritage.
Introduction
Since the early 2000s, many nations around the world have experienced Japanese pop culture booms. Japan’s economy has been largely stagnant since the bursting of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, but now pop culture (particularly manga, anime, and games) is attracting great attention as an export industry and as tourism resources for attracting inbound tourists. In Japan, today there is a drive to take advantage of the global interest in the nation’s pop culture to promote industries such as tourism and to pursue cultural diplomacy. Pop culture policy is now central to Japan’s national strategy for the twenty-first century.
In 2005, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs published a joint report titled: ‘Investigative Report on Regional Development by the Production and Utilization of Contents Such as Film.’ This report used a new term kontentsu tsūōrizumu (from the English ‘contents tourism’) to mean ‘tourism with the intention of promoting travel and related industries by utilizing contents related to the local area (movies, television dramas, novels, manga, games and so on)’ (MLIT et al. Citation2005).
In 2007, the anime television series Lucky Star became one of the first important case studies of contents tourism. It was broadcast from April to September 2007 and many fans of the anime visited Washimiya Town in Saitama, which was where the anime was set. It has become a key example of how members of local commerce and industry associations and fans could cooperate to develop commercial activity significant enough to revitalize the town (Yamamura, Citation2008). With the increasing attention to tourism promotion utilizing manga and anime in particular, the Japan Tourism Agency (established in 2008 as an affiliated agency of the central government) published Japan Anime Tourism Guide in 2010 (Japan Tourism Agency & The Association of Japanese Animations, Citation2010). Local governments across the country have also been working actively on regional promotion utilizing manga and anime (Yamamura, Citation2011).
Academic research into contents tourism has only just begun in Japan. Early studies – including those by Yamamura (Citation2008), Masubuchi (Citation2010), and Okamoto (Citation2011) – have discussed the possibility of tourism promotion triggered in particular by anime contents (narratives, characters, locations, and other creative elements of anime) from the perspectives of regional development, community development theory, and sociology. However, most of these early studies focused on individual works that have induced tourism, and much of the evidence remained anecdotal. Subsequently, several holistic studies of contents tourism were published by international research teams (e.g. Beeton, Yamamura, & Seaton, Citation2013; Seaton, Yamamura, Sugawa-Shimada, & Jang, Citation2017). Seaton et al. (Citation2017, p. 3) define ‘contents tourism’ as ‘travel behavior motivated fully or partially by narratives, characters, locations, and other creative elements of pop culture forms, including film, television dramas, manga, anime, novels, and computer games.’ However, compared with studies on the utilization of film, television dramas, manga, anime, and novels for tourism promotion, there are even fewer studies about game contents, which is the subject of this article.
This emerging contents tourism literature in Japanese fits within a broader international literature of film tourism studies or film-induced tourism. There is now a significant number of studies investigating the relationship between the moving image and tourism. This literature has addressed the interaction between media and tourists (e.g. Crouch, Jackson, & Thompson, Citation2005) and the behaviors and travel experiences of film location tourists (e.g. Roesch, Citation2009), while applied studies have looked at community planning (Beeton, Citation2005), destination marketing, and tourism promotion (Beeton, Citation2005; Roesch, Citation2009), and the impacts of such tourism on communities. These studies of film tourism in the English-language literature, however, have mainly focused on live-action films and TV dramas, while anime and games have received very little attention.
The objective of this study is to clarify the processes of contents tourism promotion and local cultural heritage revitalization using pop culture contents or popular media. Specifically, this article analyzes the potential of games and anime to play a role in the revitalization of regional historical resources. The study is not only one of the first clear examples of what might be termed ‘game-induced tourism,’ a subject that Roesch (Citation2009, p. 231) has identified as a major area of future research. Furthermore, the study here is of particular interest because the form of tourism is visits to locations featured in the game rather than trips by gamers to gaming conventions. This article also presents a clear example of ‘multi-use,’ a concept that is essential for understanding the analytical approaches inherent within the concept of ‘contents tourism.’ Sengoku BASARA was first released as a video game, but its popularity then spawned anime television series and later feature-length anime films. The multi-use of the same contents (characters, locations, and narratives) in different formats makes it difficult to distinguish which particular media format has induced the tourism. Indeed, as the term contents tourism suggests, it is the contents rather than the media format that is the primary focus of interest.Footnote1
Game/anime contents and local historical-heritage: The case of Shiroishi
As a case study, this article focuses on the case of Shiroishi city, Miyagi prefecture, in northern Japan. Katakura Kojuro (1557–1615) was a bushō (samurai military commander) from Shiroishi who lived at the end of the Sengoku, or Warring States Period (that lasted from the mid-fifteenth to the late-sixteenth century), and during the early years of the Tokugawa Period (1600–1868). Katakura was one of the main characters in the video game and television anime Sengoku BASARA. This article describes how the local community reacted to a tourism boom triggered by the game and anime, and how they took advantage of the renewed interest in their local history created by popular cultural forms to revitalize historical heritage in the city.
