Displaying Mythological Characters Changes in the Meanings of Decorations in the Sawara Grand Festival in Chiba, Japan

Home , Emperor Jimmu, Emperor Nintoku, Suwa Shrine (Nagasaki), Takamagahara, Tenjin (kami)

Journal of Religion in Japan 9 (2020) 10–36

brill.com/jrj

Tsukahara Shinji 塚原伸治 Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan [email protected]

Abstract

The large figures displayed atop the floats in the Sawara Grand Festival portray characters drawn from mythology and history that have been strongly associated with Japanese nationalism and imperialism. In order to investigate the meanings that these float figures hold for the participants and audience of the festival, this article acknowl- edges the close relations between folklore and politics and interprets the works themselves as agents that enact emotions and responses, rather than focusing on the creative intentions of the producers. The figure subjects were freely chosen by the people of Sawara, mostly during the prewar period, and were based on characters that were popular at the time—namely, the emperors and their mythological ancestors and historical champions. In the present, however, the figures are rarely seen in light of their nationalistic origins. Instead, they are appreciated more for their aesthetic beauty and as mascots of the various wards of Sawara.

Keywords agency – festival – floats – folklore – materiality – nationalism

1 A Curious Display1

“It’s as if the festival is carrying the nation-state on its shoulders.” This was the impression of my friend and fellow folklorist upon seeing the Sawara Grand

1 This article was translated by Jude Pultz. Original title: “Shinwa no kyarakutā o tenji suru:

Festival (Sawara no taisai 佐原の大祭) for the first time. By itself, this impression may seem strange, but in fact, it succinctly expresses an important aspect of this festival. Held every July and October in the town known as Sawara in the city of Katori in Chiba Prefecture,2 the Grand Festival is famous for its floats bearing large figures, which are pulled through the streets by hand (Figure 1). Under the title “Sawara Float Event” (Sawara no dashi gyōji 佐原の山車行事) the festival was designated an Important Intangible Folk-Cultural Property of the country in 2004. Then, in 2016, it was also inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage as one of 33 examples of “Yama, Hoko, and Yatai float festivals.” It was the figures (ningyō 人形) on the floats in this festival that prompted my friend’s comment about “carrying the nation-state on its shoulders.” Certainly, at first glance, the figures do evoke the specter of nationalism. Even if it is an exaggeration to call the event itself nationalistic, it would be difficult to fully understand the festival without taking into account the nation-state ideology of modern Japan. Many of the large figures atop the floats were produced by professional artists in the early twentieth century and represent the gods regarded as the ancestors of the imperial line in mythological texts such as the Kojiki 古事記 (Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and Nihon shoki 日本書紀 (Chronicles of Japan, 720). The theme of nationalism is also apparent in several float figures that represent real people, including the military commanders Dai-Nankō 大楠公 (Kusunoki Masahige 楠木正成, 1294–1336) and Shō-Nankō 小楠公 (Kusu- noki Masatsura 楠木正行, 1326–1348), who were regarded as champions of the emperor’s regime and frequently appeared in shūshin 修身 (moral education) textbooks.3 Although these were real people, they have since been mythologized in stories and legends. Other festival figures, such as Kintarō 金太郎, Urashima Tarō 浦島太郎, and other characters from old folktales, are not deeply connected to imperialism or nationalism, but these represent only a small minority of the floats. Of course, the Sawara Grand Festival is not the only float festival in Japan that reflects a strong nationalist ideology through

Chiba ken no ‘Sawara no taisai’ ni okeru kazari no imi no henka” 神話のキャラクターを展示する–千葉県の「佐原の大祭」における飾りの意味の変化. 2 Referred to simply as “Sawara” for the remainder of this article. 3 Shūshin was a subject in elementary schools in Japan following the Imperial Rescript on Edu- cation of 1890 and lasting until 1945. Although it literally means “moral education,” shūshin also incorporated material on military training.

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figure 1 Float (dashi) with figure (ningyō) Photograph by author

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 13 its choice of motifs. Still, I believe my friend’s impression that this particular festival is “carrying the nation-state on its shoulders,” is no exaggeration. That being said, we must consider that just because the people of Sawara attach great importance to these floats and parade them through the streets each year does not mean that everyone in Sawara is a nationalist, nor does it mean that we should understand the festival solely in nationalistic terms. The residents of each part of the town that participate in the festival are not generally motivated by political beliefs, and even those who are support diverse political parties. Still, on the surface it appears as if the festival is literally parading the emperors, their ancestors, and their champions through the district. How should we interpret this? That is the question of this study.

2 Ethnography of Festival Figures

2.1 What Is a Float? In considering how to approach Japanese festival floats and figures, I would first like to briefly look back on how these subjects have been dealt with in traditional folklore studies. The wooden floats that are pulled in Japanese festivals are generally known as dashi 山車. Depending on the region, however, floats are given different names, including yama 山, hoko 鉾, and yatai 屋台 (Itō 2001).4 According to Murakami (2008), there are as many as 1,300 or even 1,500 festivals in Japan featuring floats, whether they are known as dashi, yama, hoko, or yatai. Academic study regarding these festival floats can be traced back to the ear- liest days of folklore research, to discussions between Orikuchi Shinobu 折口信夫 (1887–1953) and Yanagita Kunio 柳田國男 (1875–1962).5 Particularly influ- ential was the idea that the float (dashi) serves as a vessel into which a god descends, as put forth in Orikuchi’s “Higeko no hanashi” 髯籠の話. Orikuchi called these vessels yorishiro 依代. He later added to this concept with his

4 Representing all floats under the term dashi is problematic. As Ueki Yukinobu (2001) states, use of the word dashi, which should not necessarily be the overarching term, began with Orikuchi Shinobu and, due to his considerable influence in the field of folklore, was rapidly generalized into standard Japanese and came to represent floats of all forms. In order to rec- tify this trend, the festivals were given the title “Yama, Hoko, and Yatai float festivals” when they were officially inscribed as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. However, dashi is the term officially used for the floats in Sawara’s festival and, in standard Japanese, use of the word dashi as a general term is still prevalent. 5 Yanagita (1915); Orikuchi (1915). According to Ikeda (1978), these discussions eventually led to animosity between Orikuchi and Yanagita.

