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カテゴリー1： 5. Rites and Festivals
カテゴリー2： Individual Shrine Observances
Title
Ushi matsuri
Text
"Cow festival." A rite held the first day of the cow in January at the shrine Dazaifu Tenmangū in Dazaifu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. The origins of this rite are connected to an ancient story surrounding the Heian period-courtier Sugawara no Michizane (see Tenjin Shinkō). Michizane had gone to visit his aunt, the nun Kakuju, in Kawachi Province (part of present-day Osaka Prefecture) after he was demoted to provisional governor-general of Dazaifu (today's Fukuoka, a virtual exile in his day). While there, nearby cows lowed incessantly through the night. Since this was believed to be an omen of evil, Michizane left immediately. Spies from Fujiwara Tokihira launched an attack on his aunt's dwelling the following night. Dazaifu Tenmangū came to observe a festival of prayers for household safety and protection from calamitous misfortune in connection with this tale.
The rice planting festival (taue matsuri, see ta'asobi) held at Inau Shrine in Yamada, Fuchū Township, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, is also called ushi matsuri. Two bamboo baskets are fashioned into the shape of cows; two people each then climb into the baskets and before the shrine altar enact cows tilling rice paddies. Following this two girls who represent rice-planting girls (saotome) enact the planting of rice using branches of sakaki to symbolize the rice seedlings.
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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