I come to Evergreen by way of Okinoshima, a tiny atoll four hours by passenger ferry off the coast of Honshu in the Sea of Japan. It was here that my commitment to the study and teaching about Japan took root. Sandwiched between formal studies in Tokyo and the U.S. were two full summers of field research about folk Shinto religious festivals, folk Shinto dance dramas, and folk Shinto homestead gods and their attending observances. These summer studies were rounded out by studies on Honshu, in the area known as Izumo. My experiences there were life changing, opening my perspective and deepening my professionalism as a field anthropologist.
I will teach in the two-year Japan and the West interdisciplinary studies program, and look forward to taking twenty students to the part of Japan I know best for their own field study projects and group seminars. Thereafter, I look forward to bringing aspects of Japanese culture to any of the programs or contracts I teach.
The intensive photographing I completed in Japan provides ample material for a photo essay, The Oki Way of God. Were I not at Evergreen, I would be completing the Oki essay and preparing to volunteer with the Appalachian Nursing Service, that I might gather material for a second photo essay, The Appalachian Way of God.
Carie Cable