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“marebito マレビト theory,” which, in a rather essentialist way, suggests that gods would at times descend to the world of people as an expression of a univer- sal ideal of Japanese godhood. In this regard, the understanding of the float as yorishiro (a place to which gods descend) was an important precursor of the marebito theory. This idea of Orikuchi’s that the dashi functioned as a yorishiro had such a powerful impact on festival research that it became a kind of dogma to interpret all floats (yama, hoko, and yatai) as yorishiro, preventing other interpre- tations from being considered (Ueki 2001; Murakami 2018). As a result, little progress was made throughout the twentieth century concerning the folklore of festival floats or their decorations. Finally, toward the end of the twentieth century, scholars began to challenge this received understanding of floats as uniform. For example, in his discussions of Kyoto’s Gion Festival, Yamaji Kōzō emphasized the difference between the sacred procession of portable Shintō shrines and the parading of yamahoko 山鉾 festival floats by townsfolk (Yamaji 1986). In addition, Ueki Yukinobu recognized that yama, hoko, and yatai floats originally had distinct roles and challenged the notion that all floats should be uniformly understood as yorishiro (Ueki 2001). Rather than interpreting floats as mobile places of worship, it is the general understanding of current folklore scholarship that floats should be viewed more as performances intended to add liveliness to the festivals to which they belong (Ito 2000). As a result of these recent trends, the roles and ornamentations of various types of floats have become serious subjects of research in Japanese folklore studies (Ueki and Fukuhara 2016).

2.2 The Figures on the Floats Festival floats exhibit a wide variety of forms (Ueki 2001). There are both two- layer and three-layer floats; in addition, some floats have roofs and others have dancers on top of them. Of these varieties, the present study concerns the type of float on display at the Sawara Grand Festival, a kind which notably carries large human figures. Until now, such float figures have received little attention in Japanese ethnographic research. One obvious reason is that, as mentioned earlier, despite academic interest in the festivals, floats were never properly examined as artifacts due to the stagnating influence of the “float = yorishiro” thesis. Since researchers felt there was nothing more to say regarding the floats themselves, it was only natural that there was no interest in the figures atop the floats. As previously stated, however, trends in the study of floats have also changed, so that analysis of the meaning of various floats is no longer limited to the yorishiro interpretation. As a result, direct study of float decorations, while still in

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 15 its early stages, is becoming possible. In his study of the yamahoko floats in the Gion Festival in Kyoto, for example, Murakami Tadayoshi revealed how the yamahoko figures began as simple attractions to add vibrancy to the festival but, starting from the first half of the eighteenth century, gradually took on a more sacred significance, eventually becoming objects of worship (Murakami 2010). Research regarding figures on festival floats is now entering a new stage in which scholars like Murakami are considering artifacts not from the perspective of the intentions of the producers nor for their value as works of art, but from the ethnographic context of the local people who use them and ascribe meaning to them.

2.3 Methodology for Analysis of Float Figures This paper is also located within the new trend of ethnographic context described here. However, as stated previously, research on ornaments in the festival has recently experienced a major paradigm shift, and it must be recognized that methodologies for analyzing these phenomena are not yet well developed. Here, I present the methodology that my own essay will adopt. Briefly, there are two subjects in this paper for which a methodology is necessary: (1) analysis of the agency of artifacts, and (2) consideration of the modern political context. Although artifacts in Japanese religious ceremonies have been researched extensively, the field is less developed for ceremonial objects that are produced and used simply for the sake of enjoyment, without a strong religious connotation. Recently there has been increasing attention paid to what are known as tsukurimono つくりもの (decorations; crafts; handmade objects). The pre- cise connotation of tsukurimono varies depending on the writer, but within the context of festivals, they can generally be considered temporary objects that are destroyed when the ceremony is over. Another important element of tsukurimono is that the objects constantly adapt to circumstantial changes and trends, such as popular taste and current affairs (Fukuhara and Sasahara 2014). Of course, because the objects appear in festivals, they are infused with the influence of history and tradition; nonetheless, they are also characterized by improvisation and originality. By looking through the lens of tsukurimono, we can see the creativity of the producers and organizers involved in traditional events. Of course, in the case of the Sawara float figures, which were professionally produced more than a century ago and have appeared in festivals every year without undergoing any particular change, the term tsukurimono does not apply. It is probably no coincidence that only tsukurimono and not the many other types of artifacts that appear in ceremonies have accumulated so much

Journal of Religion in Japan 9 (2020) 10–36 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 03:46:02PM via free access 16 tsukahara research in recent years. This is because attempts to interpret tradition from the perspective of “innovation,” “improvisation,” and “creativity” is not limited to Japan—it is a significant trend in folklore studies worldwide (Oring 2012: 224–226). In contrast to tsukurimono, many of the figures on the festival floats in Sawara were made by professional artists living in major cities. Although these artifacts belong to a local ceremony, due to their professional origins, they have so far been analyzed primarily by art historians instead of folklorists and anthropologists. For example, it was an art historian who conducted the first full-scale study of Nezumiya, a company of prominent artisans in Edo (and later Tokyo) who created many of the figures for the Sawara festival floats (Kinoshita 1993).6 It seems that artifacts like these, which are durable, involve no improvisation, and have little to do with the intention of the local people, are incompatible with current directions within folklore studies. Of course, it is not my position that the Sawara float figures should be a subject for study just because they have been largely ignored thus far. Rather, I claim that researching the float figures is an essential step toward understanding the roles that artifacts play in such festivals. There is a reason why temporary, locally produced handcrafts interest scholars, whereas durable, professionally produced goods are not considered wor- thy of interest. That is because most research on “material culture,” which has occupied the center of ethnographic research on artifacts, tends to place particular emphasis on the producers’ intentions. Henry Glassie, for instance, states that, “beginning necessarily with things, but not ending with them, the study of material culture uses objects to approach human thought and action.” Fur- thermore, rather than “material culture,” he suggests that “art is a better word.” He goes on to explain that “art embodies, and insistently exhibits, personal and collective identities, aesthetic and instrumental purposes, mundane and spiritual aspirations. Around art—the most human of things—material culture gathers, blending nature and will, and beyond material culture spreads the merely material, the unhuman” (Glassie 1999: 41–42). In other words, material culture research (or art research) is an exercise in reading and understanding the thoughts and meanings embedded within objects. This methodology starts with tracing back the meaning given to an object by returning to the intention of the producer. In addition, Glassie proposes that creativity, interestingly, is a matter of creating new things by customizing and rearranging what already

6 Even at the Gion Festival in Kyoto, perhaps the most famous of the float festivals, recent research on festival ornaments has been primarily conducted by art historians (e.g., Kamada 2016).

