Several studies have been conducted on the Matsuri, which are Shinto festivals or traditional local festivals in Japan; these have been focused mainly on folkloristic, sociological and anthropological aspects. The present research aims to analyze the formation of an annually-performed Shinto festival dedicated to a local deity by local communities from the point of view of the relations of the spaces where the rituals are held.
The Matsuri starts with local people who will participate keeping away from secular life for a certain period ahead of the festival, in order to purify their souls and bodies. On the main day of the Matsuri, they perform the ritual in a shrine, traditional activities such as Kagura and Dengaku, which are ritual music and dancing performed in shrines, or Sumo wrestling and Yabusame (horseback archery), that are dedicated to their tutelary deity. Meanwhile, a Shinto priest or a representative of the community moves the tutelary deity from the shrine to a mikoshi, which is a miniature shrine. The mikoshi is then carried into the village, to bring the power of the divine spirit to the community. It is believed that renewed energy will pervade the village. Thus, the community reconfirms its relationship with the deity through this Matsuri.
We paid attention to the passage of the mikoshi and to the spaces where the rituals are held. This is because the Matsuri organizes unrelated spaces and also influences the social structure of the community. The mikoshi is carried from the shrine to the Otabisyo which is located in the village plaza or on a village boundary, to the beach, to the cultivated fields, and so on. Then, it often returns to the shrine on a different course. Thus, these spaces are linked together and come to form a unity by the passage of the mikoshi. At the same time, the rituals help connect these spaces to the community’s daily activities.
We aimed to analyze the formation of the festival Tenno-sai based mainly on a spatial perspective. The festival is performed between Yasaka-jinja shrine in Enoshima Island, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Koyurugi-jinja shrine, located on the opposite shore of Enoshima, on the one hand, and the tutelary shrine of Koshigoe area, Kamakura City, on the other. To elucidate our purpose, we investigated the spatial relationship that is symbolized by the Tenno-sai festival, and described and explained chronologically the various elements which are connected to each space on a step-by-step basis from beginning to end.
On the day of the Tenno-sai, the festival begins with the main ritual performance in Hetsuno-miya, one of the Enoshima-jinja shrines. The participants, mostly parishioners of Yasaka-jinja, carry the mikoshi of Yasaka-jinja around Enoshima. Then the mikoshi is enshrined at Higashi-machi where the parishioners live, after which it is shoved and pushed at sea. Meanwhile, the mikoshi of Koyurugi-jinja is also paraded by parishioners around Koshigoe, and the timing of the passage of the mikoshi by the sea coincides with the Yasaka-jinja’s mikoshi. In the afternoon, the mikoshi of Yasaka-jinja comes over to Koshigoe. When the mikoshi of Yasaka-jinja is carried to Koshigoe, the mikoshi of Koyurugi-jinja is already waiting to greet the mikoshi of Yasaka-jinja on the border of Koshigoe. However, parish representatives of Yasaka-jinja and Koyurugi-jinja exchange greetings in front of Ryukou-ji temple which is located outside of Koshigoe. Both mikoshi are paraded around Koshigoe and afterwards reach Koyurugi-jinja. Then, the mikoshi of Yasaka-jinja returns to Enoshima, while the mikoshi of Koyurugi-jinja goes only part of the way.
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