Introduction

This book presents a classification of matsuri drawing from a variety of sources and approaches. It draws of course from an observation of present-day matsuri and from what distinguishes one matsuri from another, that is, from what makes it unique. Yet it also draws from ‘universals’ that one is able to detect from a vu d’ensemble of Japanese matsuri and from ritual in other cultures and therefore differs substantially from Michael Ashkenazi’s case study. ¹ Many matsuri are ‘local’ events responding to local needs and traditions, but, since they have operated in a unified political state and to a certain extent in a uniform culture, they also follow ‘national’ patterns and characteristics. On the diachronic side, this classification also draws from historical documents through which, despite their scarcity and political and cultural bias, we can trace modern matsuri to ancient practice and vice-versa. This approach allows us to reach a preliminary understanding of how present-day matsuri developed from ancient ones.