39

The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community
Restructuring Process1
K UROSAKI H IROYUKI

Keywords: Great East Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon daishinsai 東日本大震災), rural community restructuring (shūraku saihen 集落再編), festivals(sairei 祭礼), portable shrine parades (mikoshi togyo 神輿渡御), societal
inclusion (shakaiteki hōsetsu 社会的包摂)
Author's Statement
In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011,
scholarship grew on religion and disasters. This article is part of that trend,
which covered support provided by religious professionals, as well as the roleof religious culture in recovery and religious institutions in prevention andmitigation. However, it is natural to question whether religion positively impacts
everyone in the context of a society-wide natural disaster. This article attempts toanswer this by looking at the expansion of a festival portable shrine parade routeand the adjustments made that took into account the various parties involved.

1. IntroductionSoon, ten years will have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, whichbrought massive damage to the Tohoku region’s Pacific coast.
Areas damaged by the tsunami have formulated and implemented recovery
plans. These plans support victims in rebuilding their lives. Also, they do not simply
repair infrastructure and homes but also consider the sustainability of local communities
and disaster prevention/reduction.
Amidst this, scholars have taken note of the festivals (sairei 祭礼) and folk performingThis article is a translation of Kurosaki Hiroyuki 黒﨑浩行, Saigaigo no shūraku saihen katei ni mirareru sairei bunkano hōsetsusei 災害後の集落再編過程に見られる祭礼文化の包摂性, Kokugakuin Daigaku kiyō 國學院大學紀要
59 (2021): 15–28. Translated by Dylan Luers Toda.

1

Kokugakuin Japan Studies, volume 3, 2022, pp. 39–54© 2022 Kokugakuin University

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Kokugakuin Japan Studies 3 (2022)

arts (minzoku geinō 民俗芸能) that the residents of affected areas have passed down. In
addition to providing concrete support for these practices, scholars have discussed their
meanings and roles.
Ueda Kyōko 植田今日子 has written about Ushi no tsuno tsuki 牛の角突き, abullfighting festival revived in Niigata Prefecture’s village of Yamakoshi (today, Nagaoka
City’s Yamakoshi area), as well as the Sōma noma oi 相馬野馬追, a horse festival in
Fukushima Prefecture’s Hamadōri area. Yamakoshi was struck by the 23 October 2004
Chūetsu Earthquake, requiring the entire village to evacuate, and Hamadōri was affectedby the 11 March 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and subsequent nuclear accident.
Ueda argues that although carrying out festivals and folk performing arts while thecommunity’s continued existence is up in the air does not directly contribute to theeconomic rebuilding of victims’ lives, these practices “serve as support when humans arein very difficult situations.”2
Also, drawing from a joint survey of intangible cultural properties in the prefectureof Miyagi, which the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, Takizawa Katsuhiko 滝澤克
彦 has presented the view that “through festivals, social structures and relations in ruralcommunities are reproduced,”3 and comparatively examined examples of this whilearguing that the continuation of festivals leads to “the resilience of rural communities.”4
Having similar interests to those found in discussions like these, I have engaged in fieldwork
at multiple locations and, at the end of 2019, published a book that included my findings.5
While referring to an actual case, this paper attempts to discuss further the idea,
presented in my book’s conclusion, of “social inclusion.”Ever since Durkheim, research on the social integration function of rituals has been
carried out. This has taken the form of descriptions of collective effervescence phenomena
and analyses of ritual processes (Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner). Scholars have also
researched and discussed the role of post-disaster rituals in light of the Great Hanshin(Kobe) Earthquake and the Great East Japan Earthquake.6
While the phrase “social inclusion” does not contradict “social integration,” it does
make one more clearly aware of the contrasting term “social exclusion.”
The political scientist Daniel Aldrich points out the dual-sided influence of social
capital in disaster recovery. He says that while strong bonding social capital promotes
mutual aid amongst local residents, it reinforces “existing systems of discrimination” andjustifies “programs that provide benefits only locally, not regionwide or citywide, harming
2

