Harvest Festival ( 豊年祭 , Hōnensai ) is a fertility festival celebrated every year on March 15 in some locations in Aichi Prefecture , Japan . Hōnen means prosperous year in Japanese, implying a rich harvest, while a matsuri is a festival. The Hōnen festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility.
29-451: The best known of these festivals takes place in the town of Komaki , just north of Nagoya City . The festival's main features are Shinto priests playing musical instruments, a parade of ceremonially garbed participants, all-you-can-drink sake, and a wooden phallus. The festival starts with celebration and preparation at 10:00 a.m. at Tagata Jinja, where all sorts of foods and souvenirs (mostly phallus-shaped or related) are sold. Sake
58-612: A mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 25 members. The city contributes two members to the Aichi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Aichi 16th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan . Komaki has a mixed economy, with agriculture (rice and horticulture), commence, and light manufacturing industries playing important roles. Komaki's GDP per capita (Nominal)
87-640: A post town on the route connecting Nagoya with the Nakasendō highway. During the Meiji period establishment of the modern municipalities system, the area was organized into villages under Higashikasugai District, Aichi . Komaki was proclaimed a town on July 16, 1906, through the merger of four villages. Komaki was raised to city status on January 1, 1955, after merging with the village of Kitasato in Nishikasugai District, Aichi . Komaki has
116-603: Is 1,769 mm (69.6 in) with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 28.1 °C (82.6 °F), and lowest in January, at around 4.2 °C (39.6 °F). Per Japanese census data, the population of Komaki has increased rapidly over the past 60 years. Archaeological remains from the Japanese Paleolithic through Yayoi period have been found in what
145-540: Is also passed out freely from large wooden barrels. At about 2:00 p.m. everyone gathers at Shinmei Sha for the start of the procession. Shinto priests say prayers and impart blessings on the participants and mikoshi , as well as on the large wooden phallus , which are to be carried along the parade route. The 280 kg (620 pound), 2.5 meter (96 inch)-long, 200–250 year old Japanese cypress wooden phallus called youbutsu (陽物, lit. "the male object") or ō-owase-gata (大男茎形, lit. "the grand Phallus shape/ object")
174-494: Is another festival Sunday before at Ōagata Shrine . This festival includes floats shaped like a vulva , which complement the phallic-shaped mikoshi used in the festival. 35°18′57″N 136°56′28″E / 35.31583°N 136.94111°E / 35.31583; 136.94111 Komaki Komaki ( 小牧市 , Komaki-shi ) is a city located in Aichi Prefecture , Japan. As of 1 October 2019 ,
203-467: Is carried from a shrine called Shinmei Sha (in even-numbered years) in Komaki on a large hill or from Kumano-sha Shrine (in odd-numbered years), to a shrine called Tagata Shrine (田縣神社) in Komaki, Tagata, Aichi Prefecture . When the procession makes its way down to Tagata Shrine the phallus in its mikoshi is spun furiously before it is set down and more prayers are said. Everyone then gathers in
232-621: Is not clear-cut and tends to indicate a fair amount of genetic intermixing between the earliest populations of Japan and later arrivals ( Cavalli-Sforza ). It is estimated that modern Japanese have about 10% Jōmon ancestry. Jōmon people were found to have been very heterogeneous. Jōmon samples from the Ōdai Yamamoto I Site differ from Jōmon samples of Hokkaido and geographically close eastern Honshu . Ōdai Yamamoto Jōmon were found to have C1a1 and are genetically close to ancient and modern Northeast Asian groups but noteworthy different to other Jōmon samples such as Ikawazu or Urawa Jōmon. Similarly,
261-615: Is now Komaki, and burial tumuli from the Kofun period are also common. During the Sengoku period , Oda Nobunaga used Komaki Castle as his headquarters from which he launched his invasion of Mino Province and later the area surrounding Mount Komaki was the site of the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute in 1584. It was part of the holdings of Owari Domain during the Edo period , and prospered as
