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Japanese folklore encompasses the folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people. In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore; the study of folkloristics is known as . Folklorists also employ the term or "folklore material" (民俗資料) to refer to objects and arts they study. ==Folk religion== (詳細はnamahage, wearing ogre-like masks and traditional straw capes (') make rounds of homes,〔, p.50-2 misidentifies Namahage as a Kyushu ritual. See other sources under namahage article〕 in an annual ritual of the Oga Peninsula area of the Northeast region. These ogre-men masquerade as kami looking to instill fear in the children who are lazily idling around the fire. This is a particularly colorful example of folk practice still kept alive. A parallel custom is the secretive ritual of the Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa which does not allow itself to be photographed.〔, p.60 misplaces as Kagoshima prefecture, probably confusing it with of the Koshikijima Islands which is mentioned by , p.87 (marebito), p.98 (namahage)〕 Many, though increasingly fewer households maintain a kamidana or a small Shinto altar shelf.〔, Routledge Hbk., p.69, households with kamidana showed a decline from 62% (1984) to 43.9% (2006); and only 26.4% in metropolitan areas〕 The Shinto version of the kitchen god is the , and the syncretic Buddhist version is the Kōjin, a deity of the hearth enshrined in the kitchen. Japanese popular cults or 〔 encyclopedia, vol.21, p.442, on ''minkan shinkō'' (folk religion) by Takeda, Chōshū. Mentions such kō as those devoted to Ise Shrine(伊勢講)、Akiba(秋葉講)、Ōmine(大峰講)、kōshin(庚申講)、Koyasu(子安講)、Yama-no-Kami (山ノ神講)、(念仏講), Kannon (観音講)〕 are sometimes devoted to particular deities and buddhas, e.g. the angry Fudō Myōō or the healer Yakushi Nyorai. But many cults centered around paying respects to sacred sites such as the Ise Shrine (''Ise-kō'' or ') or Mount Fuji (', by which many local mock-Fuji shrines have been erected). Pilgrimage to these meccas declined after the Edo Period. But recently, the Shikoku Pilgrimage of the eighty-eight temple sites (commonly known as ''ohenro-san'') has become fashionable. Popular media and cottage industries now extoll a number of shrines and sacred natural sites as . There is a long list of practices performed to ward evil ()〔, p.325 , note 23 "the ''okoshi daiko'' as a "ceremony to guard against misfortune" ("''yakuyoke no gyōji''")"〕 or expel evil (), e.g. sounding the drums.〔 In some areas it is common to place a small mound of salt outside the house (').〔, p.23, "Salt, the sophistication of ritual sea bathing as a cleanser of contamination, appears today even in many apparently secular uses. The sumō wrestler will sprinkle () across the ring as he advances.. a restaurant frequently has its Fuji-cone of caked salt by the door-jamb, as a means of clearing the defilement left by an unwelcome patron".〕〔, p.98, "little piles of salt have been placed at shrines to purify and gain the gods' protective presence"〕 Salt-scattering is generally considered purifying〔 (it is employed in sumo tournaments,〔 to give a well-known example). A stock routine in period or even contemporary drama involves a master of the house telling his wife to scatter salt after an undesirable visitor has just left. Contrarily, lighting sparks with flint just as a someone is leaving the house was considered lucky. No one now engages in the silent vigil required by the ''Kōshin'' cult, but it might be noted that this cult has been associated with the iconic three See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys.〔, p.53〕 There are certain vestiges of geomancy introduced into Japan from China through Onmyōdō. The word ', lit. "ogre's gate", colloquially refers to anything that a person may have constant ill luck with, but in the original sense designates the northeasterly direction, considered to be unlucky or dangerously inviting of ill-intended spirits〔 (cf. Konjin). There is also a Japanese version of Feng Shui known as '〔, pp.125- goes into a description of kasō in considerable detail.〕 or literally "house physiognomy". Closely connected is the Yin-yang path or Onmyōdō, and its concepts such as ' also known as ''kataimi'',〔, p.87; citing 〕 which was widely practiced by nobles in the Heian Era. A widely known taboo (') advises against sleeping with your head faced north,〔, p.98 her informants do not believe in it, but rather not be seen〕 though it is doubtful if anyone now seriously heeds this prohibition.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Japanese folklore」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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