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Asian Rural Future 2030
Why Culture Matters
Analysis and social meaning of a famed festival in Aso, Japan
Johannes WILHELM1
1Kumamoto University
Keywords : Aso (Kyūshū, Japan), Rural Ceremonies and Society, Local Identity, Territoriality, Onda matsuri
1. INTRODUCTION
When we speak of culture, we are inclined to use it to mean the art of building in magnificent gardens, the pyramids
in Giza or even imperial court music, i.e. what we understand as the high culture, a notably pronounced and widely
known manifestation of culture. However, we cannot say that activities such as cleaning one's own house or the care
of ceremonies, such as the cleaning of graves and devotions for the deceased, even the care of one's clothes, i.e.
everyday laundry, aren't also a form of culture. In fact, numerous cultural forms exist, ranging from a minimalist
Japanese tea ceremony to the chaotic hustle and bustle of the Cologne carnival. A common denominator, however, is
that they are activities that are meaningful in living together, whether it is music at the imperial court or daily laundry.
Two things are crucial here, the activity (or practice) and its context, respectively. Since practice and context are
important points of reference in the text, culture is defined as the totality including all manifestations of human actions
and individual activities that make sense in living together within a specified space.
This text discusses the festivities surrounding the so-called onda-matsuri (henceforth abbreviated as Onda) in Aso,
with a particular focus on the festival in Nishiteno (6th district of the former administrative village of Kojō between
1889 and 1954) at the Kukuzō shrine which is held end of July. More well-known, however, is the Onda at the Aso
shrine in Miyaji, which is only about four km south of Nishiteno in the middle of the more urban Miyaji and holds
the festival two days after Nishiteno. I begin with a general outline of the Onda and then try to characterize the
differences between the two festivals of the same name in the more rural context, on the one hand, and in the more
urban context, on the other, by drawing on Ernst Klusen's (1975) proposed analysis of the field of reference of festive
practices in their function and interaction. Based on this, the study focuses on the example of Nishiteno, where the
Onda is still celebrated today as a living part of the annual cycle of festivals. The latter, in turn, structures and defines
quasi-normatively, on the one hand, the annual calendar, especially of importance for agrarian activities, but also, on
the other hand, the local territoriality through the interaction of the actors actually involved. This description of the
Onda by no means claims to be complete, as such an undertaking would deserve its own essay, but focuses on aspects
of interest in the context of the present paper.
2. THE ONDA-MATSURI
The Onda (or more formally the otaue shinkō-shiki) is part of the Agricultural Ceremonial Heritage of Aso held at
Kokuzō and Aso shrines with the status of an Intangible Cultural Property assigned by the Japanese government.
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Hence, it is one of the most known festivals of the Aso region and attracts numerous visitors every year, especially
the one at the Aso shrine. Both shrines are located in the north-eastern part of todays municipality of Aso-shi which
roughly corresponds to the northern caldera valley of the Aso volcano.
Fig.1 Photographers and the Onda procession in Miyaji, 2017
The visible main part of the ceremony is a procession through the settlement in which the shrine deities are led
inside four portable mikoshi shrines to a specific ceremonial hut called okariya for a glimpse of rice growing in the
rice fields and a ceremonial lunch with key members of the local cult group (ujiko sōdai). This meal is carried to the
okariya by a group of white-clad maidens (unari) in special containers, led by a group of children symbolizing
auxiliary deities, and accompanied by a mounted priesthood of the shrine and the mikoshis, which are carried by the
ceremonial brotherhoods of four subdistricts of the local cult group. These younger men also perform the
accompanying paddy songs (ta-uta) at specific locations and, some members of the children's group are assigned
drummers for the pace while the procession is moving. Altogether, at Aso shrine the Onda-procession counts almost
200 persons and the unaris represent a very popular motive for photographers. (Fig. 1) Indeed, today the festival
organization committee at the Aso shrine holds a well-known photo contest for these photographers for why specific
locations are being designated for them to try their best shot, most often with the Aso volcano in the background.
