Interpretations of that folk festival, the "matsuri," vary. Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore studies in Japan, defined it as "man's attending to and living in the company of the gods." Though the word is variously translated as "rite" or "festival," the sacred character of the gathering is seen as paramount.
A later definition, that of Mikiharu Ito, amplified the definition and found matsuri "basically a symbolic act whereby participants enter a state of active communication with the gods . . . accompanied by communion among participants in the form of feast and festival."
Scholar Herbert Plutschow more recently offered a structural model that contained the elements that all matsuri, no matter how different, exhibit: the ascent or arrival of the deity, and/or the opening of the shrine "kami-oroshi"; the entertainment (or placation or exorcism) of the deity, "kami-asobi"; and the ceremonial sending off of the deity, "kami-okuri."
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