Author: John D. (Page 15 of 202)

Kyoto’s Daimonji

August 11, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

It’s said that ancestor worship is Japan’s true religion, and in my experience that’s true. The sense of continuity that this gives is reassuring, and the sense of immortality it conveys is a wonderful antidote to the finality of death. There are moral implications too, for if your actions are being monitored by previous generations, it’s a great incentive to keep on the straight and narrow.

The Obon period coming up this weekend is a grand celebration of the living dead, when ancestral spirits return to the family home. There are welcome festivals to greet the spirits on their annual return, and there are sending off festivals to guide them on their way back to the other world. The most famous of these is Kyoto’s Daimonji, held on August 16th every year. I’m lucky enough to see the hill where it happens from my study window.

It turns out that this year pranksters have been at work and ruffled a few feathers in these Corona times. Joking with ancestral spirits is no laughing matter, and the Asahi newspaper covers the reaction to the elaborate hoax in the article below.

**************** Fake bonfire stunt gets Kyoto residents riled amid bon season
By DAISUKE MUKAI/ Staff Writer
August 10, 2020

Photo/Illutration — *A character resembling “dai” is seen lit up in Kyoto’s Sakyo Ward on Aug. 8. (Provided by Masao Nomura)*

KYOTO–Pranksters pulled off a spectacular stunt late Aug. 8 by lighting up a mountain slope on the eastern side of this ancient city with a giant rendition of the kanji character “dai,” meaning big, apparently to fool residents that an iconic annual summer festival was being held as usual, only earlier.

The Gozan no Okuribi festival, known locally as “Daimonji,” is traditionally held on Aug. 16 and involves setting the slopes of five mountains surrounding the ancient capital ablaze in a gesture to send off the spirits of deceased ancestors to the afterlife after revisiting their former homes during the Bon holiday season.But the festival is being scaled back this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Startled residents alerted police around 11 p.m. to report the lights in the Mount Daimonji area. It later emerged the stunt was staged on Mount Nyoigatake in the city’s Sakyo Ward.

Officers attached to the Kawabata station of Kyoto prefectural police scrambled to a rooftop and confirmed the light show.

Masao Nomura, a 41-year-old radio DJ, saw a character resembling “dai” from his home in Sakyo Ward.“This is not the festival night. What on earth is going on?” he asked himself as he snapped photos of the lights.

The “dai” character is usually formed with giant bonfires lit at 75 spots. But this summer, festival organizers decided to reduce the number of locations to be lit to avoid a mass congregation of bonfire workers. As a result, there are no plans this year for bonfires to denote the character.

The unexpected “dai” character, which police speculated was a prank, took residents as well as festival organizers by surprise.”Usually, bonfires are like a wavy flame,” Nomura said. “But this one was different. The light was bluish white and appeared to be very clear and artificial.”

Hidefumi Hasegawa, the 75-year-old chairman of the daimonji preservation organization, was far from happy about the matter. “It is upsetting because we spend a long time preparing to send off the spirits of our ancestors,” he said. “With the assistance of the police and local administrative authorities, we will make sure this never happens again.”

Oharae no kotoba

August 2, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

Up now on youtube is a ten minute video by Hasegawa Izumi, head priest of the Shusse Inari Shrine in America, in which she gives a reading of the Oharae no kotoba. It is the first of a projected 14 episodes explaining the history, meaning and translation of the Great Purification. Hasegawa sensei demonstrates how to chant it in the original Japanese, which is imbued with kotodama (word spirit) and the power to refresh.

Hasegawa sensei writes as follows:

稲荷道場Inari Dōjō

“大祓詞Ōharae-no-kotoba” Session Begins!”Episode 1: Introduction and History”

On Friday, July 31st, we have launched our Inari Dōjō, which is a virtual Dōjō with lectures about Shinto, Japanese culture, customs, traditions, and language as well as Japanese pop culture!

Our first Dōjō session will be “Ōharae-no-kotoba Session, Episode 1: Introduction and History,” which will be open to the public. After this first episode, the “Ōharae-no-kotoba” Sessions will be accessible only to our members.

The Ōharae-no-kotoba session will consist of 14 episodes, with Episode 2 discussing the overall meaning, followed by Episodes 3 to 14 which will explore the translations. For each episode, you can read Ōharae-no-kotoba with the Shinto priest!

