For an anthropology class focused on Japanese matsuri and ritual practices, I had an assignment to write a response paper to one of the readings we did for class. I rather liked the paper I wrote, and decided to share it here.
While reading Herbert Plutschow’s “The Structure of the Festival” from his book Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan, I noticed something very interesting. I am currently conducting research for an ethnography on the usage of tesensu and headbanging as a form of ritual practice during visual kei concerts, and through my research and personal life have been to many visual kei and metal concerts, called lives. These lives operate in a very similar way to the structure of the matsuri as described by Plutschow. In this paper, I will analyze the three phases of a matsuri: kami-oroshi, kami-asobi, and kami-okuri as they relate to visual kei concerts, and draw parallels between the practices associated with their respective phases in matsuri and practices associated with visual kei concerts.
Kami-oroshi as it functions in matsuri is the ascent or arrival of a deity. Plutschow describes it as the “ritual creation of disorder” (Plutschow, page 2). People freed from everyday constraints of rank and order act in ways that may seem outlandish. The boundaries of order and time are eroded and social status becomes irrelevant. Plutschow says that people may “sexually indulge themselves… show off, shriek and violently thrash about” (page 3).
Similar blurring of boundaries and rank, as well as frenzied behavior can also be observed at visual kei lives. The boundaries of gender are crossed, with crossdressing of performers and/or audience members extremely commonplace. Performers and often audience members wear bizarre, showy, extravagant costumes or hair, instead of their “everyday” clothes which are usually normal fashion like any other Japanese person. The audience acts as one unit, doing repetitive hand motions called tesensu (手扇子) or headbanging along to songs, and occasionally do “dives,” in which one person runs to the rail, slams against it violently, and runs back. Between songs, audience members often shriek or yell the members’ names, as if invoking a heavenly deity.
Sexual lasciviousness, like in kami-oroshi, is also commonplace at visual kei concerts, although not to the extent of orgies. However, performers may often imitate sexual situations on stage or make sexual gestures or movements. One band even famously sells sex toys at their merchandise table. In addition, one of the tesensu movements involves holding one’s hands up and widening and closing the gap between them. According to one person whom I interviewed, this movement was initially meant to symbolize legs opening, indicating one’s desire or willingness to engage in sexual activities with a band member.
Despite all this outlandish behavior, most visual kei band and audience members are completely normal and well-adjusted people. It is only when the boundaries between the “everyday” (日常) are erased that they enter a frenzied zone, much like participants in matsuri during the kami-oroshi. According to Plutschow, the kami-oroshi “brings deities and people together and emphasizes through its controlled confusion the equality among members of the community, as well as between man and deity” (page 4). Visual kei concerts operate in very much the same way: through the tesensu movements the audience moves as one, directed by the music played by the musicians, who in this situation function as a deity. Two people whom I have interviewed described tesensu as making them feel equal and connected with the crowd and the band, one part of a larger whole. This seems very similar to the function of the kami-oroshi as described by Plutschow.
The kami-asobi portion of a matsuri serves to reaffirm the order, often through ritual art or dance. “Art is used in this sequence as a ritual device to create order... Given this power, art can both soothe and reinvigorate deity and man,” Plutschow writes on page 5 of the text. In a visual kei live, the kami-asobi takes the form of the actual musical performance. The music and performances are all planned and rehearsed extensively beforehand, and though the bizarre behavior of the performers such as self-mutilation, destruction of band equipment, imitating sexual situations, spitting, and more may seem spontaneous, they are usually planned beforehand.
In addition, though the boundaries of order are blurred, the band is still very much separated from the audience by a physical (the rail between stage and audience) and emotional barrier (the view of band members as godlike figures). And though the headbanging and tesensu unites the audience and band members, it is ultimately the band who conducts the actions through their music and movements, making them in a higher position than the audience. Therefore, although order and the “everyday” is eroded and the audience is brought into a different world, there still exist boundaries and order set by the musical performance. This is just like how in a matsuri, kami-oroshi erases order while kami-asobi restores order.
The third and final phase of a matsuri is the kami-okuri, where the deity is sent back off to where they came from and bid farewell. Although it’s not usually elaborate, in some matsuri it can be very dramatic, with participants weeping and singing as they send of the deity, who is reluctant to leave. Once the kami-okuri is finished, the matsuri is complete, and life returns to normal. For visual kei lives, the encore takes the place of the kami-okuri. The audience often sings along to the final song, and tears are not unusual. Band members often seem reluctant to depart the stage as well, lingering and waving to the crowd and playing a last few bars of music before being called offstage by an irate stage manager.
After the band has left the stage and the lights come back on, the shrieking, frenzied audience returns to normal docility, putting their hair back in place, retouching their makeup and stepping back into their shoes. The band members occasionally come out after the performance to mingle with the audience, and an audience member who just thirty minutes beforehand might have been screaming a band member’s name tearfully while making a heart sign with her hands would be chatting completely normally with the member, no trace of the previous behavior remaining. The concert now over, the “everyday” is restored and the audience members shuffle off to catch the last train.
A visual kei live functions very similarly to a matsuri, with the three aspects of a visual kei live, audience-band participation, musical performance, and encore correlating with the three phases of a matsuri: kami-oroshi, kami-asobi, and kami-okuri. In this paper I have detailed each aspect of a visual kei live as they relate to the corresponding matsuri sequence, and provided arguments for how they are similar. Just as much as a matsuri does, visual kei lives serve to erase an established order and redefine them in context to the live, removing the audience from the “everyday” and introducing them for a little while into a world where order is changed, before sending them back out into the normal world.
