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Namahage
The are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty '' oni'' (ogre) masks and traditional straw capes ('' mino'') during a New Year's ritual, in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture. General description The frightfully dressed men impersonating the ''oni''-demons wearing masks, dressed in long straw coats or '' mino'', locally called ''kede'' or ''kende''. They are armed with deba knives (albeit wooden fakes or made of papier-mâché) and toting a , march in pairs or threes going door-to-door making rounds of people's homes, admonishing children who may be guilty of laziness or bad behavior, yelling phrases like or in the pronunciation and accent of the local dialect. Traditionally, the namahage have worn painted wooden masks, sometimes made of wood bark, and primarily painted red. But in recent years they have been manufactured using bamboo strainers as frames, cardboard material, or flattened metal canisters, etc., and the nam ...
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Namahage
The are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty '' oni'' (ogre) masks and traditional straw capes ('' mino'') during a New Year's ritual, in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture. General description The frightfully dressed men impersonating the ''oni''-demons wearing masks, dressed in long straw coats or '' mino'', locally called ''kede'' or ''kende''. They are armed with deba knives (albeit wooden fakes or made of papier-mâché) and toting a , march in pairs or threes going door-to-door making rounds of people's homes, admonishing children who may be guilty of laziness or bad behavior, yelling phrases like or in the pronunciation and accent of the local dialect. Traditionally, the namahage have worn painted wooden masks, sometimes made of wood bark, and primarily painted red. But in recent years they have been manufactured using bamboo strainers as frames, cardboard material, or flattened metal canisters, etc., and the nam ...
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Oga, Akita
is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 26,930 in 12,880 households, and a population density of 110 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Oga is located on the Oga Peninsula in northwestern Akita Prefecture, bordered by the Sea of Japan to the north, west and south. Much of the city is within the boundaries of the Oga Quasi-National Park. Neighboring municipalities * Akita Prefecture ** Ōgata ** Mitane ** Katagami Climate Different from the rest of the prefecture, the climate is an isolated humid subtropical (Köppen: ''Cfa'') by direct influence (due to being a peninsula) of the Tsushima Current, being the most northern city of the Asian continent with this categorization according to the 0 °C isotherm. Or the southern edge of the hot-summer humid continental (''Dfa'') by the normal of the Japan Meteorological Agency. Winters are mild and summers although the climatic type are warm but no ...
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Akita Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its geographic area is 11,637 km2 (4,493 sq mi). Akita Prefecture is bordered by Aomori Prefecture to the north, Iwate Prefecture to the east, Miyagi Prefecture to the southeast, and Yamagata Prefecture to the south. Akita is the capital and largest city of Akita Prefecture. Other major cities include Yokote, Daisen, and Yurihonjō. Akita Prefecture is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan and extends east to the Ōu Mountains, the longest mountain range in Japan, at the border with Iwate Prefecture. Akita Prefecture formed the northern half of the historic Dewa Province with Yamagata Prefecture. History The region of Akita was created from the ancient provinces of Dewa and Mutsu. Separated from the principal Japanese centres of commerce, politics, ...
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Oga Peninsula
The Oga Peninsula (男鹿半島 ''Oga-hantō'') is a rugged peninsula which projects west into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Akita in northern Honshū, the main island of Japan. Politically it coincides with the city of Oga. At the base of the peninsula is Hachirōgata, formerly the second largest lake in Japan. Oga Peninsula is famous for the traditional festival of Namahage. Gallery File:Location OgaPeninsulaJp.jpg, Location File:Oga Peninsula Relief Map, SRTM-1.jpg, Relief Map File:Oga peninsula z.JPG, Kamo harbor File:Godzilla-iwa in Oga,Akita.jpg, Godzilla Rock File:Oga Aquarium 20200118b.jpg, Oga Aquarium Gao File:Straw namahage.1.jpg, Namahage Museum See also * Oga Aquarium Gao *Wakimoto Castle is a Sengoku period Japanese castle located in Oga, Akita Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1979. Background The precise date of the construction of Wakimoto Castle is not ... Touri ...
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Japanese Folklore
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 is used to describe folklore. The academic study of folklore is known as . Folklorists also employ the term or to refer to the objects and arts they study. Folk religion Men dressed as namahage, wearing ogre-like masks and traditional straw capes ('' mino'') make rounds of homes, 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 ritual of the Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa which does not allow itself to be photographed. Many, though increasingly fewer households maintain a kamidana or a small Shinto altar shelf. The Shinto version of the kitchen ...
