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ABSTRACT: The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage established a "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." In 2009, seventy-six traditions from around the world were inscribed as the "first elements" on this list. One of these was Toshidon, a New Year's Eve ritual performed on the island of Shimo-Koshikijima off the southwest coast of Japan. How does recognition by an international body affect the way this small community perceives and performs its "heritage"? In this article, I contextualize the UNESCO selection of Toshidon, describe the ritual itself, and then focus on the discussion that occurred on the island in 2009- 10, as the UNESCO designation became a new factor in a long-running and complex local discourse on tradition. Observing the on-the-ground effects of UNESCO's recognition on this one island community provides insight into the broader interaction between global cultural policy and local tradition.
Since 1999, I have regularly visited Shimo-Koshikijima, an island of approximately 1,700 households located about twenty-five miles off the west coast of Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan. There I have been researching a New Year's Eve ritual known as Toshidon, in which masked demon-deity figures go from house to house scaring and disciplining children. In making my plans to return for December 2009 through January 2010, I called my closest contact on the island, a man named Ozaki Takakazu, who works for the village government. After catching up on news regarding friends, family, and various island happenings, Ozaki casually mentioned that Toshidon might be a little different this year because it had just been officially inscribed in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The first thing that struck me was the incongruity of hearing the acronym UNESCO uttered in this context. The language of international cultural politics seemed somehow incompatible with the heavy island dialect, and the concept of an international "representative list" seemed out of place in this small, quiet community, so far from places like Paris, Abu Dhabi, and New York, where UNESCO decisions are made.
But of course, the infiltration of global, institutional language into local, everyday conversation is one effect of UNESCO's recognition of tangible and intangible heritage around the world.1 After my initial surprise...