Folk traditions of Japan
Japanese folklore
encompasses the informally learned
folk traditions
of
Japan
and the
Japanese people
as expressed in its
oral traditions
,
customs
, and
material culture
.
In Japanese, the term
minkan densh?
(
民間?承
, "transmissions among the folk")
is used to describe
folklore
. The
academic study of folklore
is known as
minzokugaku
(
民俗?
)
. Folklorists also employ the term
minzoku shiry?
(
民俗資料
)
or "folklore material"
(
民俗資料
)
to refer to the objects and arts they study.
Folk religion
[
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]
Men dressed as
namahage
, wearing ogre-like masks and traditional straw capes (
mino
) make rounds of homes,
[1]
in an annual ritual of the
Oga Peninsula
area of the Northeast region. These ogre-men masquerade as
kami
looking to instill fear in the children who are lazily idling around the fire. This is a particularly colorful example of folk practice still kept alive.
A parallel custom is the secretive
Akamata-Kuromata
[
ja
]
ritual of the
Yaeyama Islands
,
Okinawa
which does not allow itself to be photographed.
[2]
[3]
Many, though increasingly fewer households maintain a
kamidana
or a small
Shinto
altar shelf.
[4]
The Shinto version of the
kitchen god
is the
Kamado
kami
(
かまど神
)
, and the syncretic Buddhist version is the
K?jin
, a deity of the hearth enshrined in the kitchen.
Japanese popular cults or
k?
(
講
)
[5]
are sometimes devoted to particular deities and buddhas, e.g. the angry
Fud? My??
or the healer
Yakushi Nyorai
. But many cults centered around paying respects to sacred sites such as the
Ise Shrine
(
Ise-k?
or
okage-mairi
[
ja
]
) or
Mount Fuji
(
Fuji-k?
[
ja
]
, by which many local mock-Fuji shrines have been erected). Pilgrimage to these meccas declined after the
Edo period
. But recently, the
Shikoku Pilgrimage
of the eighty-eight temple sites (commonly known as
ohenro-san
) has become fashionable. Popular media and cottage industries now extoll a number of shrines and sacred natural sites as
power spots
[
ja
]
.
There is a long list of practices performed to ward evil (yakuyoke
(
厄除け
)
)
[6]
or expel evil (yakubarai, oharai
(
yaku-barai
[
ja
]
)
), e.g. sounding the drums.
[6]
In some areas it is common to place a small mound of salt outside the house (
morijio
[
ja
]
).
[7]
[8]
Salt-scattering is generally considered purifying
[7]
(it is employed in
sumo
tournaments,
[7]
to give a well-known example). A stock routine in period or even contemporary drama involves a master of the house telling his wife to scatter salt after an undesirable visitor has just left. Contrarily, lighting sparks with
flint
just as a someone is leaving the house was considered lucky.
No one now engages in the silent vigil required by the
K?shin
cult, but it might be noted that this cult has been associated with the iconic three
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
monkeys.
[9]
There are certain vestiges of
geomancy
introduced into Japan from China through
Onmy?d?
. The word
kimon
[
ja
]
, "ogre's gate", colloquially refers to anything that a person may have constant ill luck with, but in the original sense designates the northeasterly direction, considered to be unlucky or dangerously inviting of ill-intended spirits
[9]
(cf.
Konjin
). There is also a Japanese version of
Feng Shui
known as
kas?
[
ja
]
[10]
or literally "house physiognomy". Closely connected is the
Yin-yang
path or
Onmy?d?
, and its concepts such as
katatagae
[
"direction changing"
]
also known as
kataimi
,
[11]
which was widely practiced by nobles in the
Heian period
. A widely known taboo (
kitamakura
[
ja
]
) advises against sleeping with your head faced north,
[12]
though it is doubtful if anyone now seriously heeds this prohibition.
[12]
In Japanese folklore,
pheasants
were considered messengers from heaven. However, researchers from Japan's Graduate University for Advanced Studies and National Institute of Polar Research claimed in March 2020 that red pheasant tails witnessed across the night sky over Japan in 620 A.D., might be a red
aurora
produced during a magnetic storm.
[13]
Folktales
[
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]
As in most developed nations, it is increasingly difficult to find living storytellers of oral tradition. But there is a wealth of folktales collected through the ages. The name
mukashi-banashi
(tales of "long ago" or from "bygone times") has been applied to the common folktale, since they typically open with the formula "Mukashi..."
[14]
(akin to "Once upon a time..."). They also close with some set phrase like "
dotto harai
"
[14]
(a variant form being
Dondo Hare
).
