Aki Matsuri is a popular Shinto festival that has evolved
into a secularized Japanese national holiday comparable to Thanksgiving Day in
the US. It was historically a day centered on the local Shinto shrines, during
which the shrines' portable shrine was paraded through the village, and people
used the occasion to express gratitude to the heavenly powers (kami) for the
plentiful harvest.
Those who held the shrine made wishes for happiness to those
who lived there when they went from house to house. The day starts with the
priest purifying the temple and the participants donning traditional garb.
In Japan (and the Japanese diaspora), there isn't just one
autumn festival, but a slew of them, each held at a different location with a
different focus and on different dates during the month. The festival's local
dates are often changed from year to year to keep it on a weekend. The Aki
Matsuri in Kyoto contains a commemoration of the city's founding (October 22).
The festivals in Akita, Aichi, and Nihonmatsu are among the
most significant. The procession to the nearest Shinto shrine is conducted at
night in these areas, and it involves hundreds of lanterns that wind down the
street as music plays. Hachiman, a famous Shinto god of war and the country's
supreme guardian as well as a Buddhist bodhisattva, is the subject of several
autumn festivals in Japan, including those in Himeji, Hyogo prefecture, and
Takayama, Gifu prefecture.
The latter starts with a ceremony at the Sakur ayama
Hachimangu Shrine, accompanied by a procession of 11 portable shrines (known as
mikoshi) that are carried across town to enable Hachiman to visit each
neighborhood's homes. The shrines are on display throughout the evening and can
be seen by the illumination of several paper lanterns. Nagasaki is also home to
the Nagasaki Kunchi, a massive autumn festival that dates to the 17th century.
