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
Agata matsuri
Text
The main annual festival (reisai) of Agata Shrine, in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture held around June 5 (originally, the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar). The festival begins on the fifth with the offering of a sacred meal to the kami. At about 1 a.m. on the night of the sixth, after all lights have been extinguished, a large image of the deity Bonten (Skt. Brahma-deva) , which is considered to be a representation of the kami enshrined at Agata, is paraded by naked young men. The statue is carried in procession to a temporary enshrinement location (otabisho) in the heiden (a structure between the main sanctuary and the worship hall, where offerings are usually presented to the kami). The Agata Festival is also known as kurayami matsuri (festival in the dark). Agata is the shrine of the tutelary deity of the temple Byōdōin. Given that the heiden where the image of the kami enshrined at Agata, Konohanasakuyahime also hosts the sacred palanquin (shinyo) of the male deity of the Uji Shrine, the festival has also been regarded as a divine nuptial rite (shinkon). Two days later a purification ritual using large paper streamers is carried out at the Uji Shrine.
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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