Japanese rainmaking and other folk practices

Bibliographic Information

Japanese rainmaking and other folk practices

Geoffrey Bownas ; [with line drawings by Pauline Brown]

(Routledge library editions, Anthropology and ethnography ; 90 . Witchcraft, folklore and mythology ; 1)

Routledge, 2004

Available at  / 6 libraries

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Note

Reprint. Originally published: London : G. Allen & Unwin, 1963

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The ritual of rainmaking is one of half a dozen Japanese folk practices and festivals described in this book. The story of rainmaking ceremonies begins with personal experience and then draws on the work of Japanese folklorists to record significant local variations and to construct a general account of the history and purpose of the ceremony. Field research was conducted during study visits to Kyoto, to Tenri in Nara Prefecture and to Shiga Prefecture. The chapter order follows the year cycle, from New Year via early summer purificatory festivals and rainmaking ceremonial to the feast of Bon, which with New Year ceremonies divides the year. Alongside these community or public rites are described private or family rituals concerned with birth, marriage and death. The introductory chapter relates aspects of Japanese culture, myth and language to the constant features of folk practice recorded or extant in 1950s Japan. Originally published in 1963.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. The New Year 3. Births, Marriages and Deaths 4. Gion Festival 5. Bon 6. Rainmaking 7. Tenri and Yamato 8. Taboo 9. The Village Year

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