Япония: цивилизация, культура, язык 2022

ЯПОНИЯ: цивилизация, культура, язык 2022 520 The men in charge said no, women could not touch the mikoshi. While struggling between the desire to get more specific answers and worry that I might offend my informants (although I did wonder how they would have responded to a man asking the same question), I tried to delve deeper into the issue and ask whether they still believed in this “red uncleanness.” The answers were ambiguous, most likely because they had never seriously considered the issue, and I was told that it was a “matter of spirit” and “serving the gods.” I encountered a similar situation at another Osaka summer festival, Noda Ebisu (taking place on July 19-20), where the big drum used to announce the beginning of the rites and to entertain the deities assumed as present was also off limits for women, despite the fact that it does not represent a divine abode. At Saijo Matsuri 8 , an autumn festival from Saijo, Ehime Prefecture (October 15~16), women were permitted to help carry the danjiri (intricately carved parade floats) due to the fact that the number of able participants had diminished in recent years, but older men lamented the “good old days” when women would simply dress up and admire the parade from the gates of their houses, without interfering with serious matsuri business. 8 Fieldwork conducted between 2014~2019.