290-540: Is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC, with recent authors suggesting that there is good evidence for habitation from c. 36,000 BC onwards. The period extended to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period , or around 14,000 BC. The earliest human bones were discovered in
319-564: Is unique in that it incorporates one of the earliest known sets of ground stone and polished stone tools in the world, although older ground stone tools have been discovered in Australia. The tools, which have been dated to around 30,000 BC, are a technology associated in the rest of the world with the beginning of the Neolithic around 10,000 BC. It is not known why such tools were created so early in Japan. Because of this originality,
SECTION 10
#1732787011214348-584: The Kamitakamori site , where he "found" the artifacts the next day. He admitted the fabrication in an interview with the newspaper. The Japanese Archaeological Association disaffiliated Fujimura from its members. A special investigation team of the Association revealed that almost all the artifacts which he had found were his fabrication. Since the discovery of the hoax, only a few sites can tentatively date human activity in Japan to 40,000–50,000 BC, and
377-839: The Nagano Jōmon from the Yugora cave site are closely related to contemporary East Asians but genetically different from the Ainu people , who are direct descendants of the Hokkaido Jōmon. One study, published in the Cambridge University Press in 2020, suggests that the Jōmon people were rather heterogeneous, and that many Jōmon groups were descended from an ancient "Altaic-like" population (close to modern Tungusic -speakers, represented by Oroqen ), which established itself over
406-513: The Japanese Paleolithic period in Japan does not exactly match the traditional definition of Paleolithic based on stone technology ( chipped stone tools). Japanese Paleolithic tool implements thus display Mesolithic and Neolithic traits as early as 30,000 BC. The Paleolithic populations of Japan, as well as the later Jōmon populations, appear to relate to an ancient Paleo-Asian group which occupied large parts of Asia before
435-486: The Jōmon and various paleolithic and Bronze Age Siberians. There were likely multiple migrations into ancient Japan. According to Mitsuru Sakitani , the Jōmon people were an admixture of two distinct ethnic groups: A more ancient group (carriers of Y chromosome D1a) that were present in Japan since more than 30,000 years ago and a more recent group (carriers of Y chromosome C1a) that migrated to Japan about 13,000 years ago (Jomon). Genetic analysis on today's populations
464-534: The Shinto deity Susanoo . Tamahime is a princess and the daughter of Ō'arata (大荒田命, Ō'arata-no-Mikoto), the matriarch of Owari clan (尾張氏) of her husband Takeinadane [ ja ] (健稲種命, Take'inadane-no-mikoto) who had two sons and four daughters. After her husband's death, she returned to his hometown Arata (situated close to Komaki), encouraged to cultivate with the help of her father Ō'arata, honor and achieved his achievements. In Inuyama City , there
493-699: The Sinodont group, which points to an origin among groups in Southeast Asia or the islands south of the mainland. Skull features tend to be stronger, with comparatively recessed eyes. According to “ Jōmon culture and the peopling of the Japanese archipelago ” by Schmidt and Seguchi, the prehistoric Jōmon people descended from a paleolithic populations of Siberia (in the area of the Altai Mountains ). Other cited scholars point out similarities between
522-493: The beginning of the Jōmon stratum (14,000 BC), and were not carried on further. However, since that first Paleolithic find by Tadahiro Aizawa , around 5,000 Paleolithic sites have been discovered, some of them at existing Jōmon archaeological sites, and some dating to the Pleistocene era. Sites have been discovered from southern Kyushu to northern Hokkaido , but most are small and only stone tools have been preserved due to
551-703: The city government, and three public high schools operated by the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education. There is also one private high school. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped. The Peachliner , formally the Tōkadai Shin-kōtsū Peach Liner ( 桃花台新交通ピーチライナー ) was a people mover which operated from 1991 until September 30, 2006, when it became the first people-mover system in Japan to cease operations. Japanese Paleolithic The Japanese Paleolithic period ( 旧石器時代 , kyūsekki jidai )