Before discussing the case study, it is necessary to offer a brief note on the methodology. In a field as young as contents tourism, and particularly when the subject matter is what might be called ‘subcultural’ (although becoming more and more mainstream), there are virtually no academic sources in Japanese, let alone in English. The main sources for this article, therefore, are interviews with those involved in the tourism sector in Shiroishi, reports in local media, fan or tourism websites, and official documents published online. In recent years, game/anime production companies, local governments, and fans have increasingly made information available via the Internet rather than in printed materials. The content of such sites, however, is constantly changing and the reliability of the information is not always guaranteed. Therefore, where possible this study refers to official sites, and the author fact-checked these data by interviewing those involved.
In this manner, the case is presented based on qualitative research such as interviews and source collection of official documents, local media, and fan/tourism websites. As a methodology, this is the ‘triangulation’ (Patton, Citation2001) of sources in order to present some rigor and maintain some transparency to the data used as evidence.
Shiroishi city is located in the southern part of Miyagi prefecture () and had a population of 37,140 people at the end of August 2012 (when the study was conducted). It is a castle town that developed around Shiroishi Castle. The castle was seized by Date Masamune from Uesugi Kagekatsu during the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), and Katakura ‘Kojuro’ Kagetsuna, who was a close advisor to Date Masamune, became the lord of the castle in 1602. Under the Tokugawa Shogunate that was established after the Battle of Sekigahara, an edict was issued that limited each feudal domain to one castle. In an exception to this edict, however, the Katakura family remained as lords of the castle for about 260 years until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, and throughout the period Shiroishi Castle was a branch castle of the Sendai domain (Yomiuri Shimbun Tohoku Sōkyoku, Citation1995).
Figure 1. Location of Shiroishi city.
(Source: illustrated by author.)
The Katakura family was not very well known in Japan before 2005. However, the popularity of Katakura ‘Kojuro’ Kagetsuna among the younger generation suddenly took off around 2006, and the number of tourists in their 20s and 30s visiting Shiroishi city rapidly increased.Footnote2 This boom was triggered by a video game released by CAPCOM in July of 2006, Sengoku BASARA2. Kojuro appeared in the game and was depicted as a stylish and attractive looking character.
In recent years, there have been more and more examples of samurai commanders becoming popular as a result of their depictions in games and anime (see for example Kanetake, Citation2010; Sugawa, Citation2011). Most booms are temporary. However, the case of Shiroishi city is exceptional in that even though the boom was triggered by games and anime, the local community took the opportunity to create new festivals at the castle and has held them regularly ever since. These festivals allow local citizens and fans of Sengoku-period samurai commanders from outside the locality to participate in events such as reenactments of battles. Furthermore, a group of sightseeing ambassadors called Bushō-tai (samurai commander corps) was formed.
The Shiroishi case study illustrates, therefore, a pioneering model of participatory tourism in the field of contents tourism where tourism has flourished because of the enthusiasm of both local citizens and fans. This case quickly gained national attention, and when the Japan Tourism Agency produced a publicity brochure in 2010 called Japan Anime Tourism Guide, Shiroishi city was introduced as one of the pioneering examples of anime tourism in Japan. In the research field of media studies, there are several studies which present similar models of ‘opportunity’ versus ‘threat’ such as Jenkins’ ‘collaborationist’ versus ‘prohibitionist’ framework (Jenkins, Citation2006, pp. 131–168). While Jenkins is not looking at tourism, he is analyzing the same phenomenon of fan-industry-government/non-government models of participation and cultural production. In this regard, the present study is an extension of this already well-established idea/theory into the field of contents tourism.
