Spatial Structure of Japanese Religion - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 86

Table 3.6 Roles of Toke in the Konomata district, Tsukuba City, 1995
Term 1 year

In charge 2 households

( uwado, shitado )

Shitado is an assistant

Dedication of Kamisama Daily: Offerring a cup of water and rice

Monthly: Offerring a cup of red rice and Japanese
sake on 15th

Dedication
of tutelary shrine

Monthly: Cleaning the precincts of shrine on 14th

Content of work Monthly: Offering a cup of red rice on 15th

A Shinto priest
Syuku at meal with kami

Delegate visit
to Kanamura

Ritual for preventing disaster

Pray for bumper crops of matsurida

Mourning
Taboo Meat-eating
Peeping Kamisama
Data source : The author's fi eld survey in September, 1995

forests were cut down. Since the newcomers were not engaged in agriculture,
they did not want to join any ko in the community.
The 26 members of the Akagi ko were also part of the Kanamura associa-
tion. Three pioneer families were in charge of the managers of the latter, rotat-
ing every fi ve or 10 years. No other family took charge. Two ko in Konomata
district organized the tutelary shrine named Akagi and the Kanamura associa-
tion. Both ko have shared same members since about 1980.
The family in charge of the manager of religious events in Konomata was
called the toke and had several roles in the district (Table 3.6 ). The toke man-
aged all religious occasions for the year, beginning with the main festival called
Hon-matsuri in December. The toke consisted of two households, one called
Uwado and the other Shitado . The households under the ko of the tutelary shrine
were divided into 12 groups, who each took turns in charge. The Uwado was in
charge of a Shinto priest and the Shitado assisted him/her. The toke had three
main kinds of work: the religious service of Kamisama , the religious service of
the tutelary shrine, and a delegate visit to Kanamura. Kamisama was wor-
shipped by the people belonging to the ko in Konomata district. It was dedicated
in the Uwado's house called Shuku . People call it the spirit of the tutelary shrine.
It was enshrined in a blackened wooden box about 25 cm square, 1 m high, sur-
rounded by a sacred straw festoon. The box is stored in an alcove, and the
Uwado offered a cup of rice and a cup of water to the shrine every morning.
A cup of red rice and a glass of sake was offered on the 15th of every month. It
was also her duty to offer a cup of red rice to Akagi Shrine and the seven small
shrines in the shrine precinct on the 15th of every month. The Uwado had to
visit Kanamura twice a year in January and March. People had a meal with kami