Regional Characteristics of the Belief in the Kanamura Betsurai Shrine between the Inner and Outer Areas

Abstract

In this paper, I have tried to clarify the regional differences in the mode of people's belief in the Kanamura Shrine between the outer and inner areas of its religious sphere. In the Toyosato district, a typical district of the inner area, Kanamura religious associations (ko) do not function as autonomous religious groups and are dependent upon other religious or administrative organizations, while the majority of the individual believers used to pray for the safety of soldiers before the war, and now pray for the safety of their own families. People in this area worshipped the Kanamura Shrine not only as an efficacious deity but the tutelary status of the shrine. One of the factors causing people to regard the Kanamura Shrine as their tutelary deity is the close connection between the local communities and the shrine through the distribution of amulets and ceremonies in addition to people's visits to the shrine. In the Yoshikawa district, a typical district of the outer area, there are few individual believers but the Kanamura associations in this district have their own managers and members, and function independently of the «ujiko», or other religious organizations. It is cleared that people in this area worshipped the Kanamura Shrine not as the tutelary deity but as a removed efficacious deity.