Drunken Namahage Molests Women at Akita Prefecture Festival

The Namahage Festival, which is celebrated in the Oga area of Akita Prefecture every New Year’s Eve, usually happens as the JNTO describes it:

On New Year’s Eve, a group of 2 or 3 village youths disguised as a rather grotesque deity called Namahage, wearing large masks, straw raincoats and waist-bands, holding wooden knives and pails, go around visiting the houses at night, dancing along as they give out strange cries. They shout out menacing cries such as: “Any children crying?” “Any children disobeying their parents?” or “Any lazy daughters-in-law neglecting their work?”

However, the latest festival was a bit different, causing scandal and embarrassment for Oga tourism officials:

…one of five men sent to perform at a ryokan inn in the city on New Year’s Eve got drunk, staggered into a public bath and molested several women. Relatives of the assailed women complained to the association about the monstrous behavior displayed by the man in his 20s. The head of the neighborhood association that supplied the performer apologized.

Two neighborhood associations had been supplying performers at the time. They later met with Oga tourism officials to discuss the situation, resulting in the group that had supplied the offender being banned from supplying the city with namahage for three years.

Tourism officials and the Oga Municipal Government said it had also received two complaints from men, with one of them saying a man dressed as namahage groped his wife’s breasts.

No charges will be filed against the bath-invading namahage, since officials believe his apology to be sincere.