Spatial Structure of Japanese Religion - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 52

Fig. 3.11 Distribution of all the farmhold-made dedications

Second, dedication bags could be exchanged between farm households via agri-
cultural cooperatives or sericulture instruction centers. With grain dedications, agri-
cultural cooperatives (JA) can act as the intermediary and deliver bags to caretakers,
called Hatsuhoko. Farm households who wished could dedicate grain through indi-
vidual branches of JA, who distributed bags to each household via the relevant care-
taker. This method of distributing bags was offered by 15 JAs, mainly in west
Ibaraki near Kasama Inari . The Shimodate JA distributed grain dedication bags sent
from Kasama Inari to eight branches, which were passed on to about 20 caretakers.
The caretakers were responsible for distributing the bags to the individual farm
households wishing to make dedications.