Japanese Rainmaking and other Folk Practices (Routledge Library Editions: Anthropolgy and Ethnography: Witchcraft, Folklore and Mythology, 1) - Softcover

Bownas, Geoffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415866693 ISBN 13: 9780415866699

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey Bownas

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415866693
• ISBN 13: 9780415866699
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 178