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

本文是在广岛市、冈山县、岛根县、鸟取县的Chugoku山区进行的实地调查，研究了养牛的各种习俗和民间传说。在日本中部山区，饲养日本牛的愿望最为强烈，这说明每个农民都非常重视饲养牛。这一价值之所以如此之高，是因为该地区有在牧叶牧场上养牛的习俗。牧场上饲养的奶牛因适合放牧而享有良好的声誉。这个山区有很多牛市场，被称为bakuro的牛贩子在那里买卖和交换牛。我们可以在这里看到仓田习俗，即短期雇佣牛在山区和平原地区之间的湿稻田里耕作。在这些情况下，通过交换牛在地区之间形成了广泛的网络。当然，巴库罗调节了牛群的流动。我们可以在这个地区看到对牛的各种各样的守护神的崇拜。第一种是当地古老的神，他们被认为是牛的守护神。例如，古津、山神、大日宗、奥本神社等。特别是在Chugoku山区周围，人们都崇拜Kouzin。第二类是作为牛的守护神而被人们以鲜明的意识所接受的神。这些例子是大森神社和Nawakuri神社。后者是因牛的守护神而闻名的岛根市广濑神社。在大正时代，这种祭礼通过由Nawakuri神社的牧师组织的Nawakuri祭礼协会在Chugoku山区传播开来。

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.