White Atractylodes Festival - Okera Festival

Japanese: 白朮祭 - おけらまつり

This is a ritual held at Yasaka Shrine in Gion-cho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, from 5:00 a.m. on New Year's Day. Prior to the Hakujutsu Festival, on December 28th, just after the hour of the tiger (5:00 a.m.), the deputy chief priest starts a fire using a cypress fire pestle and fire mortar, and transfers the fire to the "Okera lantern" inside the main hall in a fire-striking ceremony. This fire is kept burning for one year. After the New Year's Eve ritual on the night of December 31st, the fire in the "Okera lantern" in the main hall is divided and lit in two "Okera lanterns" hanging in the precincts. This fire is burned all night along with "Okera sticks" on which visitors have written their wishes, and people holding fire ropes transfer the fire to their own ropes and take it home in the Hakujutsu Mairi. The fire brought back is used to make New Year's candles and zoni (a traditional soup made from rice cakes). At 5:00 a.m. on New Year's Day, after the ritual, fire from the "okera lantern" is lit on shavings of wood (called "kezurikake"), a medicinal herb called okera mixed with okera and placed on a piece of wood (hegi), and the fire is scattered in front of the main shrine. It is said that the original Hakujutsu Mairi was an event to receive fire scattered in front of the main shrine. In the Edo period, after the lights in the shrine grounds were extinguished on the night of New Year's Eve, 12 kezurikake sticks, one for each month in the year, were lit at the same time, and when the lights were extinguished, pilgrims would speak ill of each other in the darkness (→Akuko Festival). Ihara Saikaku's Seken Munesanyo (World Calculations) Volume 4 contains a passage titled "Yami no Yoru no Warukuchi" (Warukuchi in the Dark Night), which is based on this theme of slander.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

京都府京都市東山区祇園町の八坂神社で，元日の午前5時から行なわれる神事。白朮祭に先立って，12月28日の寅の刻過ぎ（午前5時）に，権宮司がヒノキの火鑚杵（ひきりぎね）と火鑚臼（ひきりうす）を用いて火をおこし，本殿内の「をけら灯籠」にその火を移す鑚火式が行なわれる。この火は 1年間ともされ続ける。本殿の「をけら灯籠」の火を，12月31日の夜の除夜祭の神事後に，境内 2ヵ所につるされた「をけら灯籠」に分けてともす。この火は参詣者の願い事を書いた「をけら木」とともにひと晩中燃やされ，火縄を手にした人々がこの火を火縄に移して持ち帰る白朮参りが行なわれる。持ち帰られた火は，新年の灯明や雑煮をつくるのに用いられる。元日の午前5時，神事のあと，「削掛（けずりかけ）」と呼ばれる，薬草のオケラを混ぜて片木（へぎ）に盛ったかんなくずに「をけら灯籠」からとった火をつけ，それを本殿前にまく。本来の白朮参りは，この本殿前にまかれた火をもらう行事であったともいわれる。江戸時代には，大みそかの晩に境内の灯火を消したあと，1年の月数である 12本の削掛に一斉に火をともす行事があり，灯火が消された際，暗闇のなかで参詣者が互いに悪口を言い合うならわしがあった（→悪口祭）。井原西鶴の『世間胸算用』4巻には，その悪口を題材にした「闇の夜のわる口」という文章が収められている。

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