The Manifestation (Miarawashi) of the Dead in Dolls Modeled on the Deceased: A Comparison with AI Misora Hibari (Author-reconstructed bilingual version)

⚠️ CITATION NOTICE — Please cite the original Japanese article, not this Zenodo deposit. The authoritative citation is: Takagi, Ryoko. 「故人を模した人形における死者の見顕し──AI 美空ひばりとの比較において」『COMMONS』, no. 3, 2024, pp. 244–276. DOI: 10.57298/commons.2024.3_244 This Zenodo record provides an author-reconstructed bilingual version (English translation + Japanese reconstructed text) for accessibility and long-term preservation. When quoting or referring to this work, please reference the original Japanese article above. ──────────────────────────────────────── This paper examines two kinds of dolls modeled on the appearance of the deceased—the "Iningyō" and the "Omokage Ningyō"—and asks how the living (the bereaved) come to perceive the dead through them. As frameworks for grasping the relations between the living and these non-living, non-human entities—the dead and the dolls—the paper draws on Keiji Iwata's theory of animism and on actor-network theory as auxiliary lines. The narratives gathered through fieldwork are analyzed under three themes: (1) the structure of healing that forms around the dolls; (2) the physicality of the dolls and how they differ from memorial portrait photographs; and (3) the "room" (yochi) the dolls hold open, considered alongside Deadbots. The discussion then asks how the dead come to appear within this "room," drawing on the mode of object-recognition called miarawashi (manifestation) from Nagatani's (2009) study of the two theories of animism advanced by Tylor and by Iwata. Finally, as a direction for future work, the paper turns to Okada's (2012) concept of "weak robots" as a clue to what kind of approach might realize the structure of miarawashi with emerging technologies such as VR and AI. Noting that weak robots and dolls modeled on the deceased share a "subtractive design," the paper closes with a reflection on the future representation of the dead. Note on terminology: Key Japanese terms are kept in romanized form and glossed at first occurrence. "Miarawashi"—a term from kabuki denoting the moment the true identity shows itself through an assumed guise—is rendered "manifestation"; "mitate" is rendered "likening"; "yochi" (余地) is rendered "room," in the sense of room left open for imagination. "AI kojin" (literally "AI + the deceased") is rendered "Deadbot," the term established in the field. The word yochi in this 2023 paper is an early formulation of what the author later develops as yohaku (creative margin) in subsequent work.