Banquet - Enkai

An opportunity for emotional connection accompanied by drinking, singing and dancing. It is called a banquet (utage) or a feast (kyoen). Depending on the nature of the banquet, it may be called a festival banquet, celebration banquet, invitation banquet, drinking banquet, or wild banquet. Generally, banquets are held at seasonal turning points or at turning points in life. If year-end parties and New Year parties are banquets held at the end of the year and beginning of the new year, then children's birthday celebrations and wedding receptions would be banquets held at turning points in life.

In the "Fudoki," which could be called an official folklore book of ancient Japan, banquets are written as Enraku, Enkai, Enki, Enyu, etc., and banquets were held during certain seasons such as spring and autumn when men and women would gather on hilltops, by springs, or on the seashore to drink, sing, dance, and have fun. At the time, such banquets were apparently an opportunity for men and women to propose marriage, and were called kagai in eastern Japan and utagaki in western Japan.

In the noble society of the Heian period, grand banquets were held at ministers' homes during the New Year, and these banquets were divided into ennoza and onnoza. Ennoza was a formal banquet where people were required to maintain dignity, while onnoza was a banquet where people who were free from such strict formalities could relax and enjoy themselves. In modern terms, ennoza would be the first party, and onnoza the second party where people could have fun without any formalities.

This dual structure of banquets can also be seen today in banquets held during festivals. This can be seen in the naorai (a formal banquet) and the banquet that follows it. If the naorai is a banquet held in a solemn atmosphere where gods and humans eat together, then the banquet that follows it can be seen as a banquet where people who have completed the naorai can relax and enjoy themselves. If the naorai is a banquet from the world of rituals that emphasizes the order and norms of everyday life and values ​​formality, then the banquet that follows the naorai can be seen as a banquet from the world of festivals where deviations from the order and norms of everyday life are officially recognized.

Various banquets are held at festivals among peoples around the world. In ancient Greece, heavy drinking at festivals was a way to exaggerate fertility, as well as sexual insanity. At the Anthesurian festival in Athens, people were given plenty of alcohol and a kind of knockout contest was held, with the first person to empty their cup declared the winner. In this noisy world, the order and norms of everyday life were reversed, people transformed with masks and costumes, men played women, women played men, kings played beggars, and servants played masters. At the Saturnalia festival popular with the ancient Romans, the social distinction between free people and slaves was also removed, and sexual liberation and reckless eating and drinking took place. In Indian villages living in the southeastern part of Peru in South America, masked plays are held in parallel with church ceremonies during the Feast of the Nativity every September, but the Indians are said to spend all their money drinking and fighting, a time of wildness and extravagance.

Banquets are also occasions for gift exchange. Among the Kwakiutl and Haida peoples, who lived as hunter-gatherers in the northwestern United States, banquets are held on occasions such as the birth of a child or a wedding, and a ritual gift exchange called a potlatch takes place between the host and the invited guests. The host gives an overwhelming gift to show off his wealth and prestige, and the guest who receives it gives an equal or greater gift in return. In this way, the competitive exchange continues endlessly, and finally, the host destroys the other's property to force them to submit. This type of gift exchange is also seen in the pig festival banquets of the highlanders of Papua New Guinea. The host slaughters several pigs and offers them to the guests, but the guests give shellfish and other valuable items, and the host gives more and more valuable items in return to maintain his prestige.

It is well known that Christmas presents are given at Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, but in Japan, seibo also used to be a way of giving gifts at the end of the year, when ancestors were celebrated. In recent years, seibo seems to start being exchanged in December, but in the past, it was held from the 27th or 28th of December to New Year's Eve, and food given by relatives and neighbors was first offered to ancestors, and then later eaten by the family together with the ancestors.

Banquets are an opportunity for gift exchange, but at the same time, they also have the characteristics of an exchange good. This is because it is a common pattern that guests who are invited to a banquet will, based on the principle of reciprocity, hold a banquet on another day and invite their spouse to it. In some villages in Japan, banquets to celebrate the establishment of a marriage are held by the bride and groom's side, and this can be said to be a type of exchange good. Additionally, banquets held between companies, which spend huge amounts of money on business transactions every year, also have the characteristics of an exchange good.

