ABSTRACT
The diversity of the Japanese folk performing arts challenges any folklorist when attempts are made to classify them or, more fundamentally, to make sense of their variety. Social and industrial changes have had a huge impact on the survival of many of the folk performing arts, and that survival has often been determined by the capacity to adapt to alternative, modern contexts. Despite the difficulties of the classification devised by Honda Yasuji, in this chapter that the author have adopted his classification as a framework to outline some of the better-known examples of the folk performing arts. However, industrialization and social change has challenged the rationale for sustaining many of the folk performing arts. Open up any official internet homepage for city, town or village office and details of festivals, locations, and times of performances and potted histories of folk performing arts are almost invariably provided within a readily identifiable section on tourism or tourism and culture.
