The Karimihishirogibassaishiki (仮御樋代木伐採式) is another ceremony leading up to the Shikinen Sengū (式年遷宮) at Isë Jingū (伊勢神宮), and was held on May 17th in the mountain forests in in Kiso, Nagano Prefecture that are supplying much of the timber for the rebuilding process. It was reported in the 25th May issue of Jinja Shinpō.
In Japanese, parts of the name are self-explanatory. “Shiki” is “ceremony”, while “bassai” means “felling (a tree)”, and “gi” is “tree”. “Kari” means “temporary” or “substitute” or “provisional” — it is the character used in the Japanese for “working title”, for example. “Mihishiro”, however, would probably mystify most native speakers. It is the name for the containers in which the sacred objects housing the kami, the goshintai (御神体), are housed at Jingū. I reported on the ceremonies for felling the trees for that last year. The Karimihishiro is the box in which the goshintai is placed while it is being transported from the old sanctuary to the new in the final ceremony of the Shikinen Sengū, the Sengyo-no-Gi (遷御の儀). It is moved from the old Mihishiro to the Karimihishiro at the beginning of the ceremony, and then moved to the new Mihishiro at the end, which means that this item is used for a few hours at most — but in the most sacred part of one of the most sacred ceremonies in Shinto.
The tree was chosen, and a shimenawa wrapped around it. Then a ritual space was set up in front of it, and purified. Offerings were presented at the base of the tree, and a representative from Jingū read a norito. According to the article, this matsuri honours “The Great Kami Present at the Base of the Tree(s) in the Honourable Timber Mountains in Kiso in Shinano Etc.”. That “etc.” is common in Japanese, to indicate that a list is not exhaustive, and so suggests that other kami are also honoured. It is not clear how many kami the Great Kami is in the first place (one? one per tree?), and so this presumably indicates other kami, of another type. Japanese ambiguity strikes again. I should note that asking the authors what the “etc” means does not always elicit a useful answer — sometimes they have no idea. (“Shinano”, on the other hand, is just the old name for the region now called “Nagano”. That one is easy.)
After the matsuri, the tree was cut down in the traditional way, just as for the trees for the Mihishiro, and after being placed at the centre of a celebration in the local town (Agematsu) for a couple of days, it was delivered to Isë by road.
At least, I think it was one tree. The photographs look like a single tree, but the article says that the tree is for the Karimihishiro for both the Inner and Outer Sanctuaries, and also for the fourteen Betsugū. It is possible that these are all made from one tree, because they cannot be that large (they are carried during the ceremony), but it is also possible that there are multiple trees. Overall, I think this is one tree, but this article is not completely clear.
About 150 people attended this ceremony, which secures the timber for something used for a few hours at most, and which honours the nameless kami of one or more trees. It is a crystallisation of one aspect of Shinto — an aspect that I suspect is quite appealing to contemporary sensibilities.