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In this paper I will analyze the folk custom of a doll made of straw to stand on the border of the village at the time of spring festival. In Yuza town of Yamagata prefecture such custom has been called YASARA, and was conducted by young men or small children supported by each houses under the aid of the village committee members. YASARA was conducted at many palaces in those days, but nowadays this is conducted at only three villages, Hirazu, Tarukawa and Nakayama. The purpose of YASARA festival is to make a doll of straw praying for deities to get a good harvest of paddy and to make calm the weather. At the last stage of the ritual, villagers, especially young men and children, bring the dolls by hand and go to on the border of the village to throw it away or to burn. The purpose of it is to push away the bad spirits, which are believed to give the bad effects for them. As discussed by YANAGITA Kunio, a great scholar of folklore studies, the custom to make a temporary straw doll and give the offerings is to invite deities and send them off to the other world. Prof. KAMINO Yoshiharu presupposes the new concept of Border Deity of the doll (Ningyo Dosojin) of which role is to protect against bad spirits from the outside of the village as permanent form. He had collected many case studies and tried to demonstrate his hypothesis in Tohoku area. After discussing about these antecedent studies, I try to explain YASARA festival by the point of view on the straw doll as a representation of space, so that the most important ritual aspect of the doll may be summoned the particular memory and emotion concerning upon the "place" as a part of the space designated by the ritual procedure. The dialectic capability of the doll ritual shows us the interaction of forms, stuffs and deities by the multi dimension affect through the mediating function. This analysis find out the new meanings of places and social metaphor of the space. The doll is the conjunction of deities and human beings constructed by the logic of the analogy and show the liminal power between this world and the other world. The concept of the representation of space will be apply to analyze the folk customs not only the doll but also many other phenomenon in folk society.

1. はじめに 2. 先行研究の検討 3. 遊佐町平津のヤサラ (1) 概要 (2) 神社と寺院 (3) ヤサラ : 平成16年の状況 (1) 若連中 (2) 準備 (3) 神事 (4) 人形 (5) 直会その他 (4) ヤサラのまとめ 4. 遊佐町樽川のヤサラ (1) 概要 (2) ヤサラ : 平成16年の状況 (1) 準備 (2) 人形送り (3) 中山のヤサラ 5. 平津と樽川の比較 6. 各地のヤサラ 7. 人形を作る行事と厄祓い (1) 天王祭の人形と稲番人形 (2) 菖蒲叩きと虫送り 8. おわりに

特集文化人類学の現代的課題II 第1部 空間の表象 投稿論文