CATS will hold the CATS Tourism Online Forum Series (TOFS) vol.27 on Thursday, November 16.
Anyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to your participation.

Ryokan: mobilizing hospitality in rural Japan

Abstract:
While other rural communities experience depopulation and decline, Kurokawa Onsen’s two dozen traditional inns, or ryokan, annually host hundreds of thousands of tourists eager to admire its landscape, experience its hospitality, and soak in its hot springs. As a result, these ryokan have enticed village youth to return home to take over successful family businesses and revive the community. What does it take to produce this family business and one of Japan’s most relaxing spaces? In this talk, I share the behind-the-scenes work that keeps a ryokan running smoothly, from the everyday tasks of cleaning, serving, and making guests feel at home, to the generational work of producing and training a suitable heir who can carry on the family business. I draw on nearly two decades of research in and around Kurokawa, including a year spent welcoming guests, carrying luggage, scrubbing baths, cleaning rooms, washing dishes, and talking with co-workers and owners about their jobs, relationships, concerns, and aspirations.

Keywords: Hospitality, gendered labor, ryokan, onsen, ethnography

Hosted by: Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)

Date/Time: Thursday 16 November 2023   |   18:30-20:00(JST)

Venue: Online (Zoom Webinar)

Language: English

Capacity: 50 persons

Participation fee: Free to join (pre-registration system)

Speaker: Dr. Chris McMorran
Bio:
Chris McMorran is Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore. He is a cultural geographer of contemporary Japan focusing on the geographies of home across scale, from the body to the nation. He is the author of Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan (University of Hawai’i Press), an ethnography of a Japanese inn, based on twelve months spent scrubbing baths, washing dishes, and making guests feel at home at a hot springs resort. He has also published research on tourism, disasters, gendered labor, area studies, field-based learning, and the evolution of grading. 

Moderator: Dr. Meng Qu

Registration:
Please register at the URL below. Application deadline is Wednesday, November 15, 2023.
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MOoEKh_oRIi7Ihbb4UUSlA

Contact:
Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)
online-forum(at)cats.hokudai.ac.jp
※Please replace the (at) part with @.