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Festival Day, Oct 22

October 20, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Just a reminder that Oct 22 is a big day for Kyoto, with the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of Ages) during the daytime and the Kurama Hi Matsuri (Fire Festival) in the evening. The former is run by Heian Shrine and the latter by little Yuki Shrine in Kurama Temple.

The two festivals make an interesting contrast. One was created in Meiji times as a conscious attempt to revive the city’s fortunes in the wake of the move of the emperor and his associates from Kyoto to Tokyo. It’s given the full backing of the city in provision of its lavish costumes etc, and it has a strong imperial bias in keeping with Kyoto being the seat of the emperor for over 1000 years.

Kurama Fire Festival by contrast has the feel of a traditional village festival with an air of merriment and spontaneity as revellers parade their large burning bamboo torches along the main street of the small settlement. “Saireya, sairyo,” shout the torch bearers. When they turn to rush up the steep stairs at the entrance to the temple-shrine, things can get quite sparky. Literally.

Both festivals are parades. Both memorialise Japanese history. But while one is a stately procession of 2000 people that seems to go on forever, the other has something of the true spirit of kami possession (or would do if only the police didn’t sanitise the whole thing by keeping the crowds back and the traffic flowing!).

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The following comes from the monthly publication, Kyoto Visitors Guide.

The Jidai Matsuri Festival (Oct. 22)
The rich costume pageant portraying Kyoto’s history

In 1895, Kyoto city held its first Jidai Matsuri Festival: a colorful, exotic costume parade dedicated to the Old Capital’s 1100 year history. The first festival also marked the opening of Heian Shrine, a 2/3 scale model of Kyoto’s original imperial palace. The shrine was specially built to enshrine the spirit of Emperor Kammu (reigning 781-806), who founded Kyoto in 794, and the city’s last reigning emperor and Emperor Komei (reigning 1847-1866).

Today, after nearly 120 years, the Jidai Matsuri Festival continues to be a major focus of pride for the city of Kyoto. For most visitors, the festival’s biggest attraction lies in the fantastic range of authentic historical costumes, covering twelve centuries of Kyoto’s history and social development, worn by the participants.

The festival begins at seven in the morning on the 22nd with the transferal, on sacred palanquins, a covered seat carried on poles on the shoulders of two or four people, of the imperial spirits from Heian Shrine to the Old Imperial Palace. At around 12:00, the southern central axis of the Old Imperial Palace becomes a massive stage of the ages. The procession departs from here and slowly makes its way through the streets of Kyoto to Heian Shrine.

Oct. 22 Kurama Fire Festival in Kurama

The festival begins at sunset with the lighting of fire lanterns in front of each house; The highlight of the festival is watching the men in traditional clothing as they walk up through the village straining under the weight of huge fire torches (5-6 meters long, weighing over 100 kg); Around 20:00, a group of cheering men race up the stairs to Yuki Shrine carrying a large mikoshi (portable shrine) to make the annual offering to the gods

Access: Eizan Railways Kurama Stn. (from Demachiyanagi Stn.; *The train after 17:00 or so, expect to wait in line and be packed in; It’s best to go early and leave early.

For a two and a half minute video of the fire festival, with lots of chanting, smoke and flames, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pzc2C8EqFs

For a similar length video that gives a feel of the Jidai Matsuri, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp_QUCBTPVU

Yasukuni comments

October 18, 2016 / John D. / 2 Comments

85 lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine

A Shinto priest leads a group of lawmakers at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Tuesday. AFP

Japan Today carries news of political use of Yasukuni Shrine by members of the Japanese Diet. It also carries a lively comments section from which some have been culled and appended below.

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TOKYO —Dozens of Japanese lawmakers visited a controversial war shrine on Tuesday, in an annual pilgrimage that has angered China and South Korea, who see it as a painful reminder of Tokyo’s warring past. A group of 85 politicians arrived at the leafy Yasukuni Shrine in downtown Tokyo during a four-day autumn festival. It was not immediately clear if any cabinet ministers were among the group.

The visit comes a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—who has been criticised for what some see as a revisionist take on the country’s wartime record—sent an offering to the shrine, but avoided a visit. Abe and other nationalists say Yasukuni is a place to remember fallen soldiers and compare it to Arlington National Cemetery in the United States.On Monday, speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying blasted Abe’s offering, urging Japan to “reflect on its aggressive history and take concrete actions to win back the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community”.

Abe visited in December 2013 to mark his first year in power, a pilgrimage that sparked fury in Beijing and Seoul and earned a diplomatic rebuke from close ally the United States, which said it was “disappointed” by the action. He has since refrained from going, sending ritual offerings instead.

