In Ivy’s Discourses of
the Vanishing we can see the importance conceptions of tradition and of
folklore hold for the modern Japanese nation. The relationship between the
modern and tradition is shown to be quite complicated for modernizing nations.
Ivy expresses that as Japan strove and progressed towards modernity, they also
devoted effort to the cultivation of cultural practices and maintenance of
traditional culture. Why would people that identify as modern participate in
traditional culture by for instance, go to a place like Mount Osore to partake
in Itako Kuchiyose? What I gathered from the sections we read is that people
and a nation cannot identify as modern without a conception of the traditional;
a nation and its people cannot be modern without knowing what was in the past
and what practices were lost to time. By going to places like Mount Osore and
partaking in activities classified as traditional and are so far from their
everyday reality, Japanese people are able to confirm their modernity and
evolution from tradition.
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