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Wikihow’s 12 practical steps

April 3, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

The Wikihow pages have an item on ‘How to Follow Shintoism’. Not sure who’s compiled it, though there are seven monikers. Some of the ideas are pretty wacky: learning gagaku or dressing up in white kimono doesn’t seem practical or helpful. Also it might come as a surprise to most Japanese to know that Hanami is a Shinto holy day. The compilers equate Japanese culture and Shinto to the extent that they see people as born into the religion rather than choosing it, which makes their list redundant! Anyway, here’s the list so see what you think for yourself. (For Green Shinto’s guide to Solitary Practice, click here.)

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Steps
1 Research about Shinto. Consider reading the Kojiki. Learn about famous kami such as Izanagi and Susanoo and jinja (shrines) such as Ise and Yasukuni. Also read articles or books written by both western and eastern scholars. You might also want to read up on State Shinto.

2 Learn Japanese. This is not vital, but it would be immensely helpful in following Shinto.

3 Learn how to worship at a Shinto shrine.

4Locate your local Shinto shrine. If you are not in Hawaii or Japan, you might have some difficulty doing this.

5 Consider making a pilgrimage to a Shinto shrine, if you have no local shrine, especially for New Year’s. Often Japanese people go back to their home town for New Year’s, so a Shrine with some connection to your birth or family would be good.

For just Y1500 you can set up your own home altar

6 Celebrate Shinto holy days. Your local shrine will have festivals specifically sacred to their kami, so find out what they are. Common Shinto holy days are Hinamatsuri (Girl’s Day), Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing), and of course Shogatsu (New Year’s). If you have no Shinto shrine, consider organizing a celebration to celebrate these days. On New Year’s, make kagami mochi, play karuta, and hang a New Year’s wreath.

7 Obtain a Kamidana. A kamidana is a small home shrine. If you cannot find one, consider setting up a simple sacred place in your home. Remember to worship in front of the kamidana everyday.

8 Consider Amulets. You might also want amulets or other charms to protect you from demons and bring you luck through the year. Omuji are fortunes which include a small charm to keep in your wallet. A hamaya (demonbreaking arrow) will keep bad fortune at bay. You might get a Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat) to encourage wealth and other good fortune to come your way. Or you might want one or more omamori (small brocade amulet) for Kōtsū Anzen (car safety) or Gakugyō Jōju (School Success).

9 Volunteer at your local shrine. Consider trying to help with yard work or cleaning. Becoming involved in the going ons at the shrine will help you deepen your understanding of Shinto. Make friends with the miko (priestess) and kannushi (priests).

10 Learn gagaku. Gagaku is traditional Japanese court music. Consider playing the ryūteki (flute), shō (oboe), or hichiriki (mouth organ). See if your school offers any classes in it.

11 Learn Shinto dances and dress. Shinto dancers often dress in a white kimono, red hakama, with a sheer white coat. Often, a sakaki branch adorned with shide (strips of folded white paper) is used in dances.

12 Study and participate in Japanese culture. Shinto is inseparable from Japanese culture. Learning about one will enhance the other.

Warning: Westerners often consider their religion first, and then their race. However, in Eastern cultures, people tend to consider their race first and their religion second. Often, if a Japanese person moved to America, they would attend the Japanese dominated Pentecostal Church rather the American style Buddhist temple. Thus, some people will say you cannot be Shinto unless you are racially Japanese.

Strangely some instructions for non-Japanese on how to cleanse oneself

Omiyage (J. souvenirs)

April 3, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

Many aspects of Japanese culture are closely tied to Shinto, and it turns out that omiyage (Japanese souvenirs) are a case in point. In Japan Today a cultural anthropology professor sees the custom of giving omiyage as unique to Japan, and he identifies the roots as lying in the pilgrimage customs of the past. (For the full article, click here.)

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Omiyage - sometimes a surprise, and sometimes even delicious

Don’t they have omiyage abroad?

Omiyage is translated as “souvenir” in English, but the two are a little different. A souvenir is something that the person who is doing the traveling buys for him/herself to remember the trip. In Europe and the United States, train station and airport stores are filled with key chains and other non-food items for this purpose. But Japanese omiyage typically consists of food items produced in the area the trip was taken in. Also, omiyage is not intended to be consumed by the traveler and is instead given out to coworkers or friends…. in Japan, omiyage is associated with the history of a specific region, for example, Ise City’s Akafuku rice crackers or Gunma Prefecture’s famous Kusatsu Onsen mochi. In general, this is not true of omiyage elsewhere.

