The Studies on the folklore concerning cattle raising in Chugoku mountain area

本论文是根据在广岛、冈山、岛根、鸟取等县的中国山区进行的关于养牛的各种习俗和民间传说的实地调查而写的。中国山区的农民对饲养日本奶牛的愿望最强烈，这表明每个农民都饲养奶牛的价值很高。高价值是由于在该地区称为牧场的牧场上饲养奶牛的习俗。牧场上饲养的牛被认为是适合农场的牛，因此享有很好的声誉。在这个山区有很多牛市场，在那里，牛贩子称为bakuro进行买卖和交换牛。在这里我们可以看到仓下的习俗，那就是在山区和平原地区之间短期雇用牛来犁湿稻田。在这种情况下，各地区之间通过交换牲畜建立了广泛的网络。当然，牛的流动也是由巴库罗人调解的。在这个地区，我们可以看到各种各样的牛守护神崇拜。第一种是当地的旧神，被认为是牛的守护神。光津、山灵、第一乃来、奥班神社就是这个例子。特别是在中国山区各地都供奉着Kouzin。第二类是神，它们被接受为牛的守护神，具有独特的意识。这些例子是戴森神社和川栗神社。后者是岛根广濑的神社，因牛的瓜地神而闻名。在大正时代，这种崇拜是通过由纳武里神社的牧师组织的纳武里崇拜协会在中国山区传播的。

This paper is written on the field research which was done in the Chugoku mountain area of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, and Tottori prefectures concerning various customs and folklores of cow raising.The farmers had the strongest desires to breed Japanese cows in the Chugoku mountain area, indicating so high value of cows raised at every farmer. The high value is due to the custom of raising cows on the pastures called makiba in this area. The cows raised on the pastures enjoyed good reputation being fitted to the farm cattles.There were so many cattle markets in this mountain area, where cattle dealers called bakuro did buying and selling and exchanging cows. We can here see kurasita customs, that is hiring oxen at short term for plowing wet rice fields between mountain regions and plain regions. As these cases the wide networks was made up between regions through exchanging cattles. The bakuro mediated this cattle flowing, of course.We can see the various worship of the guardian gods for cattles in this area. The first type is the case of the native old gods which have been believed as the guardian gods of cows. Kouzin, mountain spirits, Dainichi Nyorai, and Oban shrine is pointed out for this example. In particular Kouzin is worshiped all around the Chugoku mountain area. The second type is the gods which have been accepted with the distinct consciousness as the guardian gods for cows. These examples are Daisen shrine and Nawakuri shrine. The latter is the shrine in Hirose, Shimane, being well-known for the guadian god of cows. In the Taisho era this worship was spread out in the Chugoku mountain area through being organized Nawakuri worship association by the priest of Nawakuri shrine.