Kakashi straw figure festival enlivens calm mountain village in southwestern Japan

Nov. 14, 2014


Kakashi straw figure festival enlivens calm mountain village in southwestern Japan

Yamakuni Town becomes a huge open-air theater of “kakashi” straw figures during the post-harvest season every autumn, attracting over 50,000 tourists from neighboring regions.

Visitors can find kakashi figures, which are equivalent to scarecrows in the West, standing here and there in Yamakuni, located in the central part of Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, southwestern Japan.
This year’s Yamakuni Kakashi World, the eighth of its kind, was launched for a one-month run late October, with about 1,200 vivid kakashi figures placed to welcome visitors in a nostalgic atmosphere in the rural landscape.

Kakashi display sites have been set up at 17 places mainly in harvested rice fields and parks. Themes for each of these sites change every year, and figures for this year depict such scenes as a wedding ceremony in the old days, an autumn festival featuring portable shrine bearers and spectators, a kid “kagura” play dedicated to the gods and a series of farm work.
Individually placed kakashi figures also can be found at empty lots and corners of gardens and elsewhere.

Yamakuni Town, currently a part of Nakatsu City, sees its population on the decline, down to approximately 2,600 as of March 2014. Villagers’ power put together for the annual event enlivens the otherwise lonely region.
Traditional kakashi dolls are those standing with a single leg and a straw hat in rice fields to dispel sparrows and crows.

The kakashi festival in Yamakuni dates back to 2003, when two old couples placed unique kakashi brides and bridegrooms on post-harvest fields in the back of their houses. People in the neighborhood followed suit. The custom then spread to other parts of the town, and the Yamakuni Kakashi Village event, then called so, started in 2007.

In front of the open-air wedding ceremony site at the Koyagawa district were two old women, who were on hand to serve hot tea and fruits to visitors.
“We learned how to make kakashi figures from the couples and started making kakashi dolls by ourselves,” said one of the women.

A kakashi display site in the Tsuyahime (Princess Tsuya) district features various scenes of rice growing, from horse-driven spadework and rice planting to harvesting. Among the figures there were kids playing with a big bamboo basket.

A tourist was gazing at the basket curiously, whispering to her friend, “I haven’t seen a bamboo basket this big. What was that for?” Their doubt was solved by an old farmer who was there to welcome tourists.

The basket, with a capacity of 7 koku (one koku is equivalent to about 180 liters), was originally used to contain cocoons, said the farmer. “People around here were raising silkworms until the 1930s, but the business ceased after that, because it became unprofitable,” he said.

At a garden in front of a farmer’s house in the Morizane district were kakashi kids climbing up a persimmon tree. “My wife is good at making kakashi dolls like those out there,” the farmer said. Kakashi figures have wires inside and so, their legs, arms and other parts can be easily bent to desired shapes by bending wires appropriately, his wife said. “Because I was tomboyish in my childhood, you know, I like making these figures,” she said smilingly.

Many villages and towns in Oita Prefecture have boastful unique products, but Yamakuni lacks strongly appealing, original products. Further, similar kakashi festivals can also be seen in other regions in Japan. But straw figures made by Yamakuni people are more real and more humorous. The kakashi works instantly remove a psychological barrier between visitors, mostly city dwellers, and villagers, generating a friendly atmosphere throughout the town during the festival.