Namahage

thumb|300px|A dancing drummer wearing a Namahage costume, performed Namahage-Daiko in Akita Station. The are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty oni (ogre) masks and traditional straw capes (mino) during a New Year's ritual, in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture.

==General description== thumb|300px|Namahage costumes thumb|thumbtime=5|300px|Blue and red namahage costumes Namahage are portrayed by men who don oni masks and dress in long straw coats or mino, which are locally called kede or kende. They are equipped with deba knives (usually fakes made of wood or papier-mâché) and a . Marching in small groups of two or three, the namahage go door-to-door between people's homes, admonishing children who may be guilty of laziness or bad behavior by yelling phrases like or in the pronunciation and accent of the local dialect.