Ueda, Sonzoku no kiro ni tatsu mura, p. 158.
Takizawa, “Sairei no jizoku to sonraku no rejiriansu,” p. 126.
4
Ibid.
5
Kurosaki, Shintō bunka no gendaiteki yakuwari.
6
Miki, Fukkō to shūkyō; Miki, Shūkyō to shinsai.
3

Kurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 41
those on the margins of society.”7
While it is important both that festival participation allows people to experience therenewal of life and that communities are re-integrated through this, this can turn into
the exclusion of people who are not participating. Do the people organizing a festival
thoughtfully work to ensure that this does not happen? If we adopt the perspective ofsocial inclusion, this is precisely what we cannot overlook.
From the above perspective, in this paper, I will consider the case of the portable shrine
parade (mikoshi togyo 神輿渡御) at Koizumi Hachiman Shrine’s 小泉八幡神社 reisai 例祭,
a major festival. It is held in the Koizumi area of Motoyoshi-chō in Miyagi Prefecture’s
city of Kesennuma.
I have already published the results of my survey, carried out from March 2011 toNovember 2016, regarding the Koizumi area and the religious culture connected to thearea’s livelihoods.8
Subsequently, there was an important change at the Koizumi Hachiman Shrine reisai
held on 8 October 2017: the route of the portable shrine parade was modified to cover a
wider area. This was decided after discussions between the chief Shinto priest, sōdai 総代(representatives of shrine parishioners), and residents. These discussions were promptedby the group relocation of Koizumi area residents for disaster prevention purposes andthe restructuring of shinkōkai 振興会 (local residents’ organizations for self-governanceand socializing). The land for group relocation had been delivered in May 2015.
Focusing on this change, below I will describe the 2017, 2018, and 2019 reisai basedon my on-the-ground observations and interview survey of connected individuals,
including the shrine priest, and particularly pay attention to the diversity of people
involved in the festival. While doing so, I will consider the reisai’s significance from theperspective of inclusiveness.

2. Group Relocation and the Restructuring of Residents’ Organizations
The circumstances of the group relocation of the Koizumi area (Machi district) are
discussed in detail in a book by the Koizumi Chiku no Ashita o Kangaeru Kai 小泉地区の明日を考える会 (lit., “Association for thinking about the Koizumi area’s tomorrow”;
below, Kangaeru Kai), the group that carried out this relocation.9 I have created Table 1
based on it while adding information I acquired on the ground.
Albeit small-scale, group relocations were also carried out for disaster prevention
purposes in the Zai (Higashi) and Hama districts (eleven and six plots, respectively).
7

Aldrich, Building Resilience, p. 2.
Kurosaki, “Shizen saigai kara no fukkō ni okeru shūkyō bunka no isō.”9
Koizumi Chiku no Ashita o Kangaeru Kai, Daisuki na Koizumi o kodomo tachi he tsugu tame ni.
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Table 1. Circumstances of the Group Relocation of the Koizumi Area (Machi District)(Including Prehistory)
Edo Period(1603–1868)

Koizumi Village

1889

The Town and Village System goes into effect: Koizumi Village - Machi district,Hama district, and Zai district

1955

Merges with the towns of Tsuya and Ōya and becomes part of the town ofMotoyoshi
The town of Motoyoshi promotes the creation of shinkōkai, all-household
residents’ associations. Shinkōkai are created in each of the seven administrative
divisions
The town of Motoyoshi is absorbed into the city of Kesennuma

