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Title |
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| 1 |
Ofune matsuri |
"Boat festival." A festival held May 4–5 at Susukigawa Shrine in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture. The nine villages associated with the old woodlands in the area dispatch nine boats ( ofune ) for the festival, each "boat" being a wooden frame in the shape of a ... |
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| 2 |
Ogoku |
"Offering." A rite held late at night on October 13 at Usa Hachiman Shrine in Muya-chō, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture. The husband, wife, and daughters from the parishoner household ( ōtō , see tōya ) charged with making the kagami mochi (pounded rice cakes used at the ... |
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| 3 |
Ohitsuosame shinji |
"Filled-tub rite." A rite held on the autumnal equinox at Ikemiya Shrine in Ikenoyama, Hamaoka Township, Ogasa District, Shizuoka Prefecture. On the equinoctial day, as a portable shrine procession (see shinkōsai ) makes its way to the opposite shore of Sakuragaike Po... |
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| 4 |
Ohoko matsuri |
"Halberd festival." A festival held from November 18-26 at Ōmiwa Shrine in Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture. Also known as Sōja Rokusho Myōjin ("the joint shrine for powerful kami from six locations"), Ōmiwa had been the shrine that collectively enshrined ... |
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| 5 |
Ohoshizashi shinji |
"Star pointing rite." A rite held January 11th at the Minami Ikura Hachiman Shrine in Ikurachō, Tamana City, Kumamoto Prefecture. The rite begins a period of purification for the households that oversee the shrine's festivals ( tōya ). Those households that have been se... |
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| 6 |
Okachōtare shinji |
"Mosquito net-hanging rite." A festival held May 7–8 at Tamura Shrine in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture. After a rite in which the kami 's spirit is transferred to a portable shrine ( shin'yo ), mosquito netting is hung over the place within the shrine where symbols of t... |
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| 7 |
Okao shinji |
"Chasing away evil kami rite." A rite held January 5 at Hinomisaki Shrine in Taisha Township, Hikawa District, Shimane Prefecture. Food offerings ( shinsen ) including mochi (pounded rice cakes), adzuki-bean gruel, and 12 hand-formed rice balls are presented to the ka... |
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| 8 |
Okayu shinji |
"Rice-gruel rites." Rites for divining the year's fortune ( toshiura ) in which rice gruel is used are performed all over Japan during koshōgatsu (the "lesser" New Year) around January 15. At Kamooya Shrine in Sakyō Ward, Kyoto, a rite takes place on January 15 ... |
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| 9 |
Okera matsuri |
A rite held on New Year's Eve at Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture. Okera (a kind of chrysanthemum, actratylodes japonica ) is a medicinal herb used in traditional Chinese medicine that is said to overcome the effects of poisons. In the past this rite was ... |
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| 10 |
Okobo matsuri |
A festival held the morning of January 8 at Sakai Shrine in Shimo-sakamoto, Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture. Glutinous rice ( mochigome ) is collected from village families and pounded into rice cake, which is then formed into distinctively shaped rice cakes called okobo mochi . These a... |
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| 11 |
Onbashira matsuri |
"Honored pillar festival." A festival held the fifth month of the seventh year of the tiger and monkey at the main hall ( hongū ) and forehall ( zengū ) of the upper shrine ( kamisha ) of Suwa Taisha in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, and also at the spring hall ( harumiya ) and autu... |
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| 12 |
Otariya matsuri |
Kami procession festivals held at Futarayama Shrine in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture. The word " otariya " is said to refer to procession festivals ( togyo matsuri ) and can be written with characters meaning "passage festival." The festival is held tw... |
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| 13 |
Otobami shinji |
"Bird feeding rite." A major shrine association ( kō ) festival held May 15 at Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima Township, Saeki District, Hiroshima Prefecture. There is a ceremonial visitation to the seven Ebisu deities at the seven inlets around the island. Priests ( shi... |
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| 14 |
Oumanagashi shinji |
"Rite of setting horses adrift." A rite observed at Honmoku Shrine, Naka Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It takes place on Honmoku Beach at high tide on either the first or second Sunday of August. It is also known as the juuniten no oumanagashi ("setting a... |
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| 15 |
Oyama sankei |
"Shrine visit on the mountain." A festival held the twenty-eighth day of the seventh lunar month to the first day of the eighth lunar month at Iwakiyama Shrine in Iwaki Township, Tsugaru District, Aomori Prefecture. Groups from around Tsugaru carrying large banners and ... |
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| 16 |
Raishi |
A rite held February 13 at Okafuto Shrine in Imadate Township, Imadate District, Fukui Prefecture. Raishi is a term for fire festival ( sagichō ). The name is said to derive from the fact that raishi can also be written as hōraishi , and fire festivals were also once known as the hōrai fes... |
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| 17 |
Rengaku |
A festival held the evening of August 31 in which portable shrines are paraded ( togyo , see shinkōsai ) from Togi-Hachiman Shrine to Sumiyoshi Shrine—a distance of about four kilometers—in Togi Township, Hakui District, Ishikawa Prefecture. It is said that once upon a time, Hachim... |
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| 18 |
Ryūsei Matsuri |
"Dragon power festival." This daytime festival is held on October 5 at Muku Shrine in Yoshida Township, Chichibu County, Saitama Prefecture. A tower ( yagura ) and launch pad are built on a small hill behind the shrine. Bamboo tubes about ten centimeters in diameter and fi... |
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| 19 |
Saikusa matsuri |
" Saikusa festival." A rite held on June 17 at Isakawa Shrine, an auxiliary ( sessha ) of Ōmiya Shrine, in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. The ceremony begins at around ten in the morning. Four female shrine attendants ( miko ) perform an offertorial dance using saikusa no hana —... |
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| 20 |
Sakaero matsuri |
A rite held the evening of February 9 at Mononobe Shrine in Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture. Parishioners ( ujiko ) gather at the hall of worship ( haiden ) and chant, " Daimonmae no sakuranbo, yae ni saite ho o tareta, sakaero sakaero " ("Cherry tree before the gr... |
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