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Hinduism 5): Gozu Tenno/Gion Festival

July 24, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

Kyoto's Yasaka Jinja, known popularly as Gion-sha and once part of a syncretic complex which worshipped Gozu Tenno

Before its conversion to a ‘purely’ Shinto shrine by Meiji nationalists, Yasaka Jinja in Kyoto was a syncretic miyadera (shrine run by a temple), under the control of the Tendai sect on nearby Mt Hiei. The main deity worshipped was a curious ox-headed deity called Gozu Tenno.

In Shinto Shrines p. 144, Joseph Cali has an excellent overview of the cult of Gozu Tenno, described as ‘an Indian-Buddhist-Shinto syncretic deity with the power to protect against (or cause) illness.’

Gozu Tenno (courtesy wkdfestivalsaijiki.blogspot.com)

The early history of Yasaka Shrine is uncertain, but Cali says it is clear that the deities worshipped on the site were a mix of both Buddhist and Shinto from ancient times. The temple area was called Gion, named after the first monastery in India built for the Buddha (Jetavana Vihara was translated into Japanese as Gion Shoja).

The protector of the Indian monastery was the ox-headed deity Gavagriva, known in Japanese as Gozu Tenno. According to legend he gave a prince some magical grass which he wore around his waist to protect himself from disease. This became the origin of the chinowa ring, used today in midsummer purification rites.

In 869 a severe outbreak of pestilence was attributed to the anger of Gozu Tenno, and a great festival was organised by the authorities to appease the deity. Sixty-six halberds were raised in the imperial garden of Shinsen-en, representing the sixty-six provinces of Japan. It was the origin of the Gion Matsuri, which became a yearly event from 975.

According to the Encyclopedia of Shinto, “With origins as a spirit causing disease, Gozu Tennō was in time transformed into a tutelary that protected its worshipers from such epidemics, taking on further characteristics as a deity of justice, a deity that ascertained truth, and a deity of the cardinal directions. As observances of the Gion-e type spread regionally, Gozu Tennō was also established as a local tutelary deity (chinju no kami).”

A variety of ritual formulae and sacred histories purport to explain the origins and nature of Gozu Tennō; historically originating in India, the deity’s features underwent successive transformations and systematic development as it was transmitted to China and Japan. The actual details of its transmission and the process of amalgamation with other deities, however, are complex issues and not universally agreed upon. In India, the deity was called Gosirsa Devaraja, a minor tutelary deity in Buddhism known as a protector of the Monastery of the “Jeta Grove” (known in Japan as Gion), while in Tibet it was known as the deity of “Ox-Head Mountain” (Jp. Gozusan). Transmitted to China, the deity’s cult merged with esoteric Buddhism, Daoism, and Yin-Yang beliefs, and then was transmitted to Japan, where it experienced further mingling with Japanese Yin-Yang (Onmyōdō) divination.

The concept underlying the Gion Festival has to do with turning vengeful spirits into protective deities by placating and pleasing them with entertainment. This is known as goryo-e (meeting with angry spirits). It stemmed from the Buddhist notion that kami were in need of enlightenment, a teaching that enabled Buddhist priests to assert supremacy over Shinto in the same way as they had done previously in India with Hinduism.

Susanoo, the storm god, here slaying the eight-headed Orochi monster

At some point the imported Hindu deity became identified with Susanoo no mikoto, the Japanese storm god who was also associated with disease (pestilence was carried on the wind). When the Meiji nationalists insisted on a clean separation of Shinto and Buddhism, they specifically cited Gozu Tenno as an example of the ‘distortion’ of Shinto.

A renamed Yasaka Jinja was therefore forced to give up worship of Gozu Tenno for Susanoo no mikoto. The shrine’s new name was a reference to the Yasaka clan of Korean immigrants who had settled in the area, and today it stands at the head of around 3000 Yasaka Shrines nationwide.

The old Buddhist-Shinto fusion is not forgotten however, and lives on in the festival where floats are full of syncretic practice. (For an example, see the En no Gyoja float here.) Also every school child learns by heart a passage in the Tale of the Heike about the old temple bell that rang out over the area: “The bell of the Gion temple tolls into every man’s heart to warn him that all is vanity and evanescence.” (The bell is housed now at Daiun-in temple.)

In the sound of the Gion bell were echoed the Hindu origins of Gozu Tenno.

