ABSTRACT
Introduction It has been widely reported that traditionally women were ritually prohibited from entering certain mountains and other sacred places in mainland Japan (e.g. Miyata 1979:59-66; Miyake 1987). In the fishing villages in which I conducted fieldwork women are not allowed to get on a fishing boat because they are said to be ritually polluted or because the funa-dama (guardian spirit of the boat) is female and will become angry since she is jealous of female crews.1 This prohibition and its associated ideas seem to exist in many other Japanese fishing villages. Women, and menstruating women in particular, must not participate in village festivals in a number of rural communities. In most places it is Shinto priests who conduct the festivals, and men predominate in ritual activities.