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 17 exists (Glassie 1999: 85–86). By extending the range of creativity, Glassie suc- cessfully enlarges the scope of material culture research. Even with such an expansion, however, the premise remains that human creativity is emphasized and the human being is seen as the sole “agent” for imparting meaning and value to objects. If we refer to recent anthropological theory, it becomes evident what is missing in the study of traditional material culture.7 According to so-called artifact-oriented anthropology (Henare, Holbraad and Wastell 2007) and the anthropology of materiality (Miller 2005) that have been popular since around the year 2000, it is necessary to consider not only meanings assigned to objects by humans but also the inverse—the emotions and actions that objects inspire in humans. In other words, it is necessary to attend to the way in which things work on people. In Art and Agency, Alfred Gell, who has exerted great influence on such research trends, proposes that even inanimate objects have an agency that “causes events to happen” (Gell 1998: 16). Further, he proposes an anthropological theory that views art as a “system of action intended to change the world rather than encode symbolic propositions about it” and that focuses on “the practical mediatory role of art objects in the social process, rather than the interpretation of objects ‘as if’ they were texts” (Gell 1998: 6). Such research trends encourage us not to limit our examination to the meaning of the work or the intentions of its producer, but to think about what is caused by a work or creation.8 With this approach, it becomes possible to consider the Sawara float figures from within a local context. The reason it was considered difficult to study these float figures is because traditional material culture research has tended to focus on the intentions of the producer and the meaning of the work. Given that the figures were created by artists living in Tokyo a century ago and that the works continue to be displayed every year without changing, the intended meanings attributed by the producers are for- eign to the local people of Sawara today. If viewed from the perspective of what actions and emotions the artifacts cause or inspire among the local people today, however, the float figures can be subject to ethnographic description. Another important point in analyzing the float figures is the political context of the modern era. As mentioned above, artifacts in recent studies of Japanese festivals are examined from the viewpoint of their ability to entertain and to evoke people’s vernacular creativity. As a result, there is a tendency to depict

7 This deviation from traditional material culture research is in line with Appadurai’s con- ception of “methodological fetishism,” or “returning our attention to the things themselves” (Appadurai 1986: 5). 8 Henare et al. (2007: 7) call these trends “a quiet revolution in anthropology.”

Journal of Religion in Japan 9 (2020) 10–36 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 03:46:02PM via free access 18 tsukahara the people involved as apolitical. It should be a given, however, that traditional culture and political culture are not unrelated; indeed, as long ago established in the theories of the “invention of tradition” (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983), tradition and politics are closely connected. From this perspective, it is also important to keep in mind that the discipline of folklore itself is easily associated with nationalism and the ideology of the nation-state (e.g., Abrahams 1993; Bendix 2012). Although lagging behind American and German folklore studies, in the Japanese case as well, ethnologists are now exploring how folklore has been mobilized in political contexts (e.g., Iwamoto 2008). Even though research into the artifacts in festivals has been depoliticized for the reasons mentioned above, in reality, even attractions within festivals (or artifacts seen as such) are inherently political.9 It must also be understood that many Japanese folk festivals are strongly associated with Shintō shrines. As historical and religious studies from the second half of the twentieth century have revealed, Shintō shrines were strictly controlled by the state from the Meiji era to 1945 and served as the spiritual base of National Shintō and nationalism in general.10 It would be impossible to discuss shrine-related festivals without considering the impact of this period. Based on the issues in the research as described above, I have two objectives in this paper. First, by applying the agency-of-artifacts approach, I examine the actions caused and elicited by festival decorations rather than focus on the intentions of the producers or the “original” meaning of the works. Sec- ond, I emphasize and interrogate the modern political context. Additionally, this paper clarifies the relationship between the festival participants and the deities and characters featured on the floats, both historically and currently. As we will see, the way in which local people today perceive and relate to the festival figures has little in common with the strict textual interpretation of what the characters originally represented.

9 Take, for example, the Catalan festival Patum de Berga, which features many large figures. According to Dorothy Noyes’s detailed ethnography, although the festival appears at first to be nothing more than a parade of animals, fantasy creatures, and giants, it has for a long time served as a stage for political expression (Noyes 2005). 10 Abundant critical research is available, even for general readers, on the national manage- ment and control of Shintō and shrines, from the relatively earlier works of Murakami Shigeyoshi (1970) and Yasumaru (1979), to the more recent works of Shimazono (2010).

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3 The Festival of Sawara

3.1 What Is the Sawara Grand Festival? The subject of this paper is a rural festival in Katori, Chiba.11 Katori is a city with a population of 77,029 people and 31,086 households,12 and Sawara is located in its central urban area. Sawara faces the Tone River and was a key node of water traffic from the Edo period to the Meiji period.13 Taking full advantage of the area’s geography, many Edo period businesses, such as brewers of sake and soy sauce and wholesalers of rice and other grains, established large-scale enterprises in Sawara. During that time, the town became one of the largest in the Kantō region in terms of both population and economic scale. From around 1900, however, the means of transportation of goods gradually changed from water to land throughout Japan. Despite construction of the Suigo Ohashi Bridge between Sawara and Okishi in 1936, the switch from water to land transport reduced Sawara’s political and economic presence. As a result, many formerly wealthy businesses declined or collapsed, and afterWorldWar II Sawara became a town based around small businesses. The Ono River, one of the tributaries of the Tone, flows through the center of Sawara, dividing it into two districts: Honjuku 本宿 on the east bank and Shinjuku 新宿 on the west bank. Honjuku and Shinjuku are divided into 12 and 29 wards (chōnai 町内), respectively. The ward is both the smallest administrative unit and the one that oversees the shrines. The main shrine of Honjuku is Yasaka Shrine (Yasaka Jinja 八坂神社), while in the Shinjuku district, the prin- ciple shrine is Suwa Shrine (Suwa Jinja 諏訪神社). Each ward comprises the ujiko 氏子 (parishioners) of its local shrine.14 At the Sawara Grand Festival, the float parades are organized by the wards. There are 10 wards that own floats in Honjuku and 14 in Shinjuku.15 As of 4 April 2018 the smallest of these wards contained 18 households, and the largest comprised 533 households.

