God of the Wind, Returning at Night: Memories of Festival and Prayer in Taketa, Sado Island (ca. 1973)

God of the Wind, Returning at Night: Memories of Festival and Prayer in Taketa, Sado Island (ca. 1973)

On Sado Island, Noh stages scattered throughout the island have functioned as venues deeply connected to shrine festivals. The stage, which was rebuilt in 1846, has served as a place for the villagers to perform dances dedicated to the gods, as well as a place for their prayers.

Around 1973, the wave of rapid economic growth swept over the farming, mountain, and fishing villages, transforming the way of life on Sado Island. Electrification and mechanization permeated daily life, and the once simple village landscape gradually began to take on the light of modernity. However, even in the midst of such changes, the subtle time between gods and people was still alive.

The performance in front of the gods continued through the night. Fires are lit, flutes and drums break the sky. Each gesture of the performers on stage served as an intermediary between this world and the other world, and the audience surrendered themselves to the sacred time. And then, the festival was over. The dances cease, the sounds fade, and the people quietly return home. Just as the priest quietly begins to clean up, an old man slowly appears from the mountains. He murmured in a low voice, "I wonder if the god has already returned," and his voice was filled with the realization that the god was there and the loneliness of his departure.

These words reveal the essence of the Japanese conception of God. Kami is neither a distant presence in the sky nor an absolute authority. It is a being that appears and disappears in dance and voice, in fire and shadow, and in the beating of the heart. For this reason, people are familiar with God while at the same time fearing him, and have a deep lingering memory of him when he disappears.

In this ever-changing age, the serenity of "after the festival" illuminates the intimate relationship between the gods and people. The Noh stage was not just a place for performing arts, but a space that symbolized the very climate where life and prayer intersected. Even after night falls and daily life returns, that one word from the old man remains in our hearts like the wind, as a reminder that God was indeed there.