1979

2009
11 March 201124 April 2011

30 April 2011
June 2011

July 2011

Earthquake occurs off the Pacific coast of Tohoku. Tsunami with maximum
depth of twenty meters. Forty dead and 1,118 buildings completely destroyed
The voluntary association “Koizumi Chiku no Ashita o Kangaeru Kai” isformed and a committee is created to prepare for the establishment of a
Koizumi district group relocation council
Explanatory meeting regarding the group relocation advancement project heldby the city of Kesennuma for residents
Relocation destination decided / Search held for “partners” (experts) andpartners selected / Koizumi district group relocation council established /Written request submitted to the city of Kesennuma
Town development workshops start (last until January 2013) / Plan examined

May 2012

Agreement of Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
regarding group relocation acquired

July 2013

Development of residential land begins

18 August 2015

Residential land development (sixty plots) completed and delivered / Municipal
Koizumi residences (disaster public housing, 37 households) completed
Koizumi Middle School emergency temporary residences taken down /Shinkōkai restructured from seven to four (Machi district, Higashi district,Nishi district, Hama district) / Along with Magome Middle School, Koizumi
Middle School is absorbed into Tsuya Middle School

2017

The existence of shinkōkai, which were created in 1979, is a notable way in which
Koizumi residents are organized. Like other areas in Miyagi Prefecture, there had been“contract associations” in the area (generally called keiyaku-kō 契約講; in Koizumi,
keiyaku-kai 契約会). These mutual aid organizations managed joint assets like mountain
forests, engaged in agricultural development, and promoted amity between members.
However, the likes of branch families and families that had moved in from outside thecommunity were not members.10 In contrast, the shinkōkai were organized, at the urging
10

Tōyō Daigaku Minzoku Kenkyūkai, Koizumi no minzoku, pp. 57–90.

Kurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 43of the government, as all-household resident self-governance associations. They formulate
and carry out projects for local development in a broad sense.
While before the Great East Japan Earthquake there were seven shinkōkai, after thetsunami damage and subsequent community relocation, they were reorganized into fourin 2017.
The Kangaeru Kai, the voluntary association involved in the disaster prevention group
relocation of the Machi District, was led by people in their fifties, a younger age groupthan shinkōkai officers. They invited outside advisors and held workshops for residents totalk with each other.
Map 1 shows the locations of the Machi, Zai, and Hama districts, the Machi District’s
relocation destination, Koizumi Hachiman Shrine, and other related places.

Fig 1. The Koizumi Area11

11

For Figure 1, I added shapes and text to GSI Tiles map data (https://maps.gsi.go.jp/development/ichiran.html).

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3. Festival Changes
The Festival from 2011 to 2016
Hachiman Shrine, said to have been established in 1584 (Tenshō 12), is the protectorof the Koizumi area (previously the town of Koizumi). While the shrine’s buildings were
spared in the Great East Japan Earthquake, the priest’s residence was not. Documents,
records, a Ryūzu Kannon (dragon-riding Kanon) iron statue that was the main object ofveneration of the Kannon Confraternity (Kannon-kō 観音講), and other items were lost.
For this reason, the priest came up with the idea of publishing a record that would share
the religious beliefs and practices of the Koizumi area and Hachiman Shrine with future
generations. In January 2019, with the editorial assistance of Ikeda Natsue 池田奈津江(a Kanagawa Prefecture Shinto priest who had been offering support since 2011), Akino
Jun’ichi 秋野淳一 (who helped with my on-the-ground interview survey in 2015), andmyself, this record was completed.12
In this book, Ikeda describes changes to the shrine’s reisai from 2011 to 2017.13 Table
2 summarizes it and includes my observations from September 2015 and 2016.
Table 2. Festival Changes Between 2011 to 20162011

While the priest thought that the portable shrine parade could not be held,
members of the local young men’s association wanted to cheer up the community
with it, and sixty to seventy younger people and volunteers in the community
came together to carry one portable shrine in white robes (hakuchō 白丁 ).

2012

After the festival eve and reisai rituals, a parade of three portable shrines was held.
The route was as follows: shrine → former residential area in the original Machi
District → Koizumi River (Salmon River Abundant Catch Prayer Ceremony) →Koizumi Elementary School → Shrine. (Same until 2016.)