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Schopenhauer Oct. 18, 2016 – 12:24 PM JST
Yasukuni shrine today is legally one of many religious organizations existing in Japan. It is a “private” religious group. I visited the shrine and found they justify the prewar Japanese militarism. It is OK if they think so since it is a private religious body. But it is not good the government members visit the shrine regularly as if Yasukuni has a special meaning to Japan. The War Dead Memorial Serivice on August 15 at Budokan is enough where the emperor and the prime minister attend.

GW Oct. 18, 2016 – 11:25 AM JST”
……here we go again, getting it wrong, why aren’t these suits going to Chidorigafuchi instead!!!

Strangerland Oct. 18, 2016 – 11:49 AM JST
“Every nation has the right to honor their war dead.”
And every other nation has the right to protest a shrine that whitewashes said war. That’s a blade that cuts both ways.

smithinjapan Oct. 18, 2016 – 12:50PM JST
Aly Rustom wrote: “When American politicians visit Arlington, they just go ahead and do it quietly. They don’t bring the cameras like these muppets do. Why not just visit the shrine quietly and privately?”
Exactly! These guys tell the media they are going, ask them to follow, go in suits and use transportation that is put aside for political purposes, go on the public’s dime, and sign in in their official capacity — then try to say it is a personal visit when it is anything but. THAT is a PART of the problem.

choiwaruoyaji Oct. 18, 2016 – 01:01PM JST
This is good news because it gives foreign people the chance to hear about the scary extreme nationalist religious cult (Nippon Kaigi) that these people belong to.

MrBum Oct. 18, 2016 – 02:43PM JST
Yeah, yeah, Yasukuni is a religious site. But it’s operated by an organization that has a distorted view of history and includes a museum that white washes it. Yasukuni is not just any Shinto shrine. Look up its history and who funds it. It’s a symbol of the ultra-nationalist (and revisionist) right in Japan and everyone knows it. Your average citizen can go wherever they want without complaint, but politicians represent their country. They still have the right to worship where they want, but there are consequences to their actions. In this case, their very public actions understandably upsets Japan’s neighbors and adds unnecessary tension to their relations.

Shigemori Mirei and the power of rock

October 18, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Shigemori’s trademark garden is this Horai recreation at Tofuku-ji, which was his first ever commission. The south-facing garden which is the official face of the Abbot’s Quarters is deliberately conventional in comparison with his other creations. More than just decorative, the garden serves religious ends. Raking the gravel is a training in mindfulness, and the Horai Isles are a mythical ideal where opposites are reconciled, presenting a lesson in Zen thinking about the underlying unity of the universe.

Green Shinto has carried several articles on the common elements between Zen and Shinto, some of which focus on rocks and the raking of sand or pebbles. The spiritual significance of rocks is another subject which the blog has covered at various times. This is all brought together in an article for the ZenVita architectural design site which deals with Shigemori Mirei, the twentieth century garden designer whose work can be found in both Zen temples and Shinto shrines. Here’s the link for the article: http://www.zenvita.com/blog/shigemori-mirei-and-the-power-of-rock.html

And here’s how the article begins…

Shigemori’s checkerboard pattern of moss and stone slabs echoes the Japanese aesthetic of ‘mikansei’, or incompleteness, as it fades away into the ‘borrowed scenery’ of a nearby grove of trees.

Rocks in Japan have long been seen as sacred. In Shinto there are ‘spirit-bodies’ made of rock which form the object of worship, the idea being that ancestral spirits descend into them and are made manifest. These special rocks, known as iwakura, are hung with rice rope and treated with reverence. In Buddhism too rocks are revered, and all over Japan are bibbed stones representing Jizo, guardian of the dead.

The association with the dead is typical of an animist universe in which rocks represent continuity, in contrast to the transient world of vegetation. The desire for life after death means that the human spirit is associated with the former, the human body with the latter. The connections were reinforced by ancient burial patterns, when bodies were sealed in tombs (or left on hillsides). While the body decayed, the spirit was absorbed into the rock.

Some see these numinous rocks as the origin of Japanese gardens, for they were marked off as distinct from the surrounding nature. The ground around them may have been cleared, and as time passed other rocks were added and arranged in groups. The placement was done with care, for these were the seat of spirits. As Alan Watts pointed out, rocks are not dead and inorganic but foster life, the supreme example being the large rock on which we hurtle through space and which ‘peopled’ us into existence. ‘Where there are rocks, watch out!’ said Watts.

