Fukushima’s Old Farming Rituals Come to Life in Haga Hideo’s Photography
During the 1950s the photographer Haga Hideo captured traditional folk festivals in Fukushima Prefecture. Now the memories in his work have come back home, with the presentation of his photographic data to locals who are already putting it to work to bring these traditions back to life.
Haga Hideo, a renowned folklore photographer who breathed new life into Fukushima's ancient farming traditions, passed away in 2022 at the age of 101. Born in 1921, he found his calling after serving as a translator at a news agency, leaving in 1952 for Fukushima Prefecture, his family's ancestral home.
There, amid the thriving farming community of Iwaki city, Haga encountered a time-honored New Year ritual - the gathering and crafting of a straw object (yorishiro) to beckon the rice deity (tanokami). This deity, believed to bestow bountiful harvests, would appear in the rice paddies during spring to aid in ripening the crops, only to leave after the autumn harvest to return to the mountains.
Inspired by this spiritual culture, Haga turned his lens to deity-welcoming ceremonies and their intricate ritual tools and offerings. Drawing from his studies with folklorist Orikuchi Shinobu, Haga recognized the significance of these practices, which had long shaped Japanese customs and myths.
As modernization began to erode traditional farming society, Haga recognized the importance of documenting these rituals for posterity. In his first photo collection, "Tanokami: Nihon no Inasaku Girei," he explored the profound impact of rice cultivation rituals on daily life and social structures.
Unfortunately, as Haga foresaw, these practices were gradually disappearing. However, UNESCO later recognized the significance of rites like the Mibu no Hana Taue from Hiroshima and Oku-Noto Aenokoto from Ishikawa, acknowledging their cultural value.
Today, the Iwaki City Museum of Folklore and Traditional Housing preserves remnants of Iwaki's traditional farming culture, displaying traditional thatched-roof houses and farming tools for visitors to learn about the region's heritage. Haga's son, Haga Hinata, donated a collection of Haga's photos to the museum in 2026, to aid in teaching local history.
This collection highlights forgotten farming rituals, such as the act of hitting a fruit tree to cast a spell for a bountiful crop, revealing the depth of Iwaki's traditional farming practices.
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