祭りをはぐくむ葛藤と調和

――戸畑「提灯山笠」にみる地域社会の変質――

抄録

  In this paper I take notice of a community of Tobata in Kitakyushu City, of which construction had changed much attended with the policy of the wealth and military strength of a country in the period of Meiji. In 1901 an iron company by the state was established in Yahata. Since then a lot of workmen had flowed in neighboring Tobata, and a city area had been formed there. Thus a new community, of which main members were workmen as strangers, started to be grown up. However, in such a process often the conflicts came to the surface between a small number of old inhabitants and a lot of new comers. On one side, in Tobata, traditional Gion Festival with “Chochin Yamagasa” consisted of the twelve stage-lanterns had been handed down since 1802 in the period of Edo. A goal of my study is to determine how symbolized a change of the human relations there in the form of such a traditional local festival.

  In the first stage, it had been symbolized in a phenomenon of the “fighting” during a festival. But almost simultaneously with a establishment of so-called Yahata Iron Company, we can seek another phenomenon of Chochin Yamagasa starting to become so huge that it can’t be possibly carried on their shoulders without a harmony of carriers each other. On the other hand, the workmen gradually adapted themselves to working conditions in aspects of a robust constitution and a spirit of cooperation, in producing iron and steel by each taking responsibility for one aspect of the work. Such a process of their becoming skilled workmen was symbolized in a process of Chochin Yamagasa becoming huge. Its “huge pyramid of lights” awaked locality filled with pride to the people in Tobata, and in the same time, made it link with nationality as a symbol of the prosperity, the wealth and military strength of Empire of Japan. Through the Second World War, common experience of tragedy in Tobata, of which highlight was the Air Raid on Yahata on 8th in August in 1945, still more made a factor of a memorial service be reflected to Chochin Yamagasa. Not only, in the period of an economic development of 60's, accompanying the streamlining of management in the company, an ideal type of workman precisely came to be diligent and obedient to the manager without any words. Being connected with such a change of environments around the shoulders of Chochin Yamagasa, step by step a factor of fighting became ceremonious. And now in Tobata, we can see Gion festival held quietly without any troubles around its huge pyramid of lights.