Wajima, Ishikawa

• Ishikawa Prefecture
  • Suzu
  • Noto
  • Shika
  • Anamizu

The town is known in Japan for its lacquerware, called Wajima-nuri (Japanese: 輪島塗). There are artifacts showing lacquer was used to decorate and strengthen a shrine door from the 14th century. Wajima-nuri uses a technique that is unique to the area, mixing a finely powdered mineral, jinoko,[4] with the lacquer in the early stages of production for extra durability. The rougher, earlier layers are then coated with more layers of finer lacquer, which is polished to a lustrous shine, and often decorated with designs made of gold and other precious materials. The lacquer tree was once abundant in the area but is now scarce and most of the lacquer used is imported from China.

The market in Wajima

The Wajima Morning Market (Japanese: 輪島朝市) is open every day except the 2nd Wednesday and 4th Wednesday of each month (and January 1–3 every year). Opening hours are from 8:00 AM to noon. Visitors can stroll through the many stalls of fresh seafood, lacquerware, and other handicrafts.

"1000 Rice Fields" (Japanese: 千枚田, romanized: Senmaida)) is one of the most scenic places in Ishikawa. There are actually 1004 fields which are either owned and tended to by families, or rented out and looked after by the locals. Each year in the last week of September two couples are drawn from a nationwide lottery to have their wedding ceremony at Senmaida. The event is open to the public.

As a memorial to the Noto earthquake, a tradition of lighting the fields began. Initially this was done with millions of candles placed around each field following the harvest. Due to the popularity of the spectacle, solar LED lanterns are now used allowing the fields to be lit nightly. The lanterns are installed at the end of September and are left up through March when work on the fields begins again. The fields remain lit for about four hours after sunset.[5]

Wajima's museum of kiriko (Japanese: キリコ) lanterns is open every day of the year from 8:00am to 5:00pm (8:30am to 4:00pm from December to February). Kiriko are large paper lanterns traditional to the area.[6]

Every year from August 22 to 25 Wajima comes alive with a four-day festival known as Wajima Taisai (Japanese: 輪島大祭). Visitors can watch a huge (10 metres (33 feet) tall) kiriko lanterns and smaller paper lanterns being carried through the streets along with portable shrines called omikoshi. Visitors can eat festival foods, listen to taiko drums being played, and watch the main event. At the festival climax, seaside stacks of bamboo poles are torched as bonfires (some four or five stories high). Gohei (decorative strips of white paper used in Shinto rituals) is tied to the bamboo. As the fire consumes the poles, competing groups of men struggle to pull down the blazing piles, claiming as their prize pieces of burnt bamboo along with the gohei attached as symbols of good fortune. Victors then climb to the top of their respective kiriko to hang their prize, purportedly to add to the good fortune of their village in the coming year.

The giant kiriko lanterns are indispensable to festivals celebrated in Noto. Wajima's festival kiriko are especially distinctive because of their Wajima lacquer coatings. The lanterns bear the inscription of a three-character kanji poem and, on the reverse side, the village crest from where the kiriko originate.

The Story of the Taisai (Great Festival) depicts the love story between two Kami (gods): the Kami of the forest (a half blind male deity) and the Kami of the seven islands (the female deity) that are just off the coast of Wajima. Once a year the people of Noto guide the male Kami from his forest home through the city, while stopping at every business, home, and shrine to give blessings to the people of Wajima, and eventually to meet his wife at the sea. To guide him they carry bright lights (the kiriko) and beat taiko (drums) that are in the kiriko. The taiko of Noto are generally played by two or more people, with the base beat played by the kobi and the main rhythm played by the obai on a shared taiko. Shinabue and atarigane accompany.

The main event takes place on the third night of the festival at midnight at Wajima Marine Park.[7]

Gojinjo-daiko (御陣乗太鼓) is a Japanese drumming style, which is elected as a Wajima City's cultural heritage (appointed in 1961) and an Ishikawa Prefecture's intangible cultural heritage(appointed in 1963), consisting a part of Noto, Ishikawa’s GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems), which was appointed in 2011 as the first area in Japan by Food and Agriculture Organization.[8][9]

Playing gojinjo-daiko is strictly restricted to residents in Nafune, a small village within Wajima, where only 250 people live. It is very rare to see a live drum performance.[10]

The origin of the gojinjo-daiko dates back to 1577 when the famous general, Uesugi Kenshin invaded Noto. Because local people had no weapons, they resisted by beating war drums and wore ferocious looking devil masks with seaweed on their heads to scare off their enemies. The low sound of drums sound associated with the rumbling of the earth frightened off the invaders.[11][12][13]

The Wajima Crab Festival (Japanese: 輪島かに祭り) takes place each year in mid-November. Visitors can purchase fresh seafood and sit at one of many large, long tables and barbecue their own meal.[14]

Kamakura is in the northern part of the Noto Peninsula. It is a small, peaceful village with ancient temples and rice terraces. It celebrates an annual light festival (matsuri) in which the residents place one candle in each of 20,000 glass sake cups and arrange them in geometric configurations after dark while listening to traditional Japanese music. The event is held on August 16.[15]