Namahage

A dancing drummer wearing a Namahage costume, performed Namahage-Daiko in Akita Station.

The Namahage (生剥げ, なまはげ)[1] are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty oni (ogre) masks and traditional straw capes (mino) during a New Year's ritual, in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture.

  1. ^ Yamamoto (1978), The Namahage, pp. 9, 35