1. Title of the Project:

Awadeko Sanbasomawashi Densho Hozon Katsudo (Preservation Activities)

2. Name of the Performing Art Concerned in the Project

Sanbasomawashi　(New Year’s Performance)

3. Geographic location of the Community

Members of an association committed to reviving Awadeko Hakomawashi, Shibahara Life & Culture Research Institute
NPO Awa no Kadotsukegei Hozon Kai (Preservation Society) (incorporated on March 26, 2007)

4. Introduction of the Performing Art

Sanbasomawashi had become entrenched as a New Year’s ritual in Tokushima, Kagawa and Ehime Prefectures and became an essential New Year’s votive art from the Edo to the Showa periods. It is believed that this performing art became a longstanding fixture because its performers would visit homes at certain times.

This is a votive art form whereby two performers—a wooden doll puppeteer and a drummer—place Sanbaso (Senzai, Okina, and Sanbaso) and Ebisu wooden dolls in two wooden boxes and visit homes on New Year’s day to give performances. Sanbasomawashi consists of Shiki Sanbaso and Ebisu-mai performed back-to-back. After hanging strips of white paper to appease malevolent, destructive deities, the four Sanbaso and Ebisu wooden dolls are manipulated to invoke prayers for bumper crops, sound health, the welfare of families, and success in business, and bright prospects for the New Year are offered to each individual.

It shares the same origins as Bunraku, which was declared as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and ICH of Humanity by UNESCO in 2003. A wooden doll is manipulated by a single person while the dialogue is spoken.

5. Problems the community faced before the launch of the project, and the factors which caused the decline of and threatened the performing art

However, performers gradually retired from the scene as the economy entered a high-growth phase, such that they came to disappear from many towns by the second half of the 1960s. In the 1970s, their numbers underwent a radical reduction and they could no longer be seen outside of certain mountainous areas and agricultural villages.

6. Details of the project for solving problems of the performing art, especially who and how it started, finance, and involvement of younger generation

In order to describe what caused this performing art to go into decline, this issue should be considered from both the performers’ and spectators’ side. For the former, various factors were associated with the period of exceptional economic growth in Japan as many workforces moved to urban areas. In line with changes in the rituals followed on New Year’s Day and the deterioration of faith in society as a whole, the number of venues in urban areas dropped precipitously. As performers continued to age, they gradually disappeared.

For the latter, rapid changes in commerce and agriculture were the biggest factors. Changes affecting local communities attributed to continuing depopulation and the trend towards nuclear families rendered it difficult to transmit customs and rituals observed on New Year’s Day.

Mr. Tsujimoto Kazuhide, who conducted a research survey on, among other topics, performing arts cultivated by various discriminated groups of people in Tokushima Prefecture, organised the “Society to Revive Awadeko Sanbaso and Ebisu-Mai” (presently known as the “Society to Revive Awadeko Hakomawashi”). It was aimed at reviving and transmitting Ebisumawashi and Sanbasomawashi, which had disappeared due to violations of human rights, and engaged in efforts to transmit Sanbasomawashi techniques and the custom of performing this art on a door-to-door basis.

In 1995, he met a Sanbasomawashi performer, and conducted interviews. In 1999, Ms. Nakauchi Masako was accepted as an apprentice; she accompanied the performer on his door-to-door performances and studied the techniques. Since then, she has been busy transmitting this performing art together with members of the “Society to Revive Awadeko Hakomawashi”.

7. Project's Outcomes Including Success Stories and Difficulties

An important factor behind our success has been revealed in the willingness of young people themselves to become field workers, interview elderly persons, and gain direct exposure to Sanbasomawashi. Young people living in modern society themselves came to reassess this traditional performing art (folk culture), which was on the verge of disappearing due to incompatibility with the times.

The performers have been inspired by discovering within those who welcome them aspects of the Japanese identity that have continued to live on for hundreds of years through door-to-door performances on New Year’s Day. We have been enthralled by door-to-door performances that help to deliver prayers for bumper crops, success in business, sound health, and the welfare of families. These factors have given us the capacity to sustain our efforts.