Fun of Good Old Japanese - 江戸・明治に学ぶ　楽しむ生き方

流山の講－流山市立博物館調査研究報告書 8 （流山市立博物館、 1991 ） Very good : ★★★ 人の楽しみの発見度： ★★★ Drawing of Ise-taitai-Kou at NagareyamaCity Museum  ( 伊勢太太講の絵馬 流山博物館 ) http://www.city.nagareyama.chiba.jp/life/1001505/1001749/1001773.html The Kou looks like a mutual aid group in which people enjoy their group activities such as parties and travels. This book is a research report from Nagareyama City Museum . The research was consisted of interviews from elderly people. It reports Kou's activities from the mid-19th century to mid-20 th century. There were more than 300 Kou in Nagareyama, 86 of them remain at the time of the research.   There are two kinds of Kou. The first one is to visit the shrine outside the village. Fuji-Kou visits Mt.Fuji. Ise-Kou visits Ise shrine which is 330km away. Other Kou visit Oyama, Mitsumine and so on. Osugi-Kou is held in 11 villages. They visit Osugi shrine which is the guardian god of epidemic disease and natural disaster of rivers and sea

Originally Kou is a group in order to worship same god . Not only they worship the god, but also they enjoy a dinner party, a lunch party, travel and other entertainment together. Therefore Kou is a big fun for people. There was Kou which children and elderly people participate together. There were many Kou in a village. However participant became less and less after Television prevailed. Some Kou changed to a women's club, a young men's club, a children's club or a seniors' club. On the other hand, Kou is popular in Yamanashi prefecture even now. The popular Kou in Yamanashi is Mujin. They make groups and collect monthly fees. Then they enjoy parties, travels and sports. The weekly magazine “Shinchou” reported in 2018 that the average life span of people in Yamanashi is not so long, but the healthy life expectancy is the longest in Japan, the key word of their health is “Mujin (Kou)” . The magazine reported that people belong to multiple Kou, they gather

- O-shishigari   He dispatched his farmers to O-shishigari or deer hunting. Around 150,000 people joined the event. Farmers made a big circle which diameter was around twenty kilo-meters, surrounded animals and gathered them to the spot where samurais hunted them.  まずは、この地方にとっての大行事の鹿狩りに人を送り込む。 鹿狩りでは、 15 万人を動員し、約 20km の輪を作り、鹿や猪などの動物を囲っていく。最後に武士が、弓矢で射止める。 【March part1: Join the O-shishigari、3月その1：鹿狩りに出立】 - On the 15 th , the send-off party for the dispatched 9 farmers was held. One supervisor, six hunters and two flag-bearers were dispatched. Three bottles of sake, tofu and konjac were given to them as a gift. The party lasted until night time, and this would be their time to have fun.   Flags and outfit of O-shishigari farmers in Nagareyama museum お鹿狩りでの農民の装束 @ 流山市博物館 - On the 16 th , 10 farmers left their village about 5 am. They were 9 farmers and 1 carrier. They camped 2 nights and went back to the village on the 18 th .   On the 17 th , the master went out