Author: John D. (Page 143 of 202)

Historic foreigner priest (Wiltschko)

May 3, 2013 / John D.

Konno Shrine, the oldest wooden building in Shibuya (photo by hector BC)

There was a feature on the television two days ago about foreigners who are more Japanese than the Japanese, and one of the items focussed on a non-Japanese priest appointed by Jinja Honcho (Association of Shinto Shrines).

This ground-breaking development concerns Florian Wiltschko, about whom Green Shinto has written before. It seems the young Austrian has been appointed to a post at the Konno Shrine in Shibuya, central Tokyo. It’s not a shrine with which Green Shinto is familiar so we look forward to reports about it and about how the new priest fares there. (Florian himself apparently wishes to keep a low profile.)

There have been non-Japanese priests before (both in terms of having non-Japanese blood and having non-Japanese nationality). However, this is the first time for Jinja Honcho to make an official appointment in this way. As such it’s a major breakthrough in terms of ‘internationalising’ Shinto. It’s a remarkable achievement by the young Austrian, who has had to sit through all the exams required of Japanese in the licensing process.

Green Shinto welcomes and celebrates the development.

Florian Wiltschko at Ueno Tenmangu Shrine in Nagoya, before his appointment to Konno Shrine in Shibuya (courtesy newsweek.japan)

Fuji. spirituality and heritage

May 2, 2013 / John D.

Sea and sacred mountain - spirituality of an island culture (pic Cultural Affairs Agency/Kyodo)

Heritage status will mean big changes
BY ERIC JOHNSTON MAY 2, 2013 Japan Tiimes

OSAKA – Local and prefectural governments and businesses surrounding Mount Fuji welcomed the news that the World Heritage Committee is expected to designate Japan’s most famous and popular mountain as a World Heritage site, despite concerns about what it will mean to the local environment and questions about how its preservation will be funded.

Long the most recognizable symbol of Japan, Fuji has been revered as a sacred mountain since ancient times. In the early Heian Period (794-1185), a Sengen Shinto shrine that enshrines Konohana-sakuya-hime, the goddess associated with volcanoes, was built at the base of the mountain’s north side.

In spiritual terms, Fuji is divided into three zones. The bottom, or Kusa-yama, is said to represent the everyday world. The forest line, or Ki-yama, represents the transient area between the world of humans and the world of gods, and the “burned” area, or Yake-yama, at the top is said to represent the realm of the gods, Buddha and death.

Thus, to climb Mount Fuji is to descend from the living world to the realm of the dead and then back, by which pilgrims can wash away their sins.

Efforts to get Mount Fuji, which drew more than 318,000 hikers last summer, listed with the World Heritage Committee date back to the mid-1990s, first as a U.N. Natural Heritage site.

However, when representatives from UNESCO visited Fuji in 1995, they were greeted with a sea of garbage and the smell of human excrement due to the lack of public facilities, and told Japan not to apply until the mountain was cleaned up.

After years of effort, there were toilets for about 15,000 climbers a day as of 2012. In the end, however, the government decided to try to get the mountain listed as a cultural, rather than natural, heritage site.

“The garbage problem was the reason why we applied for registration as a cultural site, and I have to say, it’s a great relief that we’ve been accepted,” said Shoichi Osano, a senior member of Fujiyama Gogo-me Kanko Kyokai (Mount Fuji Fifth Station Tourism Association).

For his part, Toshiyuki Kashiwagi, head of the industry and tourism department in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, gave credit to the younger generation for pushing to clean up the mountain and get UNESCO’s approval.

“People in their 20s worked especially hard, showing just how conscious they are of its natural beauty and cultural importance,” he said.

The two tough questions Mount Fuji area residents and the central government now must answer are how to protect the mountain once it officially becomes a World Heritage Site and who to bill for those measures.

Discussions are under way in Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures on such issues as entrance fees for climbers. Although no rates have been set, the fee system could begin on a trial basis as early as this summer’s climbing season, which begins July 1.

“It’s likely we’ll ask that mountain climbers to help financially with keeping the mountain clean,” Yamanashi Gov. Shomei Yokouchi said in February.

In addition, in an issue sure to divide environmentalists and local businesses heavily dependent on the tourist trade, there is the question of what kinds of limits, perhaps legal in nature, to place on the number of climbers per day.

“Placing limits or restrictions on the number of entrants is something that still has to be discussed,” said Tetsuya Ikegaya, of Shizuoka Prefecture’s World Heritage office.

Fuji to be World Heritage

May 1, 2013 / John D.

Japan's tallest mountain and an active volcano (courtesy Kyodo)

The announcement came today that Mt Fuji, Japan’s iconic mountain, has passed an important committee stage in the ratification process to be a World Heritage site (unlike the historic remains of Kamakura, which were turned down).

