Communicating about Communicating with Kami (Deities): An Ethnographic Study of WASHINOMIYA SAIBARA KAGURA

Kagura is one of the oldest forms of Shinto folk performing arts in Japan. Performed as part of local religious festivals, it is considered to be a means of communicating with kami (deities). This article offers an ethnographic study of WASHINOMIYA SAIBARA KAGURA to explore the communicative dimensions of Shinto. The purpose is twofold: (a) to seek religious conditions that allow the Japanese to communicate about kami; and (b) to add an East Asian cultural insight into our understanding of intercultural communication and religion. The study demonstrates the ways the members of the kagura group communicate about the kagura and how the group shares the kami, focusing on the interaction during the kagura practices.