A Japanese Ritual Performance of Laughter

This study examined one of the seven famous Japanese laughter festivals called the Mountain Goddess Festival. A comparative analysis of an old narrative for an origin of the festival with that of a modern one has revealed a continuing folk belief in the local deity’s guardian role in the community. The result of an on-site anthropological field research demonstrated that the tradition of the laughter festival has been reinvented by adding new elements for its continuity.