in Japan for a year on a college study abroad program, but I have not been able to expand my knowledge of Japanese profusely since then. CIRs were helpful to me on other occasions as well. The 500-year-old Hinkoko tradition that takes place annually at Oyada shrine in Gifu in November was one of the first festivals I had hoped to attend only to find out about its cancelation. In spite of my disappointment at this news, another CIR in Ishikawa connected me to Judas Hoffmann, a CIR in Minokamo City, Gifu, who hosted me for a weekend in Gifu and made it possible for me to learn about this tradition. Together we visited the Hinkoko puppets in their storage house on the Oyada Shrine grounds with Watanabe Kaneo, head of the preservation society. He allowed us to try out the tall, rustic-looking figures, and told us all about the festival the puppets are part of. He also took us up the mountainside to see the outdoor performance space up close. These puppets perform the story of the god Susanoo-no-Mikoto ridding village rice fields of a serpent threatening the people and the crops. Watanabe showed us the materials that revealed how the puppets have traditionally been remade each year from a base of locally woven baskets covered with washi paper. After the local basket weaver passed away, however, a sturdier set was made and now reused each year. He also showed us the seventeenth-century doll with no jointed parts that also has a part in the show and a young dancer’s shi-shi headgear of the same period.Both have been continually in use since that time. There is now a new replacement for the doll representing Susanoo-no-Mikoto’s wife, which debuted for the first time in Fall 2023. Hoffman also took me to visit the Hanbara Bunraku Puppet Troupe in Mizunami City [fig.4]. Troupe members showed us their beautiful collection of puppets, the performance and rehearsal studio for their plays, and the mountain shrine where they perform annually as part of the New Year ritual. This troupe is unusual in using puppets representing a young man and a young woman, along with a Sanbasō, for the annual New Year rite instead of the usual Okina, Senzai, and Sanbasō trio generally seen throughout Japan. They take pride in having their own local style of performance. Hoffman also introduced me to Onozaki Ryuken, Executive Director of Hana no Kai (Flower Association), a non-profit connecting local people with traditional performing arts. He gave us a personal tour of Aioi-za, a rural kabuki theatre, where I got to try my amateur mie poses on the hanamachi - 67 -
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