One person very much aware of the potency of rocks was the twentieth-century garden designer, Shigemori Mirei ((1896-1975). He was a follower of Shinto, and the house in which he lived near Kyoto University had belonged to a line of priests from nearby Yoshida Jinja. ‘Nature is a world made by the gods,’ he once wrote, and in an essay on the Japanese garden he identified nature worship as the source. Interestingly, his trademark feature is standing stones.

(to read more, please click here to see the full and original ZenVita posting.)

A recreation of mythical Mt Sumeru at the centre of the cosmos. But what is the significance of a rock being at the centre of the universe? A possible answer is suggested in the article…

Hata 8) Kawakatsu festival (Osake Jinja)

October 10, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Priests attending the initial ceremony prior to the start of the festival. This is the serious religious part of the festival, after which things start to get a little wilder.

Autumn is here, and the festival season is in full swing. People associate this with harvests and nature worship, though many if not most of the festivals are nominally ancestral. That of Osake Jinja in Ako City (Hyogo Prefecture) is a case in point. Known as the Sakoshi Boat Festival, it started in Edo times to honour the memory of Hata no Kawakatsu , a Culture Hero and one of the leaders of the realm in the early seventh century. His supposed grave is just offshore from the shrine on the sacred Iki island, forbidden to visitors.

The festival is known as one of the Inland Sea’s three great boat festivals, along with Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka and that of Itsukushima at Hiroshima. It was everything you would wish a festival to be – dedicated to a clan leader of the past, it was marked by wild abandon, joyful high spirits and traditional style entertainment.

Followers of this blog will know of the vital role the Hata clan played in the establishment of Kyoto (as well as being the founders of the popular Fushimi Inari). This post follows up an earlier one on Hata no Kawakatsu (?567-647), who acted as advisor to the top of the realm, Prince Shotoku. The Hata probably had Chinese origins (the Chinese character for their name was the same as the ruling dynasty of China). They may well have linked up with the Yamato clan because of their shared immigrant status (personally I suspect a common Chinese heritage, but that’s my own pet theory; most authorities claim the Yamato as linked with Korea).

It seems that after the death of Prince Shotoku in 622, Kawakatsu fell into disfavour with members of the Soga clan and escaped to a place on the coast (currently Ako City). He died here and was supposedly buried on the offshore island of Iki, where by tradition a kofun (burial mound) marks his grave. The island is now regarded as sacred and no one but the priests and festival members are allowed onto it. A torii and shrine mark the worship area; the burial mound is at the other end of the small forested island.

The sacred island of Iki on which lies the burial mound of Hata no Kawakatsu. Because Sakoshi Bay is shielded from typhoons, it was a major stopping point for boats in ancient times.

The festival began with one of the best purification rites I’ve ever seen, as Sarutahiko leads the way swinging a large haraigushi stick from side to side of the pathway, followed by two fearsome Chinese dragons. Symbolically a native Jomon figure of reddish features guiding the way for Chinese immigrants, perhaps…

A four-legged shishi, not easy to navigate the flight of stairs. Traditional Chinese-style entertainment guaranteed to scare little kids and amuse the parents

The initial purification rite which took over half an hour to progress down the stairs was very very slow (a reminder of the different sense of time in former ages compared with today). Surprisingly, the priest and dignitaries were all drinking alcohol as they took part in this slow opening procession.

Once down the steps the procession suddenly raced at full and exhilarating speed towards the beach and the pre-launch festivities on the sand.

There was much jostling among the inebriated loin-clothed boatmen as they fetched long planks to set up a gangway for the mikoshi

Edo-style cheerleaders added a colourful and flamboyant touch to the proceedings

The mikoshi was accompanied by the sound of a conch shell being blown shugendo-style

The festival had a Dionysian feel as chanting naked men jostled and teased each other while chanting and hoisting long wooden planks as they charged around the beach

Once afloat the oarsmen playfully made ‘raids’ on the onlookers

There were some acrobatics too as the cheerleaders were hoisted aloft

Sweets are thrown to the crowd, who compete to get hold of the lucky festival souvenirs

Another of the planks is taken up to the accompaniment of chants and banter by the intoxicated rowers

After all the celebrations the mikoshi is hoisted aloft and taken onto a boat. There were nine boats in all, two with rowers and the others motorpowered or towed. One was for gagaku, one for officials, etc. The announcer said that one was reserved ‘for those who don’t drink’.

The mikoshi and other boats first sail around the small bay (making a round of the parish, as it were) before heading for the sacred island behind.

One of the boats at the sacred island, where a torii marks the arrival point for visitors.

The mikoshi is born to its ‘otabisho’ (resting place) where a short service was held. Meanwhile, other participants headed back to shore.

