Travel
Masked God Boze of Akusekijima Island
Every year, at the end of the Obon holidays, a trio of Raihō-shin or “visitor deities” known as Boze appears on Akusekijima, an island in the Tokara Islands. Dressed in fan palm leaves and a large Polynesian-style mask, Boze carries a phallic staff and chases around women and children of the island, blessing them with sacred mud and scaring evil spirits away.
Recognized as an intangible cultural heritage property, the Boze festival has only survived on Akusekijima, and nothing like it is known elsewhere.
Though Boze only appears once a year on a remote island, you don’t have to travel that far to get a glimpse of this bizarre tradition; just head to the Kagoshima Prefectural Museum in Kagoshima City, and there is a small exhibit on the Boze festival, complete with a model of the masked god.
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