The legend of the Namahage and Goshado

This is a direct cut and paste from the Akita prefecture page on Cultural Assets.

http://www.namahage-oga.akita.jp/english/

Picture: Dedication of a peach to the emperor Wu of the Han/Akagami Shrine collectionIn the ancient Han dynasty of China, the emperor Wu came to Oga with five bats to find a medicinal plant for an elixir of immortality. The five bats transformed into demons and worked hard for the emperor, but one day, the fives bats asked the emperor “Could you please give us just one day to rest?” Eventually they had a break on the 15th of the New Year. They went down to the villages and stole crops, animals, and even young girls. People in the village were distraught and offered the emperor a deal .If the demons could make a thousand stone steps from the beach to Goshado shrine, located on the summit of the mountain, in a single night before the roosters crowed, they would offer a girl to them every year. If they could not, the demons were never to return. Although people in the village expected that it would be impossible to build a thousand stone steps in a night, the demons made the steps easily. When the demons finished making the 999th stone step, people panicked. But the villagers tricked the demons by having village fool imitate the “cock-a-doodle-doo” of the morning rooster’s crow. The demons were so surprised and mad that they pulled over a thousand-year-old cedar, stuck it into the ground, and stormed back to the mountain. They never came down to the village again.

Oga, Akagami, Goshado, Namagahe

From the former lake, formerly know as Hachirogata we went to the coast of Oga Peninsula, On the map below you can see the former lake surrounded by a thin blue line (canal) with roads that are unusually straight for Japan. 

Monzen, a small fishing village on the southern coast of Oga

On the sign here you can see in the bottom left series of maps that Oga used to be an island, when sea levels were higher. The explanation that the road was built by the Self Defence Force in 1959 highlights how relatively isolated the areas is. 

Namahage statue
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Namahage are demons,  oni in Japanese  (but perhaps originally gods) from Oga folklore. In Oga folklore the namahage comes to people's homes looking for naughty children who need to be scared into being good.  It's not just a myth though, appointed people really do dress up as namahage and come to terrorize children... It recently made it to the world heritage culture list.... I guess child protection agencies haven't made it to UNESCO...  Perhaps it's not surprising that it's a rapidly depopulating area...  Namahage, according to at least one version of their history came to Oga from China during the Han dynasty (2000 years ago or so). There are similar kinds of traditions in other Japan Sea towns which would have had historical contact with Chinese trade, so the theory seems plausible

Looking down from Chorakuji Temple 

Looking down from Choraku-ji

I forgot to note what this is...it's at the entrance of the walking path to Goshado

   .

The forest on the way to Akagami Jinja's Goshado.

 

According to a local who I was talking to there,Akagami jinja (shrine) came into being during the Meiji era when the pressure was put on temples to become sites for Shinto worship. The Tendai temple, now a Shingon temple, became a shrine.  I should have asked more specifics about the mechanics of  this... Anyway, Akagami, which translates as red god/s, was the name of the mountain and the temple became a shrine as well.

Torii on the way to Goshado

The path up to Goshado.  There are apparently 999 steps to Goshado... I guess passive aggression got the better of someone and they left out the last step.

Goshado

Spring foliage

Golden Week in Akita - Hachirogata and Gojo(no)me

Golden week wasn't much of a week this year.  Friday 29 (Showa/ Hirohito day) was a holiday.   Tues 3 (Constitution Day)-  was a also a holiday - though a bit of a thorny issue at the moment since the government has made laws to circumvent Article 9 of the Constitution - that Japan not fight wars of aggression or the wars of other countries.  One university I teach at had classes, presumably motivated by wanting to appear as they were dissuading students from partipating in protests aimed at preserving the Constitution, decided to have classes for the day, despite the public holiday. Wednesday, 4th was Greenery Day (celebrating Japan's love of concrete perhaps?) and today is Children's Day (which used to be Boy's day - though girl's day still remains but not as a public holiday).

I popped up to Akita briefly - night bus both ways because although it takes 9 hours,  it's more efficient with time.  On Monday we went on a day trip to Oga Peninsula via Gojo(no)me**  and the former lake known as Hachirogata which was turned into rice fields as vile engineering experiment that destroyed the lake and lake culture to produce rice in a country where rice was already in surplus by the time the reclamation project had finished.
I've put pictures in of the reclamation museum (which Hiro's father did the interior for) here. 
**[I think it goes under two pronunciations, Wikipedia and the local news call it Gojome, but Hiro's mother calls it Gojonome, so I am guessing Gojonome is a dialect form and Gojome is the standard Japanese name.]

First port of call was the Gojo(no)me Michi no Eki. Michi no Eki are a bit like farmers markets with other odds and sods for tourists on sale. In terms of produce the mountain veges were expensive (by local standards) and things like lotus root chips on sale out the front all came from overseas or other parts of Japan... But, the backyard of the Michi no Eki was seriously impressive. The back door opened up into a forest and Hiro's parents were gleefully pointing out the various mountain flowers and vegetables. To my eyes the poisonous ones don't look particularly different from the delicacies... I'll stick to buying vegetables at the vegetable shops...

Behind the Gojo(no)me Michi no Eki

Damako characters at the Gojo(no)me Morning market

The morning market
The real story here wasn't the produce, though the produce wouldn't be found in a Tokyo vegetable shop.  The real story was that everyone selling vegetables was at least more than 70 and more likely more than 80 in most cases. There were no young people to be seen... I guess going to the mountains to pick veges to sell isn't what young people do... a shift at 7-11 would be much easier and more reliable money.  Going to places like this makes me realize I need to improve my Japanese. The dialects would be a bit difficult to wade through, but Japan has changed a lot since these people were young. 

Fish and flowers at the morning market

Canola on Hachirogata

The lake that was Hachirogata that became Ogata Mura

Canoloa on Hachirogata

A naming puzzle - NeWoman

The English on this new shopping area of Shinjuku - NeWoman - looks like the pronunciation is New Woman. The Japanese pronunciation - as rendered by katakana - is New Man... Clueless English, or a gender statement. I assume the former.