Fantasitc Kiriko Lantern

Old festivals have been fostered and kept alive by those who cherish their local heritage. The Kiriko Festivals, held during the summer time for over three months at many locations in Noto Peninsula, should definitely be one of the colorful festivals you wish to witness and feel the Noto spirit.

They are dedicated to local Shinto shrines, with the intention of inviting the deity to the waterfront for refreshment at the beginning of summer. They would also mean a sort of purification ritual for the locals to prepare for the hot summer.

Kiriko, a gigantic square lantern, is the key player of the festival. However, it’s not likely for many of us to be able to go there on a festival day. So here comes this exhibition hall: Kiriko Kaikan (The Kiriko Lantern Museum), not far away from the famed morning market place in Wajima.

Here, more than 30 Kiriko lanterns are displayed. The tallest one is some 15 meters and has to be carried by 150 members. Two of the lanterns the museum has are about 160 years old. They have auspicious characters and vigorous motifs of samurai warriors or lovely women, etc.

These huge lanterns are thought to have begun appearing during the earlier stage of the 19 century though the festival themselves have much longer history. The local people might have enjoyed competing in the glamour of Kiriko.

Senmaida Rice Fields

Japan’s calorie-based self sufficiency rate is very low. Soy beans, important raw material for making tofu, soy sauce, miso paste, and others, are 97% imported. The only exception the country can provide 100% domestically is rice.

Here’s an amusing sight of small rice paddies on the slope facing Japan Sea, the number of which goes up to 2000. On these small plots, large scale machinery is not a good idea, in fact, not possible. So plowing here has to be a hard manual labor and not easy for the aged owners. Fortunately the soil is rich and the rice yield is good.

To maintain this historical asset, the city of Wajima started a unique “rice paddy owner system” in 2006. Applicants pay a certain amount of membership. They do not legally own the paddies but are allotted a small plot with their name post. Daily care is done by local volunteers but they are encouraged to come and join the work and fun activities. They also have a privilege to receive the rice crop from these paddies and edible wild plants picked up in nearby places by mail.

Former Prime Minister Koizumi praised the scenery and exclaimed, “Unparalleled, indeed! (Zekkei-dayo, Zekkei !)” when he visited here in 2006. The locals named that year’s rice crop from the paddies Zekkei Senmaida and marketed it. Former Prime Minister has his name post for his rice paddy.

This is an ideal spot for landscape photography, especially when each paddy is filled with water for planting rice seedlings and the sun is about to set.