Each of the three villages possesses its own village shrine or jinja, a term used to describe the building as a whole as well as the individual shrines (fig.3). The buildings and the shrines represent the Òvillage deityÓ (ujigami) in the minds of the local people. As elsewhere in Japan, the buildings are marked by a sacred gateway (torii) at the entrance, leading to a forecourt filled with an open Ôdance hallÕ (haiden), and, at the end of the forecourt, with shrines (honden) dedicated to specific historical gods (eg. Hachiman [god of war] in Mabuchi, and Inari [god of rice] in Iwakura). Behind these, and along the sides, are wooded areas which serve as a Ôforest of the godsÕ (kami no mori). These shrines, usually personified locally as Ôo-miya-sanÕ, are the most important places of worship and areas of sacred space in the individual villages. On a plateau in a clearing in the mountain forest of Iwakura is a further shrine (Umamiokajinja) which serves as the central shrine (gosha) of the three villages. It is reached via steps up the sheer mountain face. As well as these places of worship we find another one. In the garden of the founders of Sens™ku (the Bamba family) is a place, marked by a stone laid when the house was first built, which, by means of a special ceremony, becomes a temporary place of worship at festival time.
Around this structure is played out during two or three days at a specific time of year the most important religious festival (hi-matsuri) of the three villages. The ordering of the celebration is strictly governed by tradition, and its content indicates various stages of development. One gains the clear impression of a structure which has built up over time. We shall now describe the festival briefly.
The higher framework festival opens the proceedings with an Ôeve for all the villagesÕ (g™d™ no yomiya). People come from the three villages at nightfall, accompanied by loud drumming, to the central shrine, where a previously constructed religious symbol as the Ôlocal torch of worshipÕ (suetaimatsu) (fig.4) and a multi-regional column as the Ôumbrella torchÕ (kasataimatsu) are burnt down (fig.5). This happens each year in rotation (village A, B or C). The temporary erection represents the union of the villages.
The next morning the related daytime festival begins, the Ôprincipal festival of all the villagesÕ (g™d™ no honbi) connected closely with the house of the founders of Sensoku (oyamoto): in its garden, during a solemn ceremony, an altar is constructed (o-hake). In addition, a branch broken from a tree in the mountain forest of the central shrine (sakaki) is brought to the village shrine, raised to the status of a sacred object (tamagushi) and carried in a procession to the foundersÕ garden. There it is placed upright on a grass-covered (iwagusari) stone laid by the founder of the house. Then the square holy area around the stone, strewn with red soil (akatsuchi) brought from the mountain forest is separated from the rest of the garden by a ritualistic rope (shimenawa).
After this peaceful opening ceremony centred on the foundersÕ house in Sensoku at dawn, there immediately follows an idyllic procession of the three village groups along old paths from the villages to the central shrine (gosha-matsuri). In this procession, accompanied by the sound of rhythmic bells (u no toki watari) through paddy fields in the early morning haze, movable cult objects (burning torches, hiboko, Òsun spearÓ) (fig.6) and bamboo canes with insignia-like markings (heitsue) are carried. According to a traditional greeting ceremony (aisatsu), people approach the foot of the central shrine and carry out various rites <22>. The most striking is the one where groups of worshippers suddenly gather around the Ôsun spearsÕ with a loud cry, turn them in circles and destroy them by hitting out at them with the bamboo canes.
Another part of the framework festival is the ensuing celebration in the foundersÕ house (niwa-matsuri) and a ceremonial meeting of the groups of worshippers in Sensoku. The latter takes place at the temporary festival site (o-tabisho) near the foundersÕ house (oyamoto). They celebrate in the presence of the village deities embodied in the movable shrines (o-mikoshi, Ôholy sedan chairÕ) brought into specially erected tents. Gathered together in groups and seated on mats, people partake merrily of sacred rice wine (o-miki) and festive food. This part of the festival bears strong traces of the social and religious order of the Middle Ages (miyaza), and with its feudalistic character, plays only a secondary role here.
