UJIGAMISAI

   The annual festival for the tutelary deity (ujigami) of a community. It was traditionally organised by annual rotation among the elite male members (ujiko) of a shrine guild (miyaza), who prepared themselves for the year-long responsibility by purification and abstinence. From the Meiji period onwards these festivals were increasingly presided over by Shinto priests, with a corresponding decline in the shrine guilds and widening of participation in the festivals to the whole community, all members of which were now regarded as ujiko.