The launching will be a unique opportunity for visitors to experience a ceremony never seen outside of Japan. Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, is sometimes described as animistic. In brief, it consists of rituals and celebrations of the kami, or spirit that pervades all things animate and inanimate. The boat launching is a celebration of the spirit of the waters and the mountains, as well as the purification of the boat and its builders. A shrine will be established in the boat and the ceremony will finish with a Japanese sailor’s folk song.
