４月２３日（日曜日）２０２３
多賀大社、春の古例大祭が２２日に執り行われました。今年の祭りの主役である馬頭人は彦根に本社がある昭和バルブ製作所の会長、中川哲氏で今年１月の正式発表以来、数々の神事を夫人と共にこなしてこられ、そのハイライトが古例大祭の御わたりといわれる騎馬による行列でした。
昔から多賀祭りの前日は敏満寺の胡の宮神社のお祭りと決まっており、敏満寺の方の話では、祭りの神輿を担いだ若衆が敏満寺の町をねり歩いた後でかなりの段差の参道の階段を担いで上がり、神様が神社に御戻りになったところで祭りが終わるそうです。その後、胡の宮神社の宮司様が榊に乗った神様を多賀大社へお連れし、多賀大社の古例祭へと御繋ぎする。何百年も前から繰り返されてきたこうした神事の一連を私は地元で育ちながら知ることなくこの歳に至りました。２１日の夕方の多賀大社での神事は地元でもほとんどの人が知りません。拝殿正面から胡の宮神社の神様が御通りになるところを見せて頂くのは生まれて初めてでした。白い装束は多賀大社の神主様で「オー、オー」といった声を発して胡の宮神社の宮司様の先を歩かれます。多賀大社の名誉宮司のNさまに伺うと、神様が御通りになる時に発する声であることを教えて下さいました。訳が分からず物珍しそうにカメラを向けて見ていましたが、もっと丁重に頭を下げるべきだったと反省しています。
Taga Taisha Spring Festival was held on the 22nd. This year, the main person of the festival was Mr. S.Nakagawa who is a resident of Hikone and an executive chairman of SHOWA VALVE CO., LTD. He had done many Shinto rituals with his wife and the highlight was the procession with about 40 horses with people.
The day before Taga Taisha Festival, it was a festival day of Konomiya Shrine and the day was set from several hundred years ago. Konomiya Shrine is in Binmanji which is near Taga Taisha and it is also a very old shrine. According to the people in Binmanji, young adult local people carry Mikoshi which is a portable shrine in which the spirit of a deity temporarily reposes during a festival and is carried on the shoulders of them. I don't know the exact weight but it is easily over one ton. They carried Mikoshi and walked through the main street in Binmanji and finally carried it up to the shrine which is on the hill. The way to the shrine is stairs and it is unbelievably hard to carry such a heavy Mikoshi to the shrine even with 40 men's power. When the spirit of the deity gets back to the Konomiya shrine, the festival is over. Then, the head of the shrine led the spirit with Sakaki (sacred Shinto tree) to Taga Taisha to report in Shinto way that Konomiya Shrine's festival was over. Taga Taisha takes over that report and starts their festival. It is held in the late afternoon and I saw this Shinto ritual for the first time at Taga Taisha. Since even most of the local people don't know about this ritual, only a few people observed the scene. The priest of Taga Taisha who wore a white costume walked ahead of the head of the chief priest of Konomiya Shrine saying something which I had never heard. I was curious about what he was saying. Luckily I could ask about this to Mr.N who is the Honorary chief priest at Taga Taisha when he stopped by my cafe the next day. He said that a Shrine priest makes that sound while he is leading god. I was just curiously watching them pass by me and taking photos, but I regret now that I should have made a more respectful bow to god.
