Namahage: A New Year’s Tradition

In honor of it being New Year’s Eve, I wanted to share with you an interesting tradition I recently read about in our Stars and Stripes newsletter.

“The boogeyman is going to get you,” we often heard adults tease us as children. But on the Oga Peninsula in northern Japan, children are told that the “namahage” will come and get you! And this isn’t just an empty threat; every New Years Eve, demonic ogres called Namahage come to life and go door to door in search of misbehaving and disobedient children. Namahage are like a combination of Krampus and Santa Claus, stomping up your doorstep wielding large wooden knives and yelling “Are there any crybabies here?”

Legend has it that the Han emperor came to Japan over two millenia ago and brought five ogres with him. These oni, as they are known as in Japanese, were unleashed on the villages of Oga, pillaging the crops and stealing the young women. The terrorized villagers came up with a plan to rid themselves of these demons. They offered the oni all of the young women in the villages if they could build a stone staircase of 1000 steps up the mountain leading to a shrine in a single night. However, if they failed, they would have to leave Oga in peace. The greedy oni agreed. They were almost done with the task when a quick-witted villager crowed like a rooster, announcing the arrival of dawn. Thinking they had failed at their task, they angrily came down the mountain with only 999 steps completed.

The young men who dress in straw garments and frightening masks to portray the Namahage begin their night in the mountains, where they visit the local Shinto shrine and drink warming sake. They split off into groups as they enter the city, usually accompanied by a normal human who will announce their arrival. They do not enter houses which have had a birth or death in the family that year, or if there is a sick person inside.

They stomp at the entrance of the house before they enter (7 times before entering, 5 before being served food and sake, and 3 times before leaving) and grab whatever children are in the house. Screams and tears ensue, but once the other family members vouch for the children and reassure the Namahage that they are good people and they’ll be better next year, they let the children go. Local legend is that the ogres are trying to take the children back up the mountain, where they’ll never be seen again. This is a pretty terrifying concept, and you can bet that the children believe it’ll happen!

Although it may sound scary for the kids, for the parents and the young men playing the part of the Namahage, it’s a light-hearted, symbolic tradition that has been around for centuries. As long as your parents supply the Namahage with traditional Japanese food and sake, they will promise the family health and good fortune for the coming year.

There are many theories surrounding the exact meaning of this ritual, but one common theory is that it welcomes powerful deities into the city who will in turn bring the inhabitants good luck in the new year.

On that note, Happy New Year’s to you! May your New Year’s Eve be much less fear-stricken than that of the children of Oga.