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博士（学術）（広島大学）
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修士（学術）（広島大学）
Ikuno Ochi is a cultural anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University. Her research explores the relationship between human mobility—including tourism and migration—and "power" within contact zones, through the lenses of cultural anthropology and folklore studies. Her current projects focus on the following three themes:
Reconceptualizing Ritual Practices in Contemporary Okinawa:
This project investigates perceptions of “tradition” surrounding ancestral rituals and mortuary practices in contemporary Okinawa. It examines how these practices interact with socio-economic changes imposed by dominant powers, such as the Japanese state and the U.S. military. Rather than framing the issue as a simple “decline of tradition,” the study aims to reconstruct theories of ritual in ways that reflect local agency and transformation. She published her book, "The Transformation of Tomb in Okinawa," in 2018 by Shinwasya, Tokyo.
Tourism and Memorial Practices Related to War:
By analyzing the (dis)connections between commemorative acts and tourism at war memorials and monuments, this research explores how people have confronted mass death caused by modern warfare. With Okinawa as a primary case study, it also incorporates comparative analysis of memory tourism in Europe, particularly in France and Germany, to examine how social memories of war have been constructed in different cultural contexts.
Museums and Art Festivals as Contact Zones:
This project conceptualizes museums as contact zones and investigates how contemporary art festivals resist, comply with, or provide alternatives to institutional authority. Focusing on art festivals and civic movements in Niigata Prefecture (Niigata City and Tōkamachi City), Yokohama, and Nantes (France), the study examines the impact of such festivals on local communities. It considers models of regional revitalization that emerge from the ground up, rather than being imposed from above.