Encyclopedia of Shinto

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詳細表示 (Complete Article)

カテゴリー1： 5. Rites and Festivals
カテゴリー2： Individual Shrine Observances
Title
Yomisashi Matsuri
Text
There are many rites for erecting a sakaki tree in advance of a festival. The rite held October 6 at Ōmiya Shrine in Iwade Town, Naga District, Wakayama Prefecture, is called the yomisashi festival. Yomisashi means "to commence purification"; it refers to both having begun the purification period for a festival as well as the rite of erecting purified branches of sakaki at various important locations including the boundaries of a village so as to demarcate the space in which a festival is to take place.  In the dead of night when all the lights of the houses have been extinguished, priests (shinshoku) and young men run to the midway resting points (otabisho) to the east and west where they erect large sakaki and recite incantations (norito). Sakaki leaves are said to be effective for all illnesses and people rush to grab them.
The "naked festival" held the 10th day of the 8th lunar month at Yanahime Shrine in Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture, also includes a rite called mishiba oroshi for the erecting of sakaki. One night a week before the festival, the lights are turned out in all the houses around the area. Thirty young men dressed in the garb of attendants (hakuchō) run about erecting branches of sakaki (referred to as omishiba-sama, or "the honored M. Omishiba") at 13 places around the town and reciting prayers as they go.
— Mogi Sakae

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