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Imperial quandary

January 20, 2012 / John D. / 1 Comment

The present emperor-priest at new year, 2010 (picture by UPI/Keizo Mori)

There are many things that could be said about Japan’s emperor system. One is that the present incumbent is certainly not the 125th in direct line from the legendary Jimmu. There have been many hiccups on the way, and it’s generally agreed by historians that the earliest emperors are entirely fictitious. Yet the pre-war belief in an unbroken imperial line since time immemorial has never been renounced and is still routinely trotted out. Even Wikipedia mentions it in the very first line of its article on the present emperor. (See Akihito.)

Since Meiji times, in an invented tradition, the emperor has been recognised as the head priest and central figure of Shinto. Still today Jinja Honcho (Association of Shrines) devotes much effort to fostering the emperor’s prestige through its campaign to promote Ise, which is the seat of the imaginary imperial ancestor, Amaterasu. In this respect the intriguing constitutional predicament brought about by a lack of male heirs in the imperial family is of interest, as an article in the Japan Times illustrates. Curiously for a lineage that claims descent from the sun-goddess, females are debarred from succeeding as emperor. Hisahito, the present grandson of the ailing Emperor Akihito, is the sole male member of his generation, leading to nervous thoughts about the future.

Excerpt follows from an article by Colin P.A. Jones, professor at Kyoto’s Doshisha Law School.

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Since members of the Imperial family are prohibited by law from adopting children, there is a very real prospect that in the not-too-distant future the Japanese Imperial household will be reduced to little more than a single nuclear family headed by Prince Hisahito and his wife.

Under current law, if all of the princesses marry out of the monarchy, Hisahito would quite literally be the only one left in the household to perform a myriad of state functions and religious ceremonies. He and his lucky spouse would also have to bear the intense pressure of producing male heirs to continue the lineage, a burden that reportedly drove his aunt, Princess Masako, to the brink of despair.

The onerous responsibility imposed by state functions on the Emperor should not be underestimated. Some of them, such as appointing the prime minister, receiving foreign ambassadors and promulgating new legislation, are mandated by the Constitution. Other members of the Imperial family thus play an important role not just as a source of potential heirs, but also as proxies for the Emperor when he is unavailable due to illness or other commitments. During Akihito’s recent hospitalization the Crown Prince performed state functions in his place.

At a recent press conference Prince Akishino suggested there should be a “retirement age” after which the Emperor should perform only constitutional functions, leaving the rest of the Imperial family to handle the many other public duties not specified in the Constitution (there are no provisions in the law allowing emperors to retire completely before death). Yet even this would not be a long-term solution if there are no other Imperials around to share the burden. While the constitutional roles performed by the Emperor are formalities, if neither he nor any lawful proxies are available to perform them, a constitutional crisis is possible nonetheless.

As for succession, that having a baby boy remains a matter of fate has been demonstrated by the situation of the current Crown Prince and Princess Masako, not to mention numerous Imperial predecessors, who in days past were at least aided by the availability of official concubines. Akihito’s grandfather and great-grandfather, the Meiji and Taisho Emperors, were both born to concubines (a status that would have rendered them ineligible for the throne under current law).

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(Click here for the full article.)

Storm appeal at Tsubaki USA

January 20, 2012 / John D. / 0 Comments

A bad storm has hit the Tsubaki shrine near Seattle in the US, and an appeal has been launched to help clear the many trees that have been felled by the elements. At one point the situation seemed quite serious, but the immediate danger has apparently passed now…. (For an account of Tsubaki America, see here; for an interview with Rev. Barrish, see here.)

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Tsubaki shrine building surrounded by trees, before the storm struck

Messages from Rev Barrish and his wife that reached here on the morning of Jan 20 were as follows:

Current situation is that it is snowing moderately heavily with a large ice storm expected to arrive later this afternoon / evening… electricity was restored last nigh at 1:00 AM…Snohomish PUD has over 100 crews out in the field, tree crews , line crews etc. who are working around the clock with minimum sleep and maximum dedication…

..owing to the particular nature of the layers of snow and ice this series of storms has been extra dangerous as the weight continues to pile up on trees….on Kaikan side many many trees are down, mostly alders, but a medium sized cedar tree has grazed our apartment as well…literally dozens of trees are already down on Kaikan side…

Jinja side…a medium sized and much loved yamazakura/ mountain cherry has fallen against the shrine building…we think the roof is intact and are dealing with that tree as well as a number of other trees that have fallen….however a pair of very large alder trees located to the north side of the Shrine building have seriously increased their angle of lean…it seems quite likely they will not last the day…we have managed to find a tree service whose owner and crew are willing to do their best to save the shrine building today… again the situation is extremely dangerous to this crew and to the shrine building as well….