Process of contents tourism promotion and cultural heritage revitalization
Usually, the promotion of tourism using the popularity of samurai commanders consists primarily of touring scenic and historical places related to the historical figures or tourism induced by historical dramas on television (such as NHK’s Taiga dramas). However, the example of tourism development in Shiroishi has followed a different pattern. shows the process of tourism promotion and community development in Shiroishi city based on the popularity of the military commander Katakura Kojuro generated by the video game and anime Sengoku BASARA. The table illustrates the involvement of three groups: fans (tourists), the local community, and the production company, and divides the process of tourism development into five stages.
Table 1. Chronology of Sengoku BASARA and contents tourism promotion in Shiroishi city.
The first ‘fan-led’ stage (2005–2007)
Before the local government knew about the existence of CAPCOM’s game Sengoku BASARA, fans had started visiting Shiroishi. The local government reacted and responded to this first ‘fan-led’ stage of the process by observing the fans’ behaviors and gathering information on their practices and motivations.
The genesis of Sengoku BASARA fandom was the release of the video game Sengoku BASARA in July 2005. It is an action game set in the Warring States (Sengoku) Period. It depicts actual samurai commanders in ways that had never been seen before and attracted a lot of attention as it enabled players to enact showdowns between many of the most popular samurai of the period. Katakura Kojuro, the lord of Shiroishi Castle, appeared in the second game in the series, Sengoku BASARA2 released in July 2006. The third game in the series, Sengoku BASARA2 HEROES (released in November 2007), centered more on Kojuro, who was a minor character up until then.
According to officials in Miyagi prefecture and Shiroishi city, many female tourists in their 20s and 30s began visiting Shiroishi between the releases of the second and third Sengoku BASARA games (2006–2007). It came to their attention via the fans’ behavior in Shiroishi.Footnote3 Young women were ordering special meals called Katakura Kojuro Zen (a full course Japanese meal that recreated the menu the Katakura family used to prepare for Lord Date’s family) at restaurants in the city, which at 5500 yen cost considerably more than most set lunch menus. Teacups with Katakura Kojuro’s name on them that had previously sold relatively few units in the gift shops at Shiroishi Castle were suddenly being purchased at a fast pace. In addition, young female tourists were frequently spotted riding the yellow rental bicycles that are rented out at the tourist information center in front of JR Shiroishi Station (see ). Also, in 2006–7 there was a marked change in the demographics of tourists visiting Shiroishi Castle (see ), from elderly visitors to women in their 20s and 30s.
Figure 2. Young female visitors traveling around Shiroishi city using rental bicycles (in front of JR Shiroishi Station).
(Source: Photograph courtesy of Shiroishi City General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section, October 2010.)
Figure 3. Shiroishi Castle.
Officials in Shiroishi city did not make the connection between this touristic activity and Sengoku BASARA at first. Staff at the Shiroishi City General Affairs Division, Planning and Information Section started researching the behavior of the young female tourists, and discovered that they were fans of Sengoku BASARA. This became the starting point for various initiatives related to Sengoku BASARA in Shiroishi city.
Project and festival led by the local community (2008)
In response to the influx of tourists, the local community undertook two main initiatives. One was the ‘Kojuro Project,’ established in January 2008 by volunteers among the junior employees of Shiroishi city hall. They created homepages posting information about events, designed t-shirts, and started promoting Shiroishi city using Katakura Kojuro.Footnote4
The other initiative was the Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival,Footnote5 which was started by a group of local citizens. The Planning and Information Section of Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department took on the responsibility of creating a regional development strategy using the history of Shiroishi Castle and the Katakura family, which are the city’s major historical resources. The Planning and Information Section formed a planning committee together with local citizens to hold the Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival, which had the Katakura family as its theme. The first festival was held on 4 October 2008 at Shiroishi Castle’s Honmaru (the main keep). From 10 a.m. on the morning of the festival, a Kojuro contest was held where people impersonated Kojuro in various costumes and gave performances on a special stage. From 1 p.m. over 60 people wearing samurai armor gathered at the main keep of Shiroishi Castle and reenacted the Battle of Domyoji from the summer siege of Osaka Castle in 1615. This battle was between forces led by Katakura and Sanada Yukimura, and the reenactment has become the centerpiece of the festival every year since 2008 (). It is an intense event. Fans of Katakura Kojuro and Sanada Yukimura gather from around the country and participate alongside local citizens. Approximately 100 people in period armor take part in the reenactment (Shiroishi City (General Administration Division), Citation2008, pp. 2–3; Shiroishi City (General Administration Division), Citation2009b, pp. 28–29; Kahoku Shinpo, Citation2008a; Kahoku Shinpo, Citation2008b). The festival is run by a group whose core members are people in their 20s and 30s.