Piled wood waiting to be lit at dusk; notice the sake bottle waiting for those who light the fire. There was a long line of similar piles of firewood the length of the beach, to be set alight at dusk when participants gathered for bento and omiki (festival saké). It marks the end of a great day of entertainment for the kami, and you can be sure there will be plenty of sore limbs and even sorer heads the following morning.

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For six minute video of the event on youtube, click here.

For previous entries about the Hata clan:
Part 1 Overview
Part 2 Kawakatsu
Part 3 Silkworm shrine
Part 4 Triangular torii
Part 5 Early Buddhism
Part 6 Matsuo Taisha
Part 7 Inari origins

Kasuga Shrine teletour

October 8, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Kasuga Taisha in Nara, one of the country’s foremost shrines, is having its twenty-year renewal at the moment, and since the four honden are being rebuilt and repainted, the kami have been taken out to temporary quarters. It means that visitors have a rare chance to go into the usually off-limits Sanctuary where the kami normally resides. To mark the occasion, ABC television channel ran a short programme showing a couple guided round the shrine by a priest.

Aerial view of the main Kasuga complex. It is set in a wooded area next to the famous deer park, and there are 61 subshrines in all.

The two visitors express excitement at being able to see the honden.

On the approach are rows of stone lanterns, donated by people in the past in hope of ‘worldly benefit’.

These ‘golden lanterns’ are rather special, donated by Tokugawa Ieyasu for a young relative

Inside the shrine are some 1000 hanging lanterns. ‘There are various designs,’ one of the visitors notes.The lanterns are lit up for the special Manto Matsuri at Obon.

The Chumon gate, normally closed so as to prevent access to the honden.

Finally the couple are led nto the most sacred area of the shrine, normally off-limits to all but the priests.

The restored honden are immaculate in their new coats of paint.

Pictures too have been restored, first time for forty years.

To the side of the honden are the temporary quarters of the kami, to whom the group make their prayers.

Some of the treasures in the Kasuga museum include these splendid and huge taiko drums donated at the time of Hideyoshi

This splendid bird must have been seen as divine in ancient times, flying gracefully and mysteriously between worlds.

One of Kasuga’s subshrines boasts a popular ‘enmusubi collection of heart ema.

The young man however preferred to head for another of the subshrines where he earnestly prayed for winning the lottery, or at any rate getting lots of money.

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For a detailed description of Kasuga Taisha, see p. 160 in Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion by Joseph Cali and John Dougill

Koxinga Shrine in Taiwan

October 2, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Today’s Koxinga Shrine in Tainan, Taiwan (courtesy chipango)

The Koxinga Shrine in Taiwan is typical of Chinese ancestral shrines, and similar to those of Japan. It was set up by by Zheng Jing (1642-1681), to worship his father Koxinga. When Taiwan became part of the Qing Empire, it was renamed The Cheng’s Ancestral Shrine, then came under Japanese influence in prewar years when a torii and other Shinto features were added. Today the official name is Ancestral Shrine of Koxinga, though only an old well is all that is left from the original. The shrine typifies the commonality of ancestor worship across East Asia, with clan shrines typically set up for worship of their founding father. In more modern times, Tosho-gu at Nikko is a prime example, set up by Tokugawa Ieyasu’s grandson to deify the dynastic head.

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Presented by: Rukshan Vathupola

Location:

152, Kaishan Road, West Central District Tainan, Taiwan

Dates of (re)founding:

1662, 1875, 1914, 1963

Present structure:

Reinforced concrete and steel with red brick walls and green ceramic tiles along with a gray and red brick courtyard

History:

Originally built in 1662 to honor the Ming dynasty loyalist Zheng Chenggong aka Koxinga, a Taiwanese –Japanese pirate who expelled the Dutch from Taiwan

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in 1875 the Qing dynasty rebuilt the shrine in the southern Hokkien style to foster nationalism against the encroaching Europeans powers

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in 1914 the Japanese colonial government added a torii and a worship pavilion to increase Taiwanese solidarity

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in 1963 the KMT government tore down Japanese architectural features and redesigned it in the Han Imperial style to connect Taiwan with mainland China

Symmetry and Axial relationships:

the axis of symmetry is located along the central line through the main hall; it is considered the most sacred space. All of the main spaces of the building would lie on the axis of symmetry; other secondary spaces were located to the left or right of this. There is a broken horizontal axis to further emphasize the importance of the central axis.

Dimension:

the depth and the width of each bay of the building would often be equal to each other with the height being 1.3 times that measurement

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the spaces bordering the enclosure had openings face the main axis of the courtyard

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the number of spaces would range from one through nine, but would never exceeded eleven; typically it was often just seven; nine and eleven were reserved for the imperial palace.

