Leadership, Ritual Power and Festival Management in a Japanese Fishing Community

The article provides an anthropological overview of the critical processes of empowerment and disempowerment of ritual leaders in a small Japanese fishing community. The main topic of the paper is a winter festival that takes place during the New Year’s Eve in Kamishima island (Ise Bay), whose management and celebration represent an important catalyst for local leadership, which is related to the transformation of the local institutions and to the power relations among the various local leaders.