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"Teeuwen, Mark"
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Kyoto’s Gion Festival in Late Classical and Medieval Times: Actors, Legends, and Meanings
Kyoto’s Gion festival has arguably the best-documented history of all festivals (sairei) in Japan, and studies of its development have heavily influenced our understanding of festivals in general. Yet we must expect that our knowledge of this history is partial at most. Extant archives on its late classical and medieval history derive from a narrow group of festival actors, and are therefore intrinsically biased. This article looks at current reconstructions of the festival’s origin and development, addressing primarily the following questions: Which groups of actors are the historical record hiding from us? Is there a world of ritual action, beliefs, and concerns that we are missing entirely? Origin legends have been used throughout history to attribute meaning to the festival procedures. Today as in the past, these legends are always accompanied by narratives of continuity: at its core, it is implied, the festival remains unchanged. Such legends reflect the interests of actors and patrons of different ages, and changes in the festival’s context have required origin tales to be updated or even replaced. What do such narrative innovations reveal about the festival’s changing place in society at different historical junctures? Do such legends contain traces of the activities of actors who have since disappeared, taking their archives with them?
Journal Article
A new history of Shinto
This accessible guide to the development of Japan’s indigenous religion from ancient times to the present day offers an illuminating introduction to the myths, sites and rituals of kami worship, and their role in Shinto’s enduring religious identity. Offers a unique new approach to Shinto history that combines critical analysis with original research Examines key evolutionary moments in the long history of Shinto, including the Meiji Revolution of 1868, and provides the first critical history in English or Japanese of the Hie shrine, one of the most important in all Japan Traces the development of various shrines, myths, and rituals through history as uniquely diverse phenomena, exploring how and when they merged into the modern notion of Shinto that exists in Japan today Challenges the historic stereotype of Shinto as the unchanging, all-defining core of Japanese culture
eBook
A social history of the Ise shrines : divine capital
The Ise shrine complex is among Japan's most enduring national symbols, and A Social History of the Ise Shrines: Divine Capital is the first book to trace the history of the shrines from their beginnings in the seventh century until the present day.
eBook
Salmon Recitations Two Examples from Oku Mikawa
Salmon are recitations read as part of Onmyodo or Shugendo rituals. They are of particular interest because their contents are not based on canonical Buddhist or Shinto lore but rather on sources of yin-yang divination like the fourteenth-century Hoki naiden. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, salmon became a central feature of village ritual, both in collective village festivals and in household rites, and as such, they reached the ears of many. This article offers annotated translations of two salmon that were used by village ritualists (tayu, negi) in small mountain settlements in Oku Mikawa (Aichi Prefecture). These translations are based on manuscripts from tayu archives and date from the seventeenth century. A textual analysis demonstrates that while these two salmon tell the stories of different deities, they display a number of shared motifs and traits. I argue that these commonalities reflect the continued relevance and performance of salmon in Oku Mikawa and confound attempts to draw clear historical boundaries between \"medieval\" and \"early modern\" religion.
Journal Article
Saimon Recitations
Saimon are recitations read as part of Onmyodo or Shugendo rituals. They are of particular interest because their contents are not based on canonical Buddhist or Shinto lore but rather on sources of yin-yang divination like the fourteenth-century Hoki naiden. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, saimon became a central feature of village ritual, both in collective village festivals and in household rites, and as such, they reached the ears of many. This article offers annotated translations of two saimon that were used by village ritualists (tayū, negi) in small mountain settlements in Oku Mikawa (Aichi Prefecture). These translations are based on manuscripts from tayū archives and date from the seventeenth century. A textual analysis demonstrates that while these two saimon tell the stories of different deities, they display a number of shared motifs and traits. I argue that these commonalities reflect the continued relevance and performance of saimon in Oku Mikawa and confound attempts to draw clear historical boundaries between “medieval” and “early modern” religion.
Journal Article
Faith as Authenticity
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the cancellation of public events throughout Japan. Kyoto’s Gion Festival was no exception. In an attempt to preserve what they regarded as the festival’s “true meaning,” different groups of actors involved in the Gion Festival came up with alternative ways of bringing the gods to the city. In this article, I trace the tensions that surfaced during the process of composing an alternative festival format. I also analyze media narratives that ex post presented the modified 2020 Gion Festival as a sincere expression of faith and prayer and as uniquely authentic to its “true meaning.” The alternative festival offers a striking example of ways that authenticity can be successfully constructed and projected in a time of crisis that challenges or otherwise alters the continuity of established practices and traditions.
Journal Article