Tsumi.kegare and Japanese Anthropologies of Disease
Abstract
At present we are not in a position to agree on the concept known as tsumi.kegare, due to the different lines of interpretation. The general starting point is the animist paradigm, but the approach of folklore studies, matsuri structure and dynamics, and the dynamics of ritual contamination itself differ.
The theories of tama in Orikuchi Shinobu (1887-1953), of tsumi.kegare from Motoori Norinaga, or of Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), collected by Sonoda Minoru (1936-) on the nature of matsuri, differ from each other.
The theory of tsumi.kegare based on the symbolism of rice has both pros and cons. Indeed, in contrast to the view of kegare as a kind of natural deterioration, based on the model of the agricultural cycle, we must take into account the importance in animist culture of external factors that attack the body, such as invisible entities that invade and destroy our organism.
This type of contagion can be interpreted in terms of tsumi, following Namihira Emiko (1942-). We conclude by offering four cases of textual incidence of the concept of disease in Japanese classics as proposed case studies.
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