DIVINE RITUALS OF YORE

When these frightful deities visit you, they’re doing so to bring you good luck. In November last year, UNESCO added “Raiho-shin, ritual visits of deities in masks and costumes” — comprising a total of 10 traditional events in eight prefectures — to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

We took photos of how this tradition is being preserved and passed down in provincial areas facing depopulation and a low birthrate.

On the evening of Jan. 2, “Noto no Amamehagi” took place for the first time in 10 years in the Igisu district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture. Although the ritual was passed down from long ago in the city and the town of Noto in the prefecture, the tradition of deities visiting homes as part of the ritual once vanished in the Igisu district due to factors including a shortage of participants to dress in the outlandish costumes. Instead, only part of the ritual was conducted at a shrine. However, its listing on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list led to the revitalization of the custom.

“In olden times, children around the community used to run away from the Amamehagi deities,” recalled Ken Nagaoka, a 71-year-old leader of a local community association. “We asked people in the community to tell their younger family members and children to return to their hometown [for the occasion] this year.”

It’s been a long time since children’s cries were heard from homes in this community. The cries brought back to grown-ups old memories of their childhoods in the New Year.

While some communities appreciate the adding of their rituals to the UNESCO heritage list, there are some communities that have inevitably changed the ways they carry out such traditions. Foreign students now take the roles of Namahage deities in the “Oga no Namahage” event held in the Sugoroku district of Oga, Akita Prefecture, while middle school students take part in the “Yoshihama no Suneka” ritual with adults in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture.

Local traditional customs became a world heritage. Yet, people’s hopes to preserve their deities and pass down the traditions to future generations remain the same.

Yomiuri Shimbun photos Main: Amamehagi deities walk home in the Igisu district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 2. Right: Traditional masks of Namahage deities are seen in the Ashizawa district of Oga, Akita Prefecture, on Dec. 5, 2018.

Yomiuri Shimbun photos Top: A child cries while surrounded by Amahage deities in the Mega district of Yuza, Yamagata Prefecture, on Jan. 3.

Bottom: Mikio Miura, right, raises a glass with a 24-year-old student from Cyprus, center, on Dec. 31, 2018.

Center: “Yoshihama no Suneka” deities pose for a photo at a ceremony before visiting about 300 households in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, on Jan. 15