11 The following description is based on research I have conducted intermittently since 2004. Further information on the Sawara Grand Festival can be found in the Sawara (present-day Katori) Administrative Investigation Report (Chiba-ken Sawara-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2001). 12 As of 1 December 2018. From the Katori city website (http://www.city.katori.lg.jp, accessed 2 December 2018). 13 With a total length of 322km, the Tone river has the largest watershed in Japan. During the Edo period, it was an essential route for carrying goods to Edo. From 1671 to the end of the Edo period, for example, much of the rice that came from the Tōhoku and Kita-Kantō regions was carried to Edo via the Tone River. 14 Ujiko is a term related to shrine ritual. Those who live in the vicinity of a shrine and worship there are called ujiko. The gods of such a shrine are called ujigami 氏神. 15 To be exact, Shinjuku oversees the floats of 15 wards, but the float of one of these wards

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As mentioned above, the ward is also the unit of shrine ritual. In rural areas and fishing villages, wards participate directly in the local economy, by such means as cooperative labor, and are units of marital and funeral ritual. In contrast, in a town like Sawara, the social relationships at work are not based on religious or family connections.16 For this reason, the community unit known as the ward is essentially an organization that exists exclusively for the festival. Most ward finances involve the Grand Festival and the other annual events of the shrines.Therefore, the most important role of the ward is as ritual organization, and there is no real division between the ward’s administrative duties and the ritual services it offers. In recent years, there has been some concern that, due to increasing numbers of residents migrating to Sawara, the ward as a unit of government should be separated from the ward as a religious institution. However, since those who participate in the festival are still in the majority, there are few wards in which this separation has been realized. Since each ward is a unit of shrine administration, the unit that functions as the ujiko of the shrines is not the family or the individual residents of Sawara but the ward itself. In other words, each ward in Honjuku comprises the ujiko of Yasaka Shrine, and each ward in Shinjuku comprises the ujiko of Suwa Shrine.17 Therefore, any proposals or appeals are made by the wards, not by individuals or families. The financial resources of each shrine are determined by the number of households in the ward and its economic scale.18 Also, meetings of the

is in disrepair and has not been used since the 1960s; hence, that ward is not included in the scope of this paper. 16 For example, professional associations unrelated to the scope of the wards, such as part- ners and unions, have managed marriages and funerals based on business relationships. Even as early as the Edo period, businesspeople had become responsible for most of that which would typically have been handled by the local village community, such as the mediation of disputes and response to disasters, including earthquakes, fires, and floods (Tsukahara 2008). 17 Sawara is unusual in that individuals and families are not considered ujiko in and of themselves. 18 For example, the annual budget of Yasaka Shrine in Honjuku is approximately 3,000,000 yen. The percentage that each ward is responsible for was originally decided during the Edo period based on economic conditions at the time and has reached the present figures after several minute adjustments. As such, a ward’s percentage does not necessarily conform to its current economic condition. To give a specific example, the ward with the fewest households is responsible for 4.1% and the ward with the most households is responsible for 14.91%, about three times as much, despite the fact that the larger ward contains approximately 30 times as many households. This disparity came about in part because after the Second World War, small-scale wards, such as those on the outskirts of town which previously consisted of farming families, became new residential districts, leading to an increase in the number of households.

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 21 entire ujiko body of a ward, which are known as ward conferences (sōchō kaigi 惣町会議),19 are only attended by ward officials, including the district head (kuchō 区長), representatives of the district head (kuchō dairi 区長代理), and the treasurers. The festival is held in Honjuku in July as a summer festival and in Shinjuku in October as an autumn festival.20 Both festivals follow the nenban 年番 system. A nenban is a supervisor who serves for the duration of the year. The ward nenban manages the shrine, and the float nenban oversees the parading of the floats. Together the two nenban manage the festival and the other functions of the shrine for that year. In Honjuku, for example, the ward nenban of the 12 wards (10 of which own floats) serves a one-year shift before a new member takes over.The ward nenban manages all the events held at the shrine, including the transfer of portable shrines (mikoshi 神輿) and review of shrine finances. The float nenban is responsible for the float parades. The office of float nenban rotates to another ward every three years. At the two shrines related to the Sawara Grand Festival, priests have always had a very limited presence since the founding of both shrines in the Edo period. Yasaka Shrine, for example, has had no priests stationed there since the Edo period; the current chief priest oversees ten shrines, of which Yasaka Shrine is but one. Suwa Shrine has one resident priest, but that is still a small presence considering the size of the shrine. The Suwa priest, moreover, is a member of a prominent local family, which goes hand in hand with the fact that the ujiko are the primary caretakers of the shrines. During the Edo period, there was no nenban system, and power was con- centrated in the wealthiest wards. The role that the current nenban plays was monopolized by one ward in each festival. Since the end of the Edo period, however, other wards developed financially, and their residents became dis- satisfied. As a result, the nenban system was created in 1877 with the aim of redistributing power more equitably.

3.2 The Sawara Festival Floats The Sawara festival floats are vehicles consisting of two wooden layers and four wheels. The floats are 4 meters high, 3.5 meters wide, 4 meters long, and weigh about 4 tons. A prominent decoration, such as a figure of a person, is placed on

19 Although sōchōkaigi literally means “town-wide conference,” in this case the term is understood to indicate a conference relating to the ward (chōnai). 20 At Yasaka Shrine, the festival is held over three days starting from the first Friday after 10 July. At Suwa Shrine, the festival is held on the second Saturday of October as well as the day immediately before and the day immediately after.