Figure 4. A scene from the second Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival (3 October 2009).The main event of the festival is the reenactment of the Battle of Domyoji and the fierce fight between the Katakura army and Sanada army at the summer siege of Osaka Castle.
(Source: Photograph courtesy of Shiroishi City General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section.)
The number of people who visited Shiroishi Castle in the same month of the festival in 2008, which was the first year the festival was held, was 7745 people, or a 40% increase compared to the previous year (Asahi Shinbun, Citation2009). Since then the festival has been held every year on the first Saturday in October, and the number of visitors is increasing every year ().
Table 2. Number of visitors to the Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival.
According to Shiroishi city, the basic policy is to emphasize the real historical figure Katakura Kojuro, but to use games and anime as a hook to get people interested. In other words, even if the initial interest came from Sengoku BASARA, people who visit Shiroishi city can feel that there is much more to the story than just what is in the game. The policy thus aims to show how there are many other attractive contents related to the history of samurai commanders that cannot be obtained simply through playing games like Sengoku BASARA.Footnote6
Tie-in of the local government with the game company (2008)
While popular awareness of Katakura Kojuro was triggered by the first Sengoku BASARA video game in 2005, the character’s popularity drastically increased with the release of the second game in the series, Sengoku BASARA2, in 2006. Following this, Shiroishi city contacted CAPCOM, the game production company, for the first time (Yamamura, Citation2011, p. 101).
In November 2007, CAPCOM released Sengoku BASARA2 HEROES, which further increased the popularity of Katakura Kojuro. In response, Shiroishi city initiated specific action plans by actively cooperating with the game production company CAPCOM. They negotiated a tie-in with CAPCOM for the use of copyrights, and from 1 April 2008 ran a bus service called ‘Castle-kun Kojuro bus’Footnote7 decorated with images of Katakura Kojuro and Date Masamune from the game version of Sengoku BASARA (Mainichi Shinbun, Citation2009) (). At the ceremonial launch of the bus service, the town organized an event at which 100 commemorative bus tickets were distributed. The number who came to this event from around the country greatly exceeded the anticipated 100 people, and at this point Shiroishi city were convinced of the commercial potential created by the popularity of Sengoku BASARA.
Figure 5. Shiroishi civic bus Castle-kun ‘Kojuro bus.’
(Source: © CAPCOM CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
On 8 August of the same year, Shiroishi city placed a large sign with the same illustration that was used on the ‘Kojuro bus’ at the Kojuro Plaza, which is a tourist facility in front of JR Shiroishi Station opened to promote Katakura Kojuro (). At this time, the city was working with CAPCOM to check the design of the bus and revising texts for press releases. In such ways, they paid utmost attention regarding the use of copyrights.
Figure 6. The Sengoku BASARA sign outside Kojuro Plaza.
(Source: © CAPCOM CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
Tie-in of the anime production company and the local government (2009)
As a result of these various developments, officials within the local government, beginning with the prefectural office, had learned of the popularity of Sengoku BASARA. At about the same time, the anime production company Production I.G, Inc. announced that a television anime version of Sengoku BASARA would be broadcast starting in April 2009. Leading figures in the local governments of Miyagi prefecture, Sendai city, and Shiroishi city were contacted by Production I.G, Inc., and local officials visited the company at the end of January 2009. After this visit, executives from the company visited the prefecture and convened a seminar called ‘Sales Strategies Using Anime’ at the Miyagi prefectural office (Yamamura, Citation2011, pp. 102–103).