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the number of rooms along the main axis would not exceed five

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odd numbers were preferred as they had a stronger connection with the element of yang/zhong which is connected to balance, order and symmetry

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the roofs were ordered by decreasing height

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the eaves in the front of a building were higher than those at the rear and the eaves at the sides would be lower than those in the center

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the pitch of the roof at the front was often between 30° and 40°

Parts from Public to Private

Worship hall:

during the period of Japanese colonialism a hall of the irimoya zukuri style was placed along the main axis of the complex in front of the main shrine to Koxinga, this was done to add an element of separation similar to Shintoism where secular and sacred space were cut off from one another

Gateway:

The main torii was redesigned to resemble a Chinese paifang, this was done by inscribing the once plain gateway with Chinese characters and designs of traditional lions holding up the symbol of the KMT of the blue sky with a White sun. The lion carvings are placed in front to ward against evil, the male is placed on the left and the female on the right

Roof:

First built in the southern style with slightly bent roofs then it was changed to the Hokkien style with highly curved roof that almost pointed upwards. Then the Japanese style focused more on a hipped gable roof with a central moya that denotes the center as the most sacred space and the hisashi which is the aisle underneath the eaves of the roof. Shinai or roof ornaments of dragon; fish were added to protect the wooden structure against fire. The KMT changed the roof to match the imperial style with much steeper pitches

Hierarchy:

the central spot on the building farthest back on the central axis is the most private as that is where the first brick is lain and because it houses the shrine dedicated to the deified Koxinga, his Taiwanese father, his Japanese mother and his son along with their descendants

Site Context:

The shrine is located in central Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan which was ruled by Koxinga. Southeast of the shrine there is a museum dedicated to Koxinga. Southwest of the shrine there is the campus of National Tainan Girl’s Senior High School. On all other sides there is a small park that can be accessed by the portal shaped entrances on the sides of the shrine.

Presented by:

Rukshan Vathupola

Professor Fuller, AET 470 Architectural Programming

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September 21, 2015

Top shows the temple layout, below which is a picture of the temple from 1914-63, and the older temple of 1875,1914. The gateway stands before the present-day temple, and the bottom picture shows the temple pre-1875. All photos courtesy the author.

Pagan Britain 2): Animism

September 23, 2016 / John D. / 2 Comments

Call it earth worship, call it Gaia, call it neo-paganism, but ancient elements of animism are finding new life in a New Age, and as the revival takes hold, the commonalities with Shinto become ever more apparent. But whereas Britain’s paganism is having to be resurrected, Shinto has long remained a living force in Japan. Small wonder therefore that visionaries are looking to borrow and synthesise the two traditions.

Sacred rock. Put a ‘shimenawa’ rope around it, and it might be in Japan –except for the sheep of course!

The Adam and Eve rocks of Avebury, equivalent to the Izanangi and Izanami rocks of Japan. (The Avebury rocks were erected around 2,500 BC)

Pagan ribbons tied to a tree at the Avebury stone circle and carrying their prayers aloft on the wind.

The number of pagan prayer ribbons has grown considerably in recent years, testimony to the way in which neo-paganism is taking hold in Britain.

Amongst the prayers is one that looked very much like an ema. Inspired by a visit to Japan?

An improvised pack of goods and spells, including a prayer for the Brexit decision to be reversed.

A statue at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury. Virgin Mary or Earth Goddess?

The first Goddess Temple to be officially registered in over 1500 years! It’s so successful that branches are spreading all over Europe and beyond. Inside one can get smudged by incense from purifying herbs before sitting in contemplation before images of the Goddess – great ancestress like the Sun Goddess of Japan.

Since aesthetics are such an important part of Shinto ritual, I was glad to see someone taking aesthetic care with the arrangement of leaves before a goddess statue.

Within the magnificent cathedrals of England can be found many instances of the mysterious Green Man, ancient pagan symbol and quite possibly descended from Khidr of the Middle East. In Gloucester Abbey the guides informed me there were no fewer than 40 Green Man statues. Extraordinary!

As in Japan, springs are sacred because of the gift from Earth of life-giving water. This pagan spring at Glastonbury known as White Springs has water with special properties, being particularly rich in iron.

Notice at the White Springs. (Faeries have been claimed by some as the equivalent of kami.)

I was taking a picture of the offerings outside the White Springs when a robin redbreast suddenly appeared and posed for me. Magical!

In Japan that would be an ‘enmusubi’ tree, a sacred symbol of good relationships. Here at Glastonbury it is marked out too as sacred because of its striking form.