Festivals - Matsuri

Every July for centuries, the Gion Festival has been held in Kyoto. It is one of the many festivals that are held all over Japan throughout the year. In fact, in any given month there are probably at least three festivals somewhere in Japan. Our article this quarter focuses on festivals, their origins and their evolution into modern times.

Festivals generally are divided into two forms, those that came from the indigenous shinto religions are called matsuri; and those that originated from Chinese and Buddhist origins are called nenchu gyoji . The Obon and the Tanabata festivals are examples of nenchu gyoji. Our article is devoted to matsuri which began as sacred rituals which focused the wellbeing of the populace, agriculture and the spirituality of the local community. This spirituality was accomplished through appeasement of both the shinto gods, kami , and the spirits of the dead. The festivals faciltitated the communication with the gods and spirits at the community level.

Commune with the gods

The essence of festivals is communal in nature, primarily to commune with the kami. Such communications require special acts and preparation. First, there are purification rituals, monoimi , which must be observed. Next, offerings must be made to appease the kami. Lastly, there are banquets with humans and gods. In premodern Japan some of the purification rituals were quite extensive, but in the modern day they have been relaxed a great deal. Offerings were usually rice, sake, seaweed or fruits and vegatables. The communal dining with kami and humans is called naorai. The offerings are eaten at the purified matsuri area delineated by sasaki branches that define the area where the kami will come to earth.

The second aspect of matsuri is to promote the sense of community among the locals by means of events such as parades, feasts, games and contests of skill. Many parades are focused on carrying the mikoshi, a portable shrine, through the streets. Mikoshi are similar to elaborately decorated palanquins, placed on two long poles. Since the 10th century they have been used to transport the spirit of the diety from the local shinto shrine through the community . In Kyoto it was a common practice to parade the mikoshi through the community to scare off bad spirits which were thought to cause disease. Typically twenty to thirty people carry the mikoshi in a raucous manner from one side of the street to the other. Carrying the mikoshi in this way represents the strong spirit of the kami contained therein.

Contests held during matsuri may include tug of war, boat races, and horse races. In days of old, these contests were viewed not as forms of entertainment, but as a means of requesting divine intervention. Oracles were often used in connection with these contests as a means to this end.

Ujiko, Ujigami, and Matsuri

One must understand the nature of the community at large and its relationship with the local shrine to understand the nature of matsuri. Almost every ward, village, and small town has its local shinto shrine, which acts as the community's religious symbol. It is called the ujigami (lit. family gods).The members of the communiy are called ujiko. The matsuri ceremonies are organized by a select small committee sometimes called the miyaza, from the ujiko. Ceremonies related to the direct communion with the gods are the responsibility of the shinto priests. The other ceremonies are handled by the select committee which is headed by a leader called the toya. The toya is required to go through all the purification rituals as do the shinto priests in order to represent the community.

Festivals are viewed as outside of ordinary events, and therefore some typical day-to-day social restrictions are suspended during that time. Often we see that a clear distinction is made between the ordinary world and that which is special. The tea ceremony, for example, requires the tea participants to transend their day-to-day existence to enter the world of cha-no-yu. In Japan the extraordinary and the routine are called hare and ke, respectively. Festivals are definitely in the hare realm.

The reason that we find so many festivals throughout the year is that their origins are tied to the agricultural seasons. Since so many of the rural festival rituals were tied to the cultivation of rice, they were spread throughout the year. Winter and spring festivals prayed for a good crop, summer rituals prayed to drive away any diasasters which might befall the crop, fall festivals were usually thankful rituals for an abundant harvest. Typically, spring and autumn festival were the most important in the country. In the cities, many rituals were directed at warding away any plague or other disasters which might fall on the general populace and they generally were in the summer. This accounts for most city fesitivals being held during the summer and country festivals held in the spring and fall. Obviously, over time some of these festivals have evolved into more playful and commercial pursuits, which have overshadowed their spiritual origins.

Famous Matsuri

The Gion Festival is the most famous of the city summer matsuri. While Gion festivals are held throughout Japan, Kyoto's is the best known. It is sponsored by the Yasaka Shrine and honors the god Gozu Tenno, a god of good health. The true name of the festival is Gion Goryoe, Gion'e for short. Gion Shoja was the original monastery in India where Gozu Tenno was the guardian. Goryoe means service for souls. The Gion is now the entertainment district near the Yasaka Shrine. The original festival started in 869 to ward off an epidemic that was ravaging the city. Spears, hoko, representing the 66 provinces, were erected, and prayed to. The festival was discontinued for a time during the Onin Wars (1467-1477), but resumed in the 1500's. The festival culminates on July 17th with a parade of floats that have replaced the symbolic spears, but have a hoko topping them. One float carries a group of muscians playing gion-bayashi music. There are also other smaller floats called yama that carry life size mythical and historic figures. Other Kyoto festivals are: the Dance Festival in the spring , Jidai Matsuri, in which people parade in period clothing, the Aoi Festival of the Kamo Shrine in mid May, and the Kurama Torch Festival at the Yuki Shrine in October.

A Gion matsuri is also held in Takayama in April. In October, Takayama hosts the Sakurayama Hachiman Shrine Festival. In both of these matsuri, floats called yatai are brought out of their individual hangars, yatai-gura, and paraded down the street The yatai, most of which are over twenty feet in height, are ornately decorated and very tall wheeled floats. Many of these yatai date back to the 17th century. They are adorned both on the outside and inside with intricately carved gilded wood and metalwork. Twelve such floats are used in the April festival, while one less is used in October. The yatai-gura are thickwalled warehouses with tall doors that are found throughout Takayama. Many floats have life size marionettes of various gods and nobility. These puppets are manipulated through ropes and pushrods by expert puppeteers. Festival music called Tokeigaku, which is specific to the region, is also played.

The other famous Hachiman festival is Kamakura's Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Yabusame. This feastival has demonstrations of yabusame in which men in feudal period hunting costumes perform archery contests on horseback at full gallop. A similiar parade of costumes and yabusame is part of the fall festival at the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko in October.

One of the more spectacular festivals is the Nebuta Festival, held in Aomori during the first week in August. Huge paper floats, illuminated inside, are paraded through the streets at night. This is accompanied by music, singing and dancing. The culmination of the festival is that the floats are loaded onto ships and floated out ot sea. The origin of this festival was a purfication ritual in which paper figures are thrown into rivers or seas to cast away bad spirits or illness. These types of rituals were held throughout Japan in old times and are called nemurinagashi, literally, "floating away sleep".

Matsuri have changed over the last sixty years. The aspect of communion with gods has diminshed over time, but the bringing together of the community at large has become even stronger. Commerce has always been an element of matsuri. But even the commercialism in modern festivals does curtail the enjoyment of these wonderful events.

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