2013

With banner, lion costume, drum, and float donations, the festival becomeslivelier. Third-year middle school students carry cardboard portable shrine
wearing happi coats made from tairyō-bata 大漁旗 (fisher’s flags).

2014

Under the guidance of former members of Inage 稲毛 Shrine parishioner young
men’s association (city of Kawasaki), school students carried a children’s portableshrine that had been donated by the shrine Ōmiya-Hachimangū 大宮八幡宮 (Tokyo’scity of Suginami). An offering stage is constructed in Koizumi Elementary School’s
schoolyard. Parade held to entrance of the Koizumi Middle School temporary housingarea. Parade consisted of Koizumi Kindergarten children’s shrine, Koizumi Elementary
School’s fife and drums corps, Koizumi Hama fisher percussion performance (ahometown performing art), and Koizumi Children’s Association’s earthquake/tsunami
recovery portable shrine. Talent show held in the evening (organized by the “COOL
na Oyaji no Kai” COOLな親父の会 / “Cool Dad’s Association”).

27 September 2015 Only local residents carried the shrine’s portable shrine (wearing white robes).
Otherwise, the same as the previous year.
18 September 2016 Same as the previous year.
12
13

Koizumi Hachiman Jinja, Motoyoshichō koizumi hachiman jinja no kiroku.
Ibid., pp. 38–42.

Kurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 45
Before the Great East Japan Earthquake, five members of each of the seven shinkōkai
carried the shrine’s portable shrine. The parade started on the shrine’s grounds and went
to each house in the Machi district. At each house’s Shinto shrine, the priest carried out apurification (oharai お祓い). It lasted from around 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.14 Also, offertorial
events were held in front of the former site of the Koizumi Community Center (Koizumi
Kōminkan 小泉公民館). It had been near the shrine before being washed away in the tsunami.
After the earthquake, the shrine’s portable shrine was carried out by members of
the Kangaeru Kai (until 2016) and volunteers (until 2014). As written in Table 2, amajor reason the portable shrine parade occurred was the younger men participating in
the Kangaeru Kai, which held discussions regarding group relocation, calling for andencouraging the priest to make it happen. The group’s workshops discussed the Koizumiof the past and what should be valued and passed on. People worked to incorporate this
into the plan for the relocation destination.15 We can see the influence of this extended tothe continuation of the portable shrine parade.

Fig 2. The 27 September 2015 portable shrine parade route.16
14

Ibid., p. 32.
Koizumi Chiku no Ashita o Kangaeru Kai, Daisuki na Koizumi o kodomotachi e tsugu tame ni.
16
For Figure 2, I created a GPS log during my survey with Simple Logger (https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/id861791141), and used QGIS 3.6.10 to overlay the GPS data on GSI Tiles map data. Same for figures 3 and 4.
15

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Also, note that through the children’s portable shrine, performing arts offerings, talentshow, and so on, a broad swath of diverse residents has been involved in the festival asactive participants. Koizumi’s kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school are
all located on the same rise of land. The Koizumi Community Center was also rebuilt
there in 2015. Around noon on the day of the festival, the shrine’s portable shrine arrived
there, and the children’s portable shrine, carried by kindergarteners, and the recovery
portable shrine, carried by the children’s association, assembled as well. A fife and drum
corps performance by Koizumi Elementary School students and a Koizumi Hama fisher
percussion offering took place as well. In 2014, a middle school students’ shrine paradealso began with the support of a Kanagawa Prefecture Shinto priest and parishioners.
On the grounds of the Koizumi Middle school is a temporary housing complex, andits residents had gathered as well. For this reason, the ages of the people surrounding theportable shrine parade and performing arts offerings were diverse as well.
Figure 2 shows the portable shrine parade route until 2016.