The seminar was a relatively rare occasion in which a large production company ventured from its Tokyo headquarters out to Japan’s regional areas to consult with local businesses about license contracts, tie-in methods, and matching local businesses with production companies; usually, small businesses need to go the production company. With the participation of the local government, the seminar offered a forum for businesses and the anime production company to speak directly to each other. It informed the local community about the specifics of the license business, from explanations of copyright procedures to an introduction to the market for anime products (Shiroishi City (General Administration Division), Citation2009a, pp. 6–7). Thereafter, having made the links, the local government could let businesses and the production company negotiate directly with each other on issues such as future product development. Local businesses that wished to create tie-ins could still go through the Miyagi prefectural office or Shiroishi city hall, but many businesses consulted with Production I.G directly after the seminar and reached licensing agreements.
This kind of coordination – where the local community and anime producers are put directly in touch, the business environment is prepared, and the rest is left up to the efforts of the private companies – is exactly the role that is expected of local governments. Production I.G and Miyagi prefecture were clearly aware of these roles in constructing this business model from the start.
Furthermore, because this approach explicitly aimed to promote local industries it was different from a simple license business where the rights to use copyrighted images are sold. The place where local businesses could liaise with the prefecture and make contact with the production company was the prefectural government’s Office of Information and Industry Promotion in the Planning Department, so the intent to promote local industries within the prefecture was clear. By connecting existing traditional industries (such as local beers, local sake, rice, and traditional crafts) to the anime industry and packaging their traditional products with anime characters, businesses succeeded in finding new customer groups different from their conventional markets and thereby expanding their markets. For example, at the ‘Japan Anime Collaboration Market 2009ʹ (JAM2009) held at the UDX building AKIBA SQUARE in Akihabara, Tokyo from October 15 to 18, 2009,Footnote8 local traditional products marketed as a result of tie-ins between local businesses and Sengoku BASARA were extensively displayed.
As a result, anime fans purchased such local traditional products and it was an opportunity for fans to learn about the quality of those products as well as the overall attractiveness of the region. Local businesses that had concluded tie-ins increased their sales.Footnote9 Prominent examples of tie-ins were reported in local media, which further promoted understanding regarding the importance of tie-ins. In these ways, the Shiroishi case is a good example of an occasion where the contents and the concept of product development matched perfectly, even though the game and television anime of Sengoku BASARA represented the attractiveness of historical figures from the region in a completely new way.
Initiatives by volunteer groups and citizens (2010-)
In September 2010, participants in the reenactment of the Battle of Domyoji at the Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival joined forces with volunteers from Shiroishi city, from within Miyagi prefecture, and from Tokyo, and formed a volunteer group called the ‘Shiroishi Samurai Commander Corps’ (Asahi Shinbun, Citation2010a). Five members of the group attended a ceremony at the keep of Shiroishi Castle on 7 September, when Mayor Kazama Kojo presented them with an official authorization certificate (Shiroishi City, Citation2010, p. 10). Subsequently, they became sightseeing ambassadors (nicknamed ‘smile ambassadors’) of the city in May 2011 (Shiroishi City, Citation2011, pp. 4–6). Corps members participate in events around the country as ‘Shiroishi Samurai Commander Corps’ members and as sightseeing ambassadors officially recognized by the local government. They play a role in expanding the promotional activities of Shiroishi city. Moreover, in April 2012, the local noodle company Sato Seiji Seimen released Shiroishi ūmen (a type of sōmen, or thin noodles, that is a specialty of Shiroishi city), which uses images of the Corps on the packaging. When parts of Shiroishi Castle were damaged during the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, part of the profits from the sales of noodles were donated by the company to the city for the restoration of the castle, as well as to support the activities of the Corps (Asahi Shinbun, Citation2012).
The ‘Shiroishi Samurai Commander Corps’ is not an entirely new concept. A number of other similar groups have formed around the country, including the ‘Nagoya Hospitality Samurai Commander Corps’ (Nagoya omotenashi bushōtai) which was formed in November 2009, as well as the ‘Sendai city Date Masamune Hospitality Samurai Commander Corps’ (Oushu/Sendai omotenashi shudan date bushōtai), the ‘Yamagata Prefecture We Love Samurai Commanders Corps’ (Yamagata Okitama ai no bushōtai), and the ‘Armor Corps’ (Oshi castle omotenashi kacchūtai) formed in Gyoda city, Saitama prefecture. However, most of these projects have used central government job creation funds to help the unemployed (Asahi Shinbun, Citation2010b). In contrast, the ‘Shiroishi Samurai Commander Corps’ is a volunteer organization that was set up by volunteers who participate in the festival every year. They asked the city if they could contribute to the promotion of tourism to the city while enjoying their hobby of wearing armor and dressing up as samurai. They are primarily pursuing a hobby, but the city approves of their role in tourism promotion and supports their activities.Footnote10 They are a group born and sustained through the enthusiasm of the fans that gather at the festival from around the country.