Table 2 Annual cycle of ceremonies related to the Onda (according to Kashiwagi (2005: 32)
Aso shrine
Kokuzō shrine
Name
Ceremonial Day
Name
Ceremonial Day
tōka no sechi-e 13th day of the lunar New Year utaizome 16th day of the lunar New Year
onda-matsuri July 28 onda-matsuri July 26
emorinagashi August 6 nemurinagashi August 6
tanomi-matsuri September 25 & 26 tanomi-matsuri September 23 & 24
The Onda at Kokuzō shrine in Nishiteno basically consists of the same elements and events. However, one should
note that the Onda is only part of a ceremonial cycle that begins early in the year with a singing-in (utaizome or formal
tōka no sechi-e). All festivities within the annual cycle are held at the shrine. (Table 1) For instance, the Onda-cycle
in Teno ends with the nemurinagashi (Fig. 2) lullaby procession a couple of weeks after the Onda, which marks the
end of the ta-uta singing cycle. Also, the local cult group (ujiko sōdai) includes three spatially distinguishable hamlets
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on which Kashiwagi (2008) gives a detailed account. These three hamlets consist of the 5th to 7th districts of the
former administrative village of Kojō, which are Higashiteno (5th), Nishiteno (6th) and Ogomori (7th), repectively.
The individual hamlets are further subdivided into neighborhood groups (rinpo-han, tonari-gumi or chiën-gumi; see
Embree 1946 for details), most of which consist of about 10 households and whose boundaries to each other are
usually defined by the local irrigation system, i.e., access to water. However, because Higashiteno consists of far
more households in relative terms, it is represented by two representatives within the cult group at the shrine, while
in Nishiteno and Ogomori one person each is represented as district head within the cult organization. It is not unusual
that this representative is also the local village headman (kuchō of the smallest administrative unit gyōsei-ku), for
which reason it is interesting and important to note that in these cases the cult and everyday administration and local
politics are congruent by means of organization and agency.
Fig.2 The nemurinagashi procession in Nishiteno, 2019
2.1 Differences
In fact, there are quite a few differences between the two festivals at Aso and Kokuzō shrines. The procession at
Kokuzō shrine, for example, includes a single transportable mikoshi shrine compared to the four mentioned at the
Onda in Miyaji, and consequently the task of the carrier group at Kokuzō shrine rotates annually among the
brotherhoods of the three former Kojō districts. Although this practice continues to this day, the demographic
downward spiral (Lützeler, 2016) is also evident in this case, as local consideration is being given to merging the
three groups due to lack of participants. It should also be briefly pointed out that at the nemurinagashi, which follows
the Onda by a couple of weeks, all three groups of young men sing and every year there is a visible and audible
difference in the level of practice of each group.
At the Aso shrine, the books containing the ta-uta texts were transcribed in katakana letters, making it extremely
difficult to grasp the meaning of the text that is actually written in bungo, i.e. classical Japanese. A singing group
there consists of members of the shopping district, many of whom are newcomers who, in the worst case, have to
painstakingly learn completely meaningless sequences of vocal sounds. Complicating matters is the fact that the vocal
sounds are sung extremely slowly and with multiple iterations. A simple sentence like "The deity came to the bridge."
can last over five minutes.
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Fig.3 Excerpts from textbooks with ta-uta transcriptions from Aso (right) and Kokuzō (left) shrines
Coming back to the photographers, another difference stands out, namely the way they are treated. As has been
mentioned above, at Aso shrine the photographers as tourists should be attracted and encouraged to take their own
best shots of the festival which has much to do with the fact that Aso represents a major tourist site in Kyūshū.
However, at the Kokuzō shrine these photographers are welcome, but, only part of the visitors and hence kindly asked
in a distributed leaflet not to disturb and properly respect the local festivity and customs. (Fig. 3) Yet, in fact, some
among the photographers still tend to ignore the local rules, and hence there are some specific locations within the
hamlet, where crops on the fields are being destroyed by them.