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figure 2 Float with wooden sculptures Photograph by author top. A rope is attached to the front of the float, which is pulled by young people while musical performers ride in the middle stage section of the float. In addition to the figures set on top of the floats, delicate wooden sculptures are also attached to the middle of the floats (Figure 2). These sculptures have little connection to the figures on top. Moreover, while almost all decorations placed on the top part of float contribute to the construction of the single chosen figure, the sculptures that adorn the middle level exhibit a wide variety of motifs, with sculpture subjects including fantastic creatures such as dragons and shishi 獅子 (guardian dogs). Others are centered on medieval war stories, such as Heike monogatari 平家物語 (Tale of the Heike) and Taiheiki 太平記 (Chronicle of Great Peace), or taken from Chinese literary texts, such as San- gokushi 三国志 (Records of the Three Kingdoms) and Suikoden 水滸伝 (Tale of the Marshes, also known as Water Margin). One reason we can find Chinese- style motifs and fantasy animals such as dragons and shishi, is that many of the sculptures were produced during the Edo period and are in fact older than the float figures.21

21 While we cannot know with absolute certainty the reason these Chinese themes were

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These sculptures were produced by professional artists who lived in Edo and Tokyo, and their artistic value is not inferior to that of the figures at the top of the floats. On the contrary, because the sculptures have been preserved longer than the figures and because delicate techniques were used in creating them, the objective value of the sculptures may in fact be higher than that of the figures. On the other hand, the figures give a strong impression, due to their size, and each float is distinguished and identified by the figure it carries. Almost everyone in Sawara can quickly tell which ward a float belongs to based on its figure, but few people can recognize the type or subject matter of the smaller sculptures in the middle section of the float. Let me now explain a little about the figures themselves from a material perspective. As with many Japanese figures and dolls, the faces of the figures in the Sawara Grand Festival are created by applying gofun 胡粉, a pigment made from baked shells, to a sculpture made of wood from a paulownia or similar tree. The other parts of the figure consist of the torso, hands, and feet. The inside of the torso is constructed similar to a lantern so that it is hollow, and contains a single pole for support. Since the face is attached to the top of the pole, it is possible to adjust the figure’s height by raising and lowering the pole. Typically, figures have a height of 4 to 5 meters, which is rather large compared to figures in other float festivals. As the height of the floats themselves is about 4 meters, the total height of the figures measured from the ground can be close to 9 meters.

3.3 Themes of the Figures Currently, there are 24 floats in the Sawara Grand Festival. With the exception of a pair of floats with somewhat unique designs, the other 22 floats bear the original decorations that have been used continuously over a long period of time. The two exceptions are a carp made of wheat straw and a hawk

selected, we do know that most of the Chinese-themed sculptures on the floats were produced during the Edo period. At that time, as illustrated by the fact that the emperor would wear Chinese style clothing during ceremonial events, Chinese associations were not avoided but rather embraced as representing an advanced culture. Only the sculpture associated with Sangokushi was made during the Meiji period (1876; Meiji 9), and in this case it is difficult to explain why it was used. It is worth noting, however, that it was produced during early Meiji, a time when there were still military uprisings throughout the country and the Meiji government had not yet achieved stability. If we consider that the residents who oversaw the selection of statue themes were middle-aged or older, we can understand that it is likely that the local city of Sawara had not yet transcended Edo- period associations with Chinese culture.

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table 1 Wards and figures by year of production

Production Ward Figure name Figure motif year

1 1804 Hongashi 本川岸 Ame no Uzume no Mikoto 天鈿女命 Myth 2 1875 Kitayokojuku 北横宿 Yamato Takeru no Mikoto 日本武尊 Myth 3 1879 Terajuku 寺宿 Kintoki Yamanba 金時山姥 Folktale 4 1879 Shimosanmachi 下新町 Urashima Tarō 浦嶋太郎 Folktale 5 1882 Kaminakajuku 上中宿 Chinzei Hachirō Tametomo 鎮西八 Military Commander 郎為朝 6 1887 Funado 船戸 Emperor Jimmu 神武天皇 Emperor 7 1894 Shinhashimoto 新橋本 Ono no Tōfū 小野道風 Aristocrat 8 1898 Nakagashi 仲川岸 Emperor Jimmu 神武天皇 Emperor 9 1898 Shitagashi 下川岸 Takehaya Susanoo no Mikoto 建速素 Myth 戔嗚尊 10 1899 Shimojuku 下宿 Minamoto no Yoriyoshi 源頼義 Military Commander 11 1901 Kaminakachō 上仲町 Ōta Dōkan 太田道灌 Military Commander 12 1910 Tajuku 田宿 Izanagi no Mikoto 伊弉那岐尊 Myth 13 1915 Shinuwagashi 新上川岸 Ushi Tenjin 牛天神 Aristocrat 14 1920 Araku 荒久 Futsunushi no Mikoto 経津主命 Myth 15 1921 Shimonakachō 下仲町 Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 Aristocrat 16 1925 Minamiyokojuku 南横宿 Emperor Nintoku 仁徳天皇 Emperor 17 1935 Higashisekido 東関戸 Dai-Nankō 大楠公 Military Commander (Imperial Retainer) 18 1935 Shimowake 下分 Shō-Nankō 小楠公 Military Commander (Imperial Retainer) 19 1936 Kamishinmachi 上新町 Suwa Daijin 諏訪大神 Myth 20 1937 Nishisekido 西関戸 Ninigi no Mikoto 瓊瓊杵尊 Myth 21 1937 Hamajuku 浜宿 Takemikazuchi no Mikoto 建甕槌命 Myth 22 1980 Kamijuku 上宿 Minamoto no Yoshitsune 源義経 Military Commander

Note: In addition to the figures on this table, a hand-made straw carp and hawk are put on two of the ward's floats.

