ABSTRACT
I CULTS OR RITES Anciently as was the Shintō religion inseparably connected with agriculture, the Niinaematsuri1 (Shinjō-sai) or Autumnal Harvest Festival or Feast of New Rice Crops in Autumn was from the oldest times one of the most important festivals in Shintō. We can trace the origin of the festival to the so-called Divine Age, when, tradition says, the Japanese people lived in the Plain of High Heaven. At that time Amaterasu-Ōmikami herself conducted the Feast of New Rice Crops in Heaven (E.T.N., Vol. I, p. 40), and Amewakahiko, the heavenly messenger and traitor, is reported to have observed the same feast (E.T.N., Vol. I, p. 66). And also in ancient Japan it may have been quite customary to observe the Feast of New Rice Crops in every family household, however high or low in social position.