The ‘Shiroishi Samurai Commander Corps’ expanded its activities following the devastating 11 March 2011 earthquake, such as performing fundraising activities at the Miyagi Furusato (‘hometown’) Plaza in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.Footnote11 The group also sent out messages of encouragement on their blogs to people affected by the earthquake (Shiroishi City Citation2011, pp. 4–6). There are also cases when these groups overcome their differences in organizational structure and cooperate with each other. For example, at the fifth Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival in 2012, the ‘Yamagata Prefecture We Love Military Commanders Corps’ and the ‘Shinshu Ueda Hospitality Corps’ also gave live performances (Shiroishi City Citation2012, pp. 4–5). Presently, while most of the other samurai commander groups are struggling to secure financial resources after their government funds for employment creation ran out, the ‘Shiroishi Samurai Commander Corps’ continues to prosper.
How can histories that are difficult to imagine be represented?
Shiroishi city’s approach is one important example of how to represent histories through modern media. In this approach, an image of the past that is difficult to understand is re-presented through modern culture, in ways that we are familiar with and can enjoy. This is the incorporation of the past into the present as an image.
Sengoku BASARA made Katakura Kojuro suddenly popular. He was not well known before the release of CAPCOM’s game, but his dramatic depiction resonated with people. It opened up a potential market and created a new group of fans. Fans then became interested in samurai commanders and visited Shiroishi city, which is the place most associated with one particular military commander. It became an opportunity for them to come in contact with the history of the local region, learn about it, and become admirers of the local region.
The important issue here, however, is the role of the local region. The case of Shiroishi city can be seen as a model for other local regions that seek to benefit from the recent boom in contents tourism. The game and anime must be treated as an opportunity in order to have the game/anime fans become fans of the local region and have local residents feel pride in their local history. An important step for achieving this is to connect the game/anime contents (narratives, characters, locations, and other creative elements) with the historical contents of the local region. This must be done in a way as to make it look multi-layered. Finally, through this step, the attractiveness as well as the depth of the local region must be shown to the fans. Moreover, local residents also can recognize that the fans of the game/anime are not just admirers of the work, but that they are actually admiring the historical figures from and the history of the local region, too. Shiroishi’s experience offers us these insights as ideal requirements for successful contents tourism development.
The Oni Kojuro Matsuri Festival is an excellent example of how this model can succeed. By participating in the festival, fans of Sengoku BASARA are able to experience various parts of the long history of Shiroishi as a castle town. On the other hand, the residents learn that the fans gathering from around the country come because they are attracted to Katakura Kojuro. In this way, fans become more attracted to the local region itself, while the residents feel more pride in their region as well. It is a mutually reinforcing system where the fans and the local residents appreciate the cultural heritage of the castle town of the Katakura family.
Sengoku BASARA also presents a model for product development. Through business tie-ins with local products and traditional crafts, there is a very real overlap between the historical contents of the game/anime and the historical contents of the local region. These tie-ins connect the present with the past and succeed in showing the historical contents as a consecutive story on one temporal axis.
Constructing a good relationship between the original history and the derivative work
Such discussions always raise the question of accuracy and invention in narrating history (Urry, Citation1990; Urry & Larsen, Citation2011). The way history is depicted in anime and manga may differ substantially from the widely accepted historical facts or may even be outright fabrication. Popular media formats such as games and anime are powerful at representing images of the past, but they may greatly simplify otherwise complicated contents. Moreover, there is always the possibility that popular media may create the wrong image or an image unacceptable to the local regions or historical actors.
However, when a work or pop culture product has been created with respect towards the actual history, even if the story diverges significantly from the historical facts or is otherwise dramatized, it can still emphasize strongly the essence of the actual history to consumers. It is also possible to further enrich the contents of the local region in this way. Yet, the key is whether or not the creator has respected the actual history. It also depends on how well the actual history is narrated and passed on in non-fictional/non-fantasy forms, and if there is a way for people to clearly understand what is fact and what is fantasy in the pop culture version.