Normally to remove such large and dangerous trees costs several thousand dollars…with the added stress on the trees of the huge amounts of snow and ice and added danger the fee has increased by a factor of three as well….ganbarimasu…….

Rev. K. Barrish
America Tsubaki Okami Yashiro Kannushi

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Shrine is in serious danger by snow storm !!!! Please help us!!!
Many big trees had fallen down already. And now 2 huge trees are almost to fall down on shrine building. We contacted professional tree service to save our shrine. It estimate about $6000.00. It is huge money for us. Could you help us please?On the shrine facebook and Yahoo members— there are more than 1200 people. If each of you can help us even just $5-10 , it will be big support for us. Please consider to help save our shrine. Our paypal account is kannushi@tsubakishrine.org or if you would like to donate by credit card, please contact to Barrish sensei by phone or e-mail. But we are not sure how long we can have power here. Thank you, thank you for your support and love to shrine in advance!!!!!!!

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Tsubaki contact details…

Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America
& Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja

17720 Crooked Mile Rd.
Granite Falls, Washington 98252
phone 360-691-6389
email at
Kannushi@TsubakiShrine.org

Entrance to Tsubaki America, with some of the trees that have suffered in the present storm

Dragon baby

January 19, 2012 / John D. / 0 Comments

A stimulating article from Japan Today….

Illustration by Yuriko Suzuki

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The dragon year is regarded as the most auspicious in the almanac because it is the only mythical creature among the dozen animals that represent each year in the Chinese cosmic cycle.

Superstitious Chinese believe children born during the Year of the Dragon—the symbol of ancient emperors—will possess courage and wisdom and bring luck to the entire family.

Past dragon years saw a spike in birth rates in China and other places with predominantly ethnic Chinese populations such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, and this year is likely to be no different.

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Despite 2012 falling under the auspices of the dragon, fengshui masters predict a rocky road for the global economy in the coming year in the shadow of the eurozone crisis, together with a prevalence of disease, natural disasters and political reform.

Looking toward a bright future

They say that this is due to the dragon’s pairing with the Chinese water element for 2012, which symbolizes a strong driving force in nature as well as political will and dampens the fire of economic optimism.

But a grim global reality is unlikely to temper couples’ quest for a “dragon baby”, even in Malaysia, where ethnic Chinese are in the minority.

Obstetrician M Devindran, who runs a fertility clinic, expects an increase in pregnancies among Chinese Malaysians.

“The dragon sign is a very powerful cosmic sign and in my practice, I have seen a 10 to 15% increase in Chinese couples who are trying to conceive a dragon baby,” he told AFP.

Popularity stakes

January 18, 2012 / John D. / 0 Comments

Yahoo Travel has come up with an eyebrow-raising list of the world’s most popular spiritual sites. Places that spring to mind might include the Vatican, Stonehenge, Varanasi…. but the world’s no. 1, according to the site, is Meiji Shrine in Tokyo!! Now that’s a surprise… Of course we know that shrines get packed at certain times, and Meiji Shrine is the most popular shrine in the country at New Year, so perhaps the more than 3 million visitors then are enough to propel the shrine to the top of the popularity stakes. As well as Meiji Jingu at no. 1, the Top Ten includes Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine at no. 7 and Ise Jingu at no. 10. There are Japanese temples too in the Top Ten: Narita Shinshoji at joint no. 7, Kiyomizu and Kinkakuji too at joint no. 7. Amazing…. and they say the Japanese are not religious!

[Altogether 43 sites are listed. Please click here for the full list.]

World’s Most-Visited Sacred Sites

The Meiji Shrine in Tokyo (Julie Nassiet)

Tokyo‘s Harajuku neighborhood is famous for its loud street fashion (embraced by singer Gwen Stefani, among others), but it’s most popular attraction is hardly a household name. The tranquil Meiji Shrine attracts roughly 30 million annually, as does the Sensoji Temple, making them the world’s most-visited sacred sites.

While each religion has its holy seasons, there’s always a reason to visit sacred sites, whether you’re intrigued by the history, art, or simply following a packaged tour. Whatever the day, you’ll find Catholics attending mass at Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (No. 3), among casual tourists and others who’ve traveled here expressly to pay their respects to an image of the Virgin Mary.

