Why the Second Floor of Kagoshima's Reimeikan Museum Looks Like Elden Ring

The folk exhibits have tigers, straw costumes, volcanoes and a stick called Haramebo. Look closely and they all look like boss material.

I am trying to understand Kagoshima. I read about its history, its festivals and its land. When something is interesting, I tell other people.

But every time I look at an exhibit, I can't stop making jokes:

"What is that beast?" "Paint it all black and it's Elden Ring." "Put it next to a volcano and set it on fire. That's a boss fight." "The name Haramebo is way too direct." "What happened to that mask's mouth?"

This is not hate. It is the opposite. I look things up, understand them, spread the word, and tease them the whole time. Call it frenemy tourism.

But if you laugh, keep the facts right. This article looks at the folk exhibits at the Kagoshima Prefectural Museum of History and Art, Reimeikan, and asks why they look so much like dark fantasy. I keep the jokes and the sources apart.

0. The 30-second version: Kagoshima's folk culture has strong raw material

Reimeikan's folk exhibits show the many kinds of daily life, belief and festivals that grew up because Kagoshima was a meeting point for cultures from the north and the south.[1]

What you see there:

• A huge papier-mâché tiger
• A giant straw hat
• Loincloths and straw skirts
• Masked gods
• A stick used to pray for many descendants
• A festival where people stomp in a circle and finally smash a straw "mountain umbrella"

Before you read the labels, it is natural to wonder: "Is this a local museum or a game's art book?"

Now put a volcano like Sakurajima in the background, turn everything black, and add torches and sparks. The scene suddenly feels complete.

Of course, a festival and a video game are not the same thing. But beasts, masks, straw, fire and community rituals all appear in both. So through the eyes of today's gamers, these exhibits easily turn into dark fantasy.

1. The second floor is where "folk culture" turns into another world

Reimeikan's folk section is divided into themes such as "praying," "festivals" and "the southern islands," and it shows the beliefs and yearly events of different parts of Kagoshima.[1]

The official explanation is serious. A festival is held at a set time. People purify themselves, make offerings to the gods, and pray, give thanks or remember the dead. Through the cycle of the seasons, people face death, rebirth and the life force of nature.[2]

So far, so beautiful.

Then you see the real objects.

A huge tiger. A huge mask. Huge piles of straw. Something that is not a human face. A stick.

The label says folklore. Your eyes say boss room.

That gap is what makes the second floor so good.

2. The "tsukuimon" tiger: it just looks like a boss

In the Tanabata Dance of Ichikikushikino City, big papier-mâché figures called "tsukuimon" have appeared: a deer, a tiger, an ox and a crane. Reimeikan shows the "Tanabata Dance tiger" from them.[3]

The festival was not only a drum dance. In the past it also had a Ryukyu king procession, a feudal lord procession, a naginata (polearm) procession and an armor procession, and it was a large rural performance. The tiger shakes its head as if to attack, and a tiger hunter aims at it. The setup alone is strong.[3]

This is where a gamer's brain starts working on its own.

"I've seen this guy in Elden Ring."

In fact, ELDEN RING SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE has a boss called "Divine Beast Dancing Lion."[9] So it is natural to think of it when you see a giant festival beast.

But this does not mean the Tanabata Dance tiger is where the game got its idea. Modern people are just reacting to a similar look.

One more current fact matters here. Kagoshima Prefecture updated its Tanabata Dance page in 2025. It says that until fiscal 2022 the tsukuimon and the processions took part, but now the dance is offered mainly as a drum dance.[4]

So if you see the tiger in the museum and think it still rampages every year, you would be wrong.

3. Sorayoi: straw hats, stomping, and a final smash

Sorayoi is a full-moon festival (the 15th night) in Chiran. Boys aged 7 to 14 by the traditional way of counting age take part.[5]

They wear big cone-shaped straw hats, a loincloth and a straw skirt. They sing and move as if stomping like sumo wrestlers. At the end they run to a "mountain umbrella" in the middle and break it.[5]

If a modern person saw this with no explanation, they would think:

"What is this gear?" "Are they enemies?" "If I talk to them, does an event start?"

But the purpose is to celebrate a good harvest. "Sorayoi" is explained as meaning "that is good."[5]

So it looks like the end of the world, but at heart it says "congratulations on the harvest."

The gap between the scary look and the healthy wish is really funny.

4. Kemari again? Why it shows up in history exhibits all over Japan

Whether you visit an exhibit in Kagoshima or a museum in another region, kemari keeps showing up.

You think, "This thing is everywhere." And it really did spread widely.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs database, kemari was an important skill not only for court nobles but also for samurai, from the late Heian period through the medieval and early modern periods. After the Onin War it spread across the country, and its students included feudal lords and samurai.[8]

Kemari is also not like modern soccer, where you beat the other side. Several people try to keep the ball off the ground for as long as they can.