2017 Changes
The festival had been centered on the events in the original Machi district (portableshrine parade at the former residential area and Salmon River Abundant Catch
Ceremony) and those on the rise of land where the schools, community center, andtemporary housing complex were located (the portable shrine parade and offertorial
events). In 2017, changes were made to the festival. The biggest one was the route of theportable shrine parade.
Due to advance discussions between the priest, sōdai, shinkōkai heads, and others,
it was decided to have the parade route of the shrine’s portable shrine connect thethree districts of Machi, Zai, and Hama. The biggest reason for this was that the group
relocation had been progressing and, at the same time, the temporary housing complex
on the Koizumi Middle School’s grounds had begun to be taken down.
According to the priest, while Machi district group relocation was completed and an
assembly hall built, residents perceived Hachiman Jinja as the protector of the entire
Koizumi area, and the opinion coalesced that it would be best to go around to all of
Koizumi’s districts, not just Machi.
This meant that the portable shrine would cover a broader area, and how to temporally
and spatially accommodate the students’ parading of portable shrines and offertorial
events, which had taken place on the elevated land area where schools were located,
emerged as an issue. A variety of proposals were considered.
Plans were made to have the Machi district’s parade stop (otabisho 御旅所) be theKoizumi Machi District Shinkōkai Hall, the Zai District Community Center be thatof the Zai district, and the Hama District General Purpose Assembly Hall (TamokutekiKurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 47
Shūkaijo 多目的集会所) be that of the Hama District. However, due to a death in a
family near the Hama district’s assembly hall, the Hama district’s stop was changed to the
Kurauchi Fishing Port.
The resulting schedule and route for the festival on 8 October (Sunday) are shown in
Table 3 and Figure 3, respectively.
Table 3. 8 October 2017 Reisai Shrine Parade Schedule
08:30
09:00
09:30
10:15
11:00
12:00
12:30
13:00
13:50
14:30
14:50
15:00
17:00

Departure ceremony
Departure. Move the portable shrine on a truck. Sōdai and shrine carriers board a minibus.
Salmon River Abundant Catch Ceremony
Zai District Community Center: Shinto rituals, lion dance, mochi-making
Kurauchi Fishing Port: Shinto rituals, lion dance, mochi-making
Koizumi Community Center parking lot: Join up with middle school students’ portable shrine
Koizumi Kindergarten children’s portable shrine, Koizumi Elementary School drum and fifecorps (Koizumi Elementary School schoolyard)
Koizumi Hama fisher percussion (Koizumi Community Center parking lot)
Parade of Koizumi Children’s Association recovery portable shrine (up to the main entrance of
Koizumi Middle School), middle school students’ portable shrine, and shrine’s portable shrine
ReturnReturn Ceremony
Feast (naorai 直会 ; Koizumi Machi District Shinkōkai Hall)
Talent Show (Koizumi Machi District Shinkōkai Hall)

Fig 3. The 8 October 2017 portable shrine parade route.

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Events with many children were, as before, held around noon on the schools’ rise ofland, and the shrine’s portable shrine was put on a truck to go around the entire Koizumi
area. Also, the talent show’s venue was moved to the open area in front of the Koizumi
Machi District Shinkōkai Hall.
A major reason that the events with many children stayed on the elevated land area wasits many schools. While first gathering at this rise of land and then moving to the Machi
district’s group relocation site was considered, the amount of effort and time involved inmoving could not be ignored.
As for the talent show, those involved in setting up and taking down the stage (primarily
men in their twenties to forties) could only work on the weekends, and therefore it was
decided that the Koizumi Machi District Shinkōkai Hall was actually preferable because
the stage frame could be left standing for about a week before and after the festival.
In this way, while broadening the area covered by the shrine parade route, adjustments
were made that took into account the people’s circumstances.
There were also new circumstances surrounding the portable shrine carried by middle
school students: in April 2017, Koizumi Middle School was absorbed into Tsuya Middle
School. There were concerns that this would lead to a lack of participation by middle
school students. However, in the end, ten middle school students residing in the Koizumi
area participated in the shrine parade.
It was also hoped that residents of the Zai and Hama districts would participate in thefestival due to the expansion of the area covered by the portable shrine parade. Whileapproximately twenty residents came together at the Hama district’s Kurauchi Fishing
Port, only about ten appeared in the Zai district’s community center. This probably led
festival organizers to reflect on what could have been done differently.

