Hayashida of Aki

Rice Planting to Songs and Drums

The Hayashida of Aki (安芸のはやし田) is a rice-planting performance of the Aki region of Hiroshima Prefecture, in which seedlings are planted to exchanged songs and the accompaniment of drums and gongs, designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1997.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists the Aki Hayashida federation, the Shinjo folk arts society and the Harada Hayashida society as preservation bodies.

According to the Agency, it is handed down in the Aki area of former Yamagata and Takata districts and differs from the Bingo tradition, which centres on memorial rites for cattle and horses.

How It Proceeds

According to the Agency, it is held on holidays during planting season (May and June) in designated fields. Decorated cattle walk the paddy in single file (shirokaki), the surface is levelled (eburi), the planting women and musicians process from a shrine or the farmer's house (michiyuki), a rite calls down the god of the fields before an altar called the sanbai-dana, and then seedlings are taken up and planted.

In the planting, the women stand in a line along a rope and step backward as they plant, exchanging songs with the sanbai, a song leader facing them with a scraped rhythm instrument, while drums and gongs play behind. Songs change with the time of day: role songs, morning, midday and evening songs.

What to Look For

The Agency notes local differences: at Shinjo in Oasa, a cold area, seedlings are planted densely and the songs follow a fast eight-beat rhythm; at Harada in Takamiya, in deep wet paddies, the singing matches the work, with short verses exchanged intricately between leader and planters.

The Agency observes that it follows almost the same form as recorded in materials for the Geihan Tsushi of 1819, and a form known from medieval sources such as illustrated biographies of Honen, making it especially important for tracing the development of dengaku performing arts.

Visiting the Hayashida of Aki

Akitakata City says the Harada hayashida is performed on the last Sunday of May in a paddy in front of a former elementary school in Harada. Check details with the preservation societies or with Akitakata City and Kitahiroshima Town.

Enquiries: Akitakata City lifelong learning section, 0826-42-0054.