Dancing as if Possessed: A Coming Out Party in Edo Spirit Society

Abstract

The nineteenth-century nativist Hirata Atsutane's desire to discover information about his theorized supernatural Other World of kami and other spirits was fulfilled through his leading conversations with the so-called tengu apprentice Torakichi. This interaction is well-documented in his work Senkyo ibun, which should be understood as a pseudo-ethnography of that Other World. However, Torakichi's usefulness to Atsutane was not merely limited to insights gained from growing up in that Other World and having been trained by its inhabitants. Atsutane also exploited his tengu apprentice Torakichi's unique talents in religious ritual and ritualized ceremonial settings to support Atsutane's theory of the superiority of native Japanese practices over all foreign traditions. This article seeks to bring to light how Atsutane subverted dominant modes of discourse and supported his controversial nativist theories by staging performances in Edo salon society to provide ritual verification of a new powerful kami-loving spirit in Edo. KEYWORDS: Hirata Atsutane-nativism-tengu-Senkyo ibun-spirit possession-ritual (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) In this article I introduce a ritual performed only once in Edo Japan. It has yet to be studied or even noticed, but has important general implications for the academic study of ritual as an instrument for social change, and is particularly important for the revelation of new elements of late-Edo-period religion. Ritual is often defined as some innate and primordial human way of acting upon the world that recreates, regenerates, or reinforces beliefs and practices of a reality accepted by the social group practicing that ritual. There are volumes of scholarly works replete with examples from various cultures from around the world throughout history that can support this understanding of ritual. However, this article illustrates and explains a less familiar function of ritual that creates and generates a reality previously unknown by the social group into which it is introduced. As Clifford Geertz (1973, 119) suggested, ritual does not always merely describe and maintain the social order but in certain instances reshapes it. This one-time ritual was performed in Edo Japan to introduce a new spirit entity. In Japan in 1821 a birthday party of sorts was held for a tengu/yamabushi1 known as Sugiyama Sanjin ... that was meant to verify his legitimacy as an object of worship to members and friends of Hirata Atsutane's ... nativist academy.3 That party was inspired by stories of supernatural contact with spirits and the festivities were arranged by and performed in large part by a boy who claimed to have been an apprentice tengu. Atsutane opportunistically used the stories, the theatrical dance, and other various talents of this tengu apprentice by sponsoring this ritual for his patrons, colleagues, and followers hoping to enhance his own status among certain diverse and influential elements of Edo society.4 The Context of the Birthday Party From Atsutane's work, completed in 1822 and titled Senkyo ibun ... (Strange tales from the realm of immortals), we learn that in 1820 Atsutane met a boy named Torakichi ... who claimed to have been raised in the Other World of spirits and supernatural beings.5 This boy introduced Atsutane to a new Japanese supernatural super hero, the sanjin, or mountain man. Torakichi was a teenage homeless waif when Atsutane discovered him, but he had a knack for spinning a convincing yarn and he soon found himself in demand for his stories about life in the Other World. The information that interested Atsutane the most about this Other World was what Torakichi had to say about his master and trainer in the supernatural arts, a being known as Sugiyama Sanjin. Sugiyama Sanjin had first been introduced by Torakichi as the well-known Japanese goblin, the tengu; however, through much self-serving prodding and browbeating Atsutane started to pull out stories of a secret class of tengu who were not really tengu at all, but rather a previously unknown type of supernatural being now identified as sanjin. …