F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-175

Deyanna Matsuri (The Festival One Must Not Encounter)

でやんな祭でやんなまつり

Deyanna Matsuri is a folk rite handed down at Mimiura Shrine, which stands on a mountain near Mimiura along the Higashi-Kuniga coast in Betsufu, Nishinoshima Town, Oki District, Shimane Prefecture. The enshrined deity is held to be Oyamatsumi-no-okami, locally also called the mountain god. Its defining character is that it is a rite one is not meant to see. As the appointed hour approaches, the community is told "deyanna yo" (do not go out, do not encounter it), and residents not involved in the rite traditionally close their doors and observe ritual seclusion. Folklorists have noted the unusual form in which an entire settlement observes seclusion for and venerates a shrine that originated as one family's tutelary deity. Tradition traces its origins to the early modern period, with a ridge-tag from 1689 said to bear the name of the Kondo family, the village headman. Out of respect for this religious taboo, viewing and photography by non-parishioners have long been refrained from; accordingly this entry records only the shrine's location and the festival's existence and folkloric significance, and does not enter into the specifics of the rite.