Paper short abstract:

The Hanamatsuri festivals of Okumikawa are performed in a region that has been affected both by severe depopulation and evacuation due to dam construction. Yet many of these festivals survive, including one “in exile”. What strategies are making this possible?

Paper long abstract:

Hanamatsuri is a string of festival events performed from November to January in villages in the Kitashitara District of Aichi Prefecture. After the area where they are held, these festivals are called Okumikawa no Hanamatsuri. This area has many matsuri and folk performing arts that date back to the late medieval or early modern period, and that are transmitted until this day. In recent years, however, due to the aging and depopulation of the area’s mountain villages, a shortage of hands threatens the survival of many of these matsuri. In the 1930s, when the first surveys were carried out, there were Hanamatsuri in more than twenty places, but now there are fewer than ten.

The Hanamatsuri was designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 1975, and has been preserved and inherited by local communities, with the help of both local authorities and minzokugaku researchers. Efforts are being made to utilize it as a local resource, for example by the construction of the Hanamatsuri Kaikan Hall in Tôei Town. However, the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 stopped the festival in its tracks, bringing it to the verge of collapse. In recent times depopulation has caused some Hanamatsuri festivals to be relocated or temporarily cancelled. The building of two dams (completed in 1956 and 1972) has inundated multiple villages, forcing the inhabitants to resettle elsewhere. As a result, the Hanamatsuri of these villages have been moved to the urban area of Toyohashi, where a new Hanamatsuri is performed to this day. In this report, I will trace the contemporary history of the Hanamatsuri festivals and outline the changes that they have undergone. In particular, I will analyse the strategies that have helped these festivals to survive in the face of radical social change.