Flower Festival

Japanese: 花祭 - はなまつり

A Kagura festival held in each village in the lunar calendar, which today is from November to March, mainly in Toei Town and Toyone Village, Aichi Prefecture. Local people often simply call it "Hana." It is held all night with hot water boiled in a hearth built in the dance ground, and consists of a Shinto ritual performed by the festival's priest, Tayu, and his assistant, Myodo, and various Kagura dances. The Hana Festival is a reorganization and simplification of O-Kagura, which consists of an event in which 60-year-old villagers who have been hiding in a hut called Shirayama, which is likened to the Pure Land, are rescued by demons and reborn, in the late Edo period. It begins with a waterfall purification ritual, a Takane Festival (Tengu Festival) to worship the miscellaneous gods that come to the festival site, and a Tsujigatame. After that, the festival moves on to dance, and finally ends with the removal of the paper decorations called "byakke" that are hung from the ceiling of the dance ground. There are dances such as the Hana-no-mai, Mitsu-mai, and Yotsu-mai without masks, demon dances by Yamami-oni (Yamawari-oni), Sakaki-oni, and Mokichi-oni (Morning-oni), and theatrical dances that act out the legends of the Ama-no-Iwato cave, and finally a lion dance, also known as a kettle purification. The Hakusan Festival, held today on the second Saturday of December at Hakusan Shrine on the summit of Mt. Gongen in Futo, Toei Town, is said to be the festival that signals the start of the Hana-matsuri. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 1976.

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

Japanese:

愛知県東栄町と豊根村を中心に，旧暦霜月，今日では 11月から 3月にかけての時期に集落ごとに行なわれる神楽の祭り。土地の人々は単に「花」と呼ぶことが多い。舞庭につくったかまどで湯を立てて夜通し行なわれ，祭りの司祭者の太夫とそれを補佐する宮人（みょうど）による神事と，種々の神楽とで構成される。花祭は，浄土に見立てた白山（しらやま）という小屋に籠った還暦の村人たちを鬼が救い出して生まれ変わらせる行事などからなる大神楽を，江戸時代後期に再編・簡略化したもので，滝祓いや祭りの場にやって来る雑神をまつる高根祭り（天狗祭り），辻固めに始まる。その後，諸国一宮や近在の神々を勧請する神寄せ，湯立てなどの神事に続いて舞に移り，最後に舞庭の天井につるした白蓋（びゃっけ）という切り紙飾りをはずすなどの神送りをして終わる。舞には仮面を着けない花の舞や三ツ舞，四ツ舞などの舞と，山見鬼（山割鬼），榊鬼，茂吉鬼（朝鬼）による鬼の舞，天岩戸神話などを演じる演劇的な舞があり，最後に釜祓いなどとも呼ばれる獅子舞が行なわれる。東栄町古土（ふっと）の権現山山頂の白山神社で，今日では 12月第2土曜日に行なわれている白山祭りは，花祭の開始を告げる祭りと伝えられている。1976年に国の重要無形民俗文化財に指定された。

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