Author: John D. (Page 113 of 202)

Shrines 8) Types Pt 2

March 19, 2014 / John D.

The following is an abridged extract from Shinto Shrines by Joseph Cali and John Dougill, published by the University of Hawaii Press. Illustrations by Geoff Chioti.

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Kasuga-zukuri:

Named after Kasuga Taisha in Nara, this is generally a small one-by-one-bay honden.

The bays are of different dimensions so that the width is about six feet while the depth is about eight and a half feet. The structure has a curving gable roof of cypress bark that features katsuogi and slender, rather curved chigi resembling crossed swords.

The entrance is in the center on the gabled (front) side, while a pent roof covers the entrance stairway. The woodwork is lacquered in red with details in black, and the walls are white plaster.

The staircase is made of solid square lengths of wood that span the full width of the building, with two square pillars rising from the base of the stair to support the pent roof.

Sumiyoshi-zukuri:

This style of honden has a gable roof with the entrance in the center of the gabled side.

The structure is two bays wide by four deep. The roofline is flat and has a deep overhang on all four sides. There are katsuogi and very tall chigi.

All the wooden members are painted vermillion and the wooden plank walls are painted white. It is thought to derive from the shape of the temporary ritual palace built for the enthronement rites of the emperor.

The building’s interior is divided into front and rear sections, with a wall and door parallel to the entrance separating the two.

Hachiman-zukuri: A unique style named for the original Usa Jingu Shrine in Kyushu and involving two parallel buildings standing so close to each other that they almost touch along the eaves.

A narrow structure connects the buildings and features doors at either end, creating a sort of covered corridor. A large rain gutter runs the length of the roof under the eaves and above the lower roof of the intermediate space. The effect is of one building with a double-gable roof.

The roof material is Hinoki Cypress bark, and there are no chigi or katsuogi. The woodwork is lacquered in vermillion, and the walls are white plaster. There are three doors on the entrance side (the non-gabled side of the front structure) and there may be a step canopy that extends over the stairway.

The front structure is called the outer sanctuary, and the rear structure is called the inner sanctuary. Hachiman shrines often do not have typical haiden (Offertory) standing in front of the main building. Instead, they usually have a single-bay romon where worshippers pray, and it is the face of the shrine with which most people are familiar.

Scientific animism

March 18, 2014 / John D.

Thanks to Green Shinto supporter, A.J. Dickinson, for pointing out a collection of quotes in the Huffington Post about the compatibility of science and a religious outlook. Here follow a few interesting observations by members of the scientific community.

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Full moon at Shimogamo Jinja

Carl Sagan (1934-1996)–American astrophysicist
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual…The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958-) –American astrophysicist and science commentator
“So you’re made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?”

Francis Collins (1950-) –American geneticist, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
“Science is…a powerful way, indeed – to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective…in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other.”

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) –German physicist, created theory of general relativity.
While the New York Times noted that “Einstein consistently characterized the idea of a personal God who answers prayers as naive, and life after death as wishful thinking,” he also “described himself as an ‘agnostic’ and ‘not an atheist.'” One ambiguous quote, from Einstein’s response to a letter from a sixth-grade student named Phyllis Wright, reads “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.”

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) –British biophysicist renowned for her work on X-ray diffraction.
“In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining…I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.”

Victor J. Stenger (1935-)–American physicist
“With pantheism…the deity is associated with the order of nature or the universe itself…when modern scientists such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking mention ‘God’ in their writing, this is what they seem to mean: that God is Nature.”

In the grounds of Togakushi Jinja in Nagano

Spring equinox

March 17, 2014 / John D.

Imperial burial mounds illustrate how ancestor and nature worship go hand-in-hand

The spring equinox is celebrated in Japan with Shunbun no hi, a national holiday. It was established in 1948 as a day for the admiration of nature and the love of living things. Prior to 1948, the vernal equinox was an imperial ancestor worship festival called Shunki kōrei-sai, which shows how animism and ancestor worship overlap in Japanese consciousness.

Wheel of the year showing the eight Neo-Pagan celebrations (Wikicommons)

In religious terms the week around the equinox is known as higan, which is a time for refreshing ties with ancestral spirits. It’s the custom to clean up family graves, offer flowers and pay respects or report new events.