Fig.3 Leaflet for photographers at the Kokuzō shrine’s Onda (with a translation by the author)
These explanations should suffice for the overview section for now, and an attempt will now be made to analyze
the circumstances a little. This is followed by another subchapter with a closer look at the locality in the case of the
Onda at Kokuzō shrine.
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2.2 Analysis 1: Performance-interaction-framework
There exists a useful framework to analyze the performance of an artisan action in its surrounding context by the
famed musicologist, educator and Volkslied (German folk-songs) composer Ernst Klusen (1975) which is quite useful
and enlightening a tool to point out the differing characteristics of the two Onda festival types. With regard to a
performance and its setting Klusen suggested a reference field of function and interaction with a dipolar structure
between what he denoted immanence by – meaning performers and audience are congruent – and emanence –
meaning a segregation performers and audience like in a performance of a professional philharmonic orchestra in a
concert hall. (Table 2) This dipolarity is further subdivided in an attenuated form of a representation of each denoted
with the term and degree of representativeness.
Table 3 Klusen’s reference field of function and interaction (according to Klusen 1975; adapted for the Onda)
immanence
representative immanence
representative emanence
emanence
unity of performing subjects
and audience performance for working others
(work songs)
semi-participative performance
(event with mediating
entertainer)
division between performing
subjects and audience
Onda in Teno
Visitors at Onda in Teno
Onda in Miyaji
Following the field division, we now aim to adapt this model to the Onda of the two shrines. According to this
framework the comparison of the two Onda festivals illustrates that the one in Teno can be characterized as being
immanent because the activities are centered on the residents of the hamlets, whose individually appointed groups
and members are both performers as much as spectators of the event. Visitors from outside are somehow an exception
from this setting and – although welcome and a source of increased local pride – hence, they are separated from the
residents in their role as simply being spectators only (see leaflet for photographers). On the other side, the Onda in
Miyaji represents an event in which a much smaller number of locally resident performers are involved directly and
exclusively, yet, the spectators are much larger in number and even though there are similarities to the immanence
observed in Teno – like specific neighborhoods organized around one of the mikoshi’s carriage or some members of
the female unari group – the whole can rather be characterized as a local festival and tourist attraction. The latter also
becomes evident when looking at the amateur photographer’s contest or even in the fourth mikoshi group formed by
members of the local shopping district who seem less 'rooted' in Miyaji than members of other groups. This group
lacked most in knowledge and understanding of the song-texts and performed most poorly among all the groups the
author observed so far. Therefore, this specific group might somewhat be characterized as being representatively
immanent in the sense of Klusen.
At this point, the paper's focus will shift to another analytical aspect, i.e. the meanings and interpretation of the
Onda festivity.
2.3 Analysis 2: Meanings
As anyone knows from everyday life, interpretations may vary among different actors in different settings.
Accordingly, the following remarks are intended merely as a starting point for further reflection. To make the matter
easier, the comparative approach will now be abandoned and the focus will be turned to the Onda festival in Teno at
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the Kokuzō shrine exclusively.
