仔牛近道

There are quite a lot of things to prepare for Koshogatu (First Full Moon Festival or Little New Year: festival held in mid-Jan) at the Narada settlement of Hayakawa town. Well, to be exact, a call from Ma-san on 12th of Jan was the beginning of everything.


He called and told me that he was going to teach me how to make various Koshogatsu items out of woods, so I should come with a small knife after lunch. I didn't have any specific idea about what I was supposed to do, but why not? I went to find him with Makasa. There, he was with many pieces of wood; he said the wood was called Katsunoki (Sumac), out of which he was going to make Ohondare (a couple of monstrous creatures protecting their owner's house from bad spirits), Kayukaki-bo (a pair of thick and short pieces of wood for mixing rice porridge that is eaten for breakfast on the 14th), and special sticks for Okatabuchi (a custom in which kids smack newly-married-woman on the hips with special, decorated sticks while singing songs praying for her pregnancy).



Once he had started showing me how to design Ohondare, I couldn't wait, so I started trying making own. The barks of the wood were so soft that even my old little knife worked. (Later, the boys got busy making their own swords out of these.) However, mine was not as refined as his, of course, so he laughed a lot. Never mind that these funny Ohondare are the ones who protect our house and family, hah! While I was so engaged in the craft, Makasa got bored and went somewhere to play with dogs.



At the last, he showed me a unique shape of Katsunoki branches and murmured,

"We use this shape of wood for Okatabuchi ceremony....we wanted to do for Ha-chan last year, but there were no kids in Narada then...."

Ha-chan is a woman in her late 20s, who married 2 years ago. Only if Narada had kids last year, she also would have liked to conduct the ceremony, but we moved into Narada with 3 kids only last year. Having listened to what he said, I immediately replied, "Then why don't we do it this year?!". As soon as I said that he smiled naughtily as if he knew that I was going to say that.

He gave me all instructions of what I have to do with the sticks, about decorations, lyrics of songs, and so on. That night, I called Ha-chan and informed her that we shall do Okatabuchi on 14th. She was so happy!

The next day on 13th, I went up to Kagiya to learn about Okatabuchi ceremony visually and literally as I got to know that there is a DVD and book of the past in Narada. So, I went with kids and Y-grandma over cups of coffee and snacks for pre-study. When we reached Kagiya, I saw Ma-san AGAIN helping Koshogatsu decoration for Kagiya this time! So, there some were busy in watching a DVD and practice a song, and others were busy doing this and that under Ma-san's instructions.

The last part of this day was colorful-dumpling-making. With Y-grandma's help, we rolled up colorful balls made from rice powder. For the colors, we used green tea, pumpkin, cocoa, purple-potato and so on...There here you go! Traditionally, the dumplings are made only in red and white, but this is our version of dumplings. Yeah!



Being quite exhausted but excited, I went to bed dreaming about the Okatabuchi custom coming back to Narada after almost 40 years, which was going to happen just the next day....zzzz

Wakana




小正月～準備編


　奈良田の小正月は大忙しです。特にこの奈良田の新人を忙しくさせたのは、例によってMaさんの呼びかけでした。

　12日、小正月飾りの作り方を見せてやるから切り出しナイフを持って、昼過ぎにおいで、とMaさん。一体何が始まるのかしら、とお昼を食べてから（ま）と二人で外に出ました。Maさんを見つけると、すでに軽トラの荷台を作業台にして、たくさんの木の棒を並べて何やら作っています。カツノキ（白膠木）と呼ばれる木の、適当な太さや形のものでオホンダレや粥かき棒を作り、それからダンスバラ（リョウブ）の枝に団子をつけて飾りを作る、と。また、これまた奇妙な形をした部分のカツノキの枝が何本かあり、これらは「オカタブチ」という儀式のために使うのを、見本に切ってきたんだよ、とMaさん。オカタブチといえば、集落の男の子たちが、初めて正月を迎える花嫁さんのお尻を唄いながら棒でペンペン叩いて子どもが授かることを祈る、というもの。以前に何となく聞いた覚えがありましたが、そうか、これのことか、とようやく一致しました。

　

　まずはオホンダレ作り。Maさんが顔の作り方などを見せてくれると、うずうずして、早速自分用のオホンダレの顔を掘り始めます。もちろん、Maさんのように洗練された出来ではないので、出来栄えをMaに笑われたって・・・いいのだ、この門入道たちに我が家は守ってもらうのだ！と開き直ります。（来年は、もうちょっと上手く出来るかなぁ。）続いての工作に没頭していたら、始めのうちは周りで遊んでいた（ま）も飽きてワンちゃんと遊びにどこかに行ってしまいました。

一通り作り終わると、Maさんがオカタブチ用の枝を見せながら呟きます。

「これで去年、Haちゃんのオカタブチをやってやりたかったんだけどね。何せ、去年は子どもがいねぇんだもん。」

Haちゃんというのは、一昨年に結婚した20代後半の奈良田の女の子です。私たちが3人の子どもと一緒に奈良田に来たのは、直後の1年前。Maのつぶやきを聞いてすかさず私が「そしたら今年やりましょう！」と言うと、待ってましたとばかりにニヤリと笑うMaさん。棒の加工の仕方や唄の文句などを教わって、その日はお開きとなりました。その夜、Haちゃんに14日にオカタブチ開催の連絡をすると、彼女も大歓び！よかった、よかった。

　一夜明けて13日、古いオカタブチの映像と文献が鍵屋にあるというので、お茶とおやつ兼ねて予習のために、講師Yおばあちゃんを誘って、子どもたちと出かけて行きました。山を登って到着すると、なんとそこにはまたもやMaさんの姿。今度は鍵屋の小正月飾りを手伝っています。というわけで、こちらではDVDを見たり唄を練習したりと騒がしく、あちらではMaさんの指示のもとあれやこれやで忙しく、大繁盛（？）の鍵屋です。

　

　この日の最後は、皆でダンゴバラに飾るようのお餅作り。通常は紅白のお餅だけですが、抹茶、カボチャ、紫芋、ココア、食紅など色々使って、カラフルなお団子がたくさんできました。Yおばあちゃんが手の平で二個の団子を同時にくるくる丸める様子には一同びっくり！

　気持ちの良い疲れを感じながら、布団に潜り込みました。翌日の奈良田の朝の予想気温はマイナス10度とのこと。でもそれよりも、40数年ぶりに開催されることになるオカタブチの成功を夢見ながら、わくわくで眠れないなどと考えつつも、お休み三秒・・・ｚｚｚ。

（わ）