In order to access all Inari Dōjō lectures, you will need to join our membership. For details please visit our website ShintoInari.org or Patreon.com/ShintoInari

We welcome osaisen (donations) to participate in the Inari Dōjō. Please contribute your support:

May the Nature Spirits/Kami-sama be with you!

Snake Conservation

July 31, 2020 / John D. / 2 Comments

Paired white snakes on a container at Jisshu Shrine, Kyoto

In the face of the worldwide climate crisis, many people are turning to nature religions in the belief that they further environmental policies. Followers of Green Shinto will know that is not necessarily the case. After all, saying sorry to the spirit of a tree is not the same as refusing to cut down the tree, but rather a preliminary to it. It was of great interest therefore that we happened upon an academic paper recently considering the state of snake conservation in Japan. First published in the Herpetological Conservation and Biology Journal, the paper considers the question of whether traditional beliefs about snake divinity had an effect on numbers.

Japan has 33 types of land and sea snake, a third of which are currently threatened with extinction. It’s a shocking statistic. In the past snakes were revered because of their power of ‘rebirth’ in sloughing off their skin. (Regeneration and renewal are key Shinto values.) Because of this ‘magic’, snakes were often associated with great feats of creation or destruction. Miyako Island was said to have been created by a large snake, and Kashima Island is covered with an untouched broad-leaf forest because a kami in the form of a giant snake lived there. (The snake myth of Miwa Shrine has been told previously on Green Shinto, and eggs are put out for the kami snake to this day.)

Snake water basin at Miwa Shrine in Nara Prefecture

In their paper the three co-authors, Stanley Fox, Kiyoshi Sasaki and Yoshinori Sasaki, advocate efforts ‘to preserve and revive traditional beliefs’. Given the forces of modernity, that seems like wishful thinking, for as the saying goes you can never return to the past. Rather than artificially reviving outmoded myths, we sorely need to create new beliefs for a scientific age. As Joseph Campbell said, we have to create new myths for a new paradigm. Snakes were once seen as divine, then demonised in the Garden of Eden, and now we need to revive our thinking once again so as to see them for what they are – exemplars of the ability to slough off the old and start afresh, reborn and revitalised.

Oh, and by the way, what is the answer to the question about whether snake divinity was good for conservation? The authors give a resounding Yes. Only after the Meiji Restoration with Westernisation did people’s attitude to the environment change and nature came to be seen simply as a resource. The extinction of the Hokkaido wolf in order to clear the forests for American-style cattle ranches is one egregious example.

The authors conclude: “In Japan, snakes have traditionally been revered as a god, a messenger of a god, or a creature that brings a divine curse when a snake is harmed or a particular natural site is disturbed. These strong beliefs have discouraged people from harming snakes and disturbing certain habitats associated with a snake god. …. The erosion of tradition is extensive in modern Japan which coincides with increased snake exploitation, killing, and reduction of habitat.”

Tsukinami-sai Live (Aug 1)

July 26, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

Tsukinami-sai is held at shrines at the beginning of each month. Beginnings are important in Shinto as a means of renewal, and as a marker of this the ceremony offers purification to start the new month afresh.

For English-language speakers, Rev Hasegawa Izumi of the Shusse Inari Shrine in Los Angeles will offer a live streaming on Aug 1 at 7 pm PDT (11 am Aug 2, Sunday morning, in Japan).

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Rev. Hasegawa writes: On Saturday, August 1st, at 7 pm, we will hold 月次祭 Tsukinami-sai and live stream it on our YouTube Channel “ShintoInari”. We hope you can join us.

Tsukinami-sai is the Shinto service to show respect and appreciation and ask for blessings from the nature spirits. Since we have new members for our membership, we will combine the service with a celebration of their induction. Also for those of our members who will be having a birthday this month, we will hold a birth-month Kigan Gokitō blessing service after the conclusion of the service.

We plan to live stream the service on YouTube starting on Saturday, August 1st, 7:00 pm (PDT) on the channel “ShintoInari.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTPuHMYLivg
We hope that you can join us wherever you are at the time.

In order to begin raising funds to open a community center (Shinto Shrine) and hold various events, we have decided that, from July’s Tsukinami-sai, the priest’s Closing Talk will only be open to members/patrons (for members/patrons, we will send a separate email for members’ only link).

If you are interested in hearing the talk, please join our membership through our website ShintoInari.org or Patreon.com/ShintoInari. The Closing Talks will explain the prayers that were read, discuss traditional Japanese customs, and include other information and background.