As already stated above, the religious cult group (ujiko sōdai) in Teno is composed of residents of the 5th to 7th
districts of the former administrative village of Kojō, which are Higashiteno (5th), Nishiteno (6th) and Ogomori (7th),
repectively. The individual hamlets are further subdivided into neighborhood groups (rinpo-han, tonari-gumi or
chiën-gumi; see Embree 1946 for details), most of which consist of about 10 households and whose boundaries to
each other are usually defined by the local irrigation system, i.e., access to water. However, because Higashiteno
consists of far more households in relative terms, it is represented by four representatives within the cult group at the
shrine just like Nishiteno has four representatives, while Ogomori only one person each represents the cult
community. The term of these representatives are varying among the neighborhood groups of the hamlets. (Table 4)
Table 4 Annual cycle of ceremonies related to the Onda (in 2003 according to Kashiwagi 2008: 31)
Hamlet Administrative
district Neighborhood group Households
No. of ujiko
representatives (term
in years)
Teno
Higashiteno
5-1
Yamashita
6
2 (2)
Kita
8
Ue
9
Naka
8
Shōwa
11
5-2
Hira
7
1 (2)
Enokizon
4
Nakazono
8
Yashiki
Ue
6
1 (2)
Shita
9
Nishiteno 6
Hirai
Ue
8
1 (2)
Shita 7
Tachiyama
13
1 (3)
Hashizume
Ue
5
1 (3)
Shita 7
Jingūji
13
Shōwa
13
1 (3)
Miya no mae
7
Ogomori 7
Han-nagi
9
2 (2) Shita
10
Tera
7
In recents years, the effects of the social downward spiral didn't spare out the Aso region. Consequently, aging and
shrinking of the local society have become obvious in Teno, too, also in terms of looking for suited members for the
local cult group. Accordingly, the cult organization has needed to adapt to these conditions in ways like extending
the terms of representatives or appointing a suitable (knowledge about customs and traditions as much as a certain
degree of reliance) person in his 50-ies and usually still busy (under full-term working conditions) who sometimes
cannot take part in regular meetings of the cult group. In the latter case, someone else like the hamlet's headman
(kuchō) or another member of the group would step in to represent the person.
Another important aspect in the adaptation process is the emergence and presence of new organizational types of
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village groups. In Nishiteno, for instance, a local revitalization group denoted meisui-kai was established in recent
past, in which members aim to preserve and revive local customs and village life on one the hand and act as local
guides for interested visitors of the Kokuzō shrine as much as the hamlet itself. The meisui-kai is actually a quite
exclusive 'club' of seniors with statutes as a formal set of rules. For instance, according to the statutes, a person can
only become a member if he or she is retired from work, is reasonably well-off, and has a certain amount of free time
for community activities. Apart from the meisui-kai, there exists the kiyora-kai, which is a rather informal 'drinking
group' of local men between about 20 and 60 of age. They have no explicit set of rules, but, rather share similar goals
like the meisui-kai, yet, more in a supportive sense. A former guesthouse (minshuku) serves as a venue for the group's
gatherings, and quite a few of the former participants of these gatherings are now active members of the meisui-kai.
The kiyora-kai provides many shrine bearers at the Onda festival, among others, but other young residents are not
excluded at all. In this sense, the kiyora-kai also sees itself as a kind of open door for everyone to participate actively
and with a lot of pleasure in village life, especially since in today's Japan there are unfortunately almost no village
pubs left for informal gatherings.
Fig.4 Schematic territoriality of the Onda festival at Kokuzō shrine (routes of mikoshi and nemurinagashi groups)
Now, when looking at the territorial distribution of the Onda festival at the Kokuzō shrine another interesting aspect
becomes evident. (Figure 4) In fact, the route of the mikoshi (full red line in Fig. 4) during the Onda in Teno roughly
follows the flow of the local Miyagawa downriver to the place of the okariya. The okariya, in turn, is exactly located
in a neutral space between the three hamlets of Ogomori, Nishiteno and Higashiteno. Additionally, the routes of each
hamlet's singing groups at the nemurinagashi after the Onda (dotted lines in Fig. 4) are directing vice versa and
upriver towards the central shrine in upper Nishiteno merging on their ways with each other (and actually compete
by singing at merging points).
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In a certain sense, the Onda festival and the nemurinagashi ceremony can be conceived as communion and
symbolic incorporation of local territories, since in both cases the routes have distinctive features that indicate the
spatial convergence, its dissolution and segregation of a locality. This territoriality is actually corresponding to the
common-lands, the meadows in the grasslands above on the outer caldera ring of Aso that is surrounding the Teno
area. Although the character of these common-use-rights areas became more or less obsolete during the socio-
economic change during the postwar era (Wilhelm, 2020), their underlying institutionality still remains in many
aspects of social life, such as the organization of local common work (cleaning the streets and waterways, for
instance).
