About the windup doll using the water wheel in the summer festival of Kagoshima.
I saw the big new mechanism clock in the small park of St.Yumepika-Honmachi
last night. An electrically operated windup doll unfolds one drama gracefully
or mystically in the main street at 9:00 p.m.
I am investigating the windup doll of the water wheel of a Minamisatsuma (the Kagoshima Satsuma peninsula southern part) from 1995. In the Takeda shrine in Kaseda, and Toyotamahime shrine in Chiran, it is performed every year at the time of Rokugatsudou (summer festival of Kagoshima).
I knew in Chiran that there were eight windup dolls in addition to Toyotamahime shrine. And there was also a community which was until after World War II. The mechanism has the following patterns. One is a type which rotates in the fixed direction such as the Takeda shrine using a water wheel. Two are a type which shows various motions such as Toyotamahime shrine using hydraulic power. Another is a type which rotates by a man's power. Furthermore, I heard the talk of "people having drawn water with the bucket, having turned the water wheel, and having moved the doll."
Now, although the windup doll of Kaseda and Chiran was often compared, both of dolls were exhibited at the same time in the Kagoshima municipal science museum in 1995. People of the windup doll preservation meeting of the Takeda shrine say, "The doll of Kaseda was better." I think that it was very precious that two are located in a line together. The doll of Chiran where art was elaborated, and the doll of dynamic Kaseda. It is said that the doll with which the spirit of the land land was got blocked is much-treasured anyway. Those days, two mechanisms were not exhibited together in local museum Chiran. People of a preservation meeting say. "If you want to look at it, you should look at it to Rokugatsudou festival."
I think that the windup doll of Chiran is the stage art of showing the motion. And I think that it of Kaseda is the elegant world of showing the doll itself. Before being the cultural property of a country or a prefecture, I think that we should hand down carefully as an important citizen's cultural heritage.
Water Wheel Doll Movie"Suisya-Karakuri" at the Takeda shrine, Kaseda
"Suisya-Karakuri" at Toyotamahime shrine, Chiran-cho
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