Kazamatsuri - Kazamatsuri

Prayers to prevent wind damage. Damage to rice is especially feared, and they are held on or around the days of Hassaku and Nihyakuto, when typhoon damage is feared just before the harvest, and often take the form of a communal prayer. Methods vary depending on the region, and include villagers staying in seclusion at a shrine or temple and practicing asceticism, offering lion dances and music to pray for safety, stretching a large shimenawa rope over the entrance to the village to prevent wind-related evil spirits from entering, shouting loudly, or placing evil spirits on straw dolls and sending them off to crossroads or village borders. Other common practices include erecting wind-warding talismans from shrines and temples in the fields, and holding up sickles high in front of yards to try to cut off the wind. People visit shrines dedicated to the god of wind, such as the ancient famous Tatsuta Taisha Shrine in Nara Prefecture, Kaze no Miya in Ise, and Anashi Shrines in various regions, and there are also places in various regions where villages have small shrines called Fuujin-gu shrines. In Toyama Prefecture, there are more than a dozen "Fukanu-do" shrines dedicated to the god of wind, and in Niigata Prefecture, there are many small shrines dedicated to someone called Kaze no Saburo, as well as stone statues of the wind god carrying a wind bag on its back, which are objects of prayer. These belong to farmers, but it is possible that in the past there was a different concept of wind, such as that of ironworkers who sought out the wind blowing down from the mountains to use in their "Tatara" furnaces.

[Noriaki Tanaka]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

風害防除の祈願。稲への害をとくに恐れるため、収穫を直後に控えて台風の被害が憂慮される八朔(はっさく)や二百十日およびその前後に行われ、共同祈願の形式をとることが多い。方法は、村人が神社や堂で忌籠(いみごも)り精進(しょうじん)したり、獅子舞(ししまい)や囃子(はやし)を奉納して無事を祈ること、大注連縄(おおしめなわ)を村の入口に張り渡して風の悪霊の入来を防ぐこと、大声で騒ぎたてたり、藁(わら)人形に悪神を負わせて辻(つじ)や村境に送り出そうとするなど、土地によってさまざまである。社寺からの風除(よ)けの神札を田畑に立てることや、草刈鎌(かま)を庭先高く掲げて吹く風を切り払おうとする呪術(じゅじゅつ)も広く行われる。古来から有名な奈良県の龍田(たつた)大社や伊勢(いせ)の風の宮、各地の穴師(あなし)神社など、風の神を祀(まつ)る神社に参ったり、村単位で風神宮という小祠(しょうし)を祀る所も各地にある。また、富山県には風の神を祀る「ふかぬ堂」が十数か所あるし、新潟県には風の三郎なるものを祀る小祠や、風袋を背負っている風神(ふうじん)の石像も少なくなく、祈願の対象とされている。これらは農民のものであるが、かつては、山から吹き下ろす風を求めて「たたら」に利用しようとする製鉄業者などの風に対する別の観念の存在したことも、予想される。

［田中宣一］

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