Chichibu Shinto festival carries on centuries-old tradition

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS /December 5, 2019 Asahi Shimbun

An interesting description in the Asahi Shimbun of a traditional festival in Japan run by a priest who is a leading proponent of Shinto’s ‘green credentials’. It’s interesting because it touches on many of the key points in Shinto. Is it primarily animist or ancestral? Is it basically a religion of Japaneseness? Is it even a religion at all?

(It’s worth noting in reference to Sonoda Minoru’s quote below that prominent amongst the kami worshipped at his shrine is the very modern ancestral figure of Prince Chichibu (1902-53), second son of Emperor Taisho. It raises the question of what exactly worshippers are praying to.)

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CHICHIBU, Saitama Prefecture–As fireworks light up the winter night, scores of men, women and teenagers crying “washoi, washoi” haul the last of six towering, lantern-covered floats up a small hill and into the town center, the culminating moment of a Shinto festival that has evolved from a harvest thanksgiving into a once-a-year meeting between two local gods.

The Chichibu Night Festival, which has roots stretching more than 1,000 years, is one of three famous Japanese festivals to feature huge floats, which can top 7 meters and weigh up to 15 tons. They are pulled through the streets on large wooden wheels by hundreds of residents in traditional festival garb –headbands, black leggings and thick cotton jackets emblazoned with Japanese characters — to drums, whistles and exuberant chants.

Shinto is Japan’s indigenous religion that goes back centuries. It is an animism that believes there are thousands of kami, or spirits, inhabiting nature, such as forests, rivers and mountains. People are encouraged to live in harmony with the spirits and can ask for their help. Ancestors also become kami and can also help the living.

This two-day festival has its roots in an older tradition of villagers giving thanks to the nearby mountain god for helping them during the planting and harvesting season, said Minoru Sonoda, the chief priest of the Chichibu Shrine and a former Kyoto University professor of religious studies. In 2016, it was designated a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

“It’s a time to celebrate the bounty of nature,” Sonoda said. During medieval times, the festival evolved into a celebration of an annual rendezvous between the nearby mountain god and the goddess of the town. The latter is carried in an ornate ark-like box by a group of white-clad men through streets to the central park, where it rests while the six floats slowly converge on the crowded square, each one’s arrival celebrated with a burst of fireworks.

But these days, many Japanese who flock to the festival, which draws about 200,000 every December, don’t know either of those stories and say the event holds no religious meaning for them — but they do want to maintain the tradition. They visit simply for a fun, cultural experience: walking the thronged streets, watching the procession and eating from the hundreds of food stalls selling grilled squid, yakitori chicken skewers and dozens of other snacks.

Some may squeeze in a quick visit to the Chichibu Shrine to offer a prayer, typically done by clapping ones’ hands twice to get the attention of the gods and then bowing with folded hands.

“I like the fireworks and the food. Purely to enjoy. I don’t really think about the religious aspects,” said Mitsuo Yamashita, a 69-year-old retiree who has come to the festival for the past 15 years. “Japanese aren’t very religious, and in other ways we’re all over the place religiously.”