Evoking a shifting sense of place in one museum following the 3/11 tsunami in Japan

ABSTRACT

On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in that country. A coastal port and fishing city in Miyagi Prefecture, Kesennuma was one of the hardest hit population centers, the waves having destroyed much of the city’s commercial core and nearly all of its low coastal neighborhoods. The wave’s destruction highlighted certain elements of the city’s sense of place and forever changed others. I explore how the Kesennuma Shark Museum reflects ways in which the 3/11 disaster has simultaneously maintained and altered Kesennuma as a place. I analyze the spatiality of the museum and how its narrative evokes a sense of place in the broader community. The case of the Shark Museum is one example of how scholars can use museums to examine sense of place and how it has been impacted by natural disasters. This work represents a unique contribution to cultural geography inquiry into the spatiality of museums, museum experiences, and how such spaces reflect an interaction between people and place.

KEYWORDS:

• Great East Japan earthquake
• Kesennuma
• museum geography
• place identity
• disaster

Acknowledgements

I thank participants at the 2018 meeting of the International Society for Place, Landscape and Material Culture for their comments on this work and Rachel Rowley for her editorial help. I am also thankful for the comments and suggestions of editors and anonymous reviewers. Translations of museum texts are by the author, but kind assistance was provided by Roger Thomas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The fact that sharks are harvested at all in Kesennuma (and in Japan more broadly) is a common criticism aimed at this place. Whereas sustainable fishing of sharks (or any other animal) is an important goal for Kesennuma people, it is important to understand that criticism of the shark harvest is often from a western perspective, is sensationalized by western media, and fails to understand the Asian cultural context of this product of the sea. See McCurry (2011) for that western perspective and Akamine (2015) for the Japanese view.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funds from the Illinois State University College of Arts and Sciences and the Douglas K. Ridgley Fellowship in the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment.