Page 81 of 203

Hata Part 1: Overview

May 5, 2015 / John D. / 0 Comments

Fushimi Inari is the most famous place associated with the influential Hata clan

Fushimi Inari is the most famous of all the places associated with the immigrant Hata clan. Intriguingly the northeast of China from where the Hata might have originated had a fox clan in ancient times.

As part of Golden Week activities this year, I made a tour of places in Kyoto associated with the influential Hata Clan. Anyone who has lived in the city will have come across the name at some stage, as the clan were instrumental in the building of Heian-kyo in 794. Prior to that, they were responsible for the founding of Koryu-ji temple, Matsuo Taisha and Fushimi Inari amongst others.

Once a virtual clan shrine for the Hata, Osake Jinja has seen better days but has managed to survive into the present.

Once a clan shrine for the Hata, Osake Jinja has seen better days but has managed to survive into the present.

Much about the Hata is shrouded in doubt because there are no reliable sources. It has given them an air of mystery, with some claiming they were Nestorian Christians and others saying they were descended from China’s Qin Emperors. There’s even a theory they were a lost tribe of Israel. The truth is probably less fanciful, but no less intriguing because of the many clues that remain.

The Hata came to Japan from Korea, though it’s believed they originated in China (their name is written with the same Chinese character as the Qin Emperors of old). They arrived in Japan in considerable number, and brought with them advanced techniques in silk-weaving, saké making, stringed instruments, agricultural methods, and large-scale landscaping. This has led some to suppose they had Silk Road connections, by means of which they picked up the leading knowledge of their time.

There are many places throughout Japan associated with the Hata, particularly along the migration route from Korea into northern Kyushu, along the Inland Sea to the Kobe area and then inland to the Kyoto basin. The place most closely connected with them though is the Uzumasa area of Kyoto (Uzumasa was a name bestowed on the clan leader by the emperor). There are a number of places with Hata origins, one of which is the small Osake Jinja, effectively a Hata clan shrine. Its noticeboard gives an overview of the clan’s developments (though this is quite different from the Wikipedia version).

In 356 (other reports place it much earlier) a Hata representative came to Japan to help avoid war with Paekche, one of the Korean kingdoms. This was followed by an influx of 18,670 people at the time of Emperor Ojin. They brought gifts of gold, silver and silk etc leading the Japanese authorities to look on them kindly.

Konoshima Jinja, built by the Hata, is more commonly known as Kaiko no Yashiro, the Silkworm Shrine, because one of its subshrines is dedicated to the deity.

In 471 Emperor Yūryaku bestowed the family name of Uzumasa on Hata Sake no kimi (or Hata Sakekimi) for his contribution to the spread of sericulture. The area of the Kyoto basin in which the clan came to settle was accordingly named Uzumasa (uzumoreru implies ‘being covered or buried in treasure’).

There may have been a clan shrine called Uzumasa Jinja, but at some stage this was destroyed and merged into Osake Jinja (named for Sakekimi), which has survived into the present. No doubt it was once a flourishing place, but now it is confined to a small roadside space housing a torii and small token shrine.

More impressive is another Hata shrine in the area, known as Konoshima Jinja (or Kaiko no Yashiro, the Silkworm Shrine). It’s thought that this was built around 603 as a protective shrine for the nearby Koryu-ji temple, put up by Hata strongman, Kawakatsu. The shrine is notable for a peculiar triangular torii, which stands near the Worship Hall, giving rise to fanciful theories about Christian connections (three sides representing the Trinity!). More about this in a later post.

In 701 Hata Imikitori founded Matsuo Taisha. He was out hunting one day when he saw a huge tortoise. In Chinese folk custom tortoises are a symbol of good luck and longevity. Sure enough, the turtle revealed a spring of fresh and invigorating water coming down from Mt Matsuo. As a result the shrine today is full of tortoise statues and noted for its saké connections (the water from its spring is used for brewing). (See here for more about about Matsuo Taisha.)

A turtle at Matsuo Taisha spouting water into the temizuya (water basin)

In 713 Hata Irogu was doing archery practice in the Fushimi area when his ricecake target turned into a white bird and flew up Fushimi Hill to reveal a field of rice. (See Fushimi Inari.) Later when Heian-kyo was built, Fushimi Inari became the protective shrine for the new capital’s Toji Temple.

In 794 the Hata clan played a decisive part in Emperor Kammu’s decision to move the capital from the cursed location at Nagaoka-kyo. The clan not only possessed much of the land in the Kyoto basin and were able to help fund the cost of relocation, but they were skilled too at handling the large-scale engineering involved, such as redirecting rivers and building earthworks.

(Hata clan descendants remain throughout Japan today, and there is an annual get-together for members. The Matsuo Shrine in particular is said to retain ties to the clan.)

The subshrine at Fushimi Inari dedicated to the Hata clan ancestral spirits

The subshrine at Fushimi Inari dedicated to Hata clan ancestral spirits

The sacred rock (iwakura) representing Hata no Irobu, founder of Fushimi Inari

The sacred rock (iwakura) for the spirit of Hata no Irobu, founder of Fushimi Inari

For Part Two of this series, click on this link for Hata Part 2: Kawakatsu.

Boy’s Day

May 4, 2015 / John D. / 2 Comments

Full display of Boy’s Day paraphernalia

May 5 is officially Children’s Day, a national holiday established in 1948 that is part of Golden Week (a series of holidays at the beginning of May).

In ancient times people suffered disease around this time of year due to the change in temperature and humidity. Families with boys traditionally displayed warrior dolls and miniature armour in their homes, especially for 5 year olds, in order to make them strong in later life.

It’s a custom linked to the 7-5-3 festival, in which the number five applies particularly to the development of boys. Hence the date of the festival – May 5 (5/5). March 3 (3/3) was the traditional Girl’s Day, though the postwar government has conflated the two into one Children’s Day.

In the picture above can be seen the accoutrements of warriors – armour, bow and arrow, swords. Also saké holders, chimaki and kashiwa mochi (types of rice cakes). There’s a seasonal flower too, a type of iris (the fragrance was believed to drive away bad air and have a healing effect).

On the bottom shelf is a taiko drum, a helmet and a prestigious fan with the sun symbol. In front of the display is a tiger for strength and a white horse, symbol of the élite. Whichever boy gets this display is going to have an impressive future!

Around this time families put up carp-shaped koinobori flags (according to Chinese legend, a carp strong enough to swim upstream will become a dragon}. It’s said the way the flags blow in the wind looks like they are swimming. Traditionally there is one carp for each member of the family.

Carp streamers (courtesy Wikicommons)

Tōji temple shrines

May 3, 2015 / John D. / 1 Comment

Yashima Shaden, one of Toji Temple’s two shrines that stands in the shadow of the famous pagoda.

It’s an interesting fact that many of Japan’s Buddhist temples house small shrines for protective kami. Sometimes they can quite sizable, similar in appearance to independent Shinto shrines. Quite what the status of these shrines are I’m not sure, but they don’t number amongst official Shinto shrines, which number somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000.

The shrines don’t have Shinto priests attached to them, though they do have rituals performed by Buddhist priests, who are in charge of the well-being of the kami and serving them offerings. Most of these shrines belong to the two esoteric sects, Shingon and Tendai, though there are often kami shrines too in Zen and Nichiren temples. The Pure Land sects tend not to have them.

The magnificent wooden structures of Toji Temple are World Heritage Sites – and guarded by two small shrines.

One of the most interesting examples of shrines within a temple complex can be found in Kyoto’s Tōji Temple. ‘Tōji’ means Eastern Temple, and together with its counterpart Saiji (Western Temple) it was built to be a protective guardian of Heian-kyo (now known as Kyoto). The two temples stood near the southern entrance to the city, to either side of the mighty Rashomon gate.

Tōji was entrusted to Kukai, founder of the Shingon sect, who used the space to build a seminary for his new branch of Buddhism. The result was a magnificent temple, which although it has been greatly reduced in size is still mightily impressive today and houses statuary that is amongst Kyoto’s finest. What’s interesting about the layout is that to either side of the main Southern Gate stand two guardian shrines. The design thus mirrored the city at large, echoing its defensive strategy and feng-shui principles.

Kukai, known posthumously as Kobo Daishi, was the founder of Shingon and sympathetic to the notion of Japan’s kami

The picture at the top of this page shows Yashima Shaden, dedicated to Oonamuchi no kami, lord of the land. The shrine’s name refers to the Eight Islands with which Japan began, suggesting that it was protective of the nation as a whole. According to the accompanying noticeboard, it’s thought the shrine existed prior to the building of the temple and that Kukai asked Oonamuchi to look kindly on the building of his new project.

The temple’s other shrine, which stands to the west of the main gate, is named Tōji Chinju Hachiman-gu. It owed its existence to a disturbance that took place in 810, following which Kukai built a shrine to venerate Hachiman as a protective deity (the kami had fulfilled the same function for Nara’s Todai-ji).

According to the noticeboard, Kukai made three statues from a single tree trunk, which are now hibutsu (secret Buddhist images rarely if ever shown to the public). In the Sengoku Period, arrows directed by Hachiman apparently helped Ashikaga Takauji to victory in his bid to become shogun, in return for which he bestowed gifts on the shrine. In the Meiji Era the shrine bunt down but was rebuilt in 1992.

Green Shinto friend, Quin Arbeitman, pays respects at Tōji Chinju Hachiman-gu

Are Japanese religious?

May 2, 2015 / John D. / 0 Comments

Does taking part in a festival make one religious? Does celebrating Christmas make one Christian? The boundaries between religion and tradition are far from clear.

People often describe the Japanese as not religious. Indeed, the Japanese themselves often say as much. Yet social life in Japan is undeniably characterised by religious behaviour and religious institutions carry great weight. Take the multitude of religious festivals, for instance, or the role of lucky charms and Buddhist funerals. It’s something that perplexes many observers and the graph below provides an example of the conundrum.

The importance of religion in our everyday life (OneEurope website)

On a graph of 56 countries, Japan stands at the absolute low point of religious “belief”

This infographic was made on the basis of a survey meant to determine the importance of religion in people’s everyday life. The factors considered were, frequency of regular religious services attendance, frequency of prayers, participation in religious activities, visits to the church (any house of worship) during childhood, existence of religious objects in the home and so on.

The study concluded that in 36 out of 56 surveyed countries religion is ‘very or rather important’ to the majority of its people, regardless of the type of faith they believe in. The numbers differ a lot from one region to another, with 100% of Jordanians and Egyptians considering religion very important in their life, while only 20% having the same answer in Japan and China!

A family performing the 7-5-3 ritual. A religious event, or a Japanese custom?

A family performing the 7-5-3 ritual. A religious activity, or a Japanese custom?

However, without more information on the technique and questions used the results of this survey can’t be trusted. It begs the question, what is “religion”? The survey refers to “organised” religion not beliefs per se, and Western norms are used as the determining factor.

For example, few Japanese people go to church/temple/etc. regularly but most have a Buddhist altar and often a Shinto kamidana in their house. Visits to graveyards once or more times a year are common, and there are numerous memorial services too. Life in Japan is framed by customs and festivals that are religious in origin but no longer perceived as “religion”.

It’s all a matter of definition. At shrines and temples one will invariably see a devout worshippers, which is enough to suggest that far from being irreligious Japanese have a strong sense of the spiritual. They may not classify this as belonging to a religion however, more a matter of custom and tradition.

Paying respects to the kami, reading a fortune slip and buying an amulet do not necessarily imply the ‘worshippers’ are Shintoist. But they do show conformity to Japanese tradition and the practice of their ancestors.

Though this person shows deep respect for the spirit of the tree, she does not call herself a Shintoist.

French tea room

May 1, 2015 / John D. / 0 Comments

Purification of those present for the opening of the tea room prior to the formal ritual

Brook’s Co., Ltd. is a Japanese chain of tea and coffee shops, and they recently opened a Japanese tea room called “Koshuen” at 258 rue Saint-Honoré in Paris.

Prior to the opening, a traditional ceremony “Koto-oe-no-mi-matsuri” was performed by Masa Okutani, the priest at the Paris-based Sanctuary Yabuhara, to pay respects to the divinity of the land and space at this place. (Photos are by Yukinobu Kato, a freelance journalist).

Future events of the Sanctuary Yabuhara are planned for June 30 (Great Purification Ceremony), and on July 10 and 11 the Taisai Festival will be held with a ryuteki musical performance followed by traditional kagura dance.

Offerings and a gohei with white strips on a temporary altar

Masa Okutani officiating over the opening ritual

Masu Okutani reads out the norito specially prepared for the occasion

A tamagushi is presented to the Brook’s representative to offer to the kami

The tamagushi is offered to the kami by being laid before the altar

A French representative gets instruction in how to rotate the tamagushi in order to present it repectfully to the kami

After the ritual, participants enjoy a cup of ritual saké (known as omiki).

