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
Minakuchi Matsuri
Text
"Water sluice festival." A rice-field planting festival and this irrigation festival are held July 19-20 at Mononobe Shrine in Ōda City, Shimane Prefecture. Horses decorated with ritual wands are brought before the worship hall (haiden) after the ceremonies and led around the hall in imitation of the work done to prepare a field. This is called mitoshirokayoi ("passing through the levy crop"). Next, rice-planting rites are held at the five branch shrines (massha) to the east. Irises (shōbu) representing rice seedlings are offered before the deities and rice grains scattered about. Following the chanting of a liturgy (norito), there is a procession of musicians, priests (shinshoku), and girls who ride on the shoulders of others and play the role of rice-planting maidens wearing flower-umbrella hats with their hair in braids. The participants throw the irises about as the procession walks along. The festival worshippers scramble for the irises so they can put them in the irrigation sluices of their paddy land as a protection for their rice crop against insect damage. In the past, the shrine's parishioners (ujiko) would also undertake strict abstinences (monoimi).
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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