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Title |
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| 1 |
Hikimen Gokitō |
"Whistling invocations." An archery rite held at the shrine Fūrō-gū in Ōkawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, from the twenty-eight day of the third month to the second day of the fourth month of the old lunar calendar. Shrine officials ( shinshoku ) take up bows and arrows refer... |
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| 2 |
Himuro matsuri |
"Ice storehouse festival." This rite is held from the night of May 31 to early morning on June 1 at Yatsushiro Shrine in Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture. Newlyweds, individuals born in an inauspicious year ( yakudoshi ), and those celebrating their sixtieth birthd... |
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| 3 |
Hinerikiri matsuri |
"Pinching festival." A buttock-pinching festival held August 21-22 at Ukishima Shrine in the town of Tabuse, Kumage District, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The festival is so-named because women who visit the shrine have their buttocks pinched. It is said that getting pinc... |
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| 4 |
Hinkoko matsuri |
A festival held on April 15 at Ōyada Shrine in Mino City, Gifu Prefecture. Hinkoko means doll. Thirty two-meter-tall dolls are woven from bamboo representing Susanoo and peasants, and another doll is made of the great serpent Orochi (see Yamatanoorochi). At night, the dolls drive O... |
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| 5 |
Hinukan |
"Fire deity." A folk belief spread throughout Amami and Okinawa. the original objects of worship as suggested by the variant name umichimon (lit., "honored three things") were three fieldstones, which were used to create a hearth in its primordial form; the ... |
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| 6 |
Hitotsuyama Shinji |
Single Mountain Rite. A festival held every twenty years at Iwa Shrine ( Iwa jinja ) in Ichinomiya Town, Shisō County, Hyōgo Prefecture. The festival is to worship Mt. Miya which is said to be tomb of the enshrined deity ( saijin ) Ōnamuchi-no-mikoto. Further, every sixty years there i... |
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| 7 |
Hitoyo kanjo |
One-night Imperial Servant-girls. A rite held on February 20 at Sumiyoshi Shrine in Nishi-Yodogawa Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture. Seven girls between the ages of ten and thirteen are selected from the families of the shrine's worshippers to become imperial servants. They re... |
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| 8 |
Hote matsuri |
Sail-cord Festival. A festival held on March 10 at Shiogama Shrine ( Shiogama jinja ) in Shiogama City, Miyazaki Prefecture. Beginning two days before the festival, sacred dance and music ( kagura ), a shrine priestess festival, Yamato dances are performed at the Ceremonial Hall ( h... |
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| 9 |
Hōbeisai |
A rite in which heihaku offerings are presented to the kami by the emperor or the state. There are both annual and occasional versions of hōbeisai. The Jingiryō establishes nineteen annual hōbeisai, beginning with kinensai in spring. It also sets down that "offerings, rites a... |
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| 10 |
Hōnen matsuri |
Good Harvest Festival. A festival held at Ōagata Shrine ( Ōagata jinja ) in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture. The Sunday closest to March 15 is the festival day. Also called the Hime no Miya Hōnen Festival. The festival complements the Good Harvest Festival of Tagata Shrine and is famou... |
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| 11 |
Idori-matsuri |
A rite held on the evening of November seventh at Sugawara Jinja in Noto-chō, Fugeshi-gun, Ishikawa prefecture, in which a mochi (cake of pounded rice) is handed from one group to another in the worship hall. On November first is a kuchiake matsuri (mouth-opening festival). On the th... |
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| 12 |
Igomori matsuri |
Seclusion festival. A festival held from March eleventh to thirteenth at Tosa Jinja in Kōchi City, Kōchi prefecture. From the evening of March first the gūji (head priest) and shinshoku (shrine priests) enter into a period of monoimi (purificatory abstinence) On the afternoon of t... |
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| 13 |
Ikibina matsuri |
Living doll festival. On April third at Ichinomiyaminashi Jinja in Hida, Miya Village, Ōno-gun, Gifu prefecture, a rite is performed in which seven women are chosen to play the role of living dolls, and are lined up in front of the kami . Afterwards the living dolls throw mochi (pounde... |
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| 14 |
Inu matsuri |
Dog festival. A festival of Sugio Jinja in Umamachi, Tsuruoka City, Yamagata prefecture, believed to have once involved human sacrifice. This festival is a ritualization of an oral tradition about a dog that subdued a badger which had been living in the mountain behind the village. ... |
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| 15 |
Izaihō |
A festival held on Kudaka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, during the year of the horse (once every 12 years) from the 15th to the 18th of the 11th lunar month. Prayers ( ugandate ) are begun a month before the festival so that it can take place without hindrance or impediment, and when they ar... |
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| 16 |
Janome shinji |
The janome shinji (Snake Eye Ritual) takes place at the Keta Jinja in Hakui City, Ishikawa Prefecture on April 3. According to tradition, when the enshrined kami ( saijin ), Ōnamuchinomikoto, subjugated the region he dispatched a large snake that was living in the Ōchi Lagoon, and th... |
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| 17 |
Jichinsai |
"Ground-purification rites." Also read tokoshizume no matsuri . This ritual is performed at the commencement of civil engineering or architectural projects to pray that work proceeds safely and smoothly, and that no structural problems will arise after its completi... |
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| 18 |
Jinjitsu |
A seasonal festival held on the seventh day of the New Year or the seventh of January. One of the "five seasonal festival holidays" established by the Edo bakufu . Because people celebrate by making and eating the nanakusagayu (seven-grass soup) on this day, it is often cal... |
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| 19 |
Jochūsai |
This festival occurs in July, eleven days after the summer solstice, at the shrine Izanagi Jingū in Ichinomiya Town, Tsuna County, Hyōgo Prefecture. The ritual takes place before harvesting and consists of prayers asking for the protection of crops from insect damage. The partici... |
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| 20 |
Joyasai |
An event held at a shrine during the night on December 31st, New Year's Eve ( ōmisoka ). Also called the toshikoshi matsuri (lit., "crossing the years festival"). Joya refers to the "night" of " jonichi ," which in turn is another word for ōmisoka . Unt... |
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