Interpretations of that folk festival, the "matsuri," vary. Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore studies in Japan, defined it as "man's attending to and living in the company of the gods." Though the word is variously translated as "rite" or "festival," the sacred character of the gathering is seen as paramount.
A later definition, that of Mikiharu Ito, amplified the definition and found matsuri "basically a symbolic act whereby participants enter a state of active communication with the gods . . . accompanied by communion among participants in the form of feast and festival."
Scholar Herbert Plutschow more recently offered a structural model that contained the elements that all matsuri, no matter how different, exhibit: the ascent or arrival of the deity, and/or the opening of the shrine "kami-oroshi"; the entertainment (or placation or exorcism) of the deity, "kami-asobi"; and the ceremonial sending off of the deity, "kami-okuri."
In the book under review, anthropologist Scott Schnell adopts a historical perspective encompassing several hundred years and explores the role of ritual as an effective medium for negotiating sociopolitical and economic change.
The focus of his study is the annual spring festival of Furukawa, a small agricultural and commercial town in the mountains of central Honshu. Here the central activity is the procession of the "okoshi daiko," the "rousing drum."
Another name for the festival, and one connected with the procession of the drum itself, is "Furukawa yancha," a name that indicates a rebellious or unruly attitude, one that defies authority. The participants can become quite aggressive in performing their roles: beating the drum, carrying its platform, joining the smaller groups of drummers seeking to unite with the main group.
Over the years, this violence has resulted in a number of deaths, some injuries and much damage as the drum-carrying platform rampages "out of control" and knocks off corners of houses or smashes buildings themselves. This violence is not unknown in other matsuri, but it has never been studied at length with the care that Schnell displays.
Thus the intoxicated condition of the bearers and the sheer bulk of the drum and its carriage cause "mysterious" lurchings, with the drum often "crashing into the home of a greedy merchant, an acrimonious neighbor or an exacting public official." The Furukawa drum platform once broke directly into the offices of the police department.
For such yancha there can be few reprisals, since no one is, strictly speaking, responsible. The object is so heavy that no single person's actions can affect the motion. "Any attempt to crash into a targeted building would thus require a concerted effort; the sanctioning action must of necessity derive from widely shared opinion."
Thus the lurching and occasionally dangerous matsuri procession may be seen as a paradigm for a way in which decisions are made. It is possible to see the okoshi daiko "as a ritualized expression of opposition -- a symbolic response to the exploitative tendencies of wealthy landlords and the imposition of authority by the central government over local affairs."
This was not always the case. Using a time-frame much wider than is usual in such studies, the author is able to indicate that the yancha element of the matsuri is of relatively recent origin -- the Meiji period when governmental control became more centralized and repressive. As with the "rice riots," the destructive matsuri procession may be seen as a form of protest.
Now that postwar reforms have more or less continued, the matsuri is much less destructive. It mainly functions as a tourist attraction. Wheels have been put on the drum-frame, the young men propelling it push rather than carry, and -- as one older informant told the author -- the old enthusiasm is missing from today's event. What had been somehow "awe-inspiring" is now a mere spectacle performed largely for the benefit of tourists.
By examining this particular matsuri from practically its origin until the present, the author presents something like a life span, which stretches from its beginning as a wholly conventional exercise, to a communal ritual used as an opportunity to express discontent and negotiate more favorable conditions, to its present somewhat gentrified form.
This he does on the strength of a vast amount of research -- the book was a decade in the making -- and a nuanced concern that may contribute to the length of the account, but certainly reflects unusual thoughtfulness.
Schnell successfully maintains that the festival has changed in response to changing conditions -- "otherwise it would have been abandoned long ago, as has happened with so many other institutions."
He thus sees -- and shows -- the matsuri as the ritual expression of an ongoing sociopolitical process, continually adapting to the changing needs of the townspeople.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.