The Gion Matsuri – first inspired by appeasement of an imported Hindu deity

Gion matsuri 9) Floats

July 22, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

The Gion Matsuri goes on! Though the parade is over, the month-long festival continues. The floats have been disassembled and put away for another year, though the mikoshi of Yasaka Jinja are still at their otabisho (resting place) on Shijo street, where they will remain until the 24th. There are still a few interesting events to be held over the next week or so.

Painting of Gion Matsuri in days gone by

There were originally 66 floats, one for each of the 66 provinces in Japan. According to Gion Matsuri expert, Paul Carty, there are currently 32 floats in the Gion Festival but from next year there will be 33. How come?

Well, it seems that with great excitement one of the traditional floats (Ofune hoko) is being revived. Moreover, it’s a key float which always ended the parade until it was destroyed in the great conflagration of 1864.

With the arrival of the new float, the parade will be split into two parts as it was in former times, one to be held on the 17th and one on the 24th. It seems 2014 is going to be an interesting year for the Gion Matsuri! (The type and order of the floats in the parade can be found on a useful visual overview here.)

There are two main types: yama and hoko. Yama means ‘mountain’, and the floats bear a pine tree in reference to Shinto’s origins when spirits were thought to descend onto mountains and into trees. Hoko floats are distinguished by a large spire rising skywards, as if a conductor for spirits to descend onto.

Hoko floats
Weight: about 12,000 kg
Height: about 25 m from ground to tip
Wheel diameter: about 1.9 m
Attendants: about 30–40 pulling during procession, usually two men piloting with wedges

Yama floats
Weight: 1,200–1,600 kg
Height: about 6 m
Attendants: 14–24 people to pull, push or carry

What is fascinating about the floats is that each has its own character, its own history, its own neighbourhood and its own object of veneration – often quite unique and seemingly unrelated to others.

Several reflect the strongly syncretic nature of Yasaka Jinja’s past, when it formed part of a Gion temple (still today it’s known as Gion-sha). Gion is in fact a reference to the first monastery built for Buddha in India, named Jetavana Vihara which was translated into Japanese as Gion Shija.

A rock that according to legend En no Gyoja once rested against. By touching it, one can take on some of his ascetic powers acquired from nature through arduous austerities and worship-ascents of mountains.

According to Joseph Cali in Shinto Shrines, until the Meiji Restoration the shrine was a miyadera under the control of the Tendai sect based on Mt Hiei. (Its main object of worship was the syncretic deity Gozu Tenno, which has Indian Buddhist origins.)

The pragmatic Tendai sect embraces most variants of Buddhism found in Japan (including Zen meditation), which is why there is a great variety of belief found among the Gion floats too.

One example is the En no Gyoja float, celebrating the founder of Shugendo (mountain asceticism), which is closely associated with Esoteric Buddhism. (Though the Meiji fanatics banned Shugendo, it’s so rooted in the Japanese psyche that it survived.)

The float traces its history back to before the Onin Wars of 1467-1477, and uniquely in the parade it’s carried on the shoulders of its bearers. The main puppet it contains, unsurprisingly, is that of the seventh-century En no Gyoja himself.

The Shugendo founder is accompanied by a god known as Hitokoto-nushi no kami and the spirit of Mt Katsuragi known as Katsuragi-shin. (Hitokoto-nushi appears in a legend where En no Gyoja asks him to span a bridge between two high mountains. Mt Katsuragi was where the Shugendo founder originally lived and developed his secret powers.)

On the eve of the parade (July 16), Shugendo practitioners from Shogo-in known as yamabushi perform the goma-daki rite in which a huge pile of pine is burnt with dramatic flames and smoke billowing out. The smoke is believed to have a purifying effect which cleanses the surrounds of any evil spirits and pests, so many people throng around the fire to have the smoke waft over them and protect them throughout the coming year.

The puppet dolls that go on the En no Gyoja float. From left to right: the deity Hitokotonushi no kami; Jinben Daibosatsu (posthumous name of En no Gyoja); and Katsurag shin (kami of Mt Katsuragi)

A Shogo-in yamabushi (mountain ascetic) conducts the stunning gomaki fire ceremony

Hinduism 4) Rock Cave

July 22, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

Kagura reenactment of the Rock Cave myth, with strong man Tajikarao about to force open the stones

Sun worship was common across the ancient world, and it’s no surprise that there should be common elements between Japanese beliefs about Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and continental versions of the solar myth. However, the similarities in the Cave Myth episode, in which Amaterasu plunges the world into darkness by withdrawing into a cave, suggest that the story must have been imported through immigrant communities in the Yayoi period.

