Kamisu 66

Kamisu 66 (神栖66) is one of the districts in Kamisu and the main location of the story. Although Kamisu 66 is the only district that appears in the actual story, there are other district names known, such as Shiroishi 71 in a location called Tohoku, Tainai 84 in Hokuriku, and Koumi 95 in Chuubu.

Description

Kamisu 66 is made up of seven villages. In the center is where the town's administration is gathered. On the eastern bank of the Tone River is the village of Hayring. To the north, in the middle of a forest dotted with big houses, is Pinewind. East of that, the forest opened up to the coastlands, where Whitesand is. Adjacent to Hayring in the south is the village of Waterwheel. On the other bank of the river toward the northwest is the village Outlook, whose name comes from its location. Lined up with the rice paddies in south is Gold, and Oakgrove is the westmost.

Holy Barrier

The Holy Barrier (八丁標) is a thick straw rope hanging with paper streamers that acts as a shield preventing impure things from entering the town. Children are warned to never step outside the barrier. Evil spirits and monsters are said to roam outside and any child who ventures out alone would suffer terribly. (The rope is a so called Shimenawa (標縄・注連縄・七五三縄, lit. "enclosing rope"), and the streamers are Shide (紙垂, 四手))

Traditions

Kamisu 66 is known to have several annual celebrations and rituals. During spring, there occurs a ritual for driving away evil spirits, a festival to pray for a successful harvest, and a festival for keeping away infectious diseases. In the summer, there is a summer festival (monster festival), fire festival, and a feast of lanterns. During fall there is a festival on the first of august, and a ceremony of offering newly harvested rice to the gods. The season of winter features a snow festival, the new year festival and another unknown festival at the end of the new year festival.

• Evil Spirit Ritual (supposedly called Demon Chasing Festival): One of the oldest festivals, with over two thousand years of history. On the morning of the festival, all children would gather in an open square while wearing so called "purity masks", made with damp clay and covered with powdered chalk, and played the part of evil spirits (Shinshi) in the ritual. Two of these masks used are described to look exceptionally horrifying; One representing fiends and the other karma demons. The fiend's face has a sinister grin plastered on it. On the other hand, the karma demon's face is one of fear and anguish, though its features are muddled and crooked and sometimes do not even look human.

  The ritual that makes up the core of the festival goes as follows; White sand is spread out over the square with lit braziers on the eastern and western end, while twenty or thirty shinshi march around the flames chanting "Demons, begone. Demons, begone!" in a peculiar rhythm. Then the exorcist appears dressed in a traditional costume and carrying a big spear in his hands. But the first thing everyone always notices is his golden, four-eyed mask. The exorcist joins the shinshi in chanting and circling the fires and scatters beans in all directions to ward off calamities and bad luck. He also throws them at the spectators and people would cup their hands to catch them. The exorcist then turns towards the shinshi without a warning and throws the rest of his beans at them. "Impurity is within us!" he shouts and the shinshi repeat after him. At this signal, two of the shinshi tear off their purity masks, revealing themselves to be a fiend and a karma demon. "Expel impurity!" the exorcist shouts as he drives away the two demons with the spear. The demons put on a show of resisting, but when everyone joins in shouting, they run off, and the ritual is over.

Villages

Waterwheel

Waterwheel (水車) is a village where dozens of canals leading off of the Tone River wind through Kamisu 66 and people come and go by boats. Despite that, the constant movement of the water makes it clean enough to bathe in, though it is not recommended drinking it. In front of Saki's house, in addition to a lot of brightly colored red and white koi swimming around, there are also many water wheels, which is where the name comes from. Every village has water wheels, though the village of Waterwheel has quite a big number of them, and they make for a magnificent sight. A lot of them are used to relieve the townspeople of mundane tasks like hulling rice and milling wheat. Among them is a kind of water wheel only some villages have, with metal blades used to generate electricity. The valuable energy is used to power the loudspeakers on the roof of the public hall. Uses of electricity outside of this is strictly prohibited by the Code of Ethics.

Hayring

Hayring (茅輪)

Pinewind

Pinewind (松風)

Whitesand

Whitesand (白砂)

Outlook

Outlook (見晴

Gold

Gold (黄金)

Oakgrove

Oakgrove (櫟林)

Gallery