Co-op play from the Middle Ages.

That is why it often appears in exhibits about upper-class culture, samurai culture and exchange between regions. It is not a rare item that belongs only to Kagoshima. It is a regular guest star in Japanese history.

5. Haramebo: the name explains itself

Haramebo is from Isa City. On the night of January 14, boys aged 7 to 14 visit houses that welcomed a bride that year. They use the Haramebo stick to pretend to poke the couple. This is called "Harame-uchi."[6]

The purpose is written in the official explanation:

Many descendants and a good harvest.

After the event, the stick was hung on a plum or persimmon tree, and people believed the tree would then bear lots of fruit.[6]

May people bear fruit. May trees bear fruit. May everything bear fruit.

The idea is very consistent.

Some people hear it as "Haramen-bo" and think of a pun meaning "cannot get pregnant," which is the opposite meaning. But Reimeikan's official spelling is "Haramebo," and its real role is entirely on the "let it grow" side.

You could stop at "funny name." But you can also see that in old farming villages, having children and getting fruit from crops and trees were linked by the same image of life increasing.

6. A museum 1,000 years from now: would today's adult toys be called "fertility ritual tools"?

From here on it is not history. It is a pure thought experiment.

Suppose researchers in the year 3026 dig up only mass-produced adult toys from the 21st century.

"Silicone ritual tool shaped like a human body" "Its inner structure may have been used in birth and harvest rites" "Large numbers were found in city ruins, so a wide religion probably existed"

They might read far too much into them.

A person of today would say:

"No, people just used them normally."

The joke is funny because we run the same risk when we look at old tools.

Luckily, the meaning and the stories of Haramebo have survived. So instead of deciding "it looks kind of sexual" and guessing its use, it is worth reading the records.

If we don't want future people to call our toys ritual tools, we shouldn't carelessly label old sticks either.

7. Why is the sacred mask's mouth bent? It may not be a failed carving

Looking at masks, some have huge eyes, big eyebrows, a twisted mouth, and a face that does not look human at all.

You want to say:

"Couldn't the carver make it symmetrical?"

But you can't say that so easily.

In the southern island culture of Kagoshima, there is the idea that gods who visit from across the sea appear wearing masks and straw capes.[7] The official explanation of the Boze mask of Akusekijima says it has a "big mouth" and "unusually big eyebrows and eyelids."[7]

So there really are masks where leaving the normal human face is the whole point.

On the other hand, whether the bent mouth of the mask in front of you is on purpose, the maker's habit or the result of age cannot be decided without the record for that object.

The right way to joke goes like this:

"What happened to the mouth, lol" ↓ "But maybe this is on purpose, to show something not human. Let's check the records."

That is frenemy tourism at its best.

8. Paint it all black, put it beside a volcano, and set it on fire

So why does Kagoshima's folk culture turn into dark fantasy so easily?

Line up the ingredients and it becomes clear.

• Huge animal figures
• Masks
• Straw costumes
• Drums
• Shouts
• Fire
• Night
• Rituals that pray for a good harvest and for rebirth
• A world view in which gods come to visit
• And Kagoshima has an active volcano in its scenery

Now drain the color in your head.

Paint the tiger black. Char the straw. Stand up torches. Let sparks fly. Put volcanic smoke behind it.

There. A boss fight.

This does not shrink Kagoshima's culture into "scary weird festivals." It is the opposite.

It means the original culture already has shapes as strong as the ones modern dark fantasy uses.

9. Conclusion: tease it while you learn about it, and you remember it better

At first, it is fine to just say:

"Big tiger, lol" "Straw armor, lol" "Haramebo, lol" "What happened to that mask's face, lol"

Then look into each one.

Why is there a tiger? Why straw? Why are a good harvest and many descendants linked to the same stick? Why do gods come wearing masks? Why is kemari all over the country?

Then a "weird exhibit" starts to connect to farming villages, seasons, life, community, southern island culture and samurai culture.

Laughter is not the enemy of understanding. Careless certainty is.

Understand Kagoshima, tell others why it is fun, and still laugh and say "what is this?"

That distance may be the way to enjoy a museum for the longest time.

References (9)

1. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Reimeikan permanent exhibition: Folk culture"
2. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Reimeikan permanent exhibition: Festivals"
3. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Tanabata Dance tiger"
4. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Kagoshima Regional Traditional Performing Arts Museum: Tanabata Dance" (updated February 4, 2025)
5. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Sorayoi"
6. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Haramebo"
7. Kagoshima Prefecture, "Southern islands" and "Boze"
8. Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Heritage Database, "Namba family kemari materials"
9. Bandai Namco / FromSoftware, ELDEN RING SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE official information

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