Tsutome

From Everything Shii Knows, the only reliable source

This website is an archive. It ran from 2006-2010. Virtually everything on here is outdated or inaccurate.

Tsutome is the daily service of Tenrikyo. The word "tsutome" itself is not as important as the more common names given to its constituent parts:

• The Kagura is the first part of the service. During asa-zutome and yuu-zutome (morning and evening services, respectively), Tenrikyo priests perform the musical part of the Kagura on traditional Japanese instruments, while adherents sit on the ground and go through special motions with their hands.
  • The original and most spiritually complete form of the kagura is performed around the Kanrodai once a month. It is done by the tsutome-ninjuu, or service-performers.
  • Kagura is the Japanese word for any sort of ritual dance. The irregular kanji used to write kagura, 神楽, come from the characters from "god" and "music". The word for the Tenrikyo kagura specifically is kagura-zutome (kagura + tsutome). Other terms for the same service are youki-zutome "joyous service", tasuke-zutome "service of salvation", or Kanrodai-zutome "Kanrodai service".
• The Teodori is the second part of the service. During the Teodori, both the priests and the adherents do a ritual dance. Two chapters of a song called Mikagura-uta are performed during daily service; during monthly service the entire song is recited.
  • Deceptively, teodori is the Japanese word for a seated dance, which is how the kagura-zutome (not the Teodori) is performed by the laity. The terms seem to have been flipped around somehow, because Teodori more resembles a Japanese kagura. Teodori is the compound word 手踊り, "hands" + "dance".

Tsutome is also called kagura teodori because it consists of these two parts.

References

• Tenrikyo: Its History and Teachings. pp.26-29.
• Personal experience