The fascinating ‘Japanese Mythology and Folklore’ site has an article which suggests the origins of the story may in fact lie even further back than Korea and China. The piece below is extracted from a much lengthier (and rambling) article entitled “Isani-and-Iswara vs Izanagi and Izanami: Similarities and common Saka-Sassanian-Sila roots of the royal myths of Indian and Japanese tribes’. (Click here for the original.)

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On solar myths, in “Vala and Iwato: The Myth of the Hidden Sun in India, Japan, and beyond” Michael Witzel draws close parallels between the RigVedic Indian winter solstice and release of dawn myth and the Japanese Amaterasu sun myth: “The ancient Japanese myth of the sun deity Amaterasu-ō-mikami hiding in and reemerging from the Iwato cave is first recorded in the oldest Japanese texts, the Kojiki and Nihonshoki (712/720 CE). The Indian version, the myth of Indra’s opening the Vala cave and his release of the ‘first dawn’ is found in the oldest Indian text, the gveda (c. 1200-1000B.C.) the Vedic myth of the Usas – Dawn”.

Its classical Indo-European form is found in the Vedic literature of oldest India, from the gvedic hymns onwards. According to these poems that are meant for praise of the gods, the early morning sun, is regarded as a beautiful young woman who heralds the rising of the sun. One of the most prominent myths [tells how she] was hidden in a cave found on an island in the middle of the stream at the end of the world. The cave is opened by the strong warrior god Indra, who is accompanied by poets and singers.

They recite, sing, shout, and make a lot of noise outside the cave that is blocked by a robust lock. The ‘strong-armed’ god Indra smashes the gate with his weapon. He is helped by the recitations and the noise made by his friends. Helped by their various combined efforts, he opens the cave and the “first dawn” emerges, illuminating the whole world.

Witzel finds most of the elements of the Indian and Indo-Iranian (East Iran and Nuristan, Afghanistan myths) to be intact and to correspond in the Japanese Amaterasu version, but finally concludes that the Japanese myth takes an intermediate position between the Indo-Iranian version and the ones belonging to Southeast Asia — the Austro-Asiatic Khasi, and the Tibeto-Burmese Naga (both in Assam), and the Austric Miao (Hmong) in S. China.

Modern manga version of the sun deity, Amaterasu (from Izanagi Jingu in Awajima)

Fuji 2) Religious object

July 18, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

Symmetrical and snow-capped, Mt Fuji is an iconic symbol of Japan. Since ancient times it’s been held in awe, and many Japanese harbour the desire to climb it at least once. It was previously nominated as a Natural Heritage site, but environmental problems necessitated rethinking the application as a Cultural Heritage site based on its religious and artistic significance.

Fuji’s religious role stems from the country’s animist tradition of mountain worship, prompted not only by its dominating presence but by its volcanic activity. Since 781 there have been 17 recorded eruptions (the last being in 1707), and to appease the mountain deity Sengen shrines were built around the base.

Of the eight shrines in the World Heritage registration, Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha is the most important. Established at its present location in 806, it boasts an unusual two-storey sanctuary as well as ponds fed by underground water from Mt Fuji. It stands at the head of some 1300 Sengen shrines nationwide.

From the twelfth century, as volcanic activity lessened, the mountain became a base for mountain asceticism (shugendo), which mixes esoteric Buddhism with Taoism and kami worship. ‘Entering the mountain’ is seen as a form of death and rebirth, by which the old self is killed off and the practitioner returns spiritually enhanced.

After the fifteenth century ordinary people became involved, led on pilgrimages by a shugendo practitioner. Around this time the mountain deity became conflated with a mythological princess called Konohana no sakuya, perhaps because of her association with beauty.

By the eighteenth century there was a flourishing Fuji-ko sect. The founder, Hasegawa Kakugyo (1541-1646), did austerities in a small cave at Hitoana where he had a mystic vision of Fuji as the divine fount of life. Followers were encouraged to do ritualised pilgrimages, and stone markers record their names and the number of worship-ascents.

Statue of Hasegawa Kakugyo at the Hitoana cave site

Amongst the sites listed with Unesco are two ‘lava mould caves’, in which trees once covered by lava have rotted away to form hollow openings. Here, within the ‘womb’ of Konohana no sakuya, sect members were symbolically reborn. Elsewhere purification rites were performed at the Shiraito waterfall and at the Oshino Hakkai springs, fed by underground water from Fuji.