An essential part of the nomination was not so much the physical entity, but the Fuji-ko sect which reveres the mountain as divine. In other words, it is a cultural landscape which combines spiritual tradition with natural features. Green Shinto was fortunate to carry recently an article by Shinto priestess, Pat Ormsby on the Seven Pilgrimage Paths to Fuji. They are sure to be seeing a lot more visitors as a result of today’s decision.

Here is a report that appeared in the Japan Times today….

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Mount Fuji on verge of World Heritage listing
KYODO MAY 1, 2013

An important UNESCO panel has recommended that World Heritage status be granted to Mount Fuji, putting the iconic peak on a direct path to registration.

Japan’s tallest mountain is expected to be formally listed in June when the World Heritage Committee meets in Cambodia.

However, the advisory panel, known as the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), also said in the late Tuesday announcement that it rejected a Japanese request to add a group of cultural assets in the ancient city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, to the World Heritage list, citing scarce assets directly linked to the medieval shogunate’s rule.

In its request for registration, the Cultural Affairs Agency said Mount Fuji covers roughly 70,000 hectares in Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, including five major lakes and the Shiraito Falls.

IMOCOS noted that the mountain is a national symbol of Japan and blends religious and artistic traditions, government officials said.

Mt Fuji in its winter garb

“We are delighted to hear the news. Once Mount Fuji is registered as a World Heritage site, we hope it will be known to more people,” said an official of Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, at the foot of the mountain.

Yamanashi Gov. Shomei Yokouchi also welcomed the recommendation for registration.

“We would like to cooperate with the central government and Shizuoka Prefecture to make utmost efforts to enable Mount Fuji to be registered as a World Heritage site,” Yokouchi said.

The volcano is seen as a symbol of nature worship in the country and has been depicted in ukiyo-e woodblock prints, the agency said in its filing with UNESCO.

For the 3,776-meter peak to be listed, however, ICOMOS said the Miho-no-Matsubara pine grove, which Japan sought to include as part of the asset, must be excluded, because it is 45 km from Mount Fuji and can’t be considered a part of it, the Japanese officials said.

If formally approved, Fuji will be Japan’s first registered World Heritage site since the historic Hiraizumi area in Iwate Prefecture was listed in 2011, and bring Japan’s total listings to 13.

The government officially asked UNESCO in January 2012 to register the two sites in 2013. In December, ICOMOS requested additional information.

The request for Kamakura covered a roughly 2,000-hectare area, including Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Enkaku Temple and the Great Buddha.

Kamakura was the seat of a samurai government from the late 12th to 14th centuries that nurtured cultural practices including the tea ceremony and Zen rituals.

Registration on the World Heritage list is aimed at preserving precious cultural assets and natural treasures for future generations, but is also significant in boosting tourism.

Ebisu

May 1, 2013 / John D.

Daikoku and Ebisu are often shown as a pair (some believe they are father and son). Daikoku holds a mallet, Ebisu has a fish.

Ebisu (aka Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami) is one of Shinto’s most intriguing characters. One of the Seven Lucky Gods, he carries a sea bream and is the patron deity of fishermen.

In medieval times, Ebisu was identified with Hiruko – the leech child of Izanagi and Izanami in the Kojiki (712) who is born without bones (in some accounts without arms and legs). It was the result of his mother’s transgression during the marriage ritual (she went first round the pillar, whereas the lead should be taken by the man).

Hiruko struggled to survive but because he was handicapped he was put out to sea before his third birthday. He was washed ashore—possibly in Hokkaidō—and was cared for by the Ainu. He overcame many hardships and grew legs to become the god Ebisu.

Because of his birth, Ebisu retains some handicaps such as being deaf. It explains why when all the other kami of Japan visit Izumo during kamiarizuki (the month of kami), Ebisu doesn’t hear the summons of Okuninushi. As a result he remains available for those in need in the rest of Japan. Despite his problems, Ebisu is a happy joyful fellow (he’s known as the Laughing God).

Because of his past as the leech child floating on the sea, things like jellyfish are associated with Ebisu. Fugu restaurants too incorporate the deity in their motif. There are even traditions in which whales are seen as Ebisu.

“Depicted as a fisher-man with a red tai (a kind of perch or sea-bream) under his arm and holding a fishing rod he is well known in his capacity as one of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune. But besides this Ebisu of a rather late tradition we find that Ebisu sometimes takes the shape of a human corpse floating on the surface of the sea, sometimes of a shark or a whale, sometimes even of a float-the Ebisu-aba or Ebisu-float-and sometimes Ebisu is just an ordinary stone drifted or brought ashore.” – Nelly Naumann in ‘Whale and Fish Cult in Japan’

There is also Ebisu as a “visiting deity”. Many legends connected with shrines tell of sacred sea-creatures such as a seven-tailed shark or a whale visiting the village on festival day. Sometimes they are regarded as offerings to the deity, but sometimes as a personification of the deity. In this way Ebisu became more than just the fisherman, but the spirit of the creature he killed.