Pilgrimage is indeed one of the oldest motives for travel—and going strong. But that doesn’t mean pilgrims’ destinations are necessarily the most-visited sacred sites. Some of the popular spots may surprise you. And the huge number of visitors they attract will make you a believer in their power.

No. 1 Meiji Shrine and Sensoji-Temple
Tokyo

Annual Visitors: 30 million each

Built 100 years ago to honor the divine souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, the tranquil Meiji Shinto shrine is surrounded by a holy forest of 100,000-plus trees. Gardens feature spring azaleas, summer irises, autumn foliage on Japanese maples and gingkoes, and black pines dusted with winter snow. Sensoji, also in central Tokyo, was dedicated to Bodhisattva Kannon, the most compassionate Buddha, in 628. Its five-storied pagoda is dramatically lit at night. Continuing centuries-long tradition, stalls along the temple’s Nakamise Street sell food and goods to visitors—whose numbers swell around New Year’s.

No. 2 Kashi Vishwanath Temple

Kashi Vishwanath Temple, India (Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd / Alamy)

Varanasi, India

Annual Visitors: 21.9 million

This temple with its two golden domes sits along the western bank of the Ganges River and, with the Ganges, is the most holy site for all sects of Hinduism. Believers bathe in the river to cleanse their souls and reduce or eliminate the need to be reincarnated. Recently the government has worked to improve the quality of the water, where many millions also make offerings of flowers, food, and floating oil lamps.

No. 3 Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City (Jayda Tham)

Mexico City

Annual Visitors: 20 million

The Old Basilica, begun in the 1500s and completed in 1709, stands in stark contrast to the massive new basilica that was built in the mid-1970s and looks like a sports arena. It is, in fact, designed to hold 50,000 people, who come for mass—celebrated several times daily—and to see an image of the Virgin Mary that is said to have appeared on an apron in 1531.

No. 4 Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams Temple

Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams Temple, India (Buddha Dilip Murthy)

Andhra Pradesh, India

Annual Visitors: 18.25 million

A Hindu sect called Vaishnavism that emphasized equality and love began this imposing temple perhaps 1,200 years ago. Legends mentioned this area, and pilgrims and visitors still come to see or worship at the many shrines, halls, and statues throughout the 10-square-mile complex on the 3,200-foot-high Sacred Hill.

No. 5 Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris (Sathish Jothikumar)

Paris

Annual Visitors: 13.65 million

The most-visited tourist attraction in France(see the world’s top tourist attractions) hardly has a space that’s not filled with statues of saints and angels, 30-foot-diameter stained-glass rose windows depicting Bible stories, or symbolic geometric shapes representing both limits and boundlessness. It’s weathered evolving styles and renovations since its 1345 debut and today is as much an art gallery as a place of worship.

No. 6 Sacré Coeur Basilica

Sacré Coeur Basilica, Paris (Cristina Dawson)

Paris

Annual Visitors: 10.5 million

Druids, Gauls, and Romans who once worshipped their gods Mercury and Mars chose this scenic hilltop for their temples. A brilliant white, 19th-century Romano-Byzantine basilica crowns this Hill of Martyrs—with the intent to cleanse it from a violent historical past while wowing visitors with a panoramic view of the city below.

No. 7 Naritasan Shinshoji Temple

Naritasan Shinshoji Temple, Japan (PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy)

Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Annual Visitors: 10 million

Proximity to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport makes this Shingon Esoteric Buddhist temple, founded in 940, an easy stop for air travelers with long layovers. For a fee, soothsayers and vending machines promise to reveal your fortune. The temple itself is dedicated to the god of fire, and fire rituals are carried out several times each day.

No. 7 Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Japan (Ryuji Yamamoto)

Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Annual Visitors: 10 million

The pleasant walk through gardens, beside cherry trees, under torii gates, and past two ponds with three small bridges and seven islets belies the Shinto shrine’s 12th-century origins as an homage to the god of war. The site’s two-and-a-half-acre Peony Garden is at its most vibrant from mid-April through May, but it also nurtures 500 peonies that actually bloom during January.

No. 7 Kiyomizu-dera and Kinkaku-ji Temples

Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Kyoto (Griselda Alvarez)

Kyoto

Annual Visitors: 10 million and 6 million

The ancient UNESCO-listed Kiyomizu-dera or “Pure Water Temple” is on the side of Otowa Mountain. Springs feed the Otowa Waterfall, and Buddhist pilgrims drink the sacred water by following strict ritual. Visitors also take in the panoramic view of Kyoto’s city center. On the opposite side of the city, gold leaf covers the top two floors of Kinkaku-ji, a three-story Zen Buddhist temple originally built in the early 15th century for a shogun. While visitors are not allowed inside to see the statues of the Shaka Buddha, Kannon Bodhisattva, and the Four Heavenly Kings, these can sometimes be glimpsed from the far side of the pond in front of the temple. Bring binoculars.

