@article{oai:shiga-u.repo.nii.ac.jp:00008404,
 author = {小川, 功},
 issue = {第404号},
 journal = {彦根論叢},
 month = {Jun},
 note = {Departmental Bulletin Paper, This paper aims to explore fictitiousness in
tourism and chooses the Nara Dream Land
theme park, which the author describes as a
“copy” of the “original” U.S. Disneyland Resort,
as the object of study. The author discusses
such matters as the relationship between the
original and the copy, whether there were any
connections between the creator of the original
and the founders of the copy, and the chasm of
understanding that existed between the two
parties.
Nara Dream Land was founded by Kunizo
Matsuo. Deeply inspired by what he saw at Disneyland
in the United States, Matsuo set out to
build its copy in Japan with the sheer desire to
share the same exciting experience with Japanese
children. The park, however, has often
been held in a negative light, with the dominant
view being it was an unofficial imitation,
one that hindered the efforts years later to open
the official Disneyland in Tokyo. The park was
also criticized for having ruined the valuable
historical sites featured in ancient manyo waka
poems.
Matsuo’s autobiography and statements of
people close to him indicate that he met Walt
Disney in 1958 and secured Disney’s commitment
to provide some kind of assistance in
building Nara Dream Land. Their accounts can
be confirmed in several newspaper articles of
the time, but the facts are elusive. Around the
same time, the Yomiuri Shimbun Corporation
was also vying to win Disney’s cooperation for
a plan to build a large amusement park by leveraging
business contacts with the Nippon
Television Network.
Of the 20 founders of original Dreamland
Corporation, the company that erected Nara
Dream Land, the author takes a particular interest
in Masaichi Nagata, president of the
Daiei Motion Picture Company. Nagata acquired
Disney’s film distribution rights during
his 1949 visit to the United States and subsequently
his company launched a foreign film
division. He also engaged in Disney character
licensing and later helped promote Tokyo Disneyland
in accordance with the agreement with
the Walt Disney Company headquarters.
While recruiting potential investors for
Dreamland Corporation, Nagata claimed that
he introduced Matsuo to his close friend ‘Walt’
at the time of Matsuo’s trip to America and that
Matsuo acquired Disney’s permission to open a
reproduction in Japan. Given that Nagata was
one of the few businessmen in Japan with a
strong connection to Walt Disney, and one
who made regular visits to the U.S. Disneyland,
it can be presumed that his name appearing on
the list of founders as well as his active support
for the proposed park was enough to convince
people that Nara Dream Land was not a copy
but an official reproduction of the U.S. original.
In other words, Nagata’s role was akin to that
of an “apparent representative.”
078 THE HIKONE RONSO 2015 summer / No.404
The majestic railway station building situated
at the Nara Dream Land entrance is said to
have been designed by a famous architect when
he accompanied Matsuo on his U.S. trip. The
railroad encircling the park is a standard feature
in all Disneyland parks around the world, except
for Tokyo Disneyland, and the park in
Nara also adhered to this style marked by the
founder’s love of trains. The author speculates
that Matsuo, a former boss of a traveling theater
troupe, flew to the U.S. with henchmen in
a show of Japanese“Jingi”, and perhaps assumed
that giving his park an entrance gateway identical
to the original was sufficient to make it a
Disneyland reproduction.
Nara Dream Land is a negative legacy and a
symbol that Japan, in the years Nara Dream
Land was being developed, had not yet reached
the level of social maturity that ensured the
protection of intellectual property rights. The
park nevertheless had a significant impact on
numerous aspects of Tokyo Disneyland, from
its planning and establishment to designs, and
for this reason, the author argues that the now
desolate park, and in particular, the station
building of the park-encircling railroad, not
having undergone any kind of renovations
since first built, merits recognition as industrial
heritage representative of the Japanese theme
park industry., 彦根論叢, 第404号, pp. 64-79, The Hikone Ronso, No.404, pp. 64-79},
 pages = {64--79},
 title = {遊園地における虚構性の研究 : 観光社会学からみた奈良ドリームランドの「本物」「ニセモノ」論},
 year = {2015}
}