So when was omiyage first seen in Japan?

The origin of omiyage is unclear, but it is thought that the custom began in association with sacred pilgrimages. Those who visited Shinto shrines were expected to bring back evidence of the pilgrimage to their families in the form of charms, rice wine cups, or other religiously significant items. It was thought that the protection granted to pilgrims would be transferred to whoever received the items brought back from the sacred trip. This is said to be the beginning of omiyage.

So at that time, manju (steamed yeast buns with filling) and other foods that are commonly purchased as omiyage today didn’t exist?

Back then, food preservation techniques were limited and people traveled by foot so they could only carry light items such as medicine, money, and ear picks. There was only room for the essentials.

Does that mean that the types of food products increased once the railway system was built?

That’s right. For example, Shizuoku Prefecture’s Abekawa mochi originated in a small tea house next to Abekawa River. After the development of the railway system, “gyuhi,” a sugary gel confectionery, was made instead of mochi (rice) because it lasts longer and can be taken on long trips. At first, many people complained about this new style of Abekawa mochi, but it eventually became known as a specialty product associated with the area.

Fuji: Seven Sacred Trails

March 31, 2013 / John D. / 2 Comments

Pat Ormsby in her role as Shinto priestess

Green Shinto is very proud to present the following piece of original research by Shinto priestess Pat Ormsby. As is evident from the article, she is personally familiar with the ancient pilgrimage routes, which in modern times have fallen out of use. In the year when Mt Fuji comes up for World Heritage status, her work is of prime historical value.
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Reconnecting with the sacred paths of Mt. Fuji
by Patricia Ormsby

Mt. Fuji has been worshipped as a divine entity from as far back as anyone was keeping record, with pilgrimages undertaken to the summit in ancient times. These days paved roads can take you half way up the steep slopes, and the climb from there is more popular than ever, but the old pilgrimage routes around the base and up the lower slopes have been all but forgotten. There is not much of a view from the dense forests, and it takes real devotion to put in the long, hot climb required. The ancient routes are nonetheless notable.

The Yoshida Trail
According to the City of Fuji-Yoshida, “The original Yoshida Climbing Route starts from the Fuji Sengen Shrine, where the pilgrims of over 500 years ago came to pray before they started their climb up the sacred mountain. Today, traditionalists still claim that the only way to climb Mt. Fuji is from the Fuji Sengen Shrine.” (Ref 1)

This was the most easily accessed route from Edo, where the devotional Fuji confraternities (more on them later) were very popular during the Tokugawa rule. Since it is the route of a marathon to the summit each July, it is the best maintained of all the hiking trails below the 5th Station.

Signboard on the Fuji-Yoshida Trail below the First Station. Guides took pilgrims up the mountain at night, and they replenished the oil in their lamps at each station.

The Murayama Route
The Murayama Route is the oldest trail up Mt. Fuji, followed by the nearby Suyama Route. It was developed about 1000 years ago together with a temple complex in the village of Murayama, just south of the volcano, which became a lively center of ascetic Shugendo practice. The trail fell into disuse in 1903, but has been revived in recent years. (Ref.2)

Several years ago, I attempted to follow the Murayama Route, but got lost when it entered a summer home community which had well developed recreational paths heading off in all directions, obscuring the ancient route. Since then, however, more efforts to reestablish the trail have been made, and two years ago, accompanied by two Shugendo practitioners (ref. 3), I was able follow the entire route from the Murayama Sengen Shrine.

The route was well marked, with a few obstacles. At the 5th Station parking lot, it joins the crowded Fujinomiya Trail to the summit. My companions, in full yamabushi (mountain ascetic) regalia, were delayed several hours on the latter by hikers wanting them to pose for pictures.

Dedicated practitioners start their pilgrimage from the port of Tagonoura in Fuji City. Their journey has three sections, the first of which is the urban-suburban roadways of what once was a grassy plain, and represented “this world.” The forests of the Murayama Route represented a transition, and the bare slopes higher up, the world of the dead, to which the pilgrim could go and return.