2018 Changes
In 2018, the kagura offering and talent show were scheduled for 16 September (Sunday),and the reisai, portable shrine parade, children’s portable shrine, drum and fife corps,
and percussion group for 22 September (Saturday). Operational circumstances and theaccommodation of school events led to this schedule.
According to the priest, the thirteenth day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar
is when the reisai is normally held. In 2018, this was 22 September. However, setting up
and taking down the talent show venue requires several days and many hands. Therefore,
it would have been difficult to put on the show on Saturday evening. Also, school eventswere scheduled for 15 and 16 September of the previous week. This led to a schedule,
said the priest, in which the reisai’s Shinto rituals would be held on 22 September andrelated events the previous week.
Also, with the 16 September kagura offering being Hachiman Shrine reisai’s first inKurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 49
thirty years, Shimo-ōkago 下大籠 Nanbu 南部 kagura (Fujisawa-chō, Ichinoseki City,
Iwate Prefecture) was also invited. According to a Nanbu kagura survey report publishedby the Ichinoseki City Board of Education, the activities of Shimo-ōkago Nanbu kagura
have primarily been offerings at the fall reisai of Shinmei-sha 神明社, a shrine in the
Fujisawa-chō area of Iwate Prefecture’s city of Ichinoseki, and performances at a children’s
hometown performing arts recital in Fujisawa-chō. Also, the report states, Shimo-ōkago
Nanbu kagura is a sibling of Ōmuro 大室 Nanbu kagura (Kitakami-cho, Jūsanhama,
Ishinomaki City), which was revived after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The former
provided kagura dance scripts and other forms of support for the latter when it was being
revived.17 This offering became a reality thanks to the proposal of the head of the Koizumi
Machi District Shinkōkai, who is fond of kagura.
The portable shrine parade route continued to cover this wider area in 2018. The Zai
district parade stop changed from the Zai District Community Center to the nursing
home A-en (Tokubetsu Yōgo Rōjin Hōmu A-en 特別養護老人ホーム A 苑). When in
September 2019, I asked the priest about the reason for this, he replied that it was
because there was the opinion that with barely any people having come to the community
center in 2017, it would be better to go to A-en, which has many elderly residents.
On 16 September, the kagura offering began on a specially-built stage in the Machi
District Shinkōkai Hall. In addition to the priest, sōdai, and Shinkōkai officers,
approximately ten Machi district residents, primarily older people, came. It was a sunnyday, and strong sunlight shown on the seats lined up in front of the stage. Therefore,
people watched from the eaves of the hall.
The talent show began in the evening (just after 5:00 p.m.). Ten groups of peopleof diverse ages (from kindergarten students to seniors) put on song, dance, and otherperformances. About thirty to fifty people came to watch.
Rain fell intensely six days later on the morning of the twenty-second. Therefore, thepriest and others who would be participating in the ceremonies and/or involved in the
portable shrine parade hurriedly gathered in the Koizumi Community Center to discuss
the day’s plans. This resulted in the start of the ceremonies and portable shrine parade
being pushed back to noon.
The rain stopped in the late morning, and the children-centered offertorial events atthe schools and community center’s rise of land were held as planned. On the other hand,
after the ceremonies and departure of the Hachiman Shrine’s portable shrine at the shrine,
the portable shrine was loaded onto a truck, and its carriers boarded a minibus. They went
to the Salmon River Abundant Catch Ceremony, Zai district’s nursing home A-en, Hama
district’s Kurauchi Fishing Port, and the Koizumi Machi District Shinkōkai Hall.
17

Ichinoseki-shi Kyōiku Iinkai, Nanbu kagura chōsa hōkokusho, pp. 56–57.

