Children's group - Kodomo Gumi

A traditional group of children formed within a village. As the first step of age-based organization in a village (village, neighborhood), they usually contact the "Young People's Group". The age of joining is from around 7 years old to 15 years old (adulthood) for boys, and they have existed for a long time as a group that is mainly responsible for some traditional rituals, but they rarely engage in daily group activities. Girls' groups are not common, but there are many cases where they form their own groups for Bon festivals, cherry blossom viewing, sending off Hina dolls, and Tanabata events, and even then, they are generally limited to 13 years old (adult girls). The events that the children's groups are responsible for are extremely diverse depending on the region, including the New Year's fire festival, the Dosojin festival, bird-chasing, Bon fire, the Yamagami festival, the Ushigami festival, the Tenjin festival, and the Inoko festival, but most of them set up a separate hut and held their own events, acting autonomously according to age restrictions. In addition, it is not rare for the children's group to have their own responsibilities in village festivals and other events. In any case, before the new organizations such as the Boys' Club and the Children's Association came into existence, these children's groups had existed for a long time by sharing some of the responsibilities in village events, and this tradition has continued into recent years.

[Toshimi Takeuchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

集落内部に結成される伝統的な子供仲間、集団。集落（ムラ、町内）の年齢階梯(かいてい)組織の初段階として、「若者組」に連絡する形を通例もっている。加入年齢は男子7歳前後から15歳（成年）までで、だいたい伝統的な祭祀(さいし)行事の一部を専担する形で久しく存続してきたが、日常的な集団行動はほとんどない。女子の仲間は一般的ではないが、盆行事、花見、雛(ひな)送り、七夕(たなばた)行事などに独自の仲間ができる場合がかなりあって、そこでも13歳（成女）までという形が一般的である。子供組の担当行事は正月の火祭、道祖神祭、鳥追い、盆火、山神祭、牛神祭、天神祭、亥(い)の子行事等々地方ごとに多彩を極めるが、多くは別小屋を設け、独自に行事を行う形で、おおむね年序規制による自治的行動をとっていた。また村祭その他でも子供組独自の分担をもつ場合が少なくない。ともかく少年団、子供会などの新組織の生ずる以前に、村行事の一部分担を通じてこうした子供仲間が久しく存続し、その伝統は近年になお及んでいた。

［竹内利美］

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