Table of Contents

A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine

Acknowledgments

Conventions

1. Frames and Focuses

2. Historical Momentums

3. The Kami

4. Ritual and Ceremony: An Overview

5. Finding the Measure

6. Head Priest Uesugi

Spring

7. Beans versus Demons

8. On Becoming a Priest: Matsumoto-san's Version

9. Backstage at the Doll's Day Festival

10. Judgement by Scalding Water

11. Festival for Fecundity

Summer

12. Being Dirty, Getting Clean, and the Ritual of Great Purification

13. "I Shouldn't Be Telling You This, But…"

14. A Woman's Place Is the Shrine

Autumn

15. Okunchi: A City's Heart and Soul

16. Children and Silk

17. Thanksgiving for New Rice

Winter

18. On Spirit, Geomancy, and Sake

19. Sanctifying the Earth

20. Three Rites for Enduring and Beginning the Year

21. To Be an Adult

Conclusion

Appendix 1: The Rituals and Festivals of Suwa Shrine

Appendix 2: Map and Guide to the Shrine Precincts

Notes

Glossary of Japanese Terms

Works Cited

Index