Fuji-ko members were organised into confraternities, for whom guides called Oshi facilitated arrangements. In the town of Fujiyoshida there were once 86 Oshi lodging houses, but today only a handful remain. Ascents of Fuji used to start from one of the Sengen shrines, though nowadays most of the 300,000 climbers drive up to the 5th station at 2,700 meters. (The climbing season is July and August, and at peak times such as weekends the trail is congested and mountain huts booked out.)

Besides its religious role, Mt Fuji has loomed large in the poetic imagination, inspiring medieval folk tales and the haiku of Basho. Already in the eighth-century anthology, Manyoshu, reference can be found to Fuji’s divinity:

In the land of Yamato,
It is our treasure, our tutelary god.
It never tires our eyes to look up
To the lofty peak of Mount Fuji

The mountain also has a long tradition of artistic representation, in which the Fuji Five Lakes form an important element. Scenic viewspots show Fuji’s many guises reflected in the shimmering water, and a scene from Lake Motosuko is printed on Japan’s Y1000 note. Another viewpoint, 45 kilometers away on the coast, is Miho no Matsubara which was popular in the past for Fuji sketches featuring the pines on its beach (associated with the Hagoromo legend about a feathered robe).

The most celebrated pictures, however, are the ukiyo-e paintings by Hokusai Katsushika and Hiroshige Utagawa, who both did Thirty Six Views of Fuji. The latter also produced a series of Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, which served to imprint the mountain on the modern consciousness, not only in Japan but abroad through its influence on post-Impressionists. Once a feared volcano, the beauty of ‘Fuji-san’ now bewitches the wider world.

The attractive buildings of the chief Sengen shrine, Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha, head of some 1300 shrines

The waterfalls at Shraito, used by Fuji-ko memebers for purificaitoin rites prior to their worship-ascent of Mt Fuji

A gohei in the Funatsu tree mould cave where Fuji-ko practitioners entered into the womb of the mountain goddess

A former Oshi lodging house in Fujiyoshida for those making pilgrimages to Mt Fuji

A Fuji-ko ritual, with practitioners in white clothes, which symbolise death in Japan. The clothing signifies the readiness to kill off the old self and be reborn with the diivine power of Fuji.

Gion 8): Parade

July 18, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

July 17 at 9.00 precisely the main procession of the Gion Matsuri starts, and the 32 yamaboko floats parade through the city centre. If you can sit or stand for three hours in 34 degrees in crowded conditions, you get to see the whole thing live.

If on the other hand you’re a sensitive, white-skinned northern European of Viking descent, like myself, you prefer to watch it live on KBS (Kyoto television). That way you not only get to enjoy airconditioning, but you get an informed commentary, close-ups of all the floats, helicopter shots from above, and instant access to the refrigerator.

Two yama and a hoko parading through downtown Kyoto

One of the hoko chigo, musicians and people who perch perilously on the roof

Close-up of the main chigo (centre), who has two attendants (one of whom is in the foreground)

One of the highlights is when the hoko come to a crossroads for the huge wooden wheels are fixed and can only go straight, meaning that sticks are shoved underneath and the huge float pulled round... quite skilful act which does not always work smoothly.

Some of the hard work that goes into maoeuvering the hoko

Every so often one of the floats stops to perform a dance or ritual

Announcement of the float's participation in the parade is done with due pomp and circumstance. The Japanese ability at ritual aesthetics is here seen at its best.

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For a full list of the order of floats in the parade, please see here.

Gion 7): Yoiyama (Koi float)

July 18, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

One of the tapestries that adorn the floats in the Gion parade – but what's with the Western faces??

The last evening before the parade – known as yoiyama – is traditionally the biggest in terms of crowds, with many staying up all night. It’s the last chance to view all the many displays and in the early morning to see the removal of decorations onto the floats themselves. There are 32 floats in all, each with its own particular history, and the parade begins promptly at 9.00 am on the 17th.

What’s interesting is how much religious worship is going on amidst all the high-spirited revelry. Good luck charms are on sale everywhere, and people stopped to give money and pray to the objects that were waiting to be mounted onto the floats. I even saw one woman pray towards one of the floats and bow respectfully.

Box to collect last year's protective charm (chimaki), hung on house doors for a year. Each float's charm has a different purpose, that of the Koi yama being for advancement in life.

One of the most interesting floats I came this year was the Koi-yama, which features a large carp jumping up the Ryumon (Dragon Gate) Falls. It’s based on an old Chinese legend thatif a fish successfully swims up the falls on the Yellow River, it will turn into a dragon. The white hemp tassel hanging beside the carp symbolises the falls, while all the railings and metalwork are in wave patterns.

