At the 65th Kanto Block Folk Performing Arts Festival, Kensaku Kikuchi stated,
“Intangible cultures, such as folk performing arts and festivals, is a culture that is only possible
when people are present”. However, how does an intangible culture continue during a steep
decline in active membership and changing social demographics, including an increase of
“outsider” residents unaware of the region’s history and culture? If the continued development of
traditions and performances are key to creating footholds for the uninitiated, how can traditional
musical theory and sound be preserved while also encouraging modernity, showcase regional
identity, and encompass the practical realities of the community members still present? To
reveal this complex dance between protection, revival and modernity, this presentation
examines the activities between the Matsudo Mansaku Odori Preservation Association,
Matsudo City, and local researchers to save the intangible regional music of Matsudo Mansaku
Odori, a Chiba Prefecture Designated Cultural Property Intangible Folk Cultural Property since
1970, before it becomes obsolete. This research overviews all promotional activities since 2020
while focusing on the creation of two major defining theatrical compositions: the reconstruction
of the genre’s staple composition, “Echigo Hyōban” (composer and date unknown) and newly
composed traditional composition “Jinya Mae (In front of the Camp Gates)” (Schmuckal, 2025).
Thomas Turino writes in Music as Social Life that, “Music, dance, festivals, and other public
expressive cultural practices are a primary way that people articulate the collective identities
that are fundamental to forming and sustaining social groups, which are, in turn, basic to
survival.” If music is at the heart of appealing a community’s collective identity to people outside
the cohort, compromises between a tradition’s development and preservation need to be
re-evaluated so intangible cultures can remain fundamental to the formation and sustaining of
its unique social group and regional music.