[Mikiharu Ito]

"Banquet" by Mikio Ito and Yoshio Watanabe (1974, Kobundo)" ▽ "Banquet and Japanese Culture" by Mikio Ito (Chuko Shinsho)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

酒や歌舞などを伴う高揚した心の触れ合う機会。宴(うたげ)とも饗宴(きょうえん)ともいう。また宴会の性格によって祭宴、祝宴、招宴、酒宴、狂宴などとよばれる。一般に宴会は季節ごとの折り目や人生の節目に行われ、忘年会や新年会が年末、年始という折り目に行われる宴会とすれば、子供の誕生祝いや結婚の披露宴などは、人生の節目に行われる宴会ということになろう。

　古代日本の官製民俗誌ともいうべき「風土記(ふどき)」には、宴が燕楽とか燕会、燕喜、宴遊などと表記され、春や秋などの一定の季節に、男女が丘の上や泉のほとり、海辺に集まり酒を飲み交わし、歌を歌い、踊りをして楽しむことが宴とよばれていた。当時、こうした宴は男女求婚の機会になっていたらしく、東日本では嬥歌(かがい)、西日本では歌垣(うたがき)とよばれていた。

　平安時代の公家(くげ)社会では、正月に大臣の家で盛大な宴会が行われ、その宴会は宴座(えんのざ)と穏座(おんのざ)に分かれていた。宴座は威儀を正した儀式ばった宴会、これに対して穏座は、こうした堅苦しい宴会から解放された人々が、くつろいで楽しむ宴会であった。現代風にいえば、宴座は一次会、穏座は無礼講めいた二次会ということになろう。

　このような宴会の二重構造は、今日、祭りのときの宴にもみられる。直会(なおらい)とそのあとに行われる宴会がそれで、直会が厳粛な雰囲気のなかで行われる神人共食の宴とすれば、そのあとの宴会は、直会を済ませた人々がくつろいで楽しむ宴ということになろう。また、直会が日常生活の秩序や規範を強調し、形式性を重んじる祭儀の世界の宴とすれば、直会のあとの宴会は、日常生活の秩序や規範からの逸脱が公認された祝祭の世界の宴ということになろう。

　世界の諸民族の間にも、祭りのおりにさまざまな宴会が行われている。古代ギリシアでは、祭りに酒を痛飲することが、性の狂乱と同じように、多産を誇張することになっていた。アテネのアンテスリアの祭りには、人々はいやというほど酒をふるまわれて、一種の勝ち抜き合戦が行われ、もっとも早く杯を空(から)にした者が勝者になった。こうした喧噪(けんそう)の世界では、日常生活の秩序や規範が逆転され、人々は仮面や仮装で変身し、男が女を、女が男を、王が乞食(こじき)を、召使いが主人を演じた。古代ローマ人に親しまれたサトゥルヌスの祭りにも、自由な民と奴隷という身分上の差別が取り去られ、性の開放と暴飲暴食のらんちき騒ぎが行われた。南米ペルーの南東部に住むインディオの村では、毎年、9月の御誕生の聖母祭の期間中、教会での儀式と併行して仮面劇が行われるが、インディオたちは有り金をはたいて酒と喧嘩(けんか)で明け暮れ、狂乱と浪費のときを過ごすという。

　宴会は贈与交換の機会でもある。アメリカ北西部で狩猟採集生活を営んでいたクワキウトル人やハイダ人の間では、子供の誕生や結婚などの機会に祝宴が開かれ、主催者と招待された客の間で、ポトラッチとよばれる儀礼的な贈与交換が行われる。主催者は富や威信を誇示するために、相手を圧倒するような贈り物をするが、それを受け取った客も、それと同じ量もしくはそれ以上のものを返礼として差し出す。こうして競覇的な交換が際限なく続けられ、最後に相手を屈服させるために、財産の破壊という手段がとられる。こうした贈与交換は、パプア・ニューギニアの高地人の豚祭りの祝宴にもみられる。主催者は何頭もの豚をと畜して招待した人々に提供するが、客が貝その他の貴重品を贈るのに対して、主催者は威信を保つために、贈られた物より多くの、しかもより貴重な物をお返しとして差し出す。

　クリスマス・プレゼントが、キリスト降誕祭のクリスマスの贈与交換であることはよく知られているが、日本の歳暮もまた、かつて年の暮れの先祖祭のときの贈り物であった。近年は、師走(しわす)になると歳暮のやりとりが始まるようだが、以前は、暮れの27、28日から大晦日(おおみそか)にかけて行われ、親戚(しんせき)や隣近所から贈られた食物は、まず先祖に供えられ、これをあとで家の者が先祖と共に頂くというのが古い姿であった。

　また宴会は、贈与交換の機会であると同時に、交換財としての性格をもっている。宴会に招待された客は、互恵性の原理によって、他日、宴会を設けて、それに相手を招待するというパターンが広くみられるからである。日本の一部の村で、婚姻成立祝いの宴会が、花婿方と花嫁方で行われているが、これは一種の交換財といってよいだろう。また、毎年、商取引のために膨大な交際費を費やす企業間の宴会も、交換財としての性格の一面をもつ。

［伊藤幹治］

『伊藤幹治・渡辺欣雄著『宴』（1974・弘文堂）』▽『伊藤幹治著『宴と日本文化』（中公新書）』

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