Shrine Reopening Ceremony

 

Last month  on Sunday the 9th, Samantha, one of the ALTs in Tottori, posted an invitation to attend a very rare ceremony in the town of Kawahara where she teaches. This ceremony was held at a small, old shrine which had just had necessary structural renovations done. In order to do the renovations, the diety had to be temporarily moved, and thsi ceremony was to welcome the diety back to its shrine. So standing in front of this shrine in the rain, the crowd and local news crew watched as ancient cultural traditions were performed for the first time in decades.  From my understanding, performances were something that no one in the audience had the chance to witness before, and portions of the performances used to be reserved only for royalty. I've compiled clips here to show you what we saw.