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Koshōgatsu
The is an annual festival with its own customs. Since 1873, the official Japanese New Year has been celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar, on January 1 of each year, . However, some traditional events of the Japanese New Year are partially celebrated on the first day of the year on the modern Tenpō calendar, the last official lunisolar calendar which was used until 1872 in Japan. History Prior to the Meiji period, the date of the Japanese New Year had been based on Japanese versions of lunisolar calendar (the last of which was the Tenpō calendar) and, prior to Jōkyō calendar, the Chinese version. However, in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar and the first day of January became the official and cultural New Year's Day in Japan. Traditional food The Japanese eat a selection of dishes during the New Year celebration called , typically shortened to ''osechi.'' Many of these dishes are sweet, sour, or dried, so the ...
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Oni (folklore)
An is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Notwithstanding their evil reputation, oni possess intriguingly complex aspects that cannot be brushed away simply as evil. They are typically portrayed as hulking figures with one or more horns growing out of their heads."Oni." ''Handbook of Japanese Mythology'', by Michael Ashkenazi, ABC-CLIO, 2003, pp. 230–233. Stereotypically, they are conceived of as red, blue, black, yellow, or white-colored, wearing loincloths of tiger pelt, and carrying iron kanabō clubs. They are creatures which instill fear and feelings of danger due to their grotesque outward appearance, their wild and sometimes strange behavior and their powers. They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature, and theater and appear as stock villains in the well-known fairytales of '' Momotarō'' (''Peach Boy''), ...
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Noshiro, Akita
270px, Rice fields in the Noshiro Plain 270px, Yoneshiro River is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 49,935 in 24,200 households. Geography Noshiro is located in the flat coastal plains northwestern Akita Prefecture, bordered by the Sea of Japan to the west. The Yoneshiro River flows through the city and empties into the Sea of Japan near Noshiro Port. The highest point is Mount Yakeyama at . Neighboring municipalities *Akita Prefecture **Kitaakita ** Fujisato ** Mitane ** Happō ** Kamikoani Climate Noshiro has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfa'') with large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. Precipitation significant throughout the year, but is heaviest from August to October. The average annual temperature in Noshiro is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are h ...
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Emperor Wu Of Han
Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years – a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later and remains the record for ethnic Chinese emperors. His reign resulted in a vast expansion of geopolitical influence for the Chinese civilization, and the development of a strong centralized state via governmental policies, economical reorganization and promotion of a hybrid Legalist–Confucian doctrine. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including development of the Imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly a ...
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Yūwa, Akita
was a town located in Kawabe District, Akita Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 7,898 and a density of 54.65 persons per km². The total area was 144.51 km². On January 11, 2005, Yūwa, along with the town of Kawabe, was merged into the expanded city of Akita and no longer exists as an independent municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the .... Climate References External linksAkita official website Dissolved municipalities of Akita Prefecture {{Akita-geo-stub ...
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Akita, Akita
'Autumn field' is the capital city of Akita Prefecture, Japan, and has been designated a core city since 1 April 1997. , the city has an estimated population of 305,625, 136,628 households and a population density of 340 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History The area of present-day Akita was part of ancient Dewa Province, and has been inhabited for thousands of years. The Jizōden ruins within the city limits are a major archaeological site with artifacts from the Japanese Paleolithic period through the Jōmon and Yayoi periods. During the Nara period, the Yamato court established Akita Castle in 733 AD to bring the local Emishi tribes under its control. The area was ruled by a succession of local samurai clans in the Sengoku period, before coming under the control of the Satake clan of Kubota Domain during the Edo period. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, a castle town developed around Kubota Castle. Meiji and Taishō Eras With the start of the Meiji peri ...
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Fukui Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the east, Shiga Prefecture to the south, and Kyoto Prefecture to the southwest. Fukui is the capital and largest city of Fukui Prefecture, with other major cities including Sakai, Echizen, and Sabae. Fukui Prefecture is located on the Sea of Japan coast and is part of the historic Hokuriku region of Japan. The Matsudaira clan, a powerful ''samurai'' clan during the Edo period that became a component of the Japanese nobility after the Meiji Restoration, was headquartered at Fukui Castle on the site of the modern prefectural offices. Fukui Prefecture is home to the Kitadani Formation, the Ichijōdani Asakura Family Historic Ruins, and the Tōjinbō cliff range. Prehistory The Kitadani Dinosaur Quarry, on the Sugi ...
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