made of rice straw. The carp and hawk are remade approximately every three years, and the old ones are incinerated. Although the two floats have carried the carp and hawk since the Edo period, their actual figures can be redesigned each time they are remade. Table 1 lists the permanent decorations by year of production. The themes of the figures include, as shown in the table, gods from the mythological chronicles of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. Particularly prominent are gods that appear in the myths as imperial ancestors. For example, there is a figure of Izanagi no Mikoto 伊弉那岐尊, the god known for creating the land of Japan (made in 1910). There is also his great-grandson, Ninigi no Mikoto 瓊瓊杵尊, who is said to have descended from Takamagahara 高天原 to rule the

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 25 land (figure made in 1937).22 In addition, Takehaya Susanoo no Mikoto 建速素戔嗚尊 (made in 1898) is the son of Izanagi no Mikoto. There are two figures (made in 1887 and 1898 respectively) of Emperor Jimmu 神武天皇, the mythical first emperor of Japan and the great-grandson of Ninigi no Mikoto. In addition to Jimmu, there is a figure of the sixteenth emperor of Japan, Nintoku 仁徳 (made in 1925). Moreover, as an ancestor of emperors, there is Yamato Takeru no Mikoto 日本武尊 (made in 1875), who was the son of the twelfth emperor, Keikō 景行, and the father of the fourteenth emperor, Chūai 仲哀. The next most common theme among the figures is military commanders. The attributes of commanders are various but, roughly speaking, there are figures representing legendary generals from oral tradition, such as Chinzei Hachirō Tametomo 鎮西八郎為朝 (1139–1170, figure made in 1882) and Mina- moto no Yoshitsune 源義経 (1159–1189, figure made in 1980); and figures representing historical commanders, including Dai-Nankō and Shō-Nankō (both made in 1935), who became popular in the modern era as key supporters of the imperial regime. Finally, there are also figures representing characters from folktales, such as Urashima Tarō (made in 1879), Kintoki Yamauba 金時山姥 (made in 1979), and a renowned calligrapher who is also known as the god of calligraphy, Ono no Tōfū 小野道風 (894–966, figure made in 1894).23

4 Creation of the Figures

4.1 Before the Introduction of Figures At the Sawara Grand Festival today, most of the floats bear large figures produced by specialized artists. When the festival first began, however, it did not include such figures. In the eighteenth century, local people in Sawara decorated the festival floats by hand. The primary materials used were fibers such as straw, cotton, and paper. It is said that the wheat-straw carp and the rice- straw hawk that are still displayed today are made of the same materials and

22 In the myths, Takamagahara 高天原 is a realm above the earth where the gods live. 23 In addition to the carp and the hawk, there is another non-human float figure: Suwa Daijin 諏訪大神 (made in 1936). Also known as Takeminakata no Kami 建御名方神, Suwa Dai- jin is the god of Suwa Shrine, where Sawara’s autumn festival is held. Rather than taking the form of a person, however, the god is represented by a display of a sakaki tree (cley- era japonica) and mirrors. Although it is not exactly a figure, it does represent a god from Japanese mythology, and since the same decoration is used every year, in this paper I treat it in the same way as the other figures.

Journal of Religion in Japan 9 (2020) 10–36 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 03:46:02PM via free access 26 tsukahara have depicted the same subjects since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and they do seem to reflect the styles of that period.24 The subjects selected for the early period float decorations are revealed by documents from that time.The decorations from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century were mostly animals, including cats, elephants, dogs, monkeys, and tigers, in addition to the carp and hawk. There were also depictions of scenes from sumō 相撲 and ningyō jōruri 人形浄瑠璃 (puppet theater). With the exception of the carp and hawk, these decorations changed every year (Chiba-ken Sawara-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2001). In any case, until the Edo period, the Sawara floats were much more diverse than they are at present, and they were characterized as being fundamentally handmade by the people of each ward.

4.2 The Transition to Large Figures and New Subjects A major change took place in the nineteenth century, from the end of the Edo period through the Meiji period. At that time, the people of the wards stopped making decorations by hand, and instead ordered figures from first-class artists living in Edo, later Tokyo. At around the same time, the figures grew in size. In Sawara. this is explained as follows: during the era when decorations were handmade, Sekido ward created a handmade figure as tall as 6 meters and put it on top of their float; this, people say, is what inspired the figures in other wards to become larger as well. Artists in Edo/Tokyo also produced float figures for many other areas in the Kantō region, but at 4 to 5 meters tall, the Sawara figures must have been extraordinarily large for the time. Sawara experienced rapid economic growth from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era, so the wealthy merchants living there could afford to order luxurious figures (Tsukahara 2011, 2014). The figures produced at that time are the ones still used today. Figure 3 shows a graph of the figures currently in use according to their year of production. If we view this in terms of decades, we can see two peaks—one in the 1890s and another in the 1930s. Originally the subjects of most of the figures came from old folktales, but gradually figures of the emperors and their ancestors began to be displayed. In particular, the peak in the second half of the graph from the 1920s to the 1930s indicates the time when most of the float

24 It is unknown what materials were used to make these figures of people. In all likelihood, it was something like papier-mâché, as they were handmade and replaced every year. Addi- tionally, in one ward it is said that figures made of wood pulp were produced until the Meiji era.

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figure 3 Number of float figures produced by decade figures were made. Except for the figure representing Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 (845–903, figure made in 1921), who is worshipped nationwide as a deity of scholarship, all of the figures from this time represent either gods from Japanese myths or generals who fought to support the empire. At the same time, we no longer see the motifs of animals and Chinese folktales that were popular in the era of handmade decorations. We can probably correlate these two peaks with contemporary events in Shintō and imperialist policy. Regarding the first peak, for example, the Consti- tution of the Empire of Japan (Dai Nihon teikoku kenpō 大日本帝国憲法) was promulgated in 1889 and entered into force in 1890, the same year in which the Imperial Rescript on Education (Kyōiku chokugo 教育勅語) became official policy. The Constitution declared that the emperor was descended from an unbroken line from the first Emperor Jimmu, and the Imperial Rescript established reverence for the emperor and cultivation of patriotic morals as the primary goals of education. Therefore, it is quite likely that the first peak in new figures is related to the signing of the Imperial Constitution of Japan and the Rescript on Education, which together served as pillars supporting the modern emperor system and national Shintō (see e.g., Murakami 1970; Shima- jima 2010). As for the second peak, it overlaps with the Manchurian Incident (1931) and the period of protracted war that followed. Interestingly, there is at least one figure that was made during the Edo period but relabeled as a different character later in that era. “Ame no Uzume no

