In the
article “At the Sanctuary: Further Field Notes on the Shrine Festival in Modern
Tokyo” by Allen Sadler, he describes one festival that has been unchanged in
Japanese culture called the shrine festival. A priest who has been trained in
the traditional ways runs the annual festival, inviting the god out of the
shrine and leading him around the festivities and then, after all of the
rituals are performed, leading the god back into the shrine and closing the
doors in order to keep the god there for another year. Music and dancing in
this festival is not used as a portal for the god but just as entertainment for
him so the god may be distracted while offerings are brought to the shrine. The
teachings of the priests have been untouched for generations and have kept them
close to their ancestor’s spiritual roots.
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