Namahage

This ethnographic study offers a comprehensive examination of the Namahage, a ritual tradition unique to Japan's Oga Peninsula in which masked figures descend upon households on New Year's Eve to admonish sloth, instill moral discipline, and reaffirm communal values. Far from mere folklore, the Namahage embody a living cultural system that integrates ritual performance, symbolic fear, agricultural cosmology, and evolving local identity. Through historical analysis, participant observation, ...