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Mikoto” 天鈿女命 is considered to be the oldest of the figures still in use today (Figure 4). Produced at a time when most figures were still handmade, this figure was the first to be constructed by a professional artist for regular use atop a float. Ame no Uzume no Mikoto is a goddess of entertainment appearing in Japanese mythology, who plays an important part in helping to save the world from darkness. Based on the records, it is certain that this figure was created in 1804, but looking at the festival documents from the time the figure was made, there is no mention of Ame no Uzume no Mikoto. Rather. in these old documents we find only miko mai 巫女舞 and okame おかめ (Seimiya 2003).25 Certainly, the face of the figure which is now called Ame no Uzume no Mikoto exhibits the okame shape and she is dancing in what appears to be a shrine maiden’s costume. We can certainly posit that this figure was called “Miko Mai” or “Okame” throughout the Edo period, but at a later date26 the name was replaced with that of Ame no Uzume no Mikoto of Japanese mythology.27 When considering the connection between these categories of float figures and nation-state ideology, it is important to bear in mind that the choice of subject matter for the figures was not mandated by the government or any other external entity. There was no administrative intervention in the process of choosing subjects, and the theme was chosen irrespective of the intention of the administration. The people in each ward voluntarily chose the subjects and ordered the figures from the artists. The gods, emperors, and faithful vassals of the emperors that were chosen were all characters that appeared in school textbooks during this era. Descrip- tions in Japanese history textbooks—not only in the textbooks of moral education mentioned in the first section of this paper, but also in textbooks for

25 Miko mai refers to a shrine maiden’s dance, and okame references the image of a round woman’s face with inflated cheeks. 26 Although the timing cannot be specified, I presume that it was after the middle of the nineteenth century. 27 It is also possible that the artist who made the figure had intended for it to represent Ame no Uzume no Mikoto but that the people of Sawara interpreted it as miko mai or okame at the time. This particular figure is easily the oldest, followed by one made in 1875. This does not mean that no large figures were produced for these seven decades; rather, it seems that as the quality of the figures went up every year, each ward would replace its old one. We cannot be certain why only Hongashi 本川岸, the ward with Ame no Uzume no Mikoto, decided not to exchange its figure even with the advent of the Meiji period, but it may be related to the fact that, alongside Sekido 関戸, the first ward to display a large figure, Hongashi was the most economically well off in the city. The Ame no Uzume no Mikoto figure was crafted by Nezumiya 鼠屋, one of the leading figure artists from Edo, and it was rare for a ward to have the finances to hire an artist of this caliber. In fact, many people feel that this particular figure is a masterpiece among the many displayed in Sawara.

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figure 4 Figure of Ame no Uzume no Mikoto Photograph by author elementary and secondary education—began with mythology, and in order to justify the emperor’s reign, it was claimed that the emperor was descended from the gods. There was also a tendency for military commanders to be valued because of their connections to the imperial family. These were the circumstances of the people living in Sawara who chose the subjects for the figures, and they chose the subjects as desirable in light of their own values. In other words, we might say that the subjects they chose were, at the time, fashionable.

5 Figures in the Postwar Period

5.1 The Figures Take On a Life of Their Own If we limit analysis of the festival decorations to the intentions of the producers or the intentions of the people who chose the subjects, this research could not continue beyond the 1930s, by which time most of the figures were created. Another perspective is necessary in order for the research to proceed. Once again, please refer to Table 1 and Figure 3. Although new works were produced

Journal of Religion in Japan 9 (2020) 10–36 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 03:46:02PM via free access 30 tsukahara at a pace of one piece a year for several years during the first half of the twentieth century, after the end of the war in 1945,28 the only figure produced was Minamoto no Yoshitsune (in 1980).29 Other than that, the festival continued to use figures produced during the first half of the twentieth century. After the end of the war, the people of Sawara, who had until then selected new subjects every year based on the trends of the time, chose to continue using the same figures. In order to preserve the figures for as long as possible, Sawara residents have treated them as pieces of fine art. When moving figures, they must never be touched with bare hands and they must be protected with layers of soft cloth when putting them in or taking them out of their boxes. In some cases, elaborate replicas have been created; in order to prevent deterioration, the original figures are used only for important events. The most direct reason for this cautious treatment is that, compared to the earlier amateur works, the professional pieces have a higher value. However, considering the fact that some wards make replicas to ensure that the original figure appears in the festival, expense and high quality cannot be the only reason; from a purely economic standpoint, it costs as much to make an elaborate replica as it does to make a new work. With this in mind, therefore, I believe that the Sawara float figures have moved away from the intentions of the producers and of the people who ordered them, and they have begun their own journey. It may be said that the subjects chosen as “fashionable” at the time of production have now “taken on a life of their own.” Unlike the float figures at the Gion Festival in Kyoto or other similar events, those in the Sawara Grand Festival are not treated as objects of worship, nor are they considered to have any power to grant blessings, despite the fact that

28 From 1942 to the summer festival of 1945, festivals were not carried out due to intensifica- tion of the war. 29 There are somewhat special circumstances in Kamijuku 上宿 ward, where the Minamoto no Yoshitsune figure is used. Originally, the float in Kamijuku did not feature a figure, but was decorated with numerous paper flowers and mandō 万燈 or 万灯, wood-framed lanterns covered with paper. Even after most other wards started to feature professionally made figures on their floats, Kamijuku was the only ward in which residents continued to display their own handmade decorations. However, because of damage to the float incurred during the 1958 festival, Kamijuku stopped participating altogether for twenty years. When they constructed a new float in 1978, there was momentum for them to feature a figure like the other floats, and so the figure of Minamoto no Yoshitsune was made in 1980. Because of these particular circumstances, then, this figure was made much later than those in the other wards; indeed, Kamijuku is the only ward to have a figure made after the end of World War II.

