Akabeko: Disputed Origins Behind Aizu's Red Cow, With Sources
Akabeko, Aizu's best-known folk toy, is a papier-mache cow with a bobbing head, painted red. No single origin legend is settled fact, and more than one version is told. This article covers both the legends and the craft history behind the toy, with sources.
Beko is a Tohoku dialect word for cattle. Akabeko's origin has been explained in more than one way, including an Edo-period smallpox-warding tradition and a cattle legend from the Aizu region, and neither is confirmed as the single, settled account.
This article lays out the competing legends, the history of Aizu bariko, the papier-mache craft tradition that produces Akabeko, and how the toy still figures into Aizuwakamatsu's New Year market today.
What legends explain Akabeko's origin?
A smallpox-warding tradition and a legend about cattle helping rebuild a temple are both told, and neither is settled fact.
The smallpox-warding tradition
One tradition holds that during a smallpox outbreak in the Aizu region, people came to believe that the black spots painted on an Akabeko's body, standing in for smallpox itself, could ward off the disease if the toy took the illness in a child's place. Red itself was also considered protective, which is why Akabeko has long been called a good-luck or evil-warding cow.
The legend of cattle that helped rebuild a temple
A second well-known story tells of workers struggling to haul heavy timber for a temple rebuilding project when a herd of red-coated cattle appeared and lent their strength. This particular legend is set in what is now the town of Yanaizu, while the Akabeko as a folk toy is produced and told about across the wider Aizu region, and, as with the smallpox story, no single account of its origin is considered confirmed.
Source:The Akabeko legend (searching for the Akabeko family)
Akabeko as a piece of Aizu bariko craft
Aizu's papier-mache craft is said to trace to Gamo Ujisato inviting doll makers from Kyoto, and Akabeko is one product of it.
The origins of Aizu bariko
Akabeko is one product of Aizu bariko, a papier-mache craft tradition. Aizu bariko is said to trace back to Gamo Ujisato, who invited doll makers from Kyoto to build up local industry when he became lord of Aizu. Okiagari-koboshi tumbling dolls and Aizu tenjin figures are made using the same papier-mache lineage as Akabeko.
Source:Fukushima folk toys: visiting Nozawa Mingei's Aizu bariko Akabeko
The mechanism behind the bobbing head
Akabeko is a papier-mache cow painted red, marked with black spots and white outlines. Its head is made separately from its body and attached so that a light touch sets it bobbing back and forth. Fewer artisans work in the craft today as the aging producers retire, and a handful of large workshops that achieved mass production now account for much of the market.
Source:Fukushima folk toys: visiting Nozawa Mingei's Aizu bariko Akabeko
Aizuwakamatsu's Tokaichi market and Akabeko
At Aizuwakamatsu's New Year market, held for over 400 years, Akabeko is sold alongside okiagari-koboshi tumbling dolls.
Tokaichi, the New Year market
Tokaichi, held every January 10 around Omachi-dori and Shinmei-dori in central Aizuwakamatsu, is a New Year market said to have run for more than 400 years. Buying an Akabeko or an okiagari-koboshi tumbling doll there, in the hope of good health and family prosperity for the year ahead, remains a living custom.
The connection to okiagari-koboshi
Okiagari-koboshi, sold alongside Akabeko at Tokaichi, is another folk toy said to have begun when Gamo Ujisato had his samurai make them as winter side work. In a custom tied to the idea of falling seven times and rising an eighth, families traditionally buy one more doll than they have members and display them on a household shrine, making the tumbling doll and Akabeko together a symbol of the Aizu new year.
Source:Okiagari-koboshi: the history and present of a good-luck charm that still lifts spirits today
FAQ
Which Akabeko legend is actually true?
Neither has been confirmed as the definitive account. Both the smallpox-warding tradition and the temple-rebuilding cattle legend are stories passed down over generations, with no surviving record settling which, if either, reflects an actual historical origin.
Where is Akabeko made today?
A handful of Aizu bariko workshops still produce Akabeko, though the number of artisans has shrunk as producers age. Some facilities in Aizuwakamatsu city let visitors paint their own Akabeko by hand.
Do the same workshops make zodiac-themed papier-mache figures too?
Many of the workshops that make Akabeko also produce papier-mache figures themed to the Chinese zodiac, and at New Year that year's zodiac figure is often displayed for sale alongside the Akabeko.
What language is the word "beko" from?
It is a Tohoku dialect word for cattle. The name Akabeko simply combines that dialect word with the color red, and the phrase stuck as the name of the folk toy itself.
Sources & references
- On praying for an end to epidemics and the Akabeko
- The Akabeko legend (searching for the Akabeko family)
- Fukushima folk toys: visiting Nozawa Mingei's Aizu bariko Akabeko
- Tokaichi will be held, Aizuwakamatsu City
- Okiagari-koboshi: the history and present of a good-luck charm that still lifts spirits today