Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Folk saimon are often interpreted as reflections of local beliefs, or as theological scripts that reveal the “original meaning” of village rituals. Using saimon of the earth deity Dokō, I discuss whether such readings are tenable and suggest other possible perspectives.

Paper long abstract

Saimon had their widest distribution in the Edo period, when they became an important element of the repertoire of village ritualists. Village saimon have typically been studied as a window on the religious life-worlds of local communities, or as clues to the “original” meanings of rural festivals that have since evolved in other directions. In his talk, I ask to what degree Edo-period saimon can shed light on such questions. Did saimon inform or reflect local beliefs, or were they primarily treated as snippets of elite culture, chanted not to be understood by those present but to have a thaumaturgic effect?

Edo-period saimon were typically brought to village communities by itinerant shugenja or oshi – agents of larger religious centres with specialised knowledge. This explains why similar saimon can be found in many different regions of Japan. I will here focus on saimon dedicated to the earth deity Dokō (Dokū, Dokujin, Daidokujin). While there is a shared narrative to these saimon (which can be traced to such texts as the twelfth-century Chūkōsen and the fourteenth-century Hoki naiden), the details differ quite radically between versions. Even more disparate are the local uses to which this saimon was put. While the theme of the saimon revolves around the establishment of the calendar and the need to avoid disturbing the soil on so-called doyō days, it was often recited as part of proceedings that are completely unrelated to that central theme. In some regions, moreover, this saimon was acted out on the stage in the form of masked dances (ōji mai), while in other settings it was merely recited.

Using examples from Kōchi’s Izanagi-ryū, Oku Mikawa’s Hanamatsuri and other sites, I seek to understand the various functions of saimon recitations in the period of their greatest proliferation, the Edo period. Current interpretations tend to give much weight to saimon as mirrors of local beliefs or as theological scripts that once underlay village rituals. I argue that such readings are not always convincing, because they fail to give precedence to the actual contexts in which these saimon were read and heard.