Namahage and Japanese New Year Traditions on the Oga Peninsula
If you lived in a coastal town on the Oga Peninsula on the main island of Honshu, you would be well aware that on the night of December 31st, two monstrous namahage would descend upon you. They will growl at your children hiding behind you. They will threaten to scratch your heels with their sharp knives, shaking them in front of your nose. But you are not afraid of this at all. In fact, you are looking forward to them very much.
The Japanese custom of namahage seems very similar to others, when some supernatural creature comes to houses on a big holiday and either gives gifts, or vice versa - you need to pay off it with gifts. The difference between this custom is that visiting a namahage is a good sign. Their visit promises a good year and that the children, who were so feared for the New Year, will be healthy. And they will leave, taking all their troubles with them. Therefore, every Japanese will greet namahage with bread and salt. Or rather, warmed sake and the best fish. And she will also prepare a bath for him, it even comes to that. What monster would not be in a good mood when treated like this?
Who the Namahage are is best illustrated by two stories that can be told to you at the Namahage Museum in Akita City. One of them is popular tourist and explains their origin, the second is funny and explains the behavior of the peasants. The most popular legend about Namahage tells how one day the Chinese Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty visited Japan and brought five oni demons with him. They liked the local mountains so much that they stayed here. Soon they came to the peasants and began to demand that they give them a young and beautiful girl. The cunning peasants did not refuse, but offered such a deal. They had long been planning to build a staircase of a hundred stone steps to the top of the mountain, and now they decided to delegate this work to the demons: if they managed to build the staircase the night before the first rooster crow, then the peasants would regularly give them the most beautiful girl every year. If not, then the demons shouldn't bother them anymore. They agreed and got to work. And when they were already laying the last step, and the peasants realized with horror that dawn was still far away, one of them shouted “Ku-ka-re-ku!”, imitating the crow of a rooster. The demons, naturally, were completely furious, but withdrew.
The peasants knew that they had deceived the demons, so, no matter what happened, they built a sanctuary for them on the mountain, and now every year they welcome them at home, trying to make amends for their guilt.
The second story explains more about the namahage's appearance and feeding process than why they are so desirable. The custom of namahage is widespread only in the coastal zone, and the locals themselves suspect that it was strongly influenced by meetings with Russian sailors who were shipwrecked on the shore. In the last few centuries this may not have happened all that rarely. And even if it happened infrequently, it was remembered for a long time. Because a castaway doesn't give the impression of being spick and span. In tattered clothes, overgrown, much larger than the average Japanese, speaking an incomprehensible language, they could easily seem like typical people from another world, the terrible oni demons that every Japanese had heard about in ancient legends. It’s better not to anger such people.
The name "namahage" comes from two words - "to clean off" and "blister". This is what namahage mean when they threaten to scratch the heels of their victims on New Year's Eve. This refers to that skin condition that resembles a burn, which results from sitting for a long time near a fire source and is called “namane” in Japanese. It is clear that they sit for a long time by the fire, with their legs stretched out, only lazy people, and it is they who are threatened by this unpleasant procedure.
Namahage not only brings good luck with his arrival, but, fed and especially drunk with sake, he can become rich and give good advice. In Japan, where there are a lot of customs that constrain human behavior, this is very important. A son, for example, cannot simply tell his father that he wants to get married and it’s time to look for a bride for him. And you can do anything with namahage with sake. In general, no matter how you look at it, the namahage is an extremely useful monster in the household: it will spur a couch potato to work, add health to the children, give good advice and take away all the troubles and misfortunes with it. And good company with sake.