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
Usokae shinji
Text
"Bullfinch-exchange rite." A rite held the night of January 7 at the shrine Dazaifu Tenmangū in Dazaifu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Wooden bullfinch (uso) figurines function as amulets for protection against fire. People bring in bullfinches covered with grime accumulated over the preceding year to Dazaifu Tenmangū and exchange them freely with everyone else there, saying "kaemashō, kaemashō " ("Let's trade, let's trade"). Amid the excitement, the shrine priests (shinshoku) lose themselves among the crowd of worshippers and surreptitiously pass out the shrine's twelve golden bullfinches as they walk about. Those who get one of the gold bullfinches are said to receive good fortune for the year. This is followed by the famous onisube ("demon smoke-out") fire-protection festival. Two groups of nearly one hundred people apiece are divided into the "demon guards" and the "smoke handlers."  The latter set fire to a huge mound of fresh pine piled up outside of the shrine hall with a purifying flame and waft the smoke into the hall using an enormous fan. Inside the hall, the demon guards beat the wood-siding walls fiercely with wooden mallets. Coaxed out by the torches, the smokey demons then try to go around the hall, but the shrine priests throw parched beans at them and the performers' demon masks are struck at with staffs called utsue. After going the shrine hall inside and outside several times through the smoke and ash the demons come to a stop.
The usokae shinji held at Kamadoten Shrine in Kōtō Ward, Tokyo, is said to have been brought from Dazaifu Tenmangū.
An usokae matsuri is also held January 5 at the shrine Meihama Tenmangū in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture. The hatokaeshi shinji ("dove-exchange rite") held at the Usa Shrine in Usa City, Ōita Prefecture, is similar to the bullfinch rites. Gems (tama) are traded in the tamakaeshi matsuri ("gem-exchange festival") held January 21 at Miyajidake Shrine in Munakata District, Fukuoka Prefecture. There are also festivals where dolls are traded such as the okinjokaeshi matsuri at Hinagu, Ashikita District, Kumamoto Prefecture, and ones that involve trading flowers such as the hanakae matsuri (flower-exchanging festival) at the shrine Kanezakigū in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture.
— Mogi Sakae

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