Reisai

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A Reisai (例祭) is a Shinto festival (Matsuri) held at a Shinto shrine every year. The Reisai is the most important festival of the shrine.^[1]

It is held on a special day for the deity of the shrine [ja] or the shrine itself.^[1]

If a shrine is for a historical figure, this festival is usually on their birthday or day of death.^[1]

In cases where there is no specific historical date, the festival is usually held during the spring [ja] or autumn [ja] as a general celebration. ^[1]

The date of the Reisai is fixed and cannot be arbitrarily changed. If a shrine needs to change its reisai date, it must get permission from the Association of Shinto Shrines.^[1]

People started calling important festivals reisai in the early modern period.^[1]

In the early modern period, illustrated guides to famous places [fr; ja] around the country would often include entries such as "XX Shrine Annual Festival on XX Month XX Day," which shows that it had become common to refer to important festivals that represent a shrine as annual festivals.^[1]

In the Meiji period the Reisai and Niiname-sai and Kinen-sai festivals, were called 'great festivals', Important shrines had imperial envoys give sacred offerings [ja] to the shrines, representing the Imperial House of Japan.^[1]

After World War II, the government stopped giving sacred offerings [ja], but imperial envoys still visit imperial shrines during annual festivals.^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} "Reisai | 國學院大學デジタルミュージアム". web.archive.org. 2023-12-07. Archived from the original on 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-04-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)