The depiction of the character Katakura Kojuro in Sengoku BASARA is based on historical facts, but he is depicted in a way that had never been seen before (see the Sengoku BASARA videogame images of Kojuro in and , and see his historical portrait painted in the Meiji period in ). However, he was not depicted in a way that destroyed the context provided by the local region. Instead, by distorting the individualities of each samurai commander, game companies and anime companies sometimes have succeeded in emphasizing certain essential parts of the local regional context even more. In other words, such popular cultural representations enhance even further the narrative quality of the local region and its local contents. In Sengoku BASARA, Kojuro is always depicted as a loyal retainer protecting Lord Date Masamune, and this reflects the historical fact that Kojuro was a close advisor and a military strategist for Masamune. This representation also reflects the dominant discourse of Kojuro in the local region. In this way, consumers are able to connect with the local region through games and anime.Footnote12
Figure 7. Katakura ‘Kojuro’ Kagetsuna’s portrait painted in the Meiji Period.
(Source: Sendai City Museum collection.)
With derivative works continuing to develop in this way, the contents (narrative quality) that the local region possesses may actually increase their profoundness and value over time. Moreover, even if such creative works increase, the official history itself is not rewritten as long as the official history is properly researched and preserved. Conversely, if the actual history is passed on in highly visible and respectful ways such as through local history museums and academic scholarship, people are able to let their imaginations drive their creativity without fear of them being accused of rewriting history. This is an extremely important issue for tourism that uses the history and culture of the local region as a resource.
In sum, to construct a good relationship between the original history and the derivative work, respect for the actual history in the derivative work is important. Furthermore, in promoting historical or heritage tourism using games and anime that give even fantastical representations of history, it is important that the derivative works are seen as an opportunity by local actors, and not as a threat to ‘actual history.’
Conclusion
Shiroishi city was able to revitalize heritage and historical tourism by seeing the Sengoku BASARA games and anime as an opportunity rather than as a threat to their local history. As one city official said, ‘After all, the original lord of the castle, Katakura Kojuro is most important.’ It is Kojuro as a historical figure that local officials want to promote, rather than the game or any other popular cultural form per se. Nevertheless, they have made various plans that utilize the image of Kojuro created by the game.Footnote13 Shiroishi’s approach of putting the historical contents of the local region before the game/anime contents (narratives, characters, locations, and other creative elements) has not really been seen in other cases. This policy, however, worked to their advantage when it came to tourism promotion, community development, and promoting cooperation between the prefectural office and the local residents. The so-called pop culture contents are creative elements, to a greater or lesser extent, that are edited and directed (‘entertainmentized,’ fantasized, and parodied) based on historical facts, historic cultural heritage, and authentic regional resources, with the aim of distributing them through the media and having them consumed for entertainment. These pop culture contents foster a motivation for tourism; tourists visit the places associated with them with the goal of cross referencing the pop culture contents with the basis for them (the historical facts, historic cultural heritage, and authentic regional resources). Moreover, through this tourism phenomenon, the pop culture contents, which are secondary creations of the historic cultural heritage, are recognized and approved as local resources by local residents, and then become established and passed down in the region, although the latter takes time.
What the success of the Shiroishi case suggests is that showing the contemporary relevance of the past or tradition is an extremely important factor within heritage tourism promotion. In other words, rather than a disconnect with history and tradition, if the story can live in the present as a form of entertainment, then historical contents become very marketable. This is what can be called the ‘multi-layering’ of contents, whereby historical contents receive new layers, which are overlaid on previous versions of the contents to continue giving them contemporary relevance.
We cannot go back in time to actually experience history first hand. The more distant the history the more difficult it becomes to feel and imagine how it must have been to live at that time. However, places that allow us to feel the flow of history and the accumulation of time can be very attractive. Such places are where historical contents exist in multiple layers.
Another characteristic of the Shiroishi case is that participatory events are flourishing and bringing together both residents and fans. It is not just tourism in the form of the provision of products and services by hosts to guests. Such an approach celebrates and revitalizes the historical heritage of the local region through the interaction and working together of citizens and fans. In this way, Shiroishi is a useful model showing the possibilities of new forms of tourism and the new cultures that can be created by revitalizing the local heritage.
