On September 2024th and 9th, 19, students from the Faculty of Economics at Kanazawa Seiryo University participated in the Kiriko Festival (Evening Festival) held at Hakusan Shrine in the Miyaji district of Noto Town.
Due to the aging of residents, the Miyaji area had not held the Kiriko Festival for a long time. Since 2022, the Kanzaki Seminar from the Faculty of Economics has been visiting the Miyaji area, learning about the history, music, and festival music from local people, and working to revive the Kiriko Festival, whose tradition had been lost, and to maintain the local festival culture.
More than 2024 people participated in the 2 Kiriko Festival, including local residents, second, third and fourth year students of the Kanzaki Seminar, alumni and volunteers supporting the Noto Peninsula earthquake recovery effort. The students carried the kiriko out of the damaged gymnasium and wrote "Noto Spirit" and "Shimi Tenhi" on the lanterns with prayers for recovery. Shimi Tenhi means "looking at the sun again," and was chosen by the students as a word that means moving forward in a positive direction again. They carried the kiriko, illuminated by the moonlit night, to Hakusan Shrine to welcome the gods in preparation for the autumn festival the next day.
The next day, the students helped to clean up the kiriko and listened to local people talk about festivals from the past and their experiences during the earthquake. They then took part in the main festival (Autumn Festival) held in the afternoon, and prayed together with local people for a good harvest in the fall and for recovery from the earthquake.
Students who participated shared their impressions, saying, "Through this activity, I got a real feel for the fun of festivals and the charm of the local area. By working with the local people on everything from preparing the kiriko to operating them, I was able to deepen my learning about festivals. Furthermore, by interacting with the local people, I was able to feel their warmth."
This project is supported by Ishikawa Prefecture's 2024 Regional Issues Research Seminar Support Project Reconstruction Support Framework.