An ema of Daikoku and Ebisu, who is clutching a sea bream and fishing rod

A protective Ebisu on the roof of a fsherman in Shimane prefecture

Horse archery

April 30, 2013 / John D.

Medieval horsemen parading at Kyoto's Kamigamo Jinja (autumn event). Tomorrow, May 1, there will be a ritual purification for a horse-racing event on May 5th.

The time for horse-riding events is coming up in Kyoto, with festivals at Shimogamo Shrine on May 3 and Kamigamo on May 5. The famed Yabusame horse archery (May 3) is just one of several horse-related events that take place in the city during the year. What’s the fascination?

The history group I belong to recently read an illuminating piece on medieval fighting, which illustrated just how important those horse skills once were. Most people might assume that swords played a dominant part in Japanese battles of the past, but this was not the case at all. Rather it was bows and pikes. Here are a couple of key passages from the book –

Thomas Conlan ‘Medieval Warfare’ in Japan Emerging, p. 245.

From the eleventh trough the mid-fifteenth century, Japanese wars were waged primarily by small units of skilled horse riders who relied on the prowess in archery to defeat their opponents. Japanese longbows were powerful, capable of piercing armory at close range.

Most archers rode their slow and small, but rugged mounts to within tens of yards of their opponents, whereupon they unleashed arrows. The face proved particularly vulnerable in pre-fourteenth century armor, and was thus a primary target. Swords were rarely used in battle, because hand-to-hand combat proved so rare.

Japanese horses were small and, by today’s standards, would be classified as ponies. They were not particularly fast, but they could easily scramble across rough terrain. And even on small ponies, a mounted squad armed with bows could mow down any opposition on foot by relying on its superior mobility to wheel around and pepper its enemies with arrows. These mounted archers sometimes chased down rivals, but this too required great skill.

One of the many interesting facts to emerge from the article is that medieval armies could be measured in a matter of hundreds, rather than thousands. Kamakura-era records (1185-1333) show that up to three-quarters of all wounds were from arrows, with the rest from pikes, rocks or swords. In 1600 at the battle of Sekigahara, pikes were the dominant weapon causing seventy-five of seventy-six documented wounds (swords only accounted for one). By this time though guns had become the dominant projectile weapon, inflicting 80% of documented wounds compared with 20% for arrows.

It is evident then that in the demonstrations of horse skills held at shrines, the Japanese are honouring an important part of their ancestors’ past – a demonstration of true horse power, you might say.

Ritual purification before the archery event

Hiei’s shrines

April 30, 2013 / John D.

An attractive Benzaiten shrine in the Saito compound of Hiei's Enryaku-ji

Mt Koya and Mt Hiei are the twin peaks of Japan’s esoteric Buddhism. Mt Koya houses the head temple of Shingon, and Mt Hiei that of the Tendai sect. Both complexes are much smaller now than they were in the past, and in the middle ages they counted amongst the greatest mountain temples in the world. Both are now World Heritage sites.

The Tenjin ox welcomes visitors on the way to Enryaku-ji's main building, the Konponchudo

Shingon and Tendai both acknowledge kami and take a combinatory approach. I recently posted an article on the shrines that were a part of Kukai’s original project on Koyasan. Today I visited Hieisan and took photos of some of the small shrines that stand amongst the large temple buildings.

It’s been a while since I was last up on the mountain, and as ever I was impressed by the huge scale and the sense of history that the area exudes. I was also heartened to see several monuments and noticeboards affirming commonality with China and Korea.

Hieisan’s main shrine of course is the atmospheric Hiyoshi Taisha, towards the bottom of the mountain on the Sakamoto side. Joseph Cali has written of it in Shinto Shrines, from which the following quotation is taken:

It’s said that in the eighth century, Saicho’s devoted Buddhist father prayed to the kami of Hiei for a son. When his prayers were answered, he built a small shrine at the foot of the mountain and dedicated it to the kami. His son came to the mountain to worship as a Buddhist priest and began to worship here before the new capital of Heian-kyo (Kyoto) was founded in 794.

The temple Saicho established (known as Enryaku-ji, was appointed protector of the new capital, partly because it guarded the north-east corner through which the devil was likely to slip. It meant that Hiyoshi Taisha as protector of the temple was given high imperial status, and in medieval times it had over 100 buildings (the temple on the other hand numbered in thousands).

