*Hichigee* (or *Hicchigee*) refers to the sacred time of *setsugawari* (change of seasons) transmitted in the Tokara Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, as well as the visiting divine spirit itself that arrives during that time. In the Tokara Islands, it is believed that gods cross over to the islands on the turning points of the lunar calendar, and people spend these days with a sense of awe and restraint[1]. According to Naotomo Inagaki's *Toshima Village Journal*, the visiting god *Boze* that appears during the Bon festival on Akusekijima was originally the masked god *Hichigee* who appeared on the night of the winter *setsugawari*, and the traces of what once appeared across the Tokara islands remain solely on Akusekijima[1]. In other words, *Hichigee* is an ancient layer of the visiting god belief that serves as the matrix for *Boze*.
Folklore & Legends
In Toshima Village of the Tokara Islands, there is a unique calendar that celebrates the New Year one month earlier than the mainland, from the eleventh to the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. The *Shichito Shogatsu* (Seven Islands New Year), which welcomes and blesses ancestral spirits (*oyadama*), and the New Year *Hichigee*, where people revere the gods and act with restraint, have been practiced as a pair[2]. On the day of *Hichigee*, it is said that gods visit the island to inspect the people and their homes, so the islanders refrain from going outside or making noise, purify their doorways, and spend the time quietly. It is thought that this time of awe later crystallized into the form of masked visiting gods.
The film *Shichito Shogatsu and Hichigee*, recorded by the Institute of Ethnological Culture in 1998, captures these two New Year rituals remaining on Akusekijima, conveying the unique Tokara worldview of the otherworld where gods and ancestral spirits visit the island alternately[2]. While *Boze* has become famous as a visiting god of the Bon festival, *Hichigee* at the source of the *setsugawari* continues to convey the ancient sensibilities of the southern islands, which revere the 'precarious time' when the boundary between gods and humans thins[1].
Rather than a specific singular *yokai*, *Hichigee* is a concept that collectively refers to the time, the phenomenon, and the divine spirit itself when 'gods come to the island at the change of seasons'. In the Tokara calendar, there are several turning points in a year, and on those nights, the boundary between the human realm and the divine realm was said to thin, and the gods would silently tour the island. The reason people refrained from going out, lowered their voices, and purified fire and doorways was to avoid hindering the unseen visitors and to prevent impurities from being brought in.
On Akusekijima, this time of awe took the form of a masked god, surviving to this day as *Boze* appearing on Bon nights. While *Boze* is a 'visible' visiting god with Livistona leaves and grotesque masks, *Hichigee* was originally an 'invisible' god to be feared, situated in the oldest geological layer of the Tokara visiting god beliefs. The duality of entertaining while fearing the gods, and the structure of ancestral spirits (*Shichito Shogatsu*) and gods (*Hichigee*) visiting the island alternately, resonates deeply with the maritime worldview of the otherworld found in the southern islands.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Crossing the boundary between the human and divine realms to tour the island on the nights of changing seasonsBringing good fortune and warding off evil if welcomed with awe and restraintThe origin of the visiting god belief that later took the form of the masked god Boze
Weaknesses
Turns into a curse if the rituals of awe and tranquility are neglected. The transmission of the event is fading due to modernization and population decline.
Habitat
The islands of the Tokara archipelago (currently most strongly preserved on Akusekijima)
The diagram below is a diagnostic evaluation chart for The Visiting God Touring the Island at the Turn of Seasons: Hichigee. The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
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