A yamabushi mountain ascetic in full regalia, blowing a conch horn

The Suyama Route
Similar to the Murayama Route, the Suyama Route has recently been rescued from oblivion. It starts from the Suyama Sengen Shrine near Ashitakyama, an eroded volcanic remnant southeast of Mt. Fuji. Its lower reaches pass adjacent to a golf course and other tourist facilities that lend it a certain quantity of litter and noise, but it is geologically interesting. (ref. 4)

Mizutsuka, one of several old cinder cones along the way, is one of the few places on the mountain with reliable surface water. The trail gives views of all three of the Hoei-zan craters, site of Mt. Fuji’s most recent eruption in 1707, before reaching the Ochuudoh and Fujinomiya Trails at the 6th Station.

The Gotemba Route, which parallels it nearby, is the most difficult and picturesque route up Mt. Fuji, climbing through cinders from the Hoei eruption, but the trail appears to have no deep history.

The Subashiri Trail
From the vicinity of the Niihashi Sengen Shrine, established about 800 years ago in Gotemba (ref 5), east of Mt. Fuji, there is a trail going up to the small secondary peak of Kofuji near the Subashiri 5th Station. I can find nothing on the history of that trail, but have heard that in old times women were allowed access to a smaller peak on pilgrimages, and I have long thought that peak might be it.

The main Subashiri Trail currently rises from the 5th Station and meets the Yoshida Trail at the 8th Station. This causes confusion among hikers attempting to descend on the latter. If the Ochuudoh route were better known, it would be a cinch for lost hikers to return to the proper trail at the 6th Station, taking about twenty minutes along a level course.

The Shoji Trail
The Shoji Trail is one of the most interesting routes, leading from Lake Shoji to the northwest of the mountain to the 5th Station, where it joins the Ochuudoh and Yoshida Trails. There is no shrine associated with it, and it bisects the haunted forest of Aokigahara, where families once abandoned their elderly to die, currently a destination for suicides.

Compasses often do not work in the forest due to geomagnetic anomalies. This is a shame, because otherwise, it is a most impressive route. Devotees piled up basalt rocks to make the route smooth and straight, and the dense forest has largely protected their work from erosion.

The road was broad enough to accommodate royalty and is still easily passable, despite fallen trees, and unmistakable for its entire course. The minimal signs are more than adequate. The two yamabushi and I hiked down it at night. This trail and the Ochuudoh provide a sense of the degree of devotion once shown by pilgrims, ascetic practitioners and lay followers alike.

The Ochuudoh
Literally, “the middle road,” this route circumscribes Mt. Fuji at the 5th to 6th Stations and was particularly beloved by the Fuji confraternity, who maintained at least one shrine along it which also provided lodging. Representing the Buddhist injunction to avoid extremes, it was nonetheless the most difficult pilgrimage route, with a hazardous crossing of the Ohsawa Kuzure, an erosional gully on the west slope.

Fuji from the west, showing the deep chasm of the Ohsawa Kuzure gully

The route fell out of use several decades ago when the gully became simply too dangerous to cross, but I have traveled nearly all of it and was able to ascertain its current status last October. The entire route on the Yamanashi (i.e., north) side is in good condition, passing through forests which protect it from rock slides. Parts of it near the Yoshida 5th Station parking lot have been paved with hand-hewn stones, presenting a broad, currently popular route. Like the Yellow-Brick Road, however, things get wild further on and care must be taken to stay on course.

The Fuji confraternity shrine is just short of the constantly rumbling chasm of the Ohsawa Kuzure in a dense foggy forest about 1.5 hours walk westward from the Yoshida 5th Station parking lot. Eastward, just short of where it intersects the Subashiri Trail, there are the remains of another shrine. Crossing over to the Shizuoka (i.e., south) side from there, however, the trail emerges onto bare slopes, where it was annually obliterated even when it had large numbers of travelers.

A sandy slog of about an hour, angling slightly upward takes you into view of the Hoei-zan crater, where the Ochuudoh is clearly marked and well traveled, running along the shoulder of the cinder cone, then descending into the crater, emerging at the Fujinomiya Trail 6th Station. Westward from there, however, it has been entirely obliterated by bulldozer roads, and its point of reentry into the forests beyond can be hard to locate. There is at least one brave soul, however, who makes the complete circuit regularly, descending to the base of Mt. Fuji to cross the Ohsawa Kuzure, and climbing again on the other side as a summertime exercise when his real passion of cross-country skiing is not possible.

