Hayama-gomori of Kanezawa

Night Vigils and Oracles on Mount Hayama

The Hayama-gomori of Kanezawa (金沢の羽山ごもり) is a rite in Kanezawa, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, in which village men keep a night vigil and then climb Mount Hayama to receive an oracle from its god, which in 1980 was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists the Hayama-gomori Preservation Society as preservation body.

Fukushima City gives the reading of the place name as Kanezawa.

The Rite

According to the Agency, Tohoku has a strong tradition of worshipping the god of Hayama (also written with another character) to divine the harvest, and the Kanezawa rite is a leading example.

Participants enter a retreat house from the sixteenth to the eighteenth of the eleventh lunar month (formerly from the twelfth), purify themselves with water from a sacred well and cook on a separate fire. The key rite during this time is the yoisa, a mimed rice-planting blessing that keeps its simple form.

Before dawn on the last day, all the participants climb Mount Hayama. Before the noriwara, the person through whom the god speaks, the kashiki asks mainly about next year's harvest and writes down the answers.

What to Look For

The Agency values it as a typical example of ancient Japanese folk religion, preserving the old form of an agricultural rite that summons the god, hears its oracle and blesses the coming harvest.

Visiting the Hayama-gomori of Kanezawa

It is held from the sixteenth to the eighteenth of the eleventh lunar month. As a rite of strict purification, check with Fukushima City or the preservation society about whether and how it can be observed.

Enquiries: Fukushima City cultural properties section, 024-525-3785.