Hanamatsuri: A late-medieval rural festival and its Edo-period transformation von

Mark Teeuwen

Intense and expensive actions on fetivals. Book abt kyotos history, seen through festival eyes. A lot of
different ways to see festivals. Play, patronage, piety, … hanamatsuri in Oku-Mikawa, in the
mountains, a few villages (14) which practies it today. Many disappeared. 24 hours one festival. Dax,
night, day. Starts with inviting smn to a danceplace. Flowermaster collecting water and takes it to the
dancinghall. Paperstreamers represent buddhas. And there are the locals and the first dance does
one person on dirtfloor. Hanayomai – flowerdance. Dance around the plant. There are also demons
(oni), which dances around the plant. Fire s right outside. Invites Amatarasu in night. They dance until
day and get splasehed with water, which is holy. (yubayashi) ou have to pay 3000 Yen.

4 phases:
1. 14/15.century : Shimotsuki kagura with Kumano roots
children (boys) get important roles in the village. Mostly well living ones
2. 16. Developed into 3-day Okagura festival
less social but religion festival
3. 17. Okagura abbreviated into 2day hanamatsuri, spread southwords

4.

Okagura procedure: inviting gods, dancing, sarugaku, children and teenagers paying gods, then gods
are sent off … second part: inviting gods on top of the mountains, dancing, sarugaku, done by elders,
then sending gods off, after crossing river Mostly done, when there was an natural catastrophe
2 or 3 years ago

Hanamatsuri: someone who isn’t married,doesn’t have the second part, eating one of bowl of rice
before crossing the bridge (like the dead), than going and meeting the demons, bridge is made pure,
many rituals with bridges

piety
only documents that gives idea are the hana-dayuu, from there reconstruction shugendo discourse
on ritualized death-and-rebirth, what was the festival actually abt. To what degree was what the
meaning.

Hana no somon (Incanation of the flower9 Onyu 1776

Older version is only for men, but this is for men and women. To not be stuck in the river, when
crossing it you have to do some things like building shrines and so on, or you can say you did
something to do hanamatsuri (having lotus or so) and you can cross it and will survive. Young children
maybe will die, but if not,parents decide they now can do the next kagura dancing next time there is
something like this. Then they have to do it often. Ritual or festival?

Play
Focus on dancing, elements from okagura (demons come from the mountains, which you have to
raufen with: looks funny and people like to joke abt it.)
Villager from 1928: heres the demon, lets do a tsubi.” Tsubi refers to womens genitals.

Patronage
Permission needed to do a festival, if you are ill you need to sponsor kagura, 1856, “we vowed to
offer kagura after 1850 floods and earthquake”

Moneyflows, kagura accounts, Income about 10 to 17 ryoo(6 different incomes and outlays),
hanamatsuri was about 4.8 ryoo, maybe it was invented because its cheaper?

Hanamatsuri played a social role because there weren’t many structures and it helped the different
villages, that had to share the same mountain and so on

“Conclusion”
Shimatsuki kagura in wider area: villager reborn as kamiko – similar rituals survive in parent villages in
hanamatsuri area
Okagura: 50% founded by kago (all villagers, male, female and outsiders), reward not in village life but
next life
Hanamatsuri: annual village festival derived from okagura, also in “pioneer hamlets”

Shifting balance of piety, play and patronage