The Materiality of the Landscape: Wild Nature in the Experience of the Ōharae

Purification (harae 祓) is an essential concept in Japanese tradition. This is particularly evident in Shinto rituals, which generally include a preliminary section (shubatsu 修祓) where purification is performed. Purification both prepares the ideal ground for the main practice and is crucial for its success. This presentation is about the Ōharae 大祓, a Shinto ritual performed at the end of June and December to promote the well-being of living creatures.

In the ritual, various tangible and intangible tools are used. A formula (norito 祝詞) is chanted to send the pollution off to the ocean, usually inside small containers floated away on a river. A wand made from the wood of a sakaki 榊 is used to physically remove the pollution from the air, the earth, and the participants. In the ocean, a series of kami are responsible for swallowing up the pollution into the abyss and processing it to make it harmless to the environment and living beings. The natural elements involved, such as the air, rivers, mountains, trees, and the ocean, are ritual “tools” because through them the purifying intervention of the kami is possible. One of the central ideas of the Ōharae ceremony is that natural elements are fundamental to supporting life because it is through the cooperative work between the kami, nature, and human beings that purification becomes possible. This presentation aims to clarify the understudied relationship between the natural landscape and Ōharae, focusing specifically on the role the environment plays in creating sacred space.

The Japanese academic literature has been studied the Ōharae selectively. Ample space has been devoted to the investigation of the formation of the ritual between the Nara and the Heian periods (Ueki 1956, Yamamoto 1990, Sakurai 1993 and 2023), while neglecting the rest of its evolution from the Kamakura period to the Meiji era. Apart from the creation of the ritual, the Nakatomi no harae - the formula chanted during the Ōharae - enjoyed widespread fame throughout the centuries since its inclusion in the Engishiki. During the Edo period, it became the focus of studies by Buddhist, Confucian, and kokugakusha scholars. At present, the Nakatomi no harae is the most studied component of the ritual and it can boast approximately two hundred commentaries written on it between the Kamakura and Showa periods. 

For what concerns the wider frame of ritual studies, the vast literature about the concept of spiritual pollution has enriched the perspective on purification rituals, Ōharae included (e.g. Blidstein 2018, Elliott 1999, Douglas 1966). It goes without saying that the academic works about kegare are an important substratum of this presentation (Birukawa 2019, Honjō 2023, Kim 2004). Moreover, ritual studies have gradually included the study of the ritual materials, from which the religious studies of Japan have been influenced (Rambelli 2007, Winfield 2017). However, a comprehensive analysis of the natural environment that the Ōharae implies and in which it is performed has been consistently neglected. 

As previously mentioned, an extensive insight into rituals should include “material religion and religious materiality” (Richard 2007, p. 2). The ritual materiality - here understood as any form of “material”, be it the physicality of the ritual objects, the sonorous effects, as well as, the use of the body - plays a crucial role not only in the ritual performance but also in the very shaping of the sacred space. I intend to explain the creation of the sacred space in the Ōharae by using what I speculate to be its most important material component, namely, the natural landscape. 

In ritual studies, the word “landscape” has been examined as a form of heritage created by “ordinary people going about their day-to-day activities” (White 2015). The landscape is first of all a cultural component shaped by human lived experiences, perceptions, and activities. The geological dimension of a territory is not denied, but in studies on ritual space, it is the human experience of that territory that shapes the concept of 'landscape.' Therefore, landscapes emerge from the interplay between the natural environment and human society in a combination of representations and symbols that make the sharp separation between 'natural' and 'cultural' landscapes challenging (Mukherjee 2023). From this perspective, the landscape is perceived as a byproduct of human intervention, rife with epistemological connotations. 

My investigation takes these analyses of the landscape into account but aims to restore its autonomous significance. The landscape is not only an imaginary created by human perception but it is a strong ontological potency. It continuously attacks and challenges human perception, effectively shaping not only daily life but also religious experience. In many traditions, the natural environment is the source of misfortune, miracles, wealth, and catastrophe, the dwelling place of gods, spirits, ancestors, and monsters. This ambivalence is particularly evident in the Japanese religious experience, where wild nature is both the source of pollution and purification. This is apparent in the Ōharae, where kami associated with natural elements that purify pollution coexist with those that cause defilement, and where their identities often become indistinct. In the ritual, wild nature shapes the sacred space to the extent that it becomes the sacred space itself. Geographically, the space created extends beyond the borders of Japan itself highlighting the spacial separation between the purified “center” and the remote areas where kegare gets treated. This vast sacred landscape is so integral to the Ōharae that its performance inherently assumes the presence of the Japanese natural environment, the remote islands, and the open ocean.

Drawing from Edo period sources (Kokugakusha, Confucian, and Buddhist commentaries about the ritual) and the perceptions about the contemporary Ōharae, I hope to highlight the prominence of the natural landscape as a form of ritual materiality through which sacred space is created. Moreover, I intend to showcase how this sacred landscape re-establishes the boundaries and the relation between the concepts of “center” and “remote”. With this analysis, I hope to contribute to shedding light on this often overlooked side of ritual and spacial studies in Japan.