F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-039

Okuyama Gongen Mushi-okuri (Insect-Sending Ceremony)

奥山大権現 虫送り（奥山ほたる祭）おくやまだいごんげん むしおくり

The Mushi-okuri is an agricultural folk ritual in which the insects that damage rice crops are ceremonially "sent" to the local shrine — not killed, not repelled, but honored and removed. Participants carry torches and lanterns around the edges of their rice paddies in a procession that is understood to invite the insects to follow the lights to a new location, sparing the crops without the violence of extermination. The ceremony is a survival of an ancient animistic worldview in which insects inhabit spirits, and spirits can be negotiated with rather than simply destroyed. At Okuyama in Hamamatsu, the ceremony has merged with the area's famous firefly season, giving the Mushi-okuri the additional function of a firefly-appreciation event whose spiritual basis makes it more than a summer nature walk.