3. CONCLUSION
This text discussed two locations of the Onda festivity in Aso, with a particular focus on the festival at the Kukuzō
shrine which is held end of July and at the Aso shrine in Miyaji, which is only about four km south of Nishiteno in
the middle of the more urban Miyaji and holds the festival two days after Nishiteno. After a general outline of the
Onda the differences between the two festivals were characterized by drawing on Ernst Klusen's (1975) proposed
analysis of the field of reference of festive practices in their function and interaction. Based on this, the study looked
closer at the example of Teno, where the Onda is still celebrated today as a living part of the annual cycle of festivals.
This served then as a foundation on which an interpretation of the Onda and related ceremonies structure and define
quasi-normatively, on the one hand, the annual agrarian calendar, but also, on the other hand, the local territoriality
integrity and symbolic segregation through the interaction of the actors actually involved. Together with a brief
discussion on adaptive strategies of local residents to cope with external stressors, we can also state, that culture not
only strengthens local identity, but, by involvement also serves as a very effective and useful tool to enhance local
resilience against threats. Culture needs proper financial support, yet, doesn't pay-off economically. However, money
can't buy any cultural contents and contexts on the other hand. Since culture is an elementary component of society,
atrophy leads to social disintegration. Without a society, however, there is no economy. Therefore, as a condition for
a harmonious, prosperous and resilient society, culture also requires a necessary degree of financial foundation.
REFERENCES
1) Klusen, E. (1975): Zwischen symphonie und hit: Folklore? In Antholz, H. & Gundlach, W. (Eds.),
Musikpädagogik Heute, Pädagogischer Verlag Schwann, Düsseldorf, 79-91.
2) Kashiwagi, K. (2005): Mura no kihan no imi-zuke: shinshoku seichō katei ni okeru tai-shakaikankei bunseki
[Giving meaning to village rules: An analysis of relations towards society during the becoming of a shinto priest].
Minzokugaku ronsō, 20, 19-34. (in Japanese)
3) Kashiwagi, K. (2008): Yoriai ni okeru sōi-keisei no shikumi: kojin-teki shisō kara shakaishūdan-teki hassō e no
tenkai [The formation of consensus in a village council, focusing on the process to form social knowledge from
personal knowledge]. Nihon minzokugaku, 254, 25-56. (in Japanese)
4) Embree, J. F. (1939): Suye Mura: A Japanese Village, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5) Lützeler, R. (2016): Aso: ein ländlicher Raum in der Abwärtsspirale? Bemerkungen zur Messbarkeit der Qualität
regionaler Lebensbedingungen. In Lützeler, R. & Manzenreiter, W. (Eds.), Aso: Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und
Zukunft eines Wiener Forschungsprojekts zum ländlichen Japan, 45, 153-167.
6) Wilhelm, J. (2020): Das Grasland von Aso zwischen gesellschaftlicher Schrumpfung und Landschaftserhalt,
Japan Jahrbuch 2020: Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 222-249.
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Asian Rural Future 2030
Edited by
Kako Inoue, Izuru Saizen, and Minori Tokito
Committee of International Affairs
The Association of Rural Planning, Japan
Committee of International Affairs, The Association of Rural Planning, Japan
Head of Committee, Board member Kako INOUE, University of Miyazaki
Board member
Izuru SAIZEN, Kyoto University
Board member
Mari TAKEDA, The University of Tokyo
Satoshi ASANO, Kyoto University
Miki NAKANO, Meiji University
Minori TOKITO, Kyoto University
The Association of Rural Planning, Japan
Kinoshitabiru 4F, 3-3-3 Kanda-Misakicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0061, Japan
Edited by Kako Inoue, Izuru Saizen, and Minori Tokito
Committee of International Affairs, The Association of Rural Planning, Japan
Asian Rural Future 2030
First Published Online: February 2022
ISBN 978-4-9907507-3-2 C3861
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