12/01/2014

Sho Hachimangu Toyama

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Shoo Hachimanguu 正八幡宮 Sho Hachimangu

上町正八幡宮 - 遠山郷の下栗地区



Shimotsuki Matsuri 霜月祭り

- quote
The folk harvest festival held in the eleventh month of the old calendar.
There is also a court harvest festival wherein the emperor dedicates the new grain on the "day of the rabbit" in that month called the niinamesai, but popular celebration of the shimotsuki occurs on different dates in different regions.

In Kita Kyūshū it takes place on the first "day of the ox" in the eleventh month and so it is called ushi no hi ( the "ox day") or oushisama (the "august ox") festival. In the ritual, the head of each household cuts some of the post-harvest rice stubble from the fields and carries it home on his back pronouncing it "heavy" repeatedly. They honor it by building an altar made of a winnowing basket placed on top of a large mortar and filled with mochi, sake, and daikon. In that region, people consider the rice stubble to be the yorishiro vehicle) of the "kami of the fields" (ta no kami) returning to the house from the rice field.

In the Nōtō region, shimotsuki matsuri such as the ae no koto (an occasion on which families welcome the "kami of fields" back into the home by filling the bathtub and preparing an offering of food and drink for it) are conducted as household affairs and known by different names in different regions.

There are also examples of shimotsuki festivals in which a sacred dance (kagura) involving boiling water is performed as a celebration to welcome the New Year. These are known as shimotsuki kagura and include the horobasan shimotsuki matsuri of the shrine Haushiwake jinja on Mt. Horoba (Hiraka district, Akita Prefecture), the Tōyama matsuri in Nagano Prefecture's Tōyama region (Shimo Ina district), and the flower festivals of Aichi Prefecture's Kita Shitara region.

Shimotsuki matsuri are, in most cases, rice harvest festivals, but there are also examples of some that are potato harvest festivals.
- source : Iwai Hiroshi - Kokugakuin

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Tooyama no shimotsuki matsuri 遠山の霜月祭
(とおやまのしもつきまつり)
Toyama festival in the
shimotsuki month
..... shimotsuki matsuri 霜月祭(しもつきまつり)festival in the shimotsuki month
..... Tooyama matsuri 遠山祭(とおやままつり) Toyama festival
kigo for mid-winter

shimotsuki, month with frost, now December
This festival was held from early December till the beginning of the New Year, in the village of Toyama in Nagano.


yudate kagura 湯立て神楽

In yudate kagura water is boiled in a cauldron, around which gods are summoned by means of liturgical dances. Many of these festivals are performed in the winter and continue through an entire night; at daybreak the hot water is scattered over the participants, and those touched by it are cleansed of the year’s pollution and reborn in a purified state.
source : kagurakagura.


At the Sho Hachimangu in Toyama, the villagers prepare a special hearth for two chauldrons, heating water.
At the beginning of the rituals all the gods of Japan are summoned by chanting a long scroll with their names.



Even children take their turns with ritual dances around the hearth.
Above are paper-cut decorations for good luck.

In the end, two special dancers splash the boiling water on the ground to entertain all these deities, using their bare hands to touch the water.
The village population gets less and less every year, now only maybe 100 people living there permanently.



CLICK for more photos by Munakata san:
source : munakata.eyedia.com/jp/tohyamago


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Soogetsu sai 霜月祭(そうげつさい)
at Goze town 御所市, Nara

- source : blog.goo.ne.jp/tetsuda_n


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Shimotsuki Matsuri at another small shrine (I hope to find the name)

It is held every four years. All male members of the village take part, the youngest of the dancers is 4, men around 20 do the drumming and the elders partake by stamping with bats, singing and clapping their hands.

On a square stage placed on four large rice bundled, the children-dancers hop around dancing with a fan, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, while the elders sit around and clap their hands.

One drummer with the lead drum has to endure almost 12 hours of drumming.

The children of various ages perform dances imitating the rice cycle, from planting to harvest.

After that, all run around the stage doing rice-planting movements and singing.

When all is done, the most active elders are thrown high in the air (dooage 胴上げ) to show them respect.
Sometimes the lead drummer is also given this treatment.

It is a good way to bring all villagers together every 4 years, with a lot of preparations to be done inbetween. The young boys seem to like being part of these activities.

on TV February 1, 2014
- source : www.dydo-matsuri.com

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Yoshida Daimyoojin 吉田大明神
Nagasaki Sasebo 長崎県佐世保吉井町上吉田地区

五穀豊穣、家内安全を祈り、それが無事になしとげられたお祝いで、吉田大明神での神事のあと、「ヤド(施主)」と呼ばれる当番の家で男女に分かれてコメや塩を入れた重箱ときねをむしろで包んだ「蔵」に綱を結んで 引っ張り合う行事です。「霜月祭り」、「おかん祭り」とも呼ばれます。男が必ず負けなければならないそうです。ほのぼのとした笑いに包まれる地域の行事です。

- source : geocities.jp/kaz3839


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. Ta no Kami, God of the Rice Fields 田の神さま .
ae no koto, aenokoto あえのこと / アエノコト / 饗事
Entertaining the God of the Fields


- Reference : 霜月祭り

- Reference : Shimotsuki Matsuri


. Shrine, Shinto Shrine (jinja 神社) - Introduction .


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- - - - -  H A I K U  - - - - -



. "frost month", shimotsuki 霜月 (しもつき) .

The name of the eleventh lunar month.

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