Works Cited
Plutschow, Herbert. Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan. With a Selection from P.G. O'Neill's Photographic Archive of Matsuri. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
Parallels Between the Structure of Matsuri and Visual Kei Concerts
Kami-oroshi as it functions in matsuri is the ascent or arrival of a deity. Plutschow describes it as the “ritual creation of disorder” (Plutschow, page 2). People freed from everyday constraints of rank and order act in ways that may seem outlandish. The boundaries of order and time are eroded and social status becomes irrelevant. Plutschow says that people may “sexually indulge themselves… show off, shriek and violently thrash about” (page 3).
Similar blurring of boundaries and rank, as well as frenzied behavior can also be observed at visual kei lives. The boundaries of gender are crossed, with crossdressing of performers and/or audience members extremely commonplace. Performers and often audience members wear bizarre, showy, extravagant costumes or hair, instead of their “everyday” clothes which are usually normal fashion like any other Japanese person. The audience acts as one unit, doing repetitive hand motions called tesensu (手扇子) or headbanging along to songs, and occasionally do “dives,” in which one person runs to the rail, slams against it violently, and runs back. Between songs, audience members often shriek or yell the members’ names, as if invoking a heavenly deity.
Sexual lasciviousness, like in kami-oroshi, is also commonplace at visual kei concerts, although not to the extent of orgies. However, performers may often imitate sexual situations on stage or make sexual gestures or movements. One band even famously sells sex toys at their merchandise table. In addition, one of the tesensu movements involves holding one’s hands up and widening and closing the gap between them. According to one person whom I interviewed, this movement was initially meant to symbolize legs opening, indicating one’s desire or willingness to engage in sexual activities with a band member.
Despite all this outlandish behavior, most visual kei band and audience members are completely normal and well-adjusted people. It is only when the boundaries between the “everyday” (日常) are erased that they enter a frenzied zone, much like participants in matsuri during the kami-oroshi. According to Plutschow, the kami-oroshi “brings deities and people together and emphasizes through its controlled confusion the equality among members of the community, as well as between man and deity” (page 4). Visual kei concerts operate in very much the same way: through the tesensu movements the audience moves as one, directed by the music played by the musicians, who in this situation function as a deity. Two people whom I have interviewed described tesensu as making them feel equal and connected with the crowd and the band, one part of a larger whole. This seems very similar to the function of the kami-oroshi as described by Plutschow.
The kami-asobi portion of a matsuri serves to reaffirm the order, often through ritual art or dance. “Art is used in this sequence as a ritual device to create order... Given this power, art can both soothe and reinvigorate deity and man,” Plutschow writes on page 5 of the text. In a visual kei live, the kami-asobi takes the form of the actual musical performance. The music and performances are all planned and rehearsed extensively beforehand, and though the bizarre behavior of the performers such as self-mutilation, destruction of band equipment, imitating sexual situations, spitting, and more may seem spontaneous, they are usually planned beforehand.
In addition, though the boundaries of order are blurred, the band is still very much separated from the audience by a physical (the rail between stage and audience) and emotional barrier (the view of band members as godlike figures). And though the headbanging and tesensu unites the audience and band members, it is ultimately the band who conducts the actions through their music and movements, making them in a higher position than the audience. Therefore, although order and the “everyday” is eroded and the audience is brought into a different world, there still exist boundaries and order set by the musical performance. This is just like how in a matsuri, kami-oroshi erases order while kami-asobi restores order.
The third and final phase of a matsuri is the kami-okuri, where the deity is sent back off to where they came from and bid farewell. Although it’s not usually elaborate, in some matsuri it can be very dramatic, with participants weeping and singing as they send of the deity, who is reluctant to leave. Once the kami-okuri is finished, the matsuri is complete, and life returns to normal. For visual kei lives, the encore takes the place of the kami-okuri. The audience often sings along to the final song, and tears are not unusual. Band members often seem reluctant to depart the stage as well, lingering and waving to the crowd and playing a last few bars of music before being called offstage by an irate stage manager.
After the band has left the stage and the lights come back on, the shrieking, frenzied audience returns to normal docility, putting their hair back in place, retouching their makeup and stepping back into their shoes. The band members occasionally come out after the performance to mingle with the audience, and an audience member who just thirty minutes beforehand might have been screaming a band member’s name tearfully while making a heart sign with her hands would be chatting completely normally with the member, no trace of the previous behavior remaining. The concert now over, the “everyday” is restored and the audience members shuffle off to catch the last train.
A visual kei live functions very similarly to a matsuri, with the three aspects of a visual kei live, audience-band participation, musical performance, and encore correlating with the three phases of a matsuri: kami-oroshi, kami-asobi, and kami-okuri. In this paper I have detailed each aspect of a visual kei live as they relate to the corresponding matsuri sequence, and provided arguments for how they are similar. Just as much as a matsuri does, visual kei lives serve to erase an established order and redefine them in context to the live, removing the audience from the “everyday” and introducing them for a little while into a world where order is changed, before sending them back out into the normal world.
Works Cited
Plutschow, Herbert. Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan. With a Selection from P.G. O'Neill's Photographic Archive of Matsuri. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
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