Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1989 16/2-3 The Hashira-matsu and Shugendo1

The rite known as hashira-matsu 柱 松 （“pillar-pine”〉has been dis cussed by Yanagita Kunio (1915). This well-known folk observance most often took place on the 7th night of the 7th lunar month (the Tanabata 七 夕 festival), or at Bon 盆. One or two pillars twice the height of a man, and up to two arm-spans around, made of bundled brushwood, were set up in an open space. To the top were attached gohei 御幣，sakaki branches and nosh-like strips: combustible materials which easily caught fire when the hashira-matsu were lit. Lighting the hashira-matsu involved a contest to see which pillar caught fire first. In the past, this rite was widely performed from the Kanto to Kyushu. Yanagita pointed out that the local place-name HHashira-matsu ” often survived even where the rite had died out. He observed that, as in the case of other folk contests, the rite’s basic meaning had to do with divining the success or failure of that year’s harvest. Since Yanagita’s time, further materials relevant to the hashira-matsu rite have been collected. Many similar rites are now known, under such names as hi-age，hi-nage，nage-taimatsu, hashira-taimatsu, ho-age, hashiraimatsu, hotemu, hashira-matsuri, or hashira-maki. Many share one obvious feature which has been overlooked: they were performed by yamabushi. What follows is therefore intended as a reevaluation of 1 This article was originally published in Japanese (see Wakamori 1975a, pp. 362-376). Re search for this article was done during the period 1965-1966, as part of a group survey of the Togakushi cult performed by the Togakushi Sogo Chosadan under Ishida Mosa^u. 182 Japanese Journal o f Religious Studies 16/2-3 the rite’s meaning and evolution, and as a contribution to the histor