An unnamed waterfall near a Fuji-kyo meeting house west of Mt. Fuji, where the basalt is picturesque. (This and above photo by Pat Ormsby)

Eight Inner and Eight Outer Lakes
The Fuji confraternity was a sect founded in the early 16th century by Hasegawa Kakugyo, an ascetic who bypassed the thriving Shugendo community at Murayama and undertook his own ascetic practice in the Hitoana lava cave to the west of Mt. Fuji. Highly popular as a lay organization promoting Fuji pilgrimages during the Edo period, it seems to have been bypassed by modernity, the most recent Hasegawa heir shunning the leadership. The remaining members are mostly old enough to remember the deprivations of World War II or its aftermath.

Their liturgy mentions “uchisoto hakko no ryuujin,” meaning the dragon gods of the eight inner and eight outer lakes. The inner lakes include the famous five lakes of Mt. Fuji and three other smaller lakes that are not famous. The first of these is Lake Osensui, where the Dragon King of hand washing is said to reside. That is the ritual of purification undertaken before entering sacred ground. The second is Lake Yamanaka, where dwells the Dragon King of medicine. The third is Lake Asumi, with the Dragon King of prophecies. The fourth is Lake Kawaguchi, with the Dragon King of irrigation. The fifth is Lake Saiko, with the Dragon King of green trees (that is to say, the haunted forest of Aokigahara), from where arise the seeds of our food. The sixth is Lake Shoji, with the Dragon King of success. The seventh is Lake Motosu, with the Dragon King of ancient origins from the mists of mythology. The eighth is Lake Shibire, with the Dragon King of future outcomes.

Summer solstice at Futamigaura

The Fuji sect followers still undertake pilgrimages to these, but travel by car. The Tokai Shizen Hodo, established in recent decades from Tokyo to Osaka, passes fairly close to most of the lakes, making a pleasant trip on foot possible. It would be less strenuous than climbing Mt. Fuji—unless one undertook the traditional ritual bathing at each lake. Fed by Mt. Fuji spring water arising from deep below the surface, they are icy cold.

The eight outer lakes include Biwako, Ashinoko, Futamigaura, Suwako, Chuzenjiko, Harunako, Sakuragaike, and Kasumigaura. Of these, Futamigaura is not actually a lake but a sea coast in Ise. However, it shares with the others the distant visibility of Mt. Fuji, if not directly, then from a mountain nearby.

At Futamigaura, which has the famous married rocks joined by a rope of rice straw (ref. 6), the sun rises from directly behind Mt. Fuji at the summer solstice. Visiting all of these would have been a labor of great devotion in times prior to modern transport.

References
1 http://www.city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp/div/english/html/climb.html
2 Rowlett, Roger (2005) “Murayama Kodo Trail Opens on Fuji” http://americasroof.com/archives/392
3 For detailed information see: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/shugendou.html
4 For a fascinating geological account of Mt. Fuji see : http://www.vulcanospeleology.org/sym05gui/ISV5G04.pdf
5 http://city.gotemba.shizuoka.jp/ehp/sightseeing/12.html
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meoto_Iwa

Spiritual cocktails

March 29, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

What part-time job could this priest be doing?

Many of Shinto’s 22,000 priests work in straightened circumstances. Their income from Shinto is not enough, and they are forced to do part-time jobs to survive. Some get by as best they can.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper carries a piece today about a possible role model….

“A Buddhist priest in Japan is breaking the mould by offering cocktails alongside prayers and sermons. Yoshinobu Fujioka hands out advice along with his ‘soul-cleansing’ cocktails, which include ‘perfect bliss’ and ‘infinite hell’. Japan’s religious leaders are concerned at the dwindling number of young people practising Buddhism.”

For a video of the Buddhist cocktail maker in action, see the video here.

Dirty money

March 27, 2013 / John D. / 1 Comment

uk finance.com has recently come out with an article about how dirty money is. Nice irony for a financial website. Especially so in view of the banking crisis and the Cyprus disaster. It turns out that it’s all filthy lucre, quite literally…. It’s a symbol of a rotten, polluted world. No wonder the samurai would have nothing to do with it!!

