F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-189

Tarō-Tarō Matsuri

太郎太郎祭たろうたろうまつり

On a windswept cape jutting into the East China Sea in Ichikikushikino City, Kagoshima, the Tarō-Tarō Matsuri unfolds each year at Hashimazaki Shrine on the fourth day of the second lunar month. A spring grand festival said to have been performed for roughly two hundred years to pray for a bountiful harvest, a rich catch, and the healthy growth of children, it is designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property by Kagoshima Prefecture. What makes it extraordinary is that it weds two ritual worlds in a single rite: the funamochi (boat-bearing), a prayer for safe voyages performed by boys from fishing households, and the tauchi (field-tilling mime), a prayer for good harvests performed by boys from farming households. In the funamochi, a model of a danbe sailing ship enshrined in the hall is carried aloft by a child accompanied by his elders, while a dozen or so old men sing a distinctive boat song as the procession circles the precinct. In the tauchi, a straw-caped Techo (the father figure), Tarō (the child) and a costumed ox appear, miming the labors of rice planting through improvised, topical comic exchanges that draw laughter from the crowd. Bound up with the goro-iwai, a coming-of-age rite in which five-year-old boys take a ceremonial role for the first time, the festival fuses the transmission of livelihood with the celebration of a child's growth, preserving the agrarian and maritime ritual heritage of southern Kyushu.