Who Owns Culture? Negotiating Folk Tradition at the Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine

Until relatively recently, the study of Japanese puppet art has largely been limited to the arts of Bunraku and the Edo period forms of ningyō jōruri [puppet drama] from which it evolved. However, beyond the bounds of these forms there existed, and still exists, a wealth of puppet based theatre which has largely been overlooked by the Anglophone academic community. Moreover, though many scholars have touched on the rites of the Nishinomiya Shrine, little work has been carried out at the shrine itself – especially with regard to the way the shrine's puppets operate today, and the way in which others view this 'birthplace' of Japanese puppet arts. This paper is an attempt further to encourage this burgeoning interest in the more 'common' aspects of Japanese performance art and, in this case, adds to the debate on rights of access and signification which the preservation or revival of such important cultural properties generates.