Omatsuri Service Live Stream: From the beginning to before the Closing Talk —- Available to the public/non-members
Closing Talk —- Available to Silver Patrons, Gold Patrons, and Shrine Sūkeikai regular and VIP members

Omatsuri video archive:

First half of the service —- Available to the public/non-members
From the beginning to before the Closing Talk —- Bronze Patrons
From the beginning through the end of the Closing Talk —- Silver Patrons, Gold Patrons, Shrine’s Sūkeikai regular and VIP members

We welcome osaisen (donations) to participate in the live stream service. Please contribute your support:

May the Nature Spirits/Kami-sama be with you!

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(For an example of the May ceremony, see this youtube recording.)

Shinto Moments

July 24, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

Taishi Kato, priest of Hattori Tenjingu in Toyonaka City, Osaka, has featured on Green Shinto before. His mission is to spread awareness of Shinto as a universal religion based on living in harmony with nature. (To learn more about Kato sensei, including an interview, please see here or here.)

Now together with two other collaborators, the young priest has produced a paperback of illustrated Shinto Moments. Below is an extract from the introduction, explaining the purpose and origin of the book. There then follow illustrated examples of the content (the book is available here on amazon).

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Collaborators in the creation of the book Sabastian Velilla, Edwin Symmes and Taishi Kato

Taishi Kato writes: After qualifying for the Shinto priest, I found discoveries and fascination in looking at Shinto from a foreign perspective So I decided to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

For my master’s degree at the university, I majored in Japanese religious studies to study Shinto.

I studied Shinto and other religions with about 20 students from the United States, England, Italy, China, and South Korea, who were multinational. I learned about the Japanese religions that are part of the Shinto.

After my last class in graduate school, a friend told me, “I didn’t understand Shinto after all.” I was told, The number of classes was limited, no books were explaining the basics of Shinto, and Shinto is linguistic. It was difficult for foreigners to understand the religion due to its nature of valuing sensitivity over explanation.

Although about 20 students were interested in Japanese religion and had the opportunity to come into contact with Shinto, I failed to take advantage of the opportunities.

Rather than conveying a formal conceptualization of Shinto to help people understand it in their minds, we need to find a way to convey a Shinto sensibility.

I want to tell the world in English about Shinto as it is felt in our daily lives, not in an academic book! With this in mind, I returned to Japan.

Meeting a Kyudo Artist in Florida
A few months after I returned to Japan, I received a call from a martial arts expert living in Florida.

He said, “I’m very interested in Shinto, which is a spiritual pillar of Japanese culture, and I’d love for you to come to Florida and give a talk. I would love for you to come to Florida and give a talk.”

He was an American with a passion for Japanese culture who designed and built the Kashimon Dojo, a dojo where you can practice Kyudo, Karate and Iaido.

I was studying in England and wanted to learn more about how Americans felt about Shinto, so I went to Florida.

He wanted me to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on Shinto with many Americans, so he organized a lecture in English at the Morikami Museum in Florida.

At the lecture, I met his friend, a 79-year-old American who is a Kyudo practitioner. This meeting led to the publication of this book.

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Sample excerpts of Shinto Moments:

Over 10,000,000 people visit Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine in the heart of Tokyo each year. At new year’s and many other occasions during the year, the Shinto priests offer blessings.

Many of the visitors pass over the bridge that offers this magnificent view in early spring. To notice this striking beauty, the photographer had to pause for a while and then look down from the bridge. The harmony of the earth, the new green maple leaves, the massive stone and the water evoke many stories. Was the maple tree planted there or did a seed just happen to catch hold in this sacred fertile earth? The water reminds us that even the sliver of a new moon seen in your cup of tea will also be shining in your loved one’s eyes as well as the Taj Mahal reflecting pond. These are Shinto Moments.

Perhaps you have seen a buzzard, insects, or a shark and quickly looked away. Did you then have the realization that they are just filling their “niche” in the world’s life force? Some may think of them as negative or gross, but your realization that they are a necessary part of the life force is a wonderful Shinto Moment.

When one lives in harmony with the land, then there is no need to go to the hardware store and buy a rake or a broom. Shinjuku Park in downtown Tokyo supplies all the materials needed for the groundskeepers to make their own implements, each one tailored to the variety of raking situations that they encounter.

When asked about that, they said that they preferred to make the brooms to fit the needs of the facility. Whenever one reuse and recycles nature’s resources, these are Shinto Moments.