For those of us in the Northern hemisphere days the equinox brings the prospect of greater warmth and longer daylight hours. it’s traditionally associated with pagan ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. Small wonder then that the Christians used the time of year to celebrate Resurrection. (Easter is the first full moon after the equinox.)

For neo-pagans the equinox is one of the eight occasions for seasonal celebration during the annual cycle. The rites draw on customs taken from different sources.

In Germanic traditions the fertility goddess Ostara is thought by some to refer to the Eastern star and is associated with Eostre, from which Easter derives. Other mythologies associated the occasion with fertility and the return of vegetation gods. Thus egg decorating was a common form of celebration throughout Europe, and Ostara in particular was associated with the fecund symbols of the hare and egg.

In Shinto too springtime is marked by fertility festivals in many places, the most famous of which these days is the Honen Festival near Nagoya on March 15, when a giant phallus is paraded through the streets. That this life-giving symbol should ever have been made taboo in the West suggests a curious lack of balance in traditional values, and for some meditative thoughts on the need for balance at this time of year, please refer to an earlier Green Shinto posting here.

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Part of the procession at the Honen Festival held shortly before the spring equinox, held to promote fertility in crops and humans

Spiritual tourism

March 17, 2014 / John D.

An article today in the Yomiuri Shimbun highlights the rise of package holidays aimed at promoting physical and spiritual health. Here are two of the items, one involving ‘forest therapy’ in Nagano Prefecture, and one involving hiking on the Kumano pilgrimage trails (and resting on large rocks to absorb the vibes).

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March 17, 2014 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Forest therapy By Nana Ando

NAGANO—A nonprofit organization is promoting forest therapy, where tourists nourish their body and mind through physical exercises in forests in Iiyama, Nagano Prefecture.

The Tokyo-based Forest Therapy Society said there were 48 forest therapy bases across the nation as of the end of February. Iiyama was the first such lo-cation to be certified in the NPO’s inaugural inspection in April 2006.

A wide variety of experiences await in the city, including walking and yoga in the summer and trekking come winter time. About 1,500 people visit each year, mainly women in their 30s and 40s.

Located in a region with heavy snowfall, skiing used to be the city’s main tourist attraction in the winter, but the ski boom ended and tourist numbers have been falling year by year. However, the city government has expressed high expectations as forest therapy has been an effective draw in luring summertime tourists.

Fees change according to the seasons, but prices generally hover at about ¥15,000 for a two-day, one-night stay.

One of the more popular courses among middle-aged couples and women includes health checks in a city hospital, followed by nutritionally balanced, low-salt lunches.

“I hope visitors will take a second look at their everyday lifestyles by spending time in forests and using their five senses,” said Kenichi Takano, 37, manager of the Nabekura Kogen Mori no Ie accommodation facility.

Pilgrims making their way down the steps to the Nachi waterfall

Ancient pilgrimage By Eiko Negishi

TSU—In January, the city government of Owase and other munici-palities in Mie Prefecture began organizing walking tours on Kumano Kodo, an ancient pilgrimage route that is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, a World Heritage site.

Owase has been troubled by a declining population, prompting municipalities to promote walking tours as a beneficial activity for good health and beauty.

The city government and Mie University in Tsu jointly researched the health effects of walking on Kumano Kodo for three years, beginning in 2009. Results indicated that walking on stone pavements surrounded by greenery can reduce stress, based on data gathered from electrocardiograms and saliva analysis on participants.

The tours are guided by instructors who are well-versed not only in Kumano Kodo but also in healthy walking methods for effectively burning calories.

Twelve people participated in one of the February tours, in which participants walked through Magose Toge mountain pass on Kumano Kodo. They walked for about 4½ hours, occasionally lying down on big rocks.

Shrines 8): Types Pt 1

March 16, 2014 / John D.

The following is an abridged extract from Shinto Shrines by Joseph Cali and John Dougill, published by the University of Hawaii Press. The illustrations are by Geoff Cioti.

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Building types

While there are a number of building types, they fall into two categories. The first is a generic type not necessarily associated with any single shrine. The second is usually named after the shrine where the style originated. The second category may extend to no more than a handful of shrines in the same geographic location.

Shinmei-zukuri: A type of construction associated with the rice storehouse and dating from the Yayoi period. A decorated bronze mirror from the fourth century depicts a similar style of building. It is a structure raised on stilts, with the floor level several feet above ground. It uses round wooden pillars between which boards are laid horizontally to form the walls.