580-405: The city had an estimated population of 148,872 in 68,174 households, and a population density of 2,370 inhabitants per square kilometre (6,100/sq mi). The total area of the city was 62.81 square kilometres (24.25 sq mi ). Komaki is commonly associated with the former Komaki Airport , which is located on the border between Komaki and neighboring Kasugai . Komaki is located in
609-619: The city of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture , which were determined by radiocarbon dating to date to around 18,000–14,000 years ago. The study of the Paleolithic period in Japan did not begin until quite recently: the first Paleolithic site was not discovered until 1946, right after the end of World War II . Due to the previous assumption that humans did not live in Japan before the Jōmon period , excavations usually stopped at
SECTION 20
#1732787011214638-580: The country as a reference. A very important such layer is the AT ( Aira - Tanzawa ) pumice , which covered all Japan around 21,000–22,000 years ago. In 2000, the reputation of Japanese archaeology of the Paleolithic was heavily damaged by a scandal, which has become known as the Japanese Paleolithic hoax . The Mainichi Shimbun reported the photos in which Shinichi Fujimura , an amateur archaeologist in Miyagi Prefecture , had been planting artifacts at
667-508: The expansion of the populations characteristic of today's people of China , Korea , and Japan . During much of this period, Japan was connected to the Asian continent by land bridges due to lower sea levels. Skeletal characteristics point to many similarities with other aboriginal people of the Asian continent. Dental structures are distinct but generally closer to the Sundadont than to
696-458: The first widely accepted date of human presence on the archipelago can be reliably dated c. 35,000 BC . One of the most important sites dating to these times is Lake Nojiri , which dates to 37,900 years Before Present (~36,000 BC), which shows evidence of butchery of two of the largest extinct megafauna species native to Japan, the elephant Palaeoloxodon naumanni , and the giant deer Sinomegaceros yabei . The Japanese Paleolithic
725-554: The high acidity of the Japanese soil. As the Paleolithic peoples probably occupied the wide coastal shelves exposed by lower sea levels during the Pleistocene, the majority of sites are most likely inundated. The study of the Japanese Paleolithic period is characterized by a high level of stratigraphic information due to the volcanic nature of the archipelago: large eruptions tend to cover the islands with levels of Volcanic ash , which are easily datable and can be found throughout
754-516: The local hunter gatherers. This “Altaic-like” population migrated from Northeast Asia in about 6,000 BC, and coexisted with other unrelated tribes and or intermixed with them, before being replaced by the later Yayoi people . C1a1 and C2 are linked to the " Tungusic-like people ", which arrived in the Jōmon period archipelago from Northeast Asia in about 6,000 BC and introduced the Incipient Jōmon culture, typified by early ceramic cultures such as
783-522: The middle of the Nōbi Plain , west-central Aichi Prefecture, north of the Nagoya metropolis. The city skyline is dominated by Mount Komaki , which is topped with Komaki Castle . The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ). The average annual temperature in Komaki is 15.7 °C (60.3 °F). The average annual rainfall
812-490: The square outside Tagata Shrine and waits for the mochi nage , at which time the crowd is showered with small rice cakes which are thrown down by the officials from raised platforms. The festival concludes at about 4:30 p.m. The venerated Shinto deities are Mitoshi (御歳神, Mitoshi-no-kami) and the female deity Tamahime (玉姫命, Tamahime-no-mikoto). Mitoshi is the son of the Shinto male deity Toshigami (年神) or known by locals as Ōtoshi (大歳神, Ōtoshi-no-kami) and grandson of
841-458: Was ¥5,859,100 in 2014. Sumitomo Riko (Previously known as Tokai Gomme), a global rubber and synthetic resin products manufacturing company, whose automotive anti-vibration components hold the largest global market share, has its headquarters in the city. Due to its highway connections with the Nagoya metropolis, it is also becoming a bedroom community . Komaki has 16 public elementary schools and nine public junior high schools operated by
#213786