The heart of the festival complex consists of the village festivals (uchimatsuri) in the areas around the village shrines. They are of the same basic type as is found throughout the whole region (a shrine, a group of worshippers, a temporary religious symbol in front of the shrine. See fig.4 [plan] and fig. 17.) In contrast, the concluding part of these village festivals consists of a ceremony which belongs to the framework festival. The altar (o-hake) in the garden of the foundersÕ house (oyamoto) is dismantled, the holy (sakaki-) branch is carried back in a procession to the village shrine (Tsubakijinja) and there left to decay behind the shrine.
Figure 2 gives a schematic spatial representation of the festival. There are three parallel village festivals overlaid by a similarly structured celebration in front of the central shrine. The festival before the central shrine reproduces annually the alliance between the villages. Parallel to, and interwoven with, the whole event, is the festival at the founderÕs house, which clearly has its roots in the feudal festival of the Middle Ages.
This shows us the basic overall structure of the cult complex. This religious event is strikingly different from that which we usually understand today as ÔShinto worshipÕ. It demonstrates a concise, chess board like order, a system which links territorial and social elements with specific signs and symbols in a traditional pattern.
We have until now described the religious festival as factually as possible, much in the style of a documentary film <23>, without any accompanying interpretation of its spatial elements. Most significant in our view are the sacred signs and symbols which are constructed and then destroyed in specific places.
The example was taken from the authorÕs research in the field, in 100 villages of central Japan (EGENTER 1980, 1994d). This work consisted of over four years (1972-76) of systematic research into a type of cult which is still found throughout the whole of Japan today, mostly based on the ujigami system, where 'fibro-constructive' structures, so-called Ôholy seatsÕ (yorishiro) <24>, made out of fibrous plant materials (reeds, straw, bamboo, branches, etc.) play a central role (fig.7,8). <25>
On the whole, such Ôholy seatsÕ are erected in close proximity to permanent religious sites. Once completed, they are seen as sacred, as the temporary seat of a local deity; they are, according to our definition, the regional centre of the highest value. Other elements of the cult , different in character, refer back to these sacred signs. At the end of what is often an accumulated sequence of heterogeneous celebrations, the symbols of the gods are destroyed by hand, displaced, or explicitly thrown away and left to decay. They are often placed in a fire as part of spectacular fire festivals (hi-matsuri), and destroyed in this way.
In Japanese folklore these temporary Ôholy seatsÕ are widely known, for example as a part (sagich™, dondonbi) of the small New Year celebrations (kosh™gatsu). They are however generally classified as secondary phenomena, described for instance in connection with annual customs, or mentioned within the framework of a fire festival. Discussion of folklore is normally dominated by an explanation of official Shinto theology, according to which such objects are erected as a sign of invitation to the local spirit (shinrei). Having descended from heaven, it is present during the festival (matsuri, reisai) or banquet (gochis™) and presides over the social event. At dominating centralised shrines there is also a ceremonial Ôinvitation to the god to descendÕ (kami-oroshi). <26>
A temporary divinity in man-made form; rather a provocative subject in western thinking! In Shint™ theology on the other hand, the holy spirit is not seen as an absolute. <27> Thus there are very few works concerned with the phenomenon of temporary Ôholy seatsÕ. YANAGITA (1943) discusses, within the framework of ÔJapanese religious festivalsÕ, under the title ÔThe marking of religious sitesÕ, a few types of Ôholy seatsÕ, but sticks to the older western theories of tree worship, as determined to a certain extent by the manner in which his material is arranged. HARADA (1941) gives, in relation to form and religious significance, a typology of religious symbols as normally inferred from the term Ôo-hakeÕ, which he at that time principally understood as sacrifices. Important in our context is HARADAÕs later work (1961b) ÔHimorogi kara o-kariya madeÕ, which is much more differentiated and ethno-historically calculated. It uses as its starting point the early religious symbols known as ÔhimorogiÕ, and refers to related modern traditions in the Ise cult (shin no mi-hashira, sakaki branch), notes comparable symbols in a neighbouring village shrine, renewed each year with sakaki branches (Matsushita, see below, fig.26,27) and finally examines, using sources from history and folklore, a group of Ôtemporary roof-like structuresÕ (o-kariya), parts of which are continually renewed, and parts of which are erected only temporarily, appearing either attributable to specific houses (t™ban), or linked to existing ujigami shrines. In this way HARADA brings out, in terms of cultural change, the complex differences between these types. The most important of these is that the continually renewed Ôholy seatÕ belonging to the house, when completed, acts autonomously as the Ôholy spiritÕ (shinrei), whereas the transfer of worship to the established shrine results in a devaluation of the autonomous religious memorial. The deity in question becomes a partial spirit (bunrei) of the local god at that particular shrine, and returns at the end of the event in a procession (o-watari) to the established shrine. In other words, the periodically renewed form is the most highly valued and can be looked on as the primary structure. Similarly, the extraordinarily important cyclical perenniality of what today are for the most part only temporary Ôholy seatsÕ viewed in relation to all types, could be said to reconstruct, with the help of the perennial straw shrines (waramiya), the household god (yashiki-gami, NAOE Hiroji 1963,1966) (EGENTER 1980:60, fig.66).
