Aki Matsuri (October)

Aki Matsuri is a traditional Shinto festival that has become a secularized Japanese national celebration analogous to Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
It was traditionally a day built around the local Shinto shrines, in which the shrines’ portable shrine was processed around the village, and people use the occasion to thank the divine forces (kami) for the abundance of the harvest. As those who carried the shrine visited each house, they delivered wishes for happiness to those who dwelt there. The day begins with the purification of the shrine by the priest and the dressing in traditional clothes by the participants.

There is not one autumn festival in Japan (and the Japanese diaspora), but a variety of local festivals held at different sites with different local emphases and on different dates throughout the month. Local dates are often adjusted from year to year to hold the festival on a weekend. In Kyoto, the Aki Matsuri includes a celebration of the founding of the city (October 22). Among the larger of the festivals are those held at Akita, Aichi, and Nihonmatsu. At these locations, the procession to the local Shinto shrine is held at night and includes hundreds of lanterns that wind through the street accompanied by music.

Hachiman, a popular deity in Japan who is seen as both the Shinto god of war and the country’s divine protector as well as a Buddhist bodhisattva, is the focus of a number of autumn festivals, including the ones at Himeji in Hyogo prefecture and Takayama in Gifu prefecture. The later begins with a ceremony at the Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine, followed by a procession of 11 portable shrines (called mikoshi) that are taken through the town to allow Hachiman to visit the homes in each neighborhood. In the evening, the shrines are on display and may be viewed by the light of numerous paper lanterns.
Nagasaki is also home to one of the larger autumn festivals, the Nagasaki Kunchi, that originated in the 17th century.

References
Chavez, Amy. “Autumn Festivals in Japan.” Planet Tokyo. Posted at http://www .planettokyo.com/news/index.cfm/fuseaction/story/ID/72. Accessed July 15, 2010. Littleton, Scott. Shinto: Origins, Rituals, Festivals, Spirits, Sacred Places. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Plutschow, Herbert. Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon Press, 1996. Shumacher, Mark. “Hachiman & Hachimangu¯ Shrines.” Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan A to Z Dictionary of Japanese Sculpture & Art. Posted at http://www.onmark productions.com/html/tsurugaoka-hachiman.shtml. Accessed June 15, 2010.

Aki Matsuri (October) 2019-11-05T04:00:00-08:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: mc