The Japanese Religion And Community

In societies across the world, religion has always had the ability to unite the people into communities through its rituals and celebrations. Japanese society is a major example of how people can join together as a community to celebrate their unique beliefs. However, this would then often raise the question of which came first; the close-knit community who started the religion, or the religion that jumpstarted everything and brought people together. The truth of the matter is, if one were to look at Japanese culture and society, it is rather apparent that ancient religions such as Buddhism and Shinto form rituals and traditions which would then later shape the ceremonies that the community partake in. These ceremonies are essentially festivals that villages put together to show respect and acknowledgement for a certain religion or an important event. Festivals are done with the most dedication among everybody in a village or town, and it is this dedication that proves how important festivals are to the community. Essentially, the religion is the driving force behind a culture's communal bond, and it is the festivals such as the Kenka Matsuri, Namahage Matsuri, and the Gion Matsuri that are physical representation of this union. However, these religious festivals have proven to lose its religious background and tradition and start to converge into a celebration of the community itself.

A very well known festival that Japan usually takes pride in is the Kenka Matsuri, or also known as the Fighting Festival. One of the most world renown fighting festival is held in the town of Shirahama, Himeji City. The Nada Kenka Matsuri is famous for its seven competing villages and its people's sheer dedication to celebrating its annual festival. This particular festival is celebrated for its elaborate portable shrines, or yatai, that get thrown at each other as a sign of each individual village's power. This would often seem as a fierce competition rather than a festival, but that is the beauty of this event; people from all over come to just watch the spectacular fights that will unfold in front of them. The Kenka Matsuri is a great example of how religion brings people together for a common cause, and in this case, it is the desire of the men of the village to boast how much dedication they have for the Shinto Kami or spirit of the gods. They show this dedication by working countless hours on building their yatai together and practicing the ceremonial dances and drumming as one village. At the beginning of the festival, thirty five men from each village carry their own yatai on their shoulders and rush into the Shinto shrine as to represent man and god are now one. They would then show their strengths by competing with the other six villages in a fight where the only weapon is their huge yatai that they have spent so much time and money on. It does not matter though, because the men of these villages are after glory and pride to show and please their kami, and the only way of doing this is to bash each other's yatai together until there is a clear winner.

The Kenka Matsuri has been around for quite some time now, it stretches as far back as 300 years and of course it went through some changes as time progresses. As seen before, participating members of each village show their dedication to their religion and culture, but one must question whether or not community solidarity is still the core value of this festival. As people can see changes occurring in society, there would then be speculation of the potential change in the thought process of the people in this Himeji community. One can make a strong point by arguing that the Kenka Matsuri is not what it was before it became popular and well known. The thing that people need to take into consideration is the amount of tourism that goes on now. People across the world are curious about this festival and with more spectators coming the more pressure to perform better. Basically, it comes into question whether or not the people of Himeji are doing better festivals and better performances to further please the kami every year or to please the incoming tourist. As we saw in the video, "Fight Festival" the villagers all put their lives into this festival every year and dedicating almost every resource and energy into making a better festival for the next year. Some of the villagers even claimed that as soon as the festival ends, the anticipation and training for the next festival begins the very next day. Some even went to say that they are beginning to lose the connection between religion and festival and the Kenka Matsuri is nothing more than a very highly anticipated annual communal event. As we see the Kenka Matsuri getting bigger and more extravagant every year, it is without a doubt that most of the villagers may start to forget what the festival is really about and are only looking forward the festival itself as a special event where everybody comes together to compete and have fun. It is not to say that this is a bad predicament for the village, because even though they are losing their connectivity with religion, their community stays strong and continues to get stronger every year.

In comparison with the Kenka Matsuri, the Namahage festivals are very different in comparison. This festival is held on the Oga peninsula in Northern Japan and starts on New Year's Eve. This festival is meant to cleanse the villagers of bad spirits and bless the new coming year. Namahage is the name of the demon spirit who visits the village households and harasses the family and targets their children. The community chooses the young men who will dress up in dry straws and wear decorative demon masks. They would also often times carry wooden kitchen knives and wooden buckets. The head of the household, who is always the husband and father, is in on the act and treats the Namahage with respect and give them sake and mochi as a sign of appreciation and respect. The ceremony is based off of an ancient Japanese folklore, or religion that focuses on a lifestyle of agriculture and the ritual involves the Namahage drumming and chanting as they make their way into people's homes. The point of the house visits is to scare the children into behaving well and taking the father's offerings as a sign of respect and in turn, the Namahage blesses the whole family. However, this tradition has had a slight change over the last 200 years; it started to see change as the country turned more industrial.

As the Oga peninsula started to advance and change, so did the Namahage tradition. It used to be that the ceremony was more of a ritualistic blessing towards the farm and its yields. In fact, the Namahage in the Iinomori community used to carry hoe handles instead of knives and in Aikawa, which is both an agricultural and fishing community, the Namahage sang for large catches of fish. Now