Those who have read The Catalpa Bow will know of the notion that paradise lay on the far side of the sea. For medieval believers, the idea was that Kannon’s island paradise called Mt Furdaraku (or Potala in Sanskrit) … Read the rest
Category: Death (Page 6 of 7)
The end of the world appears not to have taken place after all, as Mayan freaks suggested, but symbolically with the winter solstice today the death of nature is taking place. So commiserations and congratulations are in order. The king … Read the rest
The Nagatoro Funadama Festival was held on the Arakawa River in Saitama Prefecture this week, reports Japan Today. It is a traditional event staged in Nagatoro, a town famous for whitewater boating, and the origin lies in requesting that … Read the rest
Today is Obon in Kyoto, when ancestral spirits are welcomed back home before being sent off with a grand fire ceremony called Daimonji, about which I’ve written previously. (See here.) The festival appeals to the syncretic sentiments of … Read the rest
Avebury stone circle
There are sacred rocks (iwakura) all over Japan, but I’ve never seen a date put on them. The supposition is that they date to the Yayoi Age (300 BC-300 AD), when waves of immigrants … Read the rest
Today’s Huffington Post carries a news item on preparations for the one-year anniversary of the tsunami. The number of shrines damaged in the disaster is quite startling: roughly 5% of the country’s total.
***************************************************************************************************
Shinto Priests Prepare To Hold Commemoration … Read the rest
This month’s Kansai Scene has an article that covers the Japanese way of dealing with death that provides a comprehensive overview of the subject – appropriate perhaps as we approach 3/11 (see previous post), though the article is timed … Read the rest