Local municipalities in Japan are campaigning to add to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list a tradition in which people costumed as gods or demons visit homes around the turn of the year to bring good fortune.
The effort is led by the northeastern Japan city of Oga in Akita Prefecture, which is renowned for the home visits by the so-called Namahage deity. But it failed in an earlier attempt to have the ancient custom registered by the UN body because a similar event in southwestern Japan was already on the list.
In Oga, young men wearing fierce-looking masks resembling imaginary demons known as “oni” and straw capes visit each house on New Year’s Eve, shouting to check whether there is a disobedient child or lazy person in the family. Wielding wooden knives, they scare children with their loud voices.
They are plied with food and drink and leave the house promising the family will be blessed with good health and fortunes.
Such customs also exist in cities and towns in Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Ishikawa, Saga, Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures.
Eight municipalities from those seven prefectures and the city of Oga formed a committee in 2014 to seek UNESCO registration of the custom, along with the “Toshidon” event on Shimokoshiki Island in Kagoshima Prefecture which was added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009.
