F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-048
Kuzaki Notto Shōgatsu (New Year Sending Ritual)
国崎のノット正月くざきののっとしょうがつ
On the evening of January 17th each year, the fishing hamlet of Kuzaki on the Shima Peninsula performs one of the most geographically and culturally specific New Year send-off rituals in Japan. At Maenohama beach — the shore where the sea-diving women (ama) have harvested abalone for the Ise Grand Shrine since antiquity — a straw boat is constructed, loaded with offerings and a sacred emblem of the New Year deity (toshigami), and set alight before being released to the sea. The fire carries the god back to the realm from which it came, and the act completes the New Year cycle in a form inseparable from ama maritime culture. Women of the village present offerings, and protective talismans (fuda) are erected along the shoreline. The ritual has been designated by the national government as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property warranting documentation and preservation measures, a recognition that reflects its rarity as a coastal New Year ceremony fusing fishing-community faith, fire, and the symbolic dissolution of sacred straw craft.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01A straw boat bearing the New Year deity is ignited and released to the sea at dusk — a fire-on-water send-off rite of striking visual economy, performed at the historic abalone-harvesting shore used by Kuzaki's ama divers.
- 02The ceremony reflects the singular religious geography of Kuzaki: a village that has supplied abalone to Ise Jingū since ancient times, whose women's ritual duties to the sea make this New Year sending an expression of maritime faith rather than mere custom.
- 03Designated by the Japanese national government as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property warranting documentation, the Notto Shōgatsu stands as a benchmark example of the coastal New Year ritual tradition of the Shima Peninsula, distinct from the inland fire-and-straw ceremonies found elsewhere in Japan.
D E E P D I V E
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