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At the nursing home, which had been added after the previous year’s lessons,approximately fifty residents went out to the front courtyard with the assistance ofnursing home staff and greeted the portable shrine. A lion (costume) accompanied theportable shrine, and residents lined up to have their heads bitten.
The Shinto priest and shrine parishioners from Kanagawa continued this year to
support middle school students’ portable shrine parade. However, there were concerns
about the influence of Koizumi Middle School being absorbed into Tsuya Middle School.
In the end, partially due to the morning’s poor weather, there were not enough middle
school students for them alone to carry a portable shrine.

2019 Changes
In 2019, events were not split between two days. All were held on 8 September (Sunday).
Participants were blessed with good weather, and everything proceeded basically the sameas 2017, two years prior. However, as had been the case in 2018, the Zai district stop was
the nursing home A-en (Figure 4).

Fig 4. The 8 September 2019 portable shrine parade route.

Kurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 51
A-en had told the priest that the previous year’s portable shrine parade was received
favorably by residents, as well as that there was a request that to have the shrine being
carried around as bearers chant wasshoi, wasshoi or “heave-ho, heave-ho” (instead of justbringing the portable shrine in a truck). This is called neri 練り. The portable shrine wasplaced in the courtyard of A-en, and with almost thirty residents/staff-members greetingit, Shinto rituals, a lion dance, mochi-making, and neri was carried out.
Also, as was the case in the previous year, from 2:00 p.m. Shimo-ōkago Nanbu kagura
was offered at the Koizumi Machi District Shinkōkai Hall.
In the previous year, there had not been enough middle school students to carry one
float on their own, and the combining of middle schools had made reaching out tostudents less effective. Therefore, the idea of having a single portable shrine be carried bymiddle school students alone was given up on, and the Kanagawa Prefecture Shinto priest
and parishioners did not provide support to students in building and carrying a portableshrine as they had been doing since 2013. People reached out to middle school students,
and the few that came assisted in the shrine’s portable shrine parade. At first, they heldback (for example, holding the donation box instead of the shrine), but they graduallybecame more involved from the neri at A-en. The several middle school students also
participated in the feast (naorai) that began at 4:00 p.m. and the party celebrating thetalent show’s successful completion at 8:00 p.m.
According to a man in his fifties that was involved in both the portable shrine parade
and the talent show, currently, there are just enough people to get by, and it would be
preferable if twice as many were involved.

4. Discussion
Above I traced the festival’s changes, focusing primarily on the shrine parade route’s
scope. Of course, this was not only a spatial change.
The year of the earthquake, forty lives and approximately seventy percent of thearea’s houses were lost due to the tsunami. Amidst this, the portable shrine parade
was relaunched, connecting the former residential area of the Machi district (nowonly foundations, with the shrine and houses having been washed away), the riverside(where a salmon hatchery business has continued), and the elevated land area that hosts
educational facilities (such as a kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, andcommunity center) and a temporary housing complex.
In terms of the people involved in the festival, it is important that up through 2016
the shrine’s sōdai and shinkōkai (local residents’ associations) entered into a cooperative
relationship to form an entity that would operate the festival.
Participants included people carrying the shrine―volunteers (up to 2014) andmiddle school students―and, in the offertorial events, people of all ages, including