Anime and manga shrines

April 26, 2015 / John D. / 3 Comments

Anime and manga depictions are increasingly common on ema as shrines seek new ways of increasing their popularity

An article in the English-language Asahi newspaper talks of Tokyo’s Kanda Myojin as one of some 30 shrines around the country to have become a destination for fans of certain anime or manga. Green Shinto has dealt with the subject before. Some may see it as a trivialisation of sacred space, but priests and anthropologists counter this with such statements as, “Since ancient times, Shinto shrines have not been exclusive. It’s good if they are talked about and become attractive destinations.”

***************************************************

Kanda shrine enlists anime favorites to draw in younger visitors
By ORIE YOSHIHAMA/ Staff Writer, The Asahi, April 25, 2015

Love Live! ema

A shrine in Tokyo’s Kanda district is offering lucky amulets adorned with anime girls and wooden prayer tablets featuring fictional characters in a bid to lure a younger generation of worshippers. The Kanda Myojin shrine, the grand guardian for Edo, or present-day Tokyo, has spent about 400 years at its current location, which is just a short jump from the otaku (literally “geek”) subculture hub of Akihabara.

It decided on the “makeover” in response to a new-found popularity among anime fans, many filtering in from the anime, manga and electronics district. “There they are!” one 22-year-old graduate student from Fukui Prefecture exclaimed in front of the festival office building on the premises of the Kanda Myojin. What he found were illustrated ema tablets and lucky amulets featuring a character from the animated series “Love Live! School Idol Project” dressed as a “miko” shrine maiden.

“Love Live!” is set in an area surrounding Akihabara. The story centers around a group of nine high school girls who try to become pop idols to save their school from being shut down. Manga and video game adaptations of the series have also become popular. A throng of fans of the series frequent the shrine, which became one of their “pilgrimage destinations” after being featured in the anime.

Love Live! lucky charm

Visitors can see a plethora of ema tablets with “Love Live!” characters and other illustrations drawn by anime followers hanging at the shrine. The items have been dubbed “ita-ema” (painful ema), an otaku term coined after “ita-sha” (painful cars), referring to cars carrying flamboyant anime illustrations that can be “painfully embarrassing.” Some fans also put anime figures on the stone steps of the Myojin Otokozaka slope to take pictures.

The first batch of “Love Live!” ema tablets and lucky amulets was delivered to the shrine in November last year after the production studio responsible for the anime series agreed to a collaboration with shrine officials. Hundreds of fans flooded the shrine in response, and the items immediately sold out. Since then, the goods continue to go out of stock soon after they are delivered.

The anime characters will also be featured in a poster for the Kanda Matsuri festival, one of the nation’s three largest festivals, held annually in May, the officials said.

The graduate student learned about the shrine from the anime and visited last year for the first time. He made his third visit before attending a live concert featuring voice actresses held in Saitama. About 50 fans like him were waiting in line at the shrine, he added.

“I was surprised to see so many young men visiting (the shrine) last year,” said Masanori Kishikawa, a “gonnegi” junior priest at the shrine. “It happened to be the day a live concert was held.”

Banner at a shrine in Gunma advertising its connection with a well-known manga

At first, he was baffled by the popularity, with ita-sha cars gathering at a spot near the shrine. But now, the 41-year-old is delighted that young people who may have been previously estranged from shrines are paying visits.

“Everyone offers prayers in a proper manner. Whatever their motives are, I hope they become interested in learning about Japanese traditions,” Kishikawa added.

Founded nearly 1,300 years ago, Kanda Myojin was moved to its current Sotokanda site in 1616 as part of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s project to expand Edo Castle. In addition to attracting more than 400,000 people for their first visit of the year to a shrine, it has also served as a popular wedding venue for many celebrity couples.

The shrine has incorporated fresh ideas, such as amulet stickers for IT workers that can be posted on personal computers, while staying faithful to its long-established traditions and prestige.

This year, the shrine collaborated with one of its supporting companies to introduce a vending machine that dispenses toys in capsules, including miko figurines. “The ‘kami’ (god) always listens to the wishes of modern people. Shrines are also sightseeing spots. The new and the traditional are integrated there,” Kishikawa said, adding that the shrine’s collaboration with “Love Live!” is not unusual.

Many other Shinto shrines have become pilgrimage destinations after being featured in anime and manga works. The most common among them is Washinomiyajinja shrine in Kuki, Saitama Prefecture, where “Lucky Star” was set. In the five years since an animated TV series adaptation of the manga of the same name started airing in 2007, the number of people who chose the shrine for their first visit of the year spiked by about five times, to 470,000.

Other such sites include the Oarai Isosakijinja shrine in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, featured in “Girls und Panzer”; the Chichibujinja shrine in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, featured in “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day”; and the Omijingu shrine in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, featured in “Chihayafuru.”

According to a survey by Takeshi Okamoto, an instructor of tourism sociology at Nara Prefectural University who studies pilgrimages to locations featured in manga and anime, there are at least 30 such locations across Japan.
Asked why shrines serve as pilgrimage sites, Okamoto said they can be a “third place” that is neither home nor school nor the workplace, where anyone can visit anonymously.

It may also be connected to the freedom that allows for the acceptance of different values, he noted. The lecturer said shrines evoke sympathy and curiosity from younger generations by being featured in anime and manga. “Real connections are made through pilgrimages, and a new culture is formed,” Okamoto said. “The two cultures that Japan takes pride in are developing as they are engaging each other.”

Keiji Ueshima, an anthropologist of religion, pointed out that mythologies, anime and manga are common in that they are all set in a world different from reality. A recent trend, along with growing demand, for “experiences like no other” rather than “the consumption of things” bears this out, Ueshima said.

While there are voices expressing concerns about the secularization of sacred spaces, Ueshima and Okamoto, who both love manga, are not worried. “Since ancient times, Shinto shrines have not been exclusive,” the two said. “It’s good if they are talked about and become attractive destinations.”

These days it's not unusual to see do-it-yourself fan versions of manga and anime

Religion and the environment

April 25, 2015 / John D. / 4 Comments

Can religion help prevent the destruction of the environment?

Green issues matter to Green Shinto, so it was with great interest that we noticed a forthcoming conference on the role of religion in an age of environmental crisis. The conference will take place next year in Washington and will look at the possibilities for religion being a positive force and providing leadership at a time of global warming. The term used to denote the age in which we live is the Anthropocene, which controversially signifies a period in which the structure of the world has been affected by human activity.

******************************************************

THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIETY

Washington D.C., USA, The Catholic University of America, 23-24 March 2016

“Religion in the Age of the Anthropocene: Towards a Common Cause?”

Can sacralisation of the natural world change attitudes to the environment, or simply towards the object in question?

A new framework has been presented in recent years to periodize and interpret the effects of human life on the natural environment: the age of the ‘Anthropocene.’ By this definition, we are now in an era when human activities have become a key macro-determinant of the destiny of the ecosystems of Earth.

The natural environment presents itself as a ground for life and a gift of life in all communities of faith and spiritual meaning. In the ‘age of the Anthropocene,’ how might faith (and explicitly non-faith) communities productively engage in these critical discussions?

Looking backward: could this be an opportunity for productive dialogues between principles of science, economics, and religion? Looking forward: in what ways might faith communities and other communities of spiritual meaning set agendas for personal and community action? What principles of stewardship, compassion, or mutual obligation might they offer? How might they provide leadership on issues of the environment, ecological sustainably, and climate change?

Could addressing these concerns also offer a basis for productive inter-faith dialogue, a locus for the development of unified moral voice across differing belief systems? Could the age of the Anthropocene, as a focal interpretive mechanism for understanding the intersection of human action, science, and faith, become a site for joining into a ‘common cause’ and a place to share imaginations for the future of human development?

Not only might such an agenda have implications for our relations in the natural environment, but also such considerations of the future might prompt us to address related questions of inequality, poverty, and human suffering.

The 2016 meeting will feature a special focus on this provocative subject. We welcome open debate, discourse, and research from participants that center on this special topic, as well as any other themes or issues relevant to religion and spirituality in society.

CONFERENCE THEMES:

Proposals for paper presentations, workshops, focused discussions or colloquia are invited that address the broader themes listed below. In addition to the special focus, paper presentations will be grouped into one of the following categories for presentation at the conference:

Theme 1: Religious Foundations
Theme 2: Religious Community and Socialization Theme 3: Religious Commonalities and Differences
Theme 3: Religious Commonalities and Differences
Theme 4: The Politics of Religion
Theme 5: Religion in the Age of the Anthropocene: Towards a Common Cause?

Proposals for in-person presentations should be submitted by 23 FEBRUARY 2016 (title and short abstract). Proposals submitted after this day will be accommodated in non-themed sessions at the conference or are eligible for community membership registrations (no attendance to the conference is required with community membership presentations).

For more information on the conference including confirmed plenary speakers as well as details on submitting your proposal and registering for the conference, visit: www.ReligionInSociety.com/DC-2016

Can spiritual practice provide a focus for environmental concerns?