No. 10 Ise Jingu

Ise Jingu, Japan (PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy)

Ise, Japan

Annual Visitors: 8.5 million

Nearly 14,000 acres of this Shinto shrine complex is a “divine forest” of Japanese cypress, but the trees were worshipped here long before temple construction began in the third century. Three museums covering local history, agriculture, and fine arts are on a hill near the center of Ise Jingu, which the Japanese government has designated as a National Treasure.

Shimogamo Okayusai (Rice porridge festival)

January 16, 2012 / John D. / 0 Comments

Priests parade to the main shrine for the opening rituals

One of the New Year rites at Shimogamo Shrine is the Okayu Festival, in which visitors to the shrine are invited to eat rice porridge in the belief that it will prevent illness during the rest of the year. It’s warming and healthy, so no doubt it had a beneficial effect in times past when disease was rife and nutrition poor.

Shoes of the priests while they carry out the rituals inside the shrine

The formal rituals were carried out by priests in the standard manner: purification, offerings, norito prayer. There were about fifty people gathered to watch, and one unusual feature was that, because of the twinned main shrines the offerings were done simultaneously by two different priests. As one priest set off on the lefthand side with offerings for the kami Kamo no Taketsunomi, another set off on the right side for his daughter, princess Tamayori.

The rituals lasted about half an hour in all, with the four trays of offerings being brought back one at a time before the priests paraded back through the compound. Afterwards we joined the busloads of tourists who were lining up in a queue to get some of the warming gruel.

It’s an archaic custom, you might say, yet it’s amazing how popular such rites continue to be. The Japanese retain a strong sense of seasonal awareness, and there’s something comforting and appropriate about marking the calendrical round in these ways. January’s a busy time as the new year gets underway. Let’s hope it all helps set us on the right course for the rest of the year!

Priests returning after the rituals

Afterwards a warming bowl of rice porridge

Lining up to get a bowl of gruel

A bright crisp winter's day brought out the best of the Tadasu woods

Celebrating Chomei (Shimogamo Shrine)

January 12, 2012 / John D. / 0 Comments

Model of Kamo no Chomei's hut at Kawai Jinja, within Shimogamo Shrine. The hut itself is beneath the large protective roof.

More than 1000 years ago my local shrine, Shimogamo Jinja, used to house a school and museum. By way of commemoration a panel of local academics has been set up to promote the shrine, and their first initiative is a contest on the theme of Hojoki, the thirteenth-century essay by Kamo no Chomei (1153-1216) who was once a priest at the shrine.

Like others of his age, Chomei was syncretic in religious matters. Disillusioned by being passed over for promotion (he expected to take over his father’s position), Chomei became a Buddhist recluse and wrote of his solitary life in the manner of Thoreau’s Walden. The competition being run by the shrine is timed to celebrate the seven hundredth anniversary of the book.

Inside the ten-foot square hut

At the age of fifty Chomei left his family life to dwell in the midst of nature on a hill near Uji. There he built a ten-square foot hut known as Hojoki, a model of which stands in Kawai Jinja, a shrine within the Shimogamo complex. It looks like a glorified summer hut, with a small porch and Heian-style shutters. In summer it was open to the elements, and in winter a fire converted it into a smoky haven.

“It is a hut,” wrote Chomei, “where, perhaps a traveller might spend a single night; it is like the cocoon spun by an aged silkworm. This hut is not even a hundredth the size of the cottage where I spent my middle years… A bare two carts would suffice to carry off the whole house.”

Back to nature

Chomei’s account wanders from topic to topic in the zuihitsu (‘follow your pen’) style and describes his life in the ten-foot square hut. Descriptions of the natural disasters during his lifetime almost beggar belief. Fire, whirlwind, famine and earthquake follow in quick succession. Corpses lie in the streets, and infants suck at the breasts of dead mothers. Thoughts of death are never far from Chomei’s mind, and like Shakespeare he believes that readiness is all. Indeed, the whole seasonal round seems to him one year-long reminder:

“In the spring I see waves of wisteria like purple clouds, bright in the west. In the summer I hear the cuckoo call, promising to guide me on the road to death. In the autumn the voice of the evening insects fill my ears with a sound of lamnetation for this cracked husk of a world. In winter I look with deep emotion on the snow, piling up and melting away like sins and hindrances to salvation.”

