Exorcism Rites "Uepotara" in Nibutani
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 1993.6.3
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Okada, Kazuo
setName: label: See more items in
content: Kazuo Okada videos
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Videocassette (25 minutes, black-and-white color sound, 1/2 inch)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1992
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Videocassettes
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Edited film created from contemporary and historical footage by EC Japan Archives, the Shimonaka Memorial Foundation, and Tokyo Cinema, Inc. Film contains footage shot in 1933-1934 by anthropologist N.G. Munro in the village of Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan. Historical footage depicts an exorcism including: a tusu (female medium) entering a trance state and diagnosing a patient, an ekashi (elder) making a prayer to the kamui fuchi (spirit of hearth), hand jestures made with inau (wooden fetishes) which are burned, ekashi invoking mintushi kamui (water spirit) using the inau by the river and calling on good kamui of the home to fight the evil kanui, a symbolic "house of evil" made of branches set on fire, and patient passing through a purification process where she is lightly beaten with branches and swords, removes outer garments, and washes face in the river before returning home. Purification continues around a Uepotara chikuni (tree) where the ekashi invokes ru-koro kamui (spirit of the privy), invites kinashut kamui (snake spirit), and finally thumps an enormous wooden mortar so the spirit will relieve the woman patient of difficult labor. Film has Japanese and English intertitles.