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
Uzue shinji
Text
"Rabbit-staff rite."  A rite held on January 15 at Itakiso Shrine in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture. Thirteen sticks of cut bamboo are stuck into cooked rice gruel. The richness or meagerness of the year's crops is divined by how much gruel has gotten into the bamboo sticks. The rite dates back to ancient times; the uzue (staff of the rabbit zodiac sign) has disappeared from the ritual, leaving only its name.
Two festivals are held on January 7—"the day of the seven greens" (nanakusa no hi)—at Ikukunitama Shrine in Tennōji Ward, Osaka. These are the wakabasai (festival of new leaves) in which seven varieties of young greens are eaten to prevent all illnesses, and the uzue matsuri, in which uzue staffs are offered to the kami for protection from demons.
At the onisube ("demon smoke-out") festival held that same day at Dazaifu Tenmangū, one of the actions performed is the striking of demon masks with uzue (see usokae shinji).
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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