The front of the float has a red Torii gate, and toward the back of the boat is a small shrine dedicated to Susanoo-no mikoto, god of storms (enshrined at the sponsoring shrine of Yasaka Jinja, aka Gion sha).

The extraordinary fabrics which decorate the float used to be a single large tapestry made in Belgium in the 16th century. It shows a scene from the Iliad, featuring King Prismos and Queen Hekabe. According to an expert, it’s the only one of its kind that was produced in Belgium; how extraordinary that the Greek epic should find itself adorning a Shinto religious festival!

The supposition is that the tapestry was brought to Japan by Hazekura Tsunenaga, an envoy of Date Masamune who visited Europe 1613-1620. While there, he met with Philip III of Spain and the pope in Rome, who may have presented him with the tapestry. By the time that Hazekura returned to Japan, Christianity had been banned and his contacts considered suspicious. The tapestries had to be secreted away – but how on earth did they end up on a Gion float? Given the Shinto nature of the festival, and the hatred with which the authorities regarded Christianity, it seems quite extraordinary….

Presumably one of the wealthy Kyoto merchants obtained the tapestry, and at some point it was decided the large tapestry should be cut up into portions and given Japanese motifs on either side, to make it more festival-like. The result is an odd mix of West and East, as mythological dragons are displayed either side of Greek and Trojan figures.

A piece of the Belgian tapestry with dragon snakes attached on either side

East meets West in close juxtaposition. Scenes from the Iliad mixed with Chinese folklore (a modern copy of the original)

The float's contents of shrine and carp are displayed in a house next to the float before being mounted prior to the procession. The float's main theme of a carp swimming vigorously upstream to become a dragon is undoubtedly Chinese in origin, while the torii is decidedly Japanese, mixed interculturally with the Western faces on the float's tapestry hangings.

Gion 6): Yoiyoiyama

July 16, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

Kyoto's nightscape adorned with lanterns on the Gion Matsuri floats

For three evenings before the Gion Matsuri main parade on May 17, the centre of Kyoto is closed to traffic (known as pedestrians’ heaven) as the area is packed with crowds making their way around the various floats and other items on display. The evening before the parade is known as ‘yoiyama’, the evening before that is yoiyoiyama, and the evening before that is ‘yoiyoiyoiyama’.

Japanese craftsmanship with wood and rope. Not a single nail is used in the floats, which are disassembled after the parade.

People dress up in all kinds of costumes, but mainly yukata, and there’s a party atmosphere. Getting round to see the floats is quite a challenge as some of the streets are absolutely packed – 270,000 attended last night by official accounts.

There are two kinds of floats: yama, which carry some kind of exhibit on them, and the hoko on which musicians sit and which have a tall spire-like decoration on top. Yama are much more numerous; hoko are only few in number, but cause most of the excitement during the parade as the wheels cannot turn round corners but have to be manoeuvred with wedges and great difficulty.

I managed to get around several of the traditional floats last night, and here I’ll focus on one yama and one hoko to show the differences. The Hashi-Benkei yama features a scene from the Noh play about the legendary encounter between the youthful high-class Yoshitsune and the warrior-monk Benkei. The latter had been descending on Kyoto from Mt Hiei, where he was based, and challenging strangers to duels. In this way he had accumulated 999 swords from his defeated opponents, and was hoping for the 1000th when he came across Yoshitsune in disguise as a woman on Gojo Bridge, but by skilful athleticism Yoshitsune was able to defeat the mighty Benkei (think Robin Hood and Little John).

The dolls on the float (see below) have an inscription saying 1563 by Koun, who was the top sculptor of his time. The float always appears in the parade as the 25th, one of 8 floats whose position in the procession is fixed. (The rest are chosen by lottery.)

The Yoshitsune and Benkei puppets on display on a veranda. Before the parade, they will be mounted on the 'yama' float.

Hoko have tall ‘spires’ and feature musicians seated on the tall wagons above the enormous wooden wheels. They are draped with hangings, and the Naginata hoko that leads the procession has tapestries from as far away as Iran, China, Mongolia and Korea. Naginata is a long sword, featured on the front of the hoko, which symbolically clears away impurities and evil spirits. The original, preserved as a treasure, was made about 1000 years ago by master swordsmith, Sanjo-Kankoji Munechika. The long sword now seen on the float is made with bambook covered in tin foil. The chigo (young spirit boy) is always seated in the naginata at the head of the procession.

The Naginata hoko, with long sword emblem

Musicians on the raised platform of a hoko playing characteristic Gion bayashi music