These tales had been told in their local dialects, which may be difficult to understand to outsiders, both because of intonation and pronunciation differences, conjugations, and vocabulary. Many folktales collected from the field are actually "translations" into standard Japanese (or more like adaptations, merging several collected versions).
Classic folktales
[
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]
Classic folktales such as
Momotar?
, which most Japanese today are familiarized through pictured children's storybooks, manga, or other popularizations, can be traced to
picture-books
printed in the
Edo period
, though their prototypical stories may go back much further. The versions retold by children's story author
Sazanami Iwaya
[
ja
]
(1870?1933)
[15]
had a strong hand in establishing the forms usually known today.
Animals in folktales
[
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]
Two creatures are particularly known for their abilities to transform into humans or other beings and objects, the
kitsune
(fox) and
tanuki
(the
Japanese raccoon dog
; pictured). They occur frequently in folktales of humorous nature, such as the tanuki, Bunbuku Chagama, who could shapeshift into a teapot.
Marriages between humans and non-humans (
irui konin tan
(
異類婚姻譚
,
"tales of heterotype marriages"
)
) comprise a major category or motif in Japanese folklore. Japanese heterotype examples such as the crane story describes a sustained period of married life between the interspecies couple, in contrast to Western examples like
Frog Prince
or the
Leda
myth where the supernatural encounter is brief. An unusual pairing occurs in the story of the
Hamaguri ny?bo
[
ja
]
(
蛤女房
,
"clam wife"
)
, which exist in both a politer written version (
otogi-z?shi
) and in a more rustic and vulgar oral tale. The gender is reversed in the tale of
Tanishi ch?ja
[
ja
]
where a bride is wedded to a tiny
tanishi
(
river snail
).
Modern renditions
[
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]
A number of folktales were adapted for stage performance by playwright
Junji Kinoshita
, notably
Y?zuru
(
Twilight Crane
, 1949),
[16]
based on the folktale
Tsuru no Ongaeshi
or "a crane who repaid its gratitude".
Fantastic creatures
[
edit
]
For monsters and ghostly creatures in general, see
Y?kai
. For horror or ghost stories, see
Kaidan
.
A great deal of interest currently gravitates towards Japanese monsters taken from traditional Japanese sources. Some of the
y?kai
or strange beings are the stuff of folklore, orally transmitted and propagated among the populace. But one must realize that many beings or stories about them were spun and deliberately invented by professional writers during the
Edo Period
and earlier, and they are not folkloric in the strict sense.
Folk art and craft
[
edit
]
Some well-known craft objects such as
netsuke
,
raccoon dog
earthenware (
Shigaraki ware
), may be classed as
traditional Japanese crafts
.
A number of articles of daily household use (
mingu
(
民具
)
), amassed by
Keizo Shibusawa
, became the Attic Museum collection, now mostly housed in the
National Museum of Ethnology
in
Suita, Osaka
. The
Mingei
movement spearheaded by
Yanagi S?etsu
sought to appreciate folk craft from an aesthetic viewpoint.
Representative art
[
edit
]
- ?tsu-e
[
ja
]
, a type of folk painting produced in
?tsu
in
Shiga Prefecture
often depicting ogre-like figures, purchased as amulet for travelers.
- ema
, wooden plaques with paintings of horses or other figures, on which wishes are written and hung in shrines.
- koinobori
, carp-shaped banners.
Toys
[
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]
Textiles
[
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]
Articles of clothing
[
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]
Some of the articles below are essential for understanding traditional Japanese culture. The type of material used is also part of folklore.
- kasa
are hats woven from
sedge
,
soft rush
, strips of
bamboo
, or strips of
hinoki
cypress.
- mino
, bushy cape made from rice straw, were used as rain gear and snow gear. Snow boots were also woven from rice straw.
- waraji
, straw-woven footwear.
- bandori
(
Yamagata Prefecture
and other regions) is a type of often colorfully woven back strap used when carrying loads on one's back
[17]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Bownas & Brown 2004
, p.50-2 misidentifies Namahage as a Kyushu ritual. See other sources under
namahage
article
- ^
Ayabe, Tsuneo (1976).
"Esoteric Rituals in Japanese Traditional Secret Societeis: A Study of the Death and Rebirth Motif"
. In Bharati, Agrhananda (ed.).
Agents and Audiences
. Walter de Gruyter.
ISBN
978-3-11-080584-0
.
- ^
Plutschow 1990
, p.60 misplaces as
Kagoshima prefecture
, probably confusing it with
Toshidon
[
ja
]
of the
Koshikijima Islands
which is mentioned by
Bocking 1997
, p.87 (marebito), p.98 (namahage)
- ^
Bestor & Bestor 2011
, p. 69, households with kamidana showed a decline from 62% (1984) to 43.9% (2006); and only 26.4% in metropolitan areas
- ^
Takeda, Ch?sh? (1964). "minkan shink?"
民間信仰
[folk religion]. In Heibonsha (ed.).
Sekai hyakka jiten
世界百科事典
. Vol. 21. p. 442.
Mentions such k? as those devoted to
Ise Shrine
(伊勢講)、Akiba(秋葉講)、?mine(大峰講)、
k?shin
(庚申講)、Koyasu(子安講)、
Yama-no-Kami
(山ノ神講)、
Nenbutsu k?
[
ja
]
(念?講),
Kannon
(?音講)
- ^
a
b
Schnelle 1999
, p.325, note 23 "the
okoshi daiko
as a "ceremony to guard against misfortune" ("
yakuyoke no gy?ji
")"
- ^
a
b
c
Bownas & Brown 2004
, p.23, "Salt, the sophistication of ritual sea bathing as a cleanser of contamination, appears today even in many apparently secular uses. The sum? wrestler will sprinkle [salt] across the ring as he advances.. a restaurant frequently has its Fuji-cone of caked salt by the door-jamb, as a means of clearing the defilement left by an unwelcome patron".
- ^
Hosking, Richard (1997).
A Dictionary of Japanese Food: Ingredients & Culture
. Tuttle Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-8048-2042-4
.
, p.98, "little piles of salt have been placed at shrines to purify and gain the gods' protective presence"
- ^
a
b
Murakami 1988
, p.53
- ^
Jeremy, Michael Ernes; Robinson (1989).
Ceremony and Symbolism in the Japanese Home
. Manchester University Press ND.
ISBN
978-0-7190-2506-8
.
, pp.125- goes into a description of kas? in considerable detail.
- ^
Kornicki & McMullen 1996
, p. 87; citing
Bernard 1958
- ^
a
b
Lock, Margaret M. (1984).
East Asian Medicine in Urban Japan: Varieties of Medical Experience
. University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0-520-05231-4
.
, p.98 her informants do not believe in it, but rather not be seen
- ^
"Modern science reveals ancient secret in Japanese literature"
.
phys.org
. 30 March 2020.
Archived
from the original on 1 April 2020
. Retrieved
3 April
2020
.
- ^
a
b
Masuda, Katsumi (1964). "mukashibanashi"
昔話
[Japanese tales section]. In Heibonsha (ed.).
Sekai hyakka jiten
世界百科事典
. Vol. 21. pp. 499?502.
- ^
Kinoshita, Junji (1974).
Hy?ronshu (collected criticisms 1956~1957)
. Vol. 4. Miraisha (未?社). p. 82.
直接民衆の語る物語からではなく)?谷小波が定型化し、それが?定 ?科書によって?く普及されたそういう桃太?の話
- ^
Keene, Donald (1999).
Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era
. Columbia University Press. pp. 482?483.
ISBN
978-0-231-11439-4
.
- ^
"庄?のばんどりコレクション"
[Shonai no Bandori Collection].
Cultural Heritage Online
(in Japanese). Archived from
the original
on 2012-08-22
. Retrieved
2012-05-03
.
(virtual gallery)
- Dictionaries and encyclopedias
- Monograms, studies
- Bernard, Frank (1958).
Kata-imi et kata-tagae; etude sur les interdits de direction a l'epoque Heian
. Tokyo: Presses Universitaires de France.
- Bestor, Victoria Lyon; Bestor, Theodore C., eds. (2011).
Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society
. Akiko Yamagata. Taylor & Francis.
ISBN
978-1-136-73627-8
.
- Bownas, Geoffrey; Brown, Pauline (2004).
Japanese Rainmaking And Other Folk Practices
. Psychology Press.
ISBN
978-0-415-33069-5
.
,
- Kornicki, Peter Francis; McMullen, James (1996).
Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0-521-55028-4
.
- Plutschow, Herbert E. (1990).
Chaos and Cosmos: Ritual in Early and Medieval Japanese Literature
. Brill.
ISBN
978-90-04-08628-9
.
- Schnelle, Scott (1999).
The Rousing Drum: Ritual Practice in a Japanese Community
. University of Hawaii Press.
ISBN
978-0-8248-2141-8
.
Further reading
[
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]