하라이(祓い)의 일본민속 고찰 ‒세시풍속과 야쿠도시(厄年) 의례의 관계를 중심으로‒

Abstract

In this article, it was investigated in the relationship with seasonal customs and lifetime ceremony to figure out in which form this Harai had been actually existing in Japanese folklore. As the conclusion of the analysis of this article, first, among the Japanese seasonal customs, there were considerably many rituals that were not ceremonies for agriculture but rituals to prevent calamity by casting out evil spirits. Second, among Japanese lifetime ceremonies, there are traditionally many age-celebration events for childhood, adulthood, late middle age and old age. These are also based on the concept of calamity prevention. Third, the fact that the ceremony of calamity year ‘Yakudosi’ had been conducted as an seasonal customs was brought into the attention. In other words, it implies that, in the content of Japanese seasonal customs, a characteristic related only to individual health but irrelevant to agriculture was absolutely existing. This fact may provides an important implication to reexamine the existing folkloristic concept which focuses on ‘rice farming agriculture’.