Episode 12: Clearing Miyazawa and Yubana Kagura

　It was the beginning of the Edo period. There was a samurai named Ishikawa in Kamiyabemura. One day he ordered the three houses to clear the new land. It was a land about 10 km away from Kamiyabe, where Osugi flourished in the mountains, Kayaya thorns burned in the fields, and foxes, raccoons and poisonous snakes that were not close to humans. .
　The reclamation is a difficult task, and everyone wakes up in the dark in the morning, cuts down trees, digs up roots, and cuts grass over the light of the moon and stars at night, and works hard. Was.
　Due to such work, the fields eventually increased, and eventually the number of branch houses became more than a dozen. Therefore, the people celebrated the god of farming on this land and dedicated the Kagura to pray for a good harvest in the spring.
　This is Yuhana Kagura of Sanno Inarisha in Miyazawa. After the reclaiming time, the Ujiko stacks cut wild grass on the grounds of Sanno-sama to make a furnace, puts a cauldron and boils hot water. Around the furnace, a bamboo is set up to indicate east, west, north and south, and a shime decoration is stretched. Eventually, while steam was ready to go, chief priest, the messenger of God, appeared with a tengu's face.
　steam, the Hibikid felicitation, and the people were attracted to God when they were exorcized with the soaked in boiling water. When chief priest finally released the arrows of good luck from all directions, Shinto ritual reached its climax, picking up the arrows passing through the hot water steam, and obsessed with the good luck of this year.
　I can no longer see this Shinto ritual.

To the next story