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To ask questions or add your own Shinto Moment, see the following website run by Rev. Taishi Kato: www.shintomoments.com.

Corona and Gion Festival

July 21, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

Normally at this time the Gion Matsuri would be filling Kyoto’s streets, but irony of ironies this year it is not taking place. What’s the irony? Well, it’s a festival that originated and was perpetuated in a desire to dispel pestilence. Just when it’s needed most, you might think, the festival has been cancelled because of Corona.

Dating back to 869, the month-long event has been called the oldest urban festival in the world. It climaxes in two parades of stunning floats, though there is far more to it than that. On Sunday, an account of its astonishingly rich diversity was given in a talk for Writers in Kyoto by Catherine Pawasarat, who has a book coming out in August detailing the whole festival.

There are 34 floats in all, and as an indication of the extraordinary wealth of material involved here is an excerpt from Catherine’s forthcoming book focussing on one single float, the Urade Yama.

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Urade Yama 占出山: featuring Empress Jingū
(by Catherine Pawasarat)

Urade Yama shows the third-century Japanese shamaness ruler known as Empress Jingū using fishing as a divining method. She asked the gods to send a fish to let her know if she’d be victorious on a journey to the land of Silla, part of the modern-day Korean peninsula. This took place on Kyushu Island in western Japan. Closest to the Korean peninsula, Kyushu was home to many settlements of immigrants from the ancient kingdoms that predated Korea.

This float’s name, Urade, means roughly, “prophesize and go forth.” Japan’s most ancient texts say Empress Jingū caught a fish, and consequently traveled to Silla [with an army]. With several gods on her side, the texts tell us, she “conquered” it without fighting. She returned to Japan with abundant tribute.

Besides Urade Yama, Fune Boko (“Ship Float”) represents Jingū’s ship on its way to Silla, and Ōfune Boko (“Great Ship Float”) is the ship returning, heavy with gifts. One can’t help but wonder whether it was this remarkable woman’s magnetism that enabled her to win such gains without a battle.

Urade Yama’s display area, part of a Shinto shrine

But Urade Yama’s Empress Jingū is prepared for battle, giving us a taste of Japan’s little-known but intriguing history of women warriors, onna-bugeisha. Both the swords she wears are on display in the treasure area before the July 17 procession. The original katana sword is a National Treasure crafted in the tenth century by the legendary Sanjō Munechika, who also created Naginata Boko’s mystical longsword.

Urade Yama’s kaisho treasure display area is unique in that it’s located in the lovely, often peaceful courtyard of a sizable Shintō Shrine. This shrine and courtyard are only open during the Gion Festival, for Urade Yama. The treasures include textiles depicting Japan’s 36 Immortal Poets and its three most famous scenic places, as well as the sweetfish that foretold Jingū’s fate. In textiles based on designs by Maruyama-Shijō school artist, Suzuki Hyakunen, Korean officials and soldiers puzzle at waters encroaching because of divine tide-controlling jewels Empress Jingū used to land victoriously in Silla.

Empress Jingū is famous for being pregnant during her bold adventures in Silla, and for giving birth to a healthy baby boy, the next emperor, Ōjin (see Hachiman Yama), on her return. Therefore she’s considered a protectress of safe childbirth, and amulets are sold here for the same. Over the centuries aristocratic Japanese women used Urade Yama talismans wrapped against their growing bellies to help ensure safe childbirth. After a healthful birth, they gifted their own precious kimono to the deity and her float in gratitude. Thanks to this tradition, at Urade Yama we can see what kind of kimono Japanese empresses and princesses have worn over the centuries. Passed down through generations, the quality and number of kimono a woman had are still considered a measure of wealth. This makes Empress Jingū and Urade Yama wealthy indeed.

(Immigrants from the modern-day Korean peninsula were highly respected in earliest Japanese history. They brought with them technologies like fermentation, ceramic kilns and temple architecture, knowledge like Chinese writing and law, and many other valuable resources. The sacred statue of Empress Jingu wears a noh costume and mask, and holds a curved fishing rod.)

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For full coverage of the festival, check out Catherine’s website here. For previous Green Shinto postings, see here, here or here.

Look closely to appreciate the quality
of Urade Yama’s luxurious aristocratic
kimono.

