Sacred rocks are one of Shinto’s most potent features, yet books about Shinto rarely focus on them or even mention them at all. To me they are a fundamental part of the religion, closely associated with its shamanistic roots. Here in the sacred rocks was the original abode of the kami. Wood, bamboo and vegetation will sooner or later perish; rocks, like spirits, live on forever.
Photo journalist, Kara Yamaguchi, recently interviewed for Green Shinto, has produced some wonderful pictures of rocks which have a mesmerising quality. Some resonate with a palpable sense of presence. Some are notable for their distinctive shape. Some stand out for their size, and some have a symbolic force as if representative of the mountain on which they stand.
It’s often said Japan is a land of mountains. It’s even more a land of rocks. Sacred, special and solid, they haunt the imagination as much as they dominate the landscape. Look below at Kara Yamaguchi’s photos, and enjoy the very remarkable power of Japanese rock….
I’m not quite sure about the “shamanic roots” of Shinto. Shamanism is a European creation of the 19th century which became very popular with Mircea Eliade. But he was wrong (see e.g. H. Rydving, Le chamanisme aujourd’hui … ; http://emscat.revues.org/1815); his phenomenology of religion is out-dated and no longer an instrument for the interpretation of religion. In reality we do not know much about religion in prehistoric times, although we would like to know.