MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
男鹿のナマハゲ（おがのナマハゲ）
In Oga, Akita, masked figures in straw clothing visit households at the turn of the year. They admonish idleness and bring wishes for health and abundance, while their hosts welcome them with food and sake.
Oga’s masks vary in shape, horns, hair and colour. The municipal account lists bark, carved wood, paper over baskets and paper clay among the materials, as well as plastic and work by local woodcarvers. The two examples below come from different regional groups in its mask gallery.
The kede is a straw garment resembling a rain cape. Together with the mask it forms the visitor’s costume; straw shin coverings and shoes also appear in Oga’s account. Implements vary locally, including a knife-shaped object associated with scraping off namomi, or a staff carrying sacred paper streamers.
A local etymology connects Namahage with namomi, the dialect term for heat marks caused by sitting too long by the hearth. Scraping away those marks expresses the warning against idleness at the turn of the year. This explanation of the name does not establish when the custom began.
Local young people take the masked roles. In the Kitaura Shinzan example documented by Oga City, preparations include putting on straw clothing, receiving masks and visiting the shrine before the household rounds. The event begins within the community, before a visitor reaches anyone’s door.
A forerunner, the sakidachi, announces the visit and checks whether the household will admit the Namahage. The Shinzan account describes remaining at the entrance, stamping there and moving on when a home has experienced bereavement or has someone ill. The rounds respond to the circumstances of particular homes.
The visitors call out challenges about idleness and obedience. The householder calms them, offers food and sake, and discusses the family and the crops. Thus the encounter includes a response from the hosts, rather than ending with the masked arrival.
Before leaving for the next house, the visitors wish the family health and a good harvest. Shinzan’s account specifies seven stamps on entering, five on sitting down and three on rising. These counts describe that local practice, not a single prescribed sequence for every Oga community.
In Oga no samukaze, the traveller Sugae Masumi recorded namomihagi at Miyazawa on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in 1811. Oga City identifies this as the earliest relevant record and reproduces a manuscript copy held by Akita’s prefectural museum. A dated description establishes that the practice existed then, not that it began that year.
The visits were formerly associated with Little New Year; in Oga today they centre on the evening of 31 December. Oga no Namahage became a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1978. In 2018 it entered UNESCO’s list as one of ten traditions across eight prefectures within Raiho-shin, ritual visits of deities in masks and costumes.
The Namahage Sedo festival combines Shinzan Shrine’s fire rite with the Namahage tradition in a tourism event established in 1964. Its torchlit descent, recreations and performances belong to a festival setting, distinct from household rounds on the last night of the year.
At the Oga Shinzan Folklore Museum, an explanation introduces the Kitaura Shinzan custom before a recreation of the visits. It makes a rarely seen household event accessible to visitors. What is demonstrated is a named local tradition; other communities have their own forms.
The host welcomes and calms the visitors, serves food and sake, and discusses the household and crops.
The forerunner announces the visitors and checks whether the household will admit them.
No. Those counts belong to the documented Shinzan example.
A straw garment resembling a rain cape, worn with the mask.
No. It shows the custom existed then, not that it began in that year.
Sedo is a tourism festival begun in 1964; the museum recreates a named local custom for learning. The year-end rounds take place among community households.
