Location Nonoichi Furusato History Museum / Nonoichi Digital Archives
Okyozuka Mushi-okuri
- Display status
- On display
- Period
- Until modern times
- Form/Type
- Folk material
- Location
- Okyozuka (Nonoichi City, Ishikawa Pref.)
The Okyozuka Mushi-okuri Festival takes place in mid-July at Okyozuka, organized by the Okyozuka Youth Association. “Mushi-okuri” means to drive away crop-eating insects with torches. The event features participants playing various drums, such as the dochu-drum, okuri-drum, and tomari-drum, while carrying torches around the rice fields. The festival culminates in passing under a fire rope arch marked with "虫送り" (mushi-okuri) and gathering in a square to encircle a bonfire while beating the drums vigorously.
At Okyozuka, there is a collaborative performance known as “ii” with neighboring districts. It is said that in the past, participants would carry small flags inscribed with “五穀成就稲虫送” (driving bugs away for a good crop) while walking around the rice fields, with the town association's tall lanterns leading the procession.
The Okyozuka Mushi-okuri Festival is designated as an important traditional event in rice-growing regions and is valuable for preserving the entertainment elements of drum performances.
You can watch videos of the festival at the Nonoichi Digital Museum: http://digitalmuseum.city.nonoichi.lg.jp/modules/fn2/index.php?content_id=1.
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The Nonoichi City Furusato History Museum opened in April 1992 as a facility that organizes, stores, researches and exhibits cultural properties. It is adjacent to the Okyozuka Site, a National Historic Site, and approximately 800 pieces of Jomon Period earthenware, earthen figurines and stone artifacts excavated from the Okyozuka Site are on display (all are designated Important Cultural Properties). In addition, artifacts from the Yayoi Period to early modern times found during excavations in Nonoichi City are on display. Nonoichi Digital Archives is a digital museum opened in 2013 that introduces Nationally and City-Designated Cultural Properties located in Nonoichi.
1-182 Okyozuka, Nonoichi, 921-8801 Google Maps
TEL 076-227-6122 E-mail shougai@city.nonoichi.lg.jp
