Namahage

A Namahage costume

Namahage (生剥) is a Japanese ritual which is observed throughout Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture in northern Honshū, Japan. It is said to have originated as a ritual for cleansing people's souls, and for blessing the new year. It is a kind of toshigami.

Young children; lazy ones are often the blight of many parents’ existence. For the parents in Japan’s Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture in northern Honshu, Japan, there is a solution: the infamous Namahage; where an annual ritual takes place on the 31st of December. Dozens of young single men (traditionally) from various regions in Akita Prefecture, Japan dress like the Namahage demon. Each portrayer adorns an eerie demon mask (various colors depending on region), a straw raincoat and waistband and carries a scary tool made of wood depicting a knife/stick/ various weapon; and a pail. They re-enact the folklore dressed as these demons and march around the village in hopes of scaring prepubescent kids into total parental submission. Going door-to-door, they sweep the village threatening to drag any spoiled disobedient children. As the story goes, a child's lazy spirit (even lazy adults) that is disobedient is dragged into the snow covered mountains away from their parents. Knowing the story very well, upon barging into each home, the young children is immediately frightened by loud roars as they are chased, kids typically scream with agony and fear. This prompts parents to sooth their kids worries of being taken away by the Namahage, letting them know that they’ve been behaving.

The Namahage then encourage the children to keep studying and working hard, as a result the kids make a promise, or a New Year’s resolution to behave. Namahage's carry a notebook about each particular person recording that person's behavior from that year. The Namahage deities are then received by the head of the family in formal dress, who offers sake and food. Upon appeasement by the warm hospitality of the householder (usually they are given sake), they take leave of that house, promising that the family will be blessed with good health, a large catch and a rich crop in the New Year, and then set off to visit the next home.

Similar traditions in other regions are called:

• Yamahage in Yūwa Town, Akita.
• Amamehagi in Hokuriku.
• Amaburakosagi in Shikoku.
• Suneka, Anmo, Nagomi or Nagomihakuri in northern Iwate prefecture.

Etymology

The word "namahage" comes from a local word for the blister a lazy person gets from spending too many winter hours sitting at the kotatsu, plus the word for "peel." The suggestion is that the visiting kami would peel off these blisters.

Place

Namahage is a kind of toshigami in the folklore of the Oga peninsula (Akita Prefecture in northern Honshu) that has originated as a ritual for cleansing people's souls, and for blessing the new year.

Legend

Legend has it that the Han emperor brought five demonic ogres with him to Japan a little more than two millennia ago. These oni, as they are most commonly called in Japan, stole crops and young women from Oga's villages.

One Legend states that the Namahage originated from China to Oga and caused the people much trouble. The citizens of Oga struck a deal between the people and the Namahage that if they could build a staircase with a thousand stairs for the main shrine in a single night, the villagers will supply them with a young woman every year. But if they failed the task they would have to leave.

The Namahage agreed and set to work. They were so efficient that by the end of the night they had 999 steps with only one stone left before dawn. One person, however came to the rescue and pretended to cry like a rooster. This signaled that dawn had arrived. The Namahage, believed they had lost, left and went into the mountains but they return every year to retrieve a young woman.

There are several other theories as to the origins of the Namahage. Another theory is that Namahage are derived from an ancient mountain deity. There are numerous native traditions of gods coming for a visit - though not quite with the fanfare for the Namahage. Another theory hints that the Namahage may be based on shipwrecked sailors from Europe. Given from when the festival first started, it could be that they are the ghosts of explorers or the Vikings. It gives light to the idea that they cause trouble by foraging raids and the bet with the supply of women.

Ritual

On New Year's Eve, after a ritual Shinto ceremony to purify the Namahage masks, selected local men turn into monsters for a night. Disappearing into the mountains for a time, they return shortly thereafter in full monster countenances. Roaring menacingly, they dance around bonfires, play taiko drums and visit each house in the village, shouting: "any misbehaving kids live here?" They then scare children in the houses where the Namahage enters the house with seven loud steps, telling them not to be lazy or cry, though little children often do burst into tears. They usually look around the house screaming to get rid of bad spirits out of the house and searching for lazy people. It is the ritual of the fathers or husbands to intercede on their family's behalf, plying the Namahage with food and saké. Before the Namahage sit down to negotiate, they do five pronounced steps while on the spot. Then the parents will assure the Namahage that there is no bad child in their house, and give food or traditional Japanese alcoholic beverages to the demons. Before the Namahage leaves the house, they do three more steps on the spot before looking around the house again screaming and then finally leaving. After the Namahage leave there is a lot of straw left in the house, people are not allowed to clean it for one day. The left over straw is sometimes kept with the people who live in the house (could be tied around the head) as it is believed to be a lucky object from the Namahage. As the festival draws to a close, the Namahage hand out rice cakes covered with powdered black sesame seeds, another gesture of good fortune for the coming year.

Meaning

An obvious purpose of the festival is to encourage young children to obey their parents and to behave, important qualities in Japan's heavily structured society. Some ethnologists and folklorists suggest it relates to a belief in deities (or spirits) coming from abroad to take away misfortune and bring blessings for the new year, while others believe it is an agricultural custom where the kami from the sacred mountains visit.

Sources

Yamamoto Yoshiko: The Namahage: a festival in the northeast of Japan. Institute for the Study of Human Issues, Philadelphia 1978, ISBN 0-915980-66-5

Nelly, Naumann. ""Yama no Kami": die japanische Berggottheit (Teil I: Grundvorstellungen)." Asian Folklore Studies (1963)

Nakamura, T. Notes on namahage (Possible remnants of primi- tive secret societies on the Japanese archipelago).(1951)

See also

• List of Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties