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<\/a><\/p>\nThe altar for worshipping Sh\u014dgatsu-sama on the first day of the new year. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n
A ceremony to pray for a good harvest, performed after a paddy dried out during winter has been worked with a hoe in preparation for planting. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n Preparing mochibana, bits of mochi pounded rice threaded onto branches, as a stand-in for Sh\u014dgatsu-sama, on January 13. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n Torigoya is conducted even today on kosh\u014dgatsu, January 15. Bamboo, straw, and New Year decorations are burned to return Sh\u014dgatsu-sama to the heavens. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n Passing On the Traditions of Iwaki<\/p>\n In the foreword to Tanokami: Nihon no inasaku girei (Deity of the Rice Paddies: The Rice Cultivation Rituals of Japan), Haga\u2019s first collection of photos taken in Iwaki, he explained why he had chosen to pursue this work there.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cFor 2,000 years, the Japanese people have grown rice, around which the belief in tanokami and associated rituals has developed. Many Japanese customs and myths have been influenced by tanokami, providing insight into how rice cultivation rituals are reflected in daily life and social structures\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Today, modern science has made good harvests possible without the intervention of tanokami. Progress in agricultural technology and the modernization of farm life are rapidly eroding traditional village society, in which religious beliefs, crop production, and entertainment were intertwined. This is a last opportunity to record the rituals associated with rice production for posterity.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n As Haga had foreseen, the rituals around rice growing were rapidly becoming simplified or had disappeared altogether. Meanwhile, the significance of rites centering around tanokami, such as Hiroshima Prefecture\u2019s Mibu no Hana Taue and Ishikawa Prefecture\u2019s Oku-Noto Aenokoto, has been recognized with their collective inscription by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Haga, who made recording folklore for posterity his lifework, passed away in 2022 at the age of 101.<\/p>\n Iwaki, where Haga got his start as a folklore photographer, is today on the verge of losing its traditional farming culture. The Iwaki City Museum of Folklore and Traditional Housing, which opened in 1999, is leading efforts to preserve what is left of those traditions. The museum collects and displays all manner of artifacts related to local life.<\/p>\n Five traditional thatched-roof houses, dismantled and transported from various parts of Iwaki, have been re-erected in the museum\u2019s vast grounds. Meticulously preserved, they reproduce a premodern farm village. On display inside the houses are farming tools of the era; visitors can also try their hand at working in the fields and paddies outside. Iwaki schoolchildren visit here as part of their social studies lessons, and on weekends, adults can participate in workshops to learn about the local culture.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2026, Haga\u2019s son Haga Hinata visited the folklore museum to donate 46 film rolls\u2019 worth of digitalized photo data, to help teach local history. Sorting through the collection, the museum selected photos of folklore entertainment that had died out more than 30 years before, including them in a special exhibit during the summer.<\/p>\n According to curator \u014cta Y\u016bhi, \u201cPhotos depicting farming in Iwaki in the postwar years are very rare, and they are invaluable for scholarly research. For example, the folklorist Seki Keigo [1899\u20131990] remarked that he had understood narikizeme, the act of hitting a fruit tree with a knife to cast a spell to ensure a bountiful crop, from a written description, but that Haga\u2019s photo was the first time he had actually seen the action performed.\u201d<\/p>\n A special exhibit planned for the fall on the theme of \u201cstraw\u201d features donated photos illustrating Sh\u014dgatsu-sama, torigoya, and other traditions. The photos will also be used for school lectures by outside speakers and are included in the Iwaki Digital Museum showcasing cultural resources. Haga says \u201cI\u2019m very happy that the folklore museum values local folklore and that I was able to entrust it with my father\u2019s photos.\u201d<\/p>\n Rich Folklore Traditions Live On<\/p>\n Haga also called on the Fukushima Museum in Aizu-Wakamatsu to donate the digitalized contents of 138 rolls of film containing photos taken throughout the prefecture. His father\u2019s photos had been included in an exhibition that traveled to Beijing and Rome in 2012, the year after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Haga\u2019s presentation took place on the occasion of the return of the exhibition to the Fukushima Museum.<\/p>\n At the ceremony, \u014csato Masaki, the museum\u2019s curator in charge of folklore, displayed the actual ritual implements and crafts that the photos had recorded. He explained: \u201cAlong with actual physical examples, photos are vital for explaining traditional rituals. Haga Hideo\u2019s photos, especially those in which he focused on capturing the essence of those rituals, are priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, several film strips were digitalized in chronological order, giving a good idea of the sequence of events taking place. The 1960 photos showing festivities in the town of Miharu are particularly interesting.<\/p>\n One sequence shows the moment a bride enters the groom\u2019s home, a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. According to \u014csato, \u201cHaga must have negotiated beforehand with the family, since he took photos from inside the home.\u201d He expressed surprise that the sequence of photos \u201cshows the go-between and a female neighbor removing the bride\u2019s umbrellalike wicker headgear and guests chanting the celebratory \u2018Takasago\u2019 song from the n\u014d play of the same name. These are the kinds of photos depicting a ceremony that one might expect to see in school textbooks on folklore.\u201d<\/p>\n A photo from the wedding. Haga recorded the entire proceedings, from the exchange of yuin\u014d betrothal gifts to reporting the marriage to the local shrine\u2019s tutelary deity. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n Presenting the collection, Haga said, \u201cFukushima\u2019s festivals are an important element in human relations. They haven\u2019t really been in the public eye since the March 2011 earthquake, but I hope that these photos will make local people proud of their folk culture.\u201d<\/p>\n A similar collection of digitalized photos, taken in the 1950s, was gifted to Kagoshima Prefecture\u2019s Amami \u014cshima<\/a> in the summer of 2025; activities relating to the collection have been ongoing there. The Amami Museum held an exhibit commemorating the donation of the photos this summer and is also planning a traveling exhibition to other parts of Japan, starting with Kobe, targeting former residents of Okinoerabujima, one of the Amami islands. Perhaps a similar activity can be organized in Fukushima to communicate the local culture to younger generations.<\/p>\n The Kohata no Hata Matsuri in Nihonmatsu, where a coming-of-age rite for 15-year-olds includes transiting through a narrow passage to symbolically \u201cemerge\u201d into adulthood, is still conducted today. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
A divination ritual conducted on the evening of January 14. Twelve soybeans are roasted in the irori sunken hearth and used to predict the weather for the coming year according to the degree of charring. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
Warmed by hearty oden stew, children gather in a hut to sing a song to drive away birds, which eat the grain the fields, in the hope of an abundant harvest. (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
The permanent exhibit showcases farm life from the Edo period (1603\u20131868) to the present. (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko)<\/p>\n<\/a>
Farm tools and artifacts, including a life-sized figure (at left) created to protect the village from evil, have been collected from various parts of Iwaki. (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko)<\/p>\n<\/a>
A traditional home from the latter half of the nineteenth century stands in the park. (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko)<\/p>\n<\/a>
The interior is mostly untouched. (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko)<\/p>\n<\/a>
Mochibana prepared by children are displayed. (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko)<\/p>\n<\/a>
Top: The Jangara Nenbutsu Odori folk entertainment performed during the midsummer bon period. Bottom: A child is taught how to make a New Year decoration. (Courtesy Iwaki City Museum of Folklore and Traditional Housing)<\/p>\n<\/a>
Top: Haga Hinata, at right, presents digitalized photo data to museum director Yajima Noriyuki. Below: The Folk Entertainment of Iwaki exhibition, which runs until September 27, includes photos taken in 1960. (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko)<\/p>\n<\/a>
Although acreage under cultivation has decreased, rice-growing continues. The photo at top (\u00a9\u00a0Haga Hideo) shows the hamlet of Kamikamado, where Haga photographed New Year ceremonies in 1953; below (\u00a9\u00a0Uzawa Akihiko) is the same setting today.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
Top: A Fukushima Museum display of folk implements similar to those depicted in the donated photo collection. Bottom: Museum director Matsuyama Masayuki, at left, expresses pleasure at receiving the collection, which he considers a valuable resource for communicating Fukushima\u2019s past way of life. (\u00a9\u00a0Nippon.com)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n