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 31 they include motifs of gods.30 I have never encountered an informant in Sawara who treated the figures as deities or expressed any desire to receive blessings from them. Ultimately, the figures in Sawara are nothing more than decorations adorning the festival floats. Due to the aforementioned treatment of the figures as fine art, however, the people of Sawara have formed a fetish-like attachment to these objects. Some even say that they are “moved to tears” at the sight of these figures that can only be seen for three days during the entire year. Oth- ers, feeling that three days is not enough, decorate their homes with miniature models of the figures, anywhere from one-tenth to one-twentieth in scale. The producers of the original figures and the people of old Sawara who ordered them certainly never anticipated for them to function this way. In a sense, the figures have broken from their original intended purpose and now “enchant” the people of Sawara (Gell 1998).

5.2 Those Who Do Not Understand the Myths Interestingly, many of the people in Sawara, despite being extremely attached to the figures from their wards, are not especially familiar with the stories or the characters behind them. Few people have read the myths, even when translated into modern Japanese; they generally have no interest even in the episodes that feature the gods and emperors that adorn the floats from their own wards. It is the same in wards with military generals as the subject matter, where there is little interest in the generals’ historical accomplishments. During the period when the figures were made, from the end of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, both Japanese mythology and the history of the formation of the empire were familiar to the common people. However, after the war, most Japanese no longer felt a sense of closeness with these characters. In Sawara, rather than choosing to pay attention to the themes of the figures and seek detailed knowledge, people demonstrate their attachment in a different form. They offer narratives that have little to do with episodes from Japanese mythology or history, saying for example, “we cherish the figure of the goddess on our ward’s float because she has a gentle, peaceful face,” or “our ward’s float carries a god of battle, so we always maintain our fight- ing spirit.” It is completely forgotten that, according to the history textbooks of the first half of the twentieth century, these figures were the emperors’ ancestors or performed feats in service of the emperors. Instead, people express their attraction to the characters as “cool,” “beautiful,” or “cute.”

30 Cf. Porcu’s paper on Gion Matsuri in this volume.

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figure 5 Fan produced by the ward Photograph by author

The characters appeal to the locals much like mascots in team sports. The people of a ward may create sets of matching hand towels or fans, for instance, depicting images of the characters from their floats (Figure 5). In this way, people “bleach” the traditional content from these mythological figures, turning them into symbols. A similar sort of disconnect can be found when we examine the com- plex relationship of religion to the festival performance. As mentioned earlier, the presence of priests at the two shrines is rather sparse. Their absence at the Sawara Grand Festival is especially noteworthy; they are essentially not involved with the floats which, from the perspective of shrine rituals, are peripheral. Historically, the presence of the float figures began as a sort of side show (called tsuke matsuri 付け祭り) to liven up the mikoshi procession (Chiba- ken Sawara-shi Kyōiku Iinkai 2001), but gradually the float figures eclipsed the mikoshi procession altogether. Now, the relationship between the floats and the

Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from 9 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2020) 10–36 03:46:02PM via free access displaying mythological characters 33 mikoshi is the opposite of what it once was: the parading of mikoshi is now rel- egated to one corner of the festival activity. In the views of the priests I interviewed, however, even now the rituals and parading of the mikoshi that take place at the main shrine are the core of the festival, and the floats—no matter how extravagant they appear—are peripheral. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of the local people, the floats are unquestionably the heart of the festival. For the most part, they simply are not concerned with the religious meanings of the festival. While Yasaka Shrine and Suwa Shrine say the “official” meaning of the festival is to ward off disease and pray for a good harvest of the five grains, almost none of the residents have this in mind as they participate. And this situation is not something that has only recently occurred; for most, the gods and loyal retainers that sit atop the floats are simply unrelated to the religious meaning of the festival itself. Ultimately, we might say that the religious “bleaching” of the figures as described in this paper emerges from the disparity between the viewpoint of the priests and the festival audience.

6 Conclusion

In this paper, I have analyzed the figures that feature as decorations in the event known as Sawara Grand Festival that takes place every year in a country town. First, by examining the production of the figures from a historical point of view, it becomes clear that even in this “rustic” festival in this rural town, militarism and national ideology exerted a profound influence from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. Moreover, the choice of subjects was not forced by the government or by any other outside party, but rather was decided voluntarily in line with the popular trends of the time. In addition to such superficial conclusions, I engaged in further analysis regarding what occurred after the figures were no longer being made anew. I found that after the floats left the hands of their producers and the people who ordered them, they took on a life of their own. The figures attract people now in a different way than they did in the beginning. Through this process, the meaning of the figures as characters from mythology is attenuated, and it is as something quite different that the figures come to charm the people of the individual wards and of Sawara as a whole. Having made this point, however, I am careful to note that I am not argu- ing that the Sawara Grand Festival or its participants are entirely disconnected from militaristic or nationalistic influence. It is not enough to say that what

Journal of Religion in Japan 9 (2020) 10–36 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 03:46:02PM via free access 34 tsukahara were once symbols of militarism and nationalism have now been superficially stripped of these associations so that they charm people as “cool” or “cute.” This phenomenon itself embodies a kind of danger. There is no doubt that one aspect of the educational efforts of pre-war militarism and nationalism was to foster the worship of the emperor, his ancestors, and loyal retainers through inspiring personal familiarity and affection. And while the attachment the people of Sawara feel to the festival floats today cannot be described as an overt manifestation of militarism or nationalism, it would be dangerous to say that it is completely unconnected. Rather, the danger of these ideologies lies in the possibility that they can be so readily consumed in this bleached form.

Acknowledgments

Throughout the writing of this essay, I received pertinent advice from the volume editors, Michael Dylan Foster and Elisabetta Porcu. Additionally, the com- ments of the anonymous external reviewers helped me productively clarify my argument. Finally, I am grateful to Jude Pultz for translating the essay, with all its elaborate proper names and local terminology, into very accessible English. I want to take this opportunity to express my thanks to them all.

This article was translated by Jude Pultz

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