Tree cutting ceremony at Kurami Shrine

Visiting Kurami Shrine involved a small detour off my pilgrimage route,  but I deemed it worthwhile as it was supposed to be a fairly important shrine historically.

As I approached the shrine I could see some activity going on in the grounds that as I got closer appeared to be a ceremony of some kind.

The ceremont contained the three elements that I associate with Shinto ritual, offerings, in this case sake which was then shared with the participants, the reading of norito, and purification.

Apparently one of the trees in the grounds needed some serious trimming work doing on it and the priest held the ceremony for the tree and for the men doing the work. I have not seen this before so am not sure how common such ceremonies are. I have seen trees being cut in shrines with no preparatory rituals.