01607nas a2200217   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653001300043653001200056653001200068653001300080653001100093653001100104100001900115245006700134856015000201300001200351490000600363520100000369022002001369                                       d10afestival10aHrönir10aMatsuri10aNamahage10aritual10aUNESCO1 aMichael Foster00aEloquent Plasticity: Vernacular Religion, Change, and Namahage  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85141556685&doi=10.1163%2f9789004466548_006&partnerID=40&md5=6fdb0947c32ce4fb35dea1c14f521051  a118-1640 v93 aThis paper explores Namahage of Akita Prefecture as it assumes three different instantiations: 1) enactment as a private ritual within individual households on New Year’s Eve; 2) performance as a public festival at a shrine in mid-February; and 3) celebration as an “element” inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. I argue that in the first instance, Namahage is part of a vernacular religious “structure of feeling” in which religious elements are inseparable from community life; in the second instantiation, religion is more explicit and codified; and in the third iteration, religion is only vaguely articulated. Tracing the “same” tradition through different forms provides insight into the changing needs of communities and into the dynamics of change itself. With this in mind, I propose a model called hrönirism through which to broadly conceptualize notions of change and difference within traditions such as matsuri.  a22118349 (ISSN)