Abstract
“The Sekikawa Taishita Monja Matsuri”festival originated from the 1967 Uetsu Flood disaster has been held in Sekikawa Village, Niigata Prefecture, Japan since August, 1988. The interview survey of the 20 relevant people to the festival and participant survey on the festival were conducted to clarify 1) how it started, 2) how it continued over 30 years and 3) whether it works on the past disaster tradition or not. The results are summarized as follows. 1) The mission of the festival was not to pass down the disaster. Originally, the main motivation was to develop next human resources in the village. 2) They have decided on a big snake motif because the legend story“Ooritouge-densetsu”in the village that people slayed it and a big snake which symbolized God of flood and sediment disaster in Japan have a high affinity. 3)
“Dai-jya”is made of bamboo and straw which is broken a few year later. The reason is to inherit the technique and method of making“dai-jya”4) Only people that want to participate the festival participate it, they welcome anybody from outside the village. 5)“The Sekikawa Taishita Monja Matsuri”functions as a past disaster tradition tool with disaster education in primary and secondary schools.
