“Menburyu: Past, Present and Future” Exhibition 2018 : A Reflective Report (Part 1)

This article reports reflectively on an exhibition entitled Menburyu: Past, Present and Future held at Saga University Art Museum (SUAM) in 2018. It showcased a local ritual folk dance called Menburyu through exhibition panels developed with Saga University students, revealing the potential of Menburyu to illuminate complex cultural and historical threads as world heritage. Although the author initially thought that Menburyu might exemplify the culture of Raiho-Shin ritual visits of deities in masks and costumes, the author suggests with the benefit of hindsight that Menburyu may potentially be classified as a type of Furyu-Odori ritual dance imbued with people’s hopes and prayers within the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage classification framework, as a type of Furyu performed wearing a mask, following Matsumura’s (2008g) definition of Furyu, which includes Furyu rituals within its definition. An overview of the two main representative types of Menburyu found in Saga Prefecture called Otonashi Menburyu and Hogaura Menburyu is presented, and their defining features are summarized. Menburyu may be considered a form of prayer for a good harvest and other blessings. However, like Ara-odori in Gokase, which is already listed as a type of Furyu-Odori by UNESCO, battle also features in one of its origin stories. The author questions how the tension between war and peace characterizing both Ara-odori in Gokase and Menburyu should be reconciled by UNESCO considering its overriding commitment to the promotion of peace in its own constitution. Similarly, Menburyu seems male-dominated, so how should the promotion of gender-equality be handled?