Tanabata by Hearn

July 3, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

July 7 is the date of the Tanabata celebration, and in the days leading up to it decorated bamboo branches can be seen around Japan. Jut over 100 years ago when Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) wrote fondly of the festivities. He was able to explore Old Japan just as it was modernising under the influence of the West, and he wrote in loving terms of its religious customs and festivals. Hearn was a romantic, so it is not surprising that the meeting of two lovers in the form of stars should have appealed to him so much. He wrote a lot on the subject, detailing the different practices in various regions. It provides a good example of Hearn as folklorist, one of the many guises of this remarkable author. Here are excerpts from his book The Romance of the Milky Way (1905), which give an indication of how important the event was in times past.

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Among the many charming festivals celebrated by Old Japan, the most romantic was the festival of Tanabata-Sama, the Weaving-Lady of the Milky Way. In the chief cities her holiday is now little observed; and in Tokyo. it is almost forgotten. But in many country districts, and even in villages, near the capital, it is still celebrated in a small way. If you happen to visit an old-fashioned country town or village, on the seventh day of the seventh month (by the ancient calendar), you will probably notice many freshly-cut bamboos fixed upon the roofs of the houses, or planted in the ground beside them, every bamboo having attached to it a number of strips of colored paper. In some very poor villages you might find that these papers are white, or of one color only; but the general rule is that the papers should be of five or seven different colors. Blue, green, red, yellow, and white are the tints commonly displayed. All these papers are inscribed with short poems written in praise of Tanabata and her husband Hikoboshi. After the festival the bamboos are taken down and thrown into the nearest stream, together with the poems attached to them.
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The ceremonies at the Imperial Court were of the most elaborate character: a full account of them is given in the Kōji Kongen,—with explanatory illustrations. On the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month, mattings were laid down on the east side of that portion of the Imperial Palace called the Seiryōden; and upon these mattings were placed four tables of offerings to the Star-deities. Besides the customary food-offerings, there were placed upon these tables rice-wine, incense, vases of red lacquer containing flowers, a harp and flute, and a needle with five eyes, threaded with threads of five different colors. Black-lacquered oil-lamps were placed beside the tables, to illuminate the feast. In another part of the grounds a tub of water was so placed as to reflect the light of the Tanabata-stars; and the ladies of the Imperial Household attempted to thread a needle by the reflection. She who succeeded was to be fortunate during the following year. The court-nobility (Kugé) were obliged to make certain offerings to the Imperial House on the day of the festival. The character of these offerings, and the manner of their presentation, were fixed by decree. They were conveyed to the palace upon a tray, by a veiled lady of rank, in ceremonial dress. Above her, as she walked, a great red umbrella was borne by an attendant. On the tray were placed seven tanzaku (longilateral slips of fine tinted paper for the writing of poems); seven kudzu-leaves; seven inkstones; seven strings of sōmen (a kind of vermicelli); fourteen writing-brushes; and a bunch of yam-leaves gathered at night, and thickly sprinkled with dew. In the palace grounds the ceremony began at the Hour of the Tiger,—4 A.M. Then the inkstones were carefully washed,—prior to preparing the ink for the writing of poems in praise of the Star-deities,—and each one set upon a kudzu-leaf. One bunch of bedewed yam-leaves was then laid upon every inkstone; and with this dew, instead of water, the writing-ink was prepared. All the ceremonies appear to have been copied from those in vogue at the Chinese court in the time of the Emperor Ming-Hwang.
It was not until the time of the Tokugawa Shōgunate that the Tanabata festival became really a national holiday; and the popular custom of attaching tansaku of different colors to freshly-cut bamboos, in celebration of the occasion, dates only from the era of Bunser (1818). Previously the tanzaku had been made of a very costly quality of paper; and the old aristocratic ceremonies had been not less expensive than elaborate. But in the time of the Tokugawa Shōgunate a very cheap paper of various colors was manufactured; and the holiday ceremonies were suffered to assume an inexpensive form, in which even the poorest classes could indulge.

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For an authoritative overview of the origins and development of Tanabata festivities, please see this site.

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Japan Today feature, 7/7

Tanabata wishes

Visitors attach paper strips with their wish written on them to a bamboo branch for the Tanabata Star Festival at a temple in Tokyo on Tuesday. According to legend, deities Orihime (Vega) and her lover Hikoboshi (Altair), separated by the Milky Way, are allowed to meet only once a year during this period. People celebrate the festival by writing wishes on strips of paper and hanging them under bamboo trees.