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kindergarteners and middle school students.
The nearby portable shrine parade and offertorial events were easy to view for the
residents, especially seniors, of the temporary housing on the same land rise as the schools
and community center.
From 2017 onwards, as the environment changed with disaster prevention group
relocation progressing and middle schools being combined, organizers pro-actively
responded by changing the portable shrine parade route. It became an approximately
two-kilometer undulating one from the elevated area to the Machi district’s group
relocation residential area. Machi district residents probably wanted to pass on the coreof the festivities, moving it from their former places of residence―the district’s originalneighborhood (now used as a materials storage and worker resting area for reconstructionwork) and the elevated land area―to their new home. However, the heads of the shinkōkai
of other districts (Nishi, Higashi, Hama) are also involved in running the festival, andin light of the fact that Hachiman Shrine is the protector of the entire Koizumi area,
it was decided to put the portable shrine on a truck and bring it to the Zai and Hama
districts as well. The aim was to include residents of these districts as not only, of course,organizers and participants but also as people who come out to greet the portable shrine.
However, in the first year of this change, only a few residents gathered at the Zai andHama districts’ parade stops. For this reason, in the Hama district, in 2018 the paradestop was changed to A-en, which resulted in many facility residents coming out to greet
it. The connections created in this way were not unidirectional; for example, in 2019 theneri was added at the request of these residents.
Here we find people both seeking to carry on a festival from pre-earthquake times
as well as thoughtfully working to have this festival help include residents in the postearthquake community rebuilding process. This can probably be found in other areas as
well.
Inazawa Tsutomu 稲澤努 has investigated and discussed the festival restoration processof Yaegaki 八重垣 Shrine (Yamamoto Town, Miyagi Prefecture). This shrine is located in
an area that was struck by the tsunami and designated as vulnerable to disaster.18 Inazawa
has shown that with shrine parishioners leaving the parish, people worked to ensure
the festival’s continued existence by having an intangible cultural property preservation
association assume responsibility for its operations, as well as that its portable shrine
parade route went to the area’s temporary housing complex.
I have also been following Yaegaki Shrine’s festival. With residents leaving the
temporary housing complex and dispersing to primarily three areas (Akasaka, the newtown center called “Tsubame no mori,” and Kasano), the portable shrine goes around to18

Inazawa, “Matsuri no ‘fukkō’ katei.”Kurosaki: The Inclusiveness of Festival Culturein the Post-Disaster Rural Community Restructuring Process 53
the three of them on a truck.
Seen in this way, we might say that an effective indicator of inclusiveness is thechanging or broadening of a portable shrine parade route. However, what is important iswhether inclusion is considered in the adjustments and coordination that take place up tothat point.
In this sense, it is worth noting that a facility for seniors was added as a parade stoproute. For the 2018 shrine parade, I rode the minibus used to transport people carrying
the portable shrine. At that time, I remember hearing one person comment, “Maybe I’ll
move there at some point.” With the aging and shrinking of the population still being
unavoidable after group relocation, inevitably it becomes more likely that people will
choose not only the help of family and the community but also human services. The
portable shrine and those carrying it visiting such a facility and interacting with residents
leads the former set of people to see the latter’s situation as something that pertains tothemselves. The festival takes on another meaning: supporting the prayers offered at thefacility.
When observing and recording in detail, as well as analyzing, the changes in festivals
found in mid and long-term post-disaster recovery processes, it is beneficial to adopt theangle of inclusiveness. While continuing to do so, I plan to open up my field of vision to
include comparative discussions.

Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a JSPS Kakenhi grant (no. JP18K18547; research
representative: National Museum of Ethnology Professor Emeritus Takezawa Shōichirō 竹沢尚一郎) and the 2018 Academic Year Kokugakuin University Graduate School Specific
Topic Research Project (tokutei kadai kenkyū 特定課題研究) “Chiiki saisei to jizoku kanōna shakai shisutemu keisei ni kansuru gakusai teki kenkyū” 地域再生と持続可能な社会
システム形成に関する学際的研究 (Interdisciplinary research on local regeneration andsustainable societal system formation; research representative: Kokugakuin University
Professor Kubota Yūko 久保田裕子).
(Translated by Dylan Luers Toda)

54

Kokugakuin Japan Studies 3 (2022)
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