The wood is unpainted but copper or gold-plated hardware is used. There is a gabled roof that extends beyond the walls on all four sides. The roof is finished with katsuogi and chigi that form a V above the roofline.

The entrance is in the center on the non-gabled side, under the eaves, reached by a steep wooden ladderlike stair. There are no other doors or windows. On the gabled side, one pillar extends from the center of the roof ridge down to the ground, exterior to the wall. The pillars are buried directly in the ground.

At some point, the architecture of the storehouse became the model for this style of shrine. The chief example is Ise Jingu in Mie Prefecture.

Taisha-zukuri: A type of honden building that probably derived from the house (miya) of the village headman, who was responsible for performing rites for the kami.

The basic style is considered one of the oldest building types. It has a symmetrical gable roof with the gable on the front. The building is two-bays wide with the entrance in the front-right bay.

The left bay has shitomido doors that are split horizontally with the upper half hinged at the top and opening upward, while the bottom half is removable. A veranda encircles the building, and stairs as wide as the entrance lead to ground level.

Another characteristic of the style is the gabled roof over the stairs, which follows its steep angle. The chief example of the style is Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture.

Nagare-zukuri: This is probably the most common style of honden construction, found all around the country. The name means “flowing style,” and it is characterized by an asymmetric, upward-curving, gabled roof. The “flowing” roofline gives the style its name. The entrance is always in the center of the non-gabled side, and the roof there extends well past the wall to cover the veranda. It creates a full-width portico, sometimes with additional square pillars going from ground level up to the extended roof to support it along the eave (especially where the center section has been further extended to cover the stairs). A veranda wraps around three sides. A variation called ryonagare-zukuri has an extended roof on both front and back sides.

Animal testing

March 16, 2014 / John D.

Sacred animal – or simply a consumer object for human use?

Green Shinto is an enthusiastic supporter of animal rights, though surprisingly this sometimes proves controversial. One aspect that surely defies controversy is animal testing for cosmetics, which has been shown to be totally unnecessary. That innocent creatures should be tortured, mutilated and killed in pursuit of vanity and the beauty industry is a sorry indictment of what it means to be a human being in the twenty-first century.

Animals can find harmony with each other. Why can't we?

The Humane Society International has recently run a campaign to work towards ending the suffering of the more than 100 million animals in laboratories around the world. Despite the existence of alternative methods, animal testing for cosmetics is still legal in the vast majority of countries and in China alone an estimated 300,000 animals die each year.

Artificial human tissue grown in the lab has proved better than tests on rabbits in predicting skin irritation in people. A modern test tube method can distinguish toxic from non-toxic cosmetic ingredients without cruel animal-poisoning experiments. Europe, the world’s largest cosmetic market, and Israel have already banned animal testing for cosmetics and the sale of newly animal-tested beauty products.

In most countries, animal testing is neither required nor prohibited for ordinary cosmetics like makeup and shampoo. But some countries designate products such as sunscreens, hair dyes, and toothpaste as “medicated” cosmetics or pharmaceutical drugs, which can mean mandatory animal testing.

There are now more than 500 companies which produce cruelty-free beauty products. These companies don’t conduct or commission new animal testing; they only use new ingredients which are certified safe without animal testing; and they don’t sell cosmetics in countries requiring animal testing. Green Shinto’s message to those supportive of animist and nature religions: please support such companies and speak out against those which continue to use animal testing.

To sign a petition or donate to the Humane Society International, please click here.

A white cockerel at Ise Jingu, lucky to be free range and not battery

Shrines 7) Characteristics

March 15, 2014 / John D.

Itsukushima Shrine - traditionally shrines are measured by 'bays'

This is part 7 of an ongoing series about shrine history and structures extracted and abridged from Joseph Cali and John Dougill’s Shinto Shrines. Here the focus is on building characteristics.

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Measurements: The traditional Japanese measurement system (shakkan-ho) came to Japan from China. The metric system was adopted in 1924 but the old system is still used in traditional building. Shrines are usually measured in bays (ken), with a bay being the distance between two columns.

The actual measurement of one bay varies according to age, location, and custom. Excavations of Heian-period Kyoto show a bay having a span of 9.8 feet (from center to center of the pillar), whereas in the Edo period a bay measured about six feet—where it has remained to this day. The extremely large bays of Izumo Taisha measure about eighteen feet, but they are exceptional for shrines.

Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto is one of the few to still practise the 20-year renewal, though these days restricted mostly to repairs

Wood construction: Japan is noted for its Hinoki Cypress(Chamaecyparis obtusa), which have provided most of the wood for both shrine and temple construction over the centuries. The structures all use post-and-lintel construction with cut and fitted joints. The use of nails or glue is limited.

Some shrine types have the main pillars planted directly in the ground. Most shrines since the eighth century have pillars resting on stone bases, as do Buddhist temples. Infill walls may be wooden board or clay and plaster over bamboo lath.

Periodic rebuilding: Shikinen sengu means a periodic rebuilding of the shrine. The period is often fixed at twenty or twenty-one years, but it varies by shrine. The reasons for the rebuilding are ritual renewal to maintain purity; the natural deterioration of wood construction (especially where pillars are planted directly in the ground); and the need to train new carpenters in the ancient building techniques before the older carpenters die off (however, temples did not follow the custom, which seems to lend weight to reasons of ritual purity).

The most famous such rebuilding is that of Ise Jingu, the preeminent shrine of Japan. Though many shrines that once underwent this renewal process are currently designated Important Cultural Properties and are only repaired, not rebuilt, Ise Jingu still observes a twenty-year rebuilding cycle. It has been carried out since the seventh century, uninterrupted except for a hundred-year interval between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. (Some of the 125 structures at Ise are rebuilt at twenty-year intervals, while others are rebuilt every forty years or as need be.)

Not all shrines are unpainted, and the roof can be made from different matierals

Painted or unpainted: It is widely thought that shrines are made in unfinished wood and temples are painted, but this is incorrect. Both can be found in unfinished or polychromed wood. Where paint is used, a vermillion or cinnabar red generally predominates. Toshogu shrines tend to have the most ornate polychroming. Certain types of shrine building are never painted (and probably never were). Shinmei- and taisha-zukuri are two such styles.

Roof types: There are several roof types, surfaced in one of a number of materials: straw; kaya (miscanthus); cypress bark; cedar or other wood shingle; copper shingle; copper tile; and at a later date ceramic tile. (Tile is used primarily in temple construction.)

Roofs are always gabled, and one of the most common types is the irimoya-zukuri (hip-and-gable style). The other common style is called nagare-zukuri and is essentially an asymmetrical gable, with one side extended to cover the stairway on the entrance (front) side.

Key features: False A-shaped dormers called chidorihafu are a common feature on shrines, especially on the haiden from the sixteenth century onward. They are generally featured on the front side, in the center of the roof. Below them is often found a curved-bargeboard roof feature called a karahafu. It is usually on the edge of the roof directly over the entrance.

Chigi and katsuogi: These are the most distinctive markings of Shinto shrines, though they only appear on some building types. Chigi are forked finials supporting the ridge board and extending past the ridge to form a V shape above the roofline, or sitting on the ridge to form an X shape. They are thought to be the remnants of the roof brace poles that were lashed together with rope in ancient construction styles. Today they are usually symbolic additions that sit on top of the roof ridge at each end. The direction of the cut at the end of the chigi may indicate the presence of a male or female kami—a vertical cut indicating a male, and a horizontal cut indicating a female.

The distinctive chigi on the roof are characteristic of certain styles of shrine building

Katsuogi are log-like forms that sit on top of the roof ridge, perpendicular to it; they usually number five or six, but there may be as few as two or as many as twelve. The katsuogi (so named because they resemble dried katsuo bonito) once served to help weigh down the ridge and hold the straw roof in place. But at least by the fifth century, they also became decorative elements adorning the emperor’s palace, according to an entry in the Kojiki relating to Emperor Yuryaku (r. 456–79).

Emblems: Most shrines sport a crest that is a representation of either the enshrined kami, the clan that founded the shrine, or the shrine’s status. They are generally round marks with some type of pattern within, such as the hollyhock of the Kamo shrines, the yatagarasu three-legged crow of the Kumano shrines, or the chrysanthemum of shrines associated with the imperial court. An emblem common to many shrines is the mitsu tomoe representing the division of heaven, earth and man.

Mitsu tomoe emblem on a Hachiman horse statue

The yatagarasu (3 legged crow), emblem of the Kumano shrines