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Purify and purificaiton lie at the hear of Shnto – and a concern to ensure that money is ‘clean’

New tests by Oxford University scientists have confirmed what many of us have long feared – cash is dirty, disgusting and riddled with bacteria.

The research found that European bank notes on average contain over 26,000 bacteria. Things are much better with newer, fresher notes and coins, with just 2,400 bacteria found on them.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, given a study by MasterCard found that a whopping 57% of us felt that bank notes and coins were the least hygienic item we come into contact with on a daily basis.

The sut timrvey asked people across 15 different European nations, and in each and every one cash was considered the least hygienic item of all!

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So which European nation boasts the dirtiest currency of all? Surprisingly, to me anyway, it’s the Danish krone with 40.266 bacteria. (Anything over 26,000 is apparently a health hazard.).

What’s all this got to do with Shinto, you may well ask?

Well, I think most people would agree that money in Japan is likely to be amongst the least bacteria ridden. All those fresh crisp notes, for example. It’s part of the culture of cleanliness in the country. Nowhere else I know of is as meticulous about hygiene as Japan (except perhaps for Singapore where it has to be enforced by law).

Examples abound about the Japanese obsession with purity. Banisters are wiped methodically on stairs and escalators. Public phones are wiped before use. Special slippers provided for lavatories, and woe to those who forget to take them off afterwards.

On a personal level I’ve had visitors inspect my cutlery, even when they weren’t going to eat. Dirty looks for not staying in the shower long enough. Reprimanded for chewing on a bit of unwashed grass.

The rationale for all this is usually put down to the Shinto emphasis on physical and spiritual purity. It’s just one of many ways that the values of Shinto can be seen to underwrite the basic patterns of Japanese culture. People often ask me why I’m so obsessed with Shinto, and here is one of the prime reasons. As I wrote in my book on Hidden Christians, D.T. Suzuki claimed that Zen underlay Japanese culture, but I think there’s greater reason to claim that of Shinto. I hope one day to write a book explaining why.

Miko collecting ’dirty money’ from the offerngs-box at Futarasan Jinja at Nikko. Will she have to be purified afterwards?

Mountain worship (Fuji)

March 27, 2013 / John D. / 0 Comments

From afar Fuji looks the picture of pristine

Jesus gave a sermon on the mount. Buddhists seek them out for monasteries. The ancients of the Far East used to worship them. What is it about mountains and spirituality?

The obvious answer is that they make you high. Literally. And figuratively. They’re as close as you come on this earth to heaven. And the lack of oxygen may well mean that they’re as close as you can come to passing into otherworldliness too. Climb a mountain and you ascend to a higher realm.

Mountains bring escape from the tedious trivialities of everyday existence into rare contemplation of the blessings of life. Mountains take you up, up and away. They make you feel awake, alert, alive to the wonders of the world. Mountains are simply magic.

Tourists jostle for photos in Seifa Utaki's sacred opening

Given the rare nature of mountains, it’s alarming then to hear of the sorry state of that most sacred of mountains, Mt Fuji.

Even as the vetting group for the World Heritage nomination write their report, the state of the holy mount remains sadly anything but conducive to spirituality, as a personal comment below makes clear, taken from a piece on mountain climbing in Japan Today…

Okinawa’s most sacred site, Seifa Utaki, has recently won the right to be closed on certain days according to the lunar calendar in order to preserve a sense of sanctity for worshippers.

Registration as a World Heritage site has brought Seifa increased numbers of tourists, but ironically a downturn in the very spiritual qualities for which it was registered. For believers it was not so much a blessing as a curse.

Will Fuji benefit from World Heritage status, or will it mark its final ruination? All to play for as the final decision is settled this June in the hallowed halls of Unesco….

Watch this space!

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From Japan Today….

a warning to those going to climb mt fuji in the official seasons.
beware of the following:

* rubbish
* elderly
* endless people, walking at a crawl.
* the entrance fee to actually climb the mountain.
* the glaring lamp lights of those attempting to reach the summit before the sunrise, especially a perfectly clear night with a full moon.. you can actually see more without the lamps on..

