This panel examines the formation of sacred space through performances, expanding beyond traditional ritual studies. By analyzing different forms of materiality—including sonority, landscape, gestures, and manuscripts—it investigates how performances dynamically shape space and connect with the “outside” world. The first presentation explores the role of Gagaku music in Shinto rituals, emphasizing its overlooked influence on spatiality and sacred atmosphere. The second focuses on the Ōharae purification ritual, reassessing the role of natural landscapes through Edo-period sources and demonstrating their significance in ritual space. The third examines the Miho Shinto Church, showing how divine possession (kishinhō) extends sacred space beyond physical sites, incorporating the texts as well as the kannushi’s body and speech. This interdisciplinary approach integrates ritual and spatial theory, phenomenology, and religious studies, fostering comparative research on sacred space across cultures. By exploring spatial transformations in diverse ritual contexts, this panel offers new perspectives on the complexity of the Shinto religious experience.
While Gagaku or Japanese court music has been integral to both imperial and local Shinto ceremonies, including various matsuri (festivals), its ritual function remains underexplored in religious and ritual studies. This paper explores the role of “folk Gagaku” in Shinto rituals, emphasizing its significance in the comparative study of religious rituals. Examining small-scale, amateur Gagaku groups in Shiga prefecture, my presentation highlights how localized ritual practices interact with institutional traditions. Presenting ethnographic data and field recordings, I contrast these performances with the imperial Gagaku tradition, revealing tensions between orthodox ritual frameworks and vernacular expressions of sacred sound. The paper advocates for a “sonic turn” in religious studies, employing acoustemology (Feld 2015) to explore Shinto sound culture (Ōuchi 2021). Challenging text-centric approaches, I call for a more integrated understanding of ritual soundscapes, demonstrating the centrality of auditory experience to the study of lived religion.
This presentation examines the religious practices of Shinto shrine families within shrine kōsha and kyōkai under State Shinto during the Meiji and Taishō periods, focusing on the Miyagishima family of Miho Shrine in Shizuoka. In 1882, the government prohibited Shinto priests from performing religious guidance, leading to a division between Shrine Shinto and Sect Shinto. However, Miho Shrine engaged in religious activities through the Shinto Miho Church, affiliated with the Shinto Headquarters. Inspired by Honda Chikaatsu's Spiritual Learning (Reigaku), they practiced divine possession (kishinhō). The Miyagishima archives (1893–1925) contain oracular records, doctrinal texts, and one of the Ritual texts, "Shinkai Gakusoku", a 1915 ritual manual written under divine possession. This text details childbirth prayers and deity summoning rituals, reflecting Honda’s teachings. By analyzing "Shinkai Gakusoku", it becomes clear that shrine families exercised religious autonomy under kyōkai-affiliated kōsha, preserving spiritual traditions beyond the official framework of State Shinto.
Purification (harae) is a fundamental concept in Japanese religious tradition, particularly evident in the Ōharae, a Shinto ritual performed biannually to cleanse spiritual pollution and restore harmony. While the Nakatomi no harae, the ritual formula, has been extensively studied, the role of the natural landscape in the ritual remains overlooked. This study explores how natural elements—rivers, mountains, trees, air, and the ocean—function as ritual tools, enabling the kami’s purifying intervention. Drawing from ritual materiality and landscape studies, I argue that in the Ōharae, the natural landscape is not merely a backdrop but an ontological potency that actively constructs the sacred space to the point of merging with it. This sacred landscape encompasses a large geographical area which includes also the territories outside of Japan therefore reaffirming the qualitative difference between “center” and “remote”.
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