The Hojoki model with its shutters and doors open

The author describes his life in appealing terms. It must have been lonely and at times miserable, but he makes it sound idyllic. “The best friends one can have are flowers and moon, strings and pipe,” he says of his solitude.

He uses fresh rainwater for tea and soup, eats home-grown mushrooms, herbs and fruit, and for exercise he wanders to a nearby temple, or makes sorties to places of poetical interest. He plays music too which harmonises with the rhythms of nature. “My body is like a drifting cloud – I ask for nothing, I want nothing. My greatest joy is a quiet nap; my only desire for this life is to see the beauties of the seasons.”

You can’t help liking someone who takes such pleasure in the little things of life. “I seek only tranquility; I ask only for the absence of grief,” he writes. This modest monk even ends his account by wondering if he has not become too attached to his solitary life. “It is a sin for me to love my little hut, and my attachment to solitude may be an obstacle to enlightenment.” Freed from the ‘dust of the world’, Chomei was able to muse on life’s many blessings. The reader is the beneficiary.

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The photo/essay contest is announced in the current Shimogamo magazine, Mikage, and is open to people of all nationalities. Entries can be photos of the shrine, the Hojoki hut or Tadasu woods. Essays or poems can be on the theme of Kamo or Kamo (Kamo River or Kamo no Chomei). The fee for each entry is Y800, and prizes range from Y10,000 to Y300,000. Details of application can be had from the shrine. Deadline is the end of June, so plenty of time to plan your Shimogamo visit and get creative. Good luck! I’ll be putting in an entry myself so you’ll be competing against me too…

Shimogamo shrine magazine with picture of Kamo no Chomei

Shimogamo First Zodiac Festival (Hatsuetosai)

January 10, 2012 / John D. / 2 Comments

Gathered for the ritual at the entrance to the inner courtyard

My local shrine, Shimogamo, welcomes in the new year with a series of rites, one of which is kicking a football around (kemari) and another of which is kicking off worship at its zodiac shrines. The latter are unique as far as I know: at least I’ve never come across their like elsewhere.

Shimogamo’s main shrines are dedicated to clan founder, Kamo no Taketsunomi, and his daughter, Tamayorihime (see previous article). in the small courtyard in front of them stand much smaller shrines known as hokora, each of which is dedicated to one or two of the animals in the Chinese zodiac year.

Two of the zodiac shrines, with miko (shrine maiden) in the foreground

There are seven shrines in all, five of which house pairs of animals. The dragon is paired with the monkey, the cow with the boar, the rabbit with the cock, the sea horse with the sheep, and the tiger with the dog. The horse and the rat get one each, making a grand total of twelve animals in all.

So why seven shrines is the obvious question? According to a shrine leaflet, they correspond to the seven manifestations of Okuninushi (Great Land Master), a kami associated with Izumo Shrine. Okuninushi, it turns out, has seven different names for the various guises in which he appears. All very interesting, but what’s Okuninushi got to do with the Chinese zodiac? Or indeed with Shimogamo? ‘The shrine is very old, there are many legends and stories which have been handed down since ancient times,’ a priest told me. ‘Actually we don’t know why.’

The ceremony took place at the entrance to the inner courtyard, and I guess there were about a thousand people in attendance. There was live gagaku music, and a priestess with a most unusual head dressing (rice twine tied round the head with a large bow at the back: see the photo).

Receiving the tamagushi sprig

The short rites comprised offerings, purificatiion and norito prayer, before each of us were presented with a sprig of the sakaki tree (known as tamagushi) which we offered to our respective zodiac sign. Not surprisingly, the queue for the dragon was by far the longest, no doubt because people born in that year made a special point of attending.

Afterwards there was some delicious warm ginger-laced saké on sale and a chance to saunter around the Tadasu woods. There were a large number of saplings bearing labels, which I assumed to be identifications of the type of tree. However, they turned out to be the names of donors. At this rate every tree in the wood will pretty soon be identifiable by its donor – kind of strange for ancient woodland, I couldn’t help thinking, but managing woods in Japan is more costly and time-consuming than one might imagine.

This New Year ritual, like the others that precedes it, gives one a real sense of starting off something new. It’s that sense of renewal and revitalisation that Shinto is so good at cherishing. Let’s hope that launched in this way the year of the dragon proves to be reinvigorating for one and all!

Some soul-warming sweet saké laced with ginger

Gagaku musicians adding some mood music

Queuing up at the dragon shrine, where as the sign indicates it peacefully coexists with the monkey