Kannamesai Festival
kannamesai festival sometimes called ōmatsuri one important festival ise jingu held october year ritual make offering first harvest crop season amaterasu imperial envoy carry offering rice harvested emperor ise well fivecoloured silk cloth material called heihaku 幣帛 festival culmination cycle festival take place throughout year beginning april shinden geshusai 神田下種祭 see sowing rice seed followed otaue hajime 御田植初 seedling transplanted may harvest nuibosai 抜穂祭 september finally kannamesai kannamesai one three seasonal festival held throughout year festival held niinamesai imperial palace follows lunar calendar taking place ninth lunar month includes imperial envoy carrying offering silk gift festival begin evening october okitamanokamisai 興玉神祭 guardian kami shrine okitama invoked followed miura 御卜 divination ritual determine clergy participating festival impure rendering unfit participate clergy present yukinoо̄mike 由貴大御饌 edible offering form fish vegetable water sake followed presenting heihaku offering imperial envoy ritual completed kagura dance ritual largely repeated twice inner outer shrine evening following morning festival emperor performs distance worship 御遙拝 goyо̄hai shinkaden 神嘉殿 hall imperial palace festival may root legend emperor suinins time princess yamatohimenomikoto looked place enshrine imperial family ancestral spirit made offering rice stalk beak whitenaped crane became true festival empress genshō sent offering called reihei 例幣 ise shrine ninth month lunar calendar practice stopped middle age restarted edo period japan adopted gregorian calendar ninth month longer aligned harvest season rice kannamesai moved october compensate