ICHINOMIYA Masako

Research Fellow, Global Center of Excellence for Reconstruction of the Intimate and Public Spheres in 21st Century Asia, Kyoto University (2008-2009)

She conducts research on the images of agriculture and rural villages in public organizations and popular culture. She is affiliated to the Division of Natural Resource Economics (in the Field of the Principles of Agricultural Science) in the Graduate School of Agriculture at Kyoto University. She concluded her Doctoral course in the same institution in March 2008, and holds an M.A. degree in Agriculture from Kyoto University (1999).

Main publications

1 “Popyuraa Karuchaa ni okeru nōgyō, nōson hyōshō to sono henka: gendai manga o taishō toshite” (Changing representations of agriculture and rural villages in popular culture: a study of contemporary Japanese comic books), Sonraku Kenkyū Jaanaru, Vol 29, 2008: 13-24.

2 “Isson-zō toshite no ‘den-en kūkan’ gainen ni kansuru kōsatsu” (A study of the concept of ‘rural environment’ as the image of a rural village), in Nihon Nōgyō Keizaigakkai, 2004 Nendo Nihon Nōgyō Keizaigakkai Ronbunshū, 2004: 271-276.

3 “Nōgyō nōson seibi jigyō ni okeru ‘tayōka’ ni kansuru kōsatsu: den-en kūkan hakubutsukan jigyō o jirei toshite” (A study of the diversification in the programs designed to preserve agricultural villages: the case of the Rural Environmental Museum), Nōgaku Genron Kenkyū, No. 8, 2002: 48-69.

4 “An Analysis of the Image of "Women in Japanese Rural Areas" in 'manga'”, Proceedings of the 1st Next-Generation Global Workshop, 2009: 626-640.

Member of RC Field Survey Team

Current research and aspirations for the GCOE program:

My research focuses on how images of agriculture and rural villages spread across society. I am studying the changes in the portrayals and meanings (representations) created by Japanese comic books dealing with an agricultural or rural subject. My goal is to understand the socially constructed notion of the “rural village”.
When analyzing comic books on rural subjects, one should notice that works made for male readers have both male and female main characters, but works made for female readers tend to have only female protagonists. In my research for the GCOE program I intend to investigate this aspect of the representation of rural environments, and also examine the system of production of Japanese comic books. Based on these two perspectives, I want to stress the importance of gender bias in the discussion of those issues.

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