My purpose on this occasion was not Hiyoshi Shrine, however, but a tour of the impressive temple buildings. In amongst the scattered halls (grouped into three main complexes) I came across several small shrines. One of them stands right on the way to the main building, the awe-inspiring Konponchudo, and is dedicated to Tenjin. As a seminary Enryaku-ji is scholastically oriented (its Lecture Hall is given prime importance), so I presume there’s a link in the educational role of Tenjin.

The demon seen by Gansan Daishi, now put on ofuda to be placed on door entrances to scare away evil

Amongst the other shrines I noticed was one to Inari and several to Benzaiten. The latter derives originally from India, and as a Hindu goddess she was embraced by early Buddhism, so perhaps it’s no surprise to find her well represented. I’m used to seeing her surrounded by water (as in the famous Benten pond at Todai-ji), but I couldn’t in these cases find any evidence of a pond. So why were the monks so keen on cultivating her, I wondered…

It was one of several questions I wanted to discuss, but on this occasion I didn’t get a chance. I did however get to talk to an apprentice, who told me an interesting tale about the altar mirror at the temple to which he was attached. Shaped like a Shinto mirror, it was associated with a monk called Gansan Daishi who lived at a time when the plague was prevalent.

When he looked into the mirror, Ganshin saw a demon there and his companions managed to ‘capture the reflection’ by drawing its image. When the picture was put on the front door of houses, it turned out to have a miraculous protective power against the plague. The demon was thus able to serve as a valuable assistant to the work of the monks. It’s a reminder of how Japanese demons (oni) should not be ‘demonised’ – the ascetic En no Gyoja, for instance, was served by two ‘demon’ assistants. It also says something about the curious nature of mirrors – though quite what is something on which I’ll have to reflect!

A painting of Gansan Daishi looking in the mirror and seeing a demon

A shrine to Benzaiten in the Yokowa area of Enryaku-ji. This one did have a pond, full of irises.

Inari Shrine in the woods... living close to nature, the Enryaku-ji monks have a fine sense of the spirit of place.

Another Benzaiten shrine, this one opening onto the slopes where the Buddhist monks practise their austerity rites

Death and No-thing-ness

April 27, 2013 / John D.

Death is often cited as a prime reason why people turn to religion. The consolation of an afterlife is attractive to many, and fear of rotting or burning in hell haunts others.

Grave of Izumo no Okuni, founder of Kabuki and once miko at Izumo Taisha, now part of an amorphous kami-hood.

Shinto is pretty relaxed about the afterlife because we all become kami. There’s no good or bad, and no one to judge us. Even Class A war criminals get to be kami.

Generally speaking, ancestral spirits retain their individuality for two or three generations in the minds of their descendants, before merging into some undefined pool of common ancestry. Perhaps it represents the lifeforce, for ancestral spirits also turn into forces of nature – a shamaness became Amaterasu, spirit of the sun; Sugiwara no Michizane became Tenjin, spirit of the sky. Kamo Wake-ikazuchi, grandson of the Kamo clan founder, died as a child and apotheosised as a thunder deity.

My Irish friend and I were speculating the other day about the curious way atoms mysteriously come together to form us in miraculous fashion before dispersing as our bodies decay after death. Perhaps there’s a sense of that in the Shinto notion of ancestral spirits turning into forces of nature.

Alan Watts, however, in his latest broadcast has another take on the matter. (For his biweekly podcast, click here.) It’s all to do with nothingness. Or rather No Thing-ness.

The non-guru Alan Watts, now enjoying no-thing-ness (courtesy stageview.com)

Life is like a star shining out of the black hole of space, he says. And what we don’t realise is that space is more fundamental than the star. We never consider the matter, because it’s like trying to look at your own head – you can’t see it. And yet the head is that out of which we see in exactly the same way that the blackness is that out of which the star shines. So in similar manner nothingness is the substance that sustains human existence.

So what’s it going to be like after we die? It’s going to be as if we had never existed at all. Or as if nothing had ever existed at all. There never was anything, and there’s no one to regret it. It will all just stop. Yet you can’t have a stop without a start. But there was no start. There’s just no thing. And when you come to think of it, says Watts, that’s exactly the way it was before you were born.

Belief in no thing is not for Watts a declaration of atheism, but one of profound trust. Images of God are simply demonstrations of a lack of faith, something to hold onto, something to grasp. But letting go is a matter of trust. Letting go of idols is another way to relate to the ineffable mystery that is life and no thing-ness. And when you do so, you find that the universe is you.

Look deep in the mirror and what do you see…

The circular Shinto mirror that ends where it begins