Originally Posted by
valve bouncer
Went to this bizarre thing tonight with my kids. On the end of a long bamboo pole was a length of wire attached to a kerosene soaked ball of cloth that was then set alight. All the neighbourhood kids then stood along the edge of a ditch/creek and held these flaming balls over all the reeds and weeds, dipping them in and out of the grass and generally waving them around. It was so surreal. Despite living here for almost 11 years I'm still not anywhere near being able to say I know what's going on.
Scroll down to chapter 12 on this page:
http://www.fullbooks.com/Glimpses-of...panx39061.html
"Now the name Sanemori is an illustrious one, that of a famous warrior of old times belonging to the Genji clan. There is a legend that while he was fighting with an enemy on horseback his own steed slipped and fell in a rice-field, and he was consequently overpowered and slain by his antagonist. He became a rice-devouring insect, which is still respectfully called, by the peasantry of Izumo, Sanemori-San. They light fires, on certain summer nights, in the rice-fields, to attract the insect, and beat gongs and sound bamboo flutes, chanting the while, 'O-Sanemori, augustly deign to come hither!' A kannushi performs a religious rite, and a straw figure representing a horse and rider is then either burned or thrown into a neighbouring river or canal. By this ceremony it is believed that the fields are cleared of the insect."
Does sound like a traditional 'rite' to clear insects and protect the rice crop got 'hijacked' in order to encompass this Senemori-San legend in Izumo. But the underlying actions (without the straw horse) seems to be what you've described.
I wonder if killing insects at the creek stops them from breeding.