CHINO, NAGANO PREF. – A tree-felling ritual, the climax of the famed Onbashira Shinto festival held every six years, began in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, on Sunday. A giant fir tree log about 17 meters long and weighing about 10 tons, was slid down a steep hill as several male worshipers hung on to it in the kiotoshi ceremony.
A total of eight logs were to be used in the two-day ritual. They will later be erected at the four corners of the two main buildings at the Kamisha branches of Suwa Taisha Shrine next month.
Another kiotoshi event is scheduled over a three-day stretch starting Friday for eight other logs to be used at the shrine’s Shimosha branches.
I am curious. You mentioned in this article that the shrine mentioned is going to be renewed. I know this is a common practice and the Kami is moved elsewhere correct? How does the shrine stay in business while this renewal and reconstruction is going on? Do they continue to offer services, or is the shrine or all intents and purposes “closed” while the renovations are happening? Where do they move the Kami to while this is all happening?
Hello Kyle, thank you for writing in. In my experience, the usual practice is to continue in situ while the repairs are going on as they do not normally affect the honden in which the kami is
housed. In cases where the honden is being renewed, the kami is given a temporary home somewhere on the grounds. It’s a relatively easy matter to move the ‘spirit-body’ (goshintai) into which the kami descends, as in the case of the annual matsuri when the kami is paraded around the parish in a mikoshi (portable shrine). As for the shrine continuing its business and rituals, this is continued as normal while the repairs are going on. My own shrine of Shimogamo for instance is undergoing its cycle of renewal at the moment and there are plastic sheets and scaffolding above and to either side of the offering box where people stand to pray… At Ise Jingu, the practice is to erect a new building adjacent to the old one. In all my years in Japan I’ve never come across a case of a shrine closing even temporarily while repairs are going on.