Remembering some of the earlier images and discussions concerning the importance of women in Japanese society and ritual life, the "vitalism" (to use Professor Delmer Brown's term) they impart to the world also extends to the planting of rice. Of course, men also participated in community planting events (where an entire hamlet would cooperate to plant each other's fields), but today's rice-planting rituals staged for public consumption by shrines usually enlist young women (many who have never planted anything in their lives) as symbolically representative of this emphasis on vitality. Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto holds one of the more elaborate planting rituals. More on this shrine can be found in Karen Smyers' excellent book The Fox and the Jewel from the University of Hawai'i (1999).
All photos and text © Copyright John K. Nelson, 1999