Ritual is too often equated with unvarying or repetitive behavior. This impression is encouraged by the ethnographic tendency toward an overly narrow time frame, which highlights current relationships and conditions rather than long-term developments.

The Rousing Drum takes a different view. It adopts a historical perspective encompassing several hundred years in exploring the role of ritual as an effective medium for negotiating sociopolitical and economic change.

The setting is Furukawa, a town located in Japan's mountainous interior. Every spring the local Shinto shrine...