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- area, they still remain members of the original shrine and followers of the local deity (ujigami).
People may come to the shrine for various reasons, to pray or express gratitude to the kamifor recovery from an illness or for success in an examina�tion or a new business. And, while funerals in Japan are largely conducted by Buddhist monks, Shinto has a virtual monopoly over weddings.
The most elaborate expressions of the Shinto faith are its many exotic and colourful rites and festivals. The annual shrine festival (matsuri) is a gay carnival honouring the local kami, both in order to ensure its renewal of spiritual protection and to endow the assembly with fresh strength and vitality. Often in the village or parish, food and amusement booths are set up near the shrine during the festivals, where participants freely drink sake and enjoy songs and dances. Sometimes young men of the locality, in riotous pagaentry, ritually install the spirit of the local deity in an ornate gilded sacred palanquin (mikoshi) and carry it about on their shoulders, which allows the kami to visit the people of the district where they live and work. This serves to purify or bless the individual homes of the neighbourhood, and brings the community closer together in social and spiritual unity. In some cases, an individual (a priest or maybe a child) is designated as the embodiment of the kami and rides on horseback around the district. The processions throughout various parts of Japan are colourfully unique and display different costumes, palanquins or portable shrines and other paraphernalia.
During festival time, there are all sorts of amusements going on, such as sacred and classical dances, music, archery, horse racing and sumo wrestling. The sumo wrestlers usually throw salt into the ring to symbolically purify it.
Shinto rituals are also sometimes performed every morning in front of miniature shrines in private homes. (See Appendix I)
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