[Sushi-Y]

<About Watanagashi>

Right now, the ceremony of Watanagashi is a village festival held in June of every year, however, if we were to trace it back to its origin, we will actually discover a bloody ritual.

Originally, Watanagashi was a cannabalistic banquet where, based on a predetermined cycle, a "sacrifice" entrusted by Oyashirosama would be selected, the villagers would then kidnap (Onikakushi), dismember, and then eat the person through ritualistic methods.

(There are many mysteries regarding to the laws of the cycle. Because the intervals between the rituals were very irregular. One explanation suggests that the intervals were decided though fortunes based on readings of the stars, but it lacks believability.)

The inhabitants of the ancient Onigafuchi village deeply believed themselves to be mystical beings (sennins) of half-man, half-demon that are a higher existence above other human beings, and made it well known throughout the land.

Perhaps the act of abducting people and eating them was carried out as a way of showing superiority within the food chain?

This is just a hypothesis, but perhaps in a situation when some form of dissatisifaction has been solicited within the Onigafuchi village, which was an isolated environment, the ritual of Watanagashi was actually a political event that would be carried out to serve as an outlet or distraction?
If this was the main objective for holding the ceremony, then it also helps in explaining its irregular cycle.