Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 5. Rites and Festivals
カテゴリー2： Individual Shrine Observances
Title
Oumanagashi shinji
Text
"Rite of setting horses adrift." A rite observed at Honmoku Shrine, Naka Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It takes place on Honmoku Beach at high tide on either the first or second Sunday of August. It is also known as the juuniten no oumanagashi ("setting adrift horses of the twelve heavenly deities," referring to the deities of the ten directions plus the sun and the moon, a group Buddhism appropriated at an early stage from the Vedic tradition). Six "horses" shaped like turtles measuring about fifty centimeters long are fashioned from cogon grass. Dumplings and sake are offered to the horses, ritual wands (heisoku, see gohei) stuck into their heads, and ears of rice placed in their mouths. On the day of the festival, representatives of the shrine's parishioners (ujiko) wind their way down from the shrine to the Honmoku fishing harbor carrying the horses in a procession led by a ritual wand bearer. At the harbor, they load the horses above the wooden fan at the prow of the boat used for the ritual. As the boat reaches the offing the horses are set adrift. Since the horses bear the misfortunes of the parishioners, they are averse to any of the horses returning to the shore. The good omens for the year are divined based on the direction in which the horses drift.
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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