Spatial Structure of Japanese Religion - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 70

Most Kanamura association were 124 dantai - ko (35.8 %) type; 104 nich-
igetsunenzan - ko (30 %), 63 kinen- ko (18.2 %), and 54 daidai-ko (15.6 %).
More than 90 % percent of dantai - ko, all haru - ko and all aki - ko were in Ibaraki,
near Kanamura . 8 Yawahara village, and Ina and Fujishiro towns, located on the
lower reaches of Kokai River, were the core area of haru - ko. Yatabe town and
Mitsukaido, located near Kanamura , were the core area of aki - ko. The core
areas of daidai- ko and kinen- ko extend southeast of Saitama to north of Chiba.
More than 90 % of the associations in Saitama were either daidai-ko or kinen-
ko. In particular, Yoshikawa town (now Yoshikawa), Koshigaya, Yashio City,
and Misato, located in the lower Naka River, comprised the core area of the two
associations. In areas more than 30 km from Kanamura , daidai-ko and kinen-ko
were concentrated in Chiba and Ibaraki. The core area of nichigetsunenzan - ko
was within 20 km of Kanamura ; none were in Saitama. Many associations were
in Shimotsuma, Mitsukaido, Iwai cities, Toyosato (now in Tsukuba), Yatabe in
Ibaraki, and Noda and Kashiwa in Chiba.
The distribution of nichigetsunenzan - ko is related to the origin of the ko,
which was to pray for rain. Before the Second World War, when irrigation was
undeveloped, the villages on diluvial upland did not have enough water for
cultivation. Nichigetsunenzan - ko were organized to pray for rainfall. The prayer
ritual was completed by village managers who went to Kanamura and had a
Shinto priest pray for rain. The managers returned to their village bringing holy
water, and all villagers prayed for rain together. Since most people traveled on
foot or by bicycle, nichigetsunenzan - ko were no more than half a day from
Kanamura on foot, had the smallest distribution of ko, and were located in the
northern part of Kanamura .
Ten years later, in 1995, I plotted Kanamura associations in four prefectures:
Ibaraki, Chiba, Saitama, and Tokyo (Fig. 3.20 ). Ibaraki had 175 (68.9 %);
Chiba, 50 (19.7 %); and Saitama, 28 (11.0 %). The number of Kanamura asso-
ciations had decreased each year, and the greatest decrease was in the urbanized
regions in Chiba and Saitama. The 254 Kanamura associations in 1995 are the
subject of the next section.
It appears that the distribution of Kanamura associations was dense in the
south and west, 10-30 km from Kanamura (Fig. 3.20 ). No association existed
more than 50 km from the shrine, the outermost region of the distribution. 9 For
three reasons, few associations existed in the north part of Kanamura . First, the
Yamizo-Agakuni mountain range hinders north-south travel. 10 Second, there is
competition between the Itakura Thunder Shrine and Wakeikazuchi kotaijin,
8 The timing of the visits to Kanamura by the Haru-ko and Aki - ko, was determined by Kanamura .
9 In 1995, the association furthest from Kanamura was in Daigo town in Ibaraki. This was a
Kinen-ko, but only one person now receives an amulet from a Kanamura priest.
10 The prayer for rain requires managers to bring holy water to their village, which is why transpor-
tation is so important in the Kanamura faith.