The active collaboration between the local community and local government helped the city make the best of the opportunity provided by the popularity of the Sengoku BASARA games and anime. The way Shiroishi is developing a participatory and interactive type of tourism that goes beyond just a simple license business is something from which other local governments can learn.
Comparative research of similar cases have not yet been conducted, including regarding tourism related to Warring States Period samurai commanders. This article has focused on providing a detailed analysis of the sequence of events in the ongoing development of the Shiroishi case. However, in the future it will be necessary to place Shiroishi in a broader comparative context to see what more generalized statements might be made about how historical contents may be used as an opportunity for local tourism sectors.
Acknowledgments
This article is significant revised/modified version of author’s research note (Yamamura, Citation2015).
Additional information
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Takayoshi Yamamura
Takayoshi Yamamura is a professor in the Center for Advanced Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University, and he holds a PhD in urban engineering from the University of Tokyo. He is one of the pioneers of ‘contents tourism’ and ‘anime induced tourism’ studies in Japan and has served as the Chair of several governmental advisory boards, such as the Meeting of International Tourism Promotion through Animation Contents of The Japan Tourism Agency. His website is: http://yamamuratakayoshi.com/en/
Notes
1 This article is a significantly revised version of the author’s research note (Yamamura, Citation2015).
2 Information gained from interviews with Mr. Ono Mitsunori of Miyagi prefecture’s Planning Department, Office of Information and Industry Promotion; Mr. Hashiyada Koji of Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section (director of planning), 13 August 2010. Other figures and information related to Miyagi prefecture are from Miyagi prefecture’s Planning Department, Office of Information and Industry Promotion, unless otherwise stated. Information about Shiroishi city was provided by Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section.
3 Information gained from interviews with Mr. Ono Mitsunori of Miyagi prefecture’s Planning Department, Office of Information and Industry Promotion; Mr. Hashiyada Koji of Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section (director of planning).
4 Information gained from interviews with Mr. Hashiyada Koji, Shiroishi city’s General Affairs, Department Planning and Information Section, Planning Subsection Chief (11 November 2009).
5 Oni means devil or ogre, but in this context, it has a nuance of ‘the great Kojuro who cannot be beaten by anyone.’
6 According to the director of planning for Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section (11 November 2009).
7 The suffix -kun is an intimate form of address to a boy or male subordinate, so ‘Castle-kun’ has the nuance of turning the castle into a friendly character.
8 Organized by The Association of Japanese Animations, JAM2009 Executive Committee, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.
9 Information gained from interviews with Mr. Ono Mitsunori of Miyagi prefecture’s Planning Department, Office of Information and Industry Promotion, and Mr. Hashiyada Koji of Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department, Planning and Information Section (director of planning), 13 August 2010.
10 Information gained through interviews with officials of the Department of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Shiroishi City, 19 October19 2012.
11 A number of Japan’s prefectures have offices or visitor centers in Tokyo, where the prefecture actively promotes tourism and local products.
12 One might even call such games and anime ‘derivative works’ of the original story or official history. Such practices of producing derivative works have a long history in Japanese culture. They include mitate (to express the subject by making it seem like something else) and honkadori (the deliberate inclusion of citations in waka, very short 31-syllable poems). The tradition of derivative works is particularly strong in Japanese pop culture, where derivative works by fans of anime and manga are exchanged or sold among fans at comic markets and/or over the Internet.
The way of depicting samurai commanders in the anime version of Sengoku BASARA might even be said to be a modern version of shuko and naimaze techniques in Kabuki. Kabuki plays are based on a sekai (world), which is based on a real person or events. Shukō is the way that plot elements or characters are introduced into the story to change the sekai and make it more relevant to the audience. Naimaze is a technique whereby multiple sekai are blended in one play to create a complicated and often fantastical plot. In other words, Japanese artists have added creative elements to narratives based on historical facts for centuries. In this way, we can think of anime such as Sengoku BASARA as a modern equivalent of Kabuki, albeit using very different technology, in that it uses essentially the same plot devices to make a modern rendition of historical contents more appealing and resonant for its contemporary audience.
13 According to the director of planning at Shiroishi city’s General Affairs Department Planning and Information Section (11 November 2009).
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