In the ™mi-hachiman region where the writer's research was carried out, festivals involving Ôholy seatsÕ have been described by Japanese authors: festivals in Ueda (KITAGAWA 1966), Omi-hachiman (TSUKITAKE 1966) and Sens™ku (HAGIWARA T. 1965). HAGIWARA describes as an aside the torch part of the festival represented here. He was interested above all in the feudal elements retained by this religious festival, and did not attribute any particular significance to the torches. KITAGAWA and TSUKITAKE give detailed descriptions of the festival. Their interpretation of it is however based on the concepts of Shinto theology outlined above. Objects constructed during worship are seen as flaming torches (taimatsu) within the framework of fire festivals (hi-matsuri), they are sanctified, the spirit of the local deity presides over festivities and banquets. At the end its spirit uses the element fire to facilitate its return to heaven.
The authorÕs ethnographic research in the field called these theories into question at a basic level. In the one hundred villages studied, it was proved that in the Ôholy seatsÕ of the Omi-hachiman area, we are concerned with more than just torches or bursts of fire, there are also buildings to be considered. From the point of view of architectural theory it is a question of a native variety of erection with territorial, semantic and symbolic functions <28>. In other words, the determining factor in these cults is the Ôholy seatÕ itself, its cyclical renewal, its structure, its shapes, its signs and symbols, its connection with the social structure of the village: Ôholy seatsÕ as forerunners of ujigami shrines. <29>. From extensive reconstructions we can deduce that another essential factor in the origin of these forms of worship is the prehistoric territorial rights of agrarian villages, rights by which the restrictive founding charters are periodically renewed. Two standpoints lead us to this assessment: a detailed morphological study of the symbols and an insight into their socio-territorial representative functions.
On closer examination however, this irrational form itself becomes the model for a cognitive system. If categorised in terms of polar analogies, forms which are externally quite different, varying more than is required for harmony to exist, appear identical (fig.14). Regional differences (each settlement has its own form) appear to be interwoven into the structural system (all forms are one, as they are structured harmoniously). There is identity despite external differences. Forces of differentiation and generalisation are working together. We notice that the individualising element refers to the pragmatic aspect, the territorial function. In contrast, the structural symbolism supports the irrational element, with its generalisation (or idealisation). In a broader sense, a cognitive model can be seen, which we can use to uncover natural things (tree) according to cultural history (fig.15). <32>
In religious theory too the symbols suggest a cognitive complex which is to be taken seriously, one which is diachronically based in human living space. Thus the structure of the metaphysical element would need to be rethought in its entirety. <33> It would be, like the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol, a formal principle of the concept of space, to be transposed diachronically into the existential past of human settlement. Hermann K…STER suggested something similar in relation to the beginnings of China, in his book on Chinese universalism (1958).
Important ÔhistoriesÕ of settlements can be reconstructed using these signs. (fig.19) Their rituals can be observed: they speak of historical groupings which are often very complex, in the relationships between various neighbouring communities.
Diachronically speaking we see a complex structure, referring back to the founding of a settlement. Interwoven into this are the social, ritualistic and spatial structures of the settlement, forming a complex of functions relating to its origins (fig.20).