The Japanese term is a general term for an association or organization, as well as a religious term used for the services and gatherings held by such an association.
It originally referred to collections of monks who would gather in temples to analyze and research Buddhist texts, but eventually expanded to include Buddhist services, particularly those involving the recitation of Buddhist texts. From this, the term expanded further to include folk religion services and the associations that hold them, and then later to include certain types of mutual aid organizations and associations.
Original meaning and evolution
During the Heian period, the Buddhist school of Tiantai gained popularity among the Japanese aristocracy who would hold lavish events referred to as in which the eight scrolls of the Lotus Sutra were read over a period of four days. This spurred the development of religious gatherings not focused on the study of Buddhist scripture among non-monks, such as the Hōonkō. As these spread through society during the medieval period, many religious organizations were formed with the term in the name. These religious organizations included those that formed naturally within local communities as well as those that were introduced from outside.
The former type of were operated by (shrine parishioners) to maintain the shrines of the local or they worshipped. The of high-ranking shrines were formed of members from a wide range, far beyond the scope of the village the shrine was located in. grew more powerful during the Sengoku period as the , the head of a , was granted status or selected from an existing or . The Kaga ikki was run by a of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists.
As an organization, were operated on a semi-democratic basis. The , also called , was formed of members called . The various positions, , , and were often elected from among the members or assigned by the temple or shrine the worshipped at. For more local customs such as worship of mountain and , family and territorial units formed the membership of a , preventing the organization from being solely religious in nature.
Initially, the latter form of introduced from outside the local community had their origins in mountain worship. The Shugendō practitioners of mountains such as Mount Tate traveled Japan forming encouraging others to climb holy mountains. Shrines and temples around Japan imitated this practice and established in order to draw in worshippers. In some cases, all members of these would travel to the shrine or temple, but, in others, a number of the members were selected as representatives to travel to the shrine or temple and worship there on behalf of their fellows. The evolution of as mutual aid organizations such as began with these representative pilgrimages. Rather than each member contributing money to fund a pilgrimage, members would each contribute funds which were then lent to a member chosen either by lottery or through applications. In addition to religious , there were a large variety of groups such as for workers in the same field (moai-kō and yui-kō) and for people of the same gender or of similar ages ( and ). While these primarily required members to pay money into the group, there were some free to join whose primary function was recreation, such as which were usually social groups for women.
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