passage, are marked by special ceremonies and celebrations, the most important of which is the wedding banquet. Whereas community labor is a neighborhood affair, a gathering of people on a geographic basis, the gathering of relatives for a wedding or a funeral is a coming together of people as kin. In one situation the solidarity of the local group is expressed, in the other the ties of kinship strengthened.
Another event, something of a crisis in a peasant community, is departure on a long journey, an event socially recognized by farewell banquets. These feasts are big occasions, especially of recent years when the prospective traveler happens to be a young conscript. The young man’s family gives a large banquet for neighbors and relatives, a banquet marked by much song and more wine, “to lighten the traveller’s footsteps.”
The waxing and waning of the moon and the rhythmic round of seasons both affect the social life of a Japanese folk community. This is reflected by the predominance of festivals on the fifteenth of the lunar month, that is, at the time of the full moon, and by numerous festivals in spring and in autumn, at New Year, and midsummer. Some of these festivals are celebrated on a small scale at the neighborhood god house, others on a larger scale at the village temple or shrine and all of them are, of course, occasions for song and dance and the exchange of drinks. The periods of labor in the fields are thus both relieved and set off by festivals of the full moon and by celebrations in honor of deities of rice, of motherhood, and of medicine.[1]
The songs sung at banquets and festivals are true folksongs; they are anonymous, familiar to every one present and reflect in one way or another the social values of the group. With the exception of some of the seasonal songs (Shonga, No. 71, and Jūgoya, No. 76) there is little discrimination in the choice of verses to be sung at a given banquet—they may include Rokuchōshi (Nos. 1–4), a favorite at all times, some verses from March 16th (No. 64), a song or two from another region such as Sado Okesa (No. 121).
The popular songs are well known to everyone in the village and are learned as part of the general folkways of the group by a growing child rather than through any formal teaching. Children always linger about a house where a banquet is in progress, so it is not difficult for them to acquire a knowledge of the words and of the tunes. As far as performance goes, it is usually the full adults of the group, that is those married and with children, who are the freest performers, for it is not seemly for the youthful to indulge in such boisterous pleasures. Furthermore, most dancing is solo, and serves as a means of self-
- ↑ Each neighborhood or hamlet god house is the home of some popular deity such as Kwannon (mercy), Yakushi (medicine), or Jizō (children and safety).