View from sacred Mt Miwa down over the mortals mired in the Yamato basin

Benten’s roots (Saraswati)

March 25, 2013 / John D. / 2 Comments

She stands seductively at the water’s edge and speaks of poetry and music. In her hands a lute, and around her feet white snakes coiled in attendance. She brings good fortune to those who worship her, and she sails the high seas with a jolly crew of seven. She’s a goddess, a deity, a Muse. She’s Benzaiten, aka Benten, honoured by Shinto and Buddhism alike.

If you see a shrine on an islet, in all likelihood it will be that of Benten. In the midst of the pond garden, or haunting islands along the coast, it is Benten. Water is her medium, and the subconscious her realm. Benten moves in mysterious ways, like the wavy patterns of her dress. She’s an artist, who possesses knowledge of the hidden world and speaks to the eternal. She’s a higher truth in human form.

In a posting for her blog, Anuradha Gupta has written of the origins of this compelling deity, who made her way from ancient India across the vast expanse of China from where she passed into Japan sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries. To understand her spell, you have to travel back in time to the origins. Back indeed to holy Saraswati, incarnation of the river that feeds the well-springs of creativity within us all… (the piece below is an edited version; for the original, click here.)

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Saraswati is one of the three main Hindu goddesses. She is ‘Vac Devi’, the goddess of ‘speech’ or literature and is incarnated in all art forms. All knowledge and learning is believed to flow from Saraswati. While Brahma is the Lord of Creation, Saraswati his daughter is Creativity itself.

You can recognize her by her white and gold garments and pale complexion. She has four arms and holds in her hands the veena, a stringed musical instrument, a book ( the vedas), a mala of beads and sometimes a pot of water. She is often seen seated on a lotus flower or standing by a river. At times you will find peacocks or swans by her side.

Meaning and Origin Saraswati means ‘to flow’, as is the nature of knowledge and creativity. It cannot be contained and must flow freely. Saraswati is also the Goddess of Purity, for the true purpose of knowledge is to purify the mind and lead it to wisdom. It is also the nature of a river to flow, to purify and to nourish. And, ultimately to merge with the ocean.

No surprise then that the Goddess Saraswati as we know her today started off as the Rig Vedic river, Saraswati, which once flowed from the East to the West in northern India. Today only a small part of it remains as the Ghaggar River in Rajasythan; the rest of it long lost under the vast Marusthali desert.

However satellite images and geological mapping show that the Vedic Saraswati was indeed an enormous river, about 1500 kms long and eight kms wide in her prime. Archeologists believe she played a major role in sustaining the Indus Valley civilization. Which explains why Saraswati is praised so lavishly in all the Vedas with several hymns dedicated to her. One hymn describes her as the ‘best of the mothers, best of the rivers, best of the goddesses’. The river was an important part of all Vedic worship and rituals and continues to be an integral part of Hinduism even today.

Around 4000 BC when the Saraswati dried up, the people who had settled on her banks moved eastwards. Thousands of years later, by the time the Upanishads and Puranas were written, the River Ganges had become the most important river and the Saraswati had faded into a memory preserved in myths and stories.

This transformation in attitudes is clearly seen in the Upanishads wherein Saraswati now becomes the goddess of knowledge who leads man to the ocean of Truth. This idea of Saraswati was later incorporated into Jainism and Buddhism. Through Buddhism it spread beyond India to the far east.

In Jainism, she became Saraswati, the dispeller of darkness and ignorance. Tibetan Buddhists know her as Yang Chenmo who bestows wisdom and learning. In Mongolian she is Keleyin ukin Tegri, in Chinese she is called Tapien-ts’ai t’iennu or Miao-yin mu, and in Japan she is Dai-Ben-Zai-Ten, meaning ‘the great divinity of the reasoning faculty’.

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Benzaiten as a kami (From Wikipedia)

Benzaiten is a female kami to Shinto with the name Ichikishima-hime-no-mikoto. Also, she is believed by Tendai Buddhism to be the essence of kami Ugajin, whose effigy she sometimes carries on her head together with a torii. As a consequence, she is sometimes also known as Uga Benzaiten or Uga Benten.

The three big Benzaiten shrines in Japan are at Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay, the Chikubu Island in Lake Biwa and the Itsukushima Island in Seto Inland Sea.