Author: John D. (Page 144 of 202)

Izumo 60 year cycle

April 27, 2013 / John D.

A reader has written in with photos and to say that the finishing touches are being done for Izumo’s 60 year cycle of rebuiliding (shikinen sengu). A previous posting detailed the very impressive month-long programme of events (see here). Below are pictures of the latest situation…

A brand new rice rope for the newly constructed buildings. The Izumo shimenawa is known for its peculiarly thick style.

Hoisting the shimenawa into place. It's a marker of sacred space, and is believed to ward against evil spirits. The shimenawa at Izumo's Kaguraden is allegedly the biggest in the world.

Mysterious light on one of the newly constructed Izumo buildings - sign of the kami's blessings?

Yasukuni

April 27, 2013 / John D.

A delegation of 168 lawmakers, mostly right-wing, visit Yasukun this week (Kyodo)

With the return of self-avowed nationalists to power in the Abe-led LDP government, Yasukuni has once again become a political football to be kicked with gleeful relish into the faces of those who suffered Japan’s war crimes in WW2. Rather than seek reconciliation with former enemies, the polticians choose to visit a shrine that acted in secret to enshrine Class A war criminals. Even the emperor was opposed. The deliberate provocations are simply designed to further reassertion of national prestige and military muscle.

That Yasukuni is a place where ordinary people go to pay respects to the spirits of those who died in the war cannot be denied. That it is also a place for political posturing by right-wing politicians also cannot be denied. The two top Shinto researchers who have spent a lengthy time researching the issue – John Nelson and John Breen – are both agreed that the shrine has been made into a political rather than a purely religious issue. Former governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, called politicians who do not visit Yasukuni ‘not Japanese’. It’s a loathsome comment by a loathsome nationalist.

The war-glorifying Yashukan museum, an integral part of the Yasukuni shrine, is a physical representation of where its sentiments lie – with the militarists who drove Japan into death, destruction and defeat in WW2. Nowhere is compassion shown for the millions of victims. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday that the Yasukuni issue is connected to whether Japan has faced up to its history of militarist aggression and whether it can respect the feelings of the countries it attacked. He’s right.

‘As a museum operated by the Yasukuni Shrine, its exhibits stir up militarism and glorify it. There’s something strange about the prime minister going to worship there.’ Who said that? A Chinese politician? Someone who hates Japan? Someone who doesn’t understand Shinto? No. It was Tsuneo Watanabe, chairman of the Yomiuri Shimbun group, in an interview with Nikkan Gendai in Feb 2006.

Yasukuni is simply political poison.

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Leafy Yasukuni shrine stirs raw emotions
By Hiroshi Hiyama Japan Today APR. 27, 2013

For Japan’s neighbors the leafy Yasukuni shrine is a brutal reminder of Tokyo’s imperialist past and wartime aggression, but for many ordinary Japanese it is merely a place to worship ancestors who died fighting for their country.

The controversial war memorial is a flashpoint in a bitter dispute between Japan and its Asian neighbors, particularly China and South Korea.

The long-simmering issue made international headlines this week when nearly 170 Japanese lawmakers made a pilgrimage there to mark a spring festival, angering Beijing and Seoul and sparking diplomatic protests.

Critics of the shrine point to the inclusion of the names of 14 war criminals among the 2.5 million honored at the wooden temple, while the nationalistic museum on the site also draws fire.

For many, however, walking down Yasukuni’s stone paths lined with cherry trees and past imposing gates dedicated to Shinto—an animist religion with elements of Japanese history—is part of a ritual far removed from politics.

Hideo Chikuni choked back tears as he explained that he had traveled more than 200 kilometers to honor his brother, a Japanese soldier who died during World War II.

“If you have lost family members, you would understand,” he told AFP as a light rain fell.

“Japanese politicians visiting the shrine seem to cause all this controversy… but I don’t think other countries have any business in this.

“People who are enshrined here suffered and died for the nation. They fought to protect Japan. And it is thanks to them that we live in a prosperous time today. We cannot forget that.”

Yasukuni was originally built in 1869 to honor those who gave their lives for Japan and contains the names of soldiers who have fallen in armed conflicts including World War II.

But it also honors 14 men convicted of war crimes by a U.S.-led tribunal after Japan’s 1945 surrender, including General Hideki Tojo, the prime minister who authorised the attack on Pearl Harbor which drew the U.S. into the war.

For foreign critics, the shrine is a stark reminder of Tokyo’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula and imperialist expansion leading up to World War II.

Even at home there is significant opposition to Yasukuni, including among some relatives of those honored there, who say it glorifies war and the darker chapters in Japan’s history.

The site is presided over by Shinto priests and a ritual prayer that sees visitors clap and bow as they call on the spirits of ancestors adds a religious element, further complicating the site’s reputation. Discussions about moving the memorial to a more secular location have gone nowhere.

Conservative Japanese lawmakers still routinely visit to pay their respects and underscore their ideological views, while liberal politicians tend to stay away.

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prayed there once a year during his 2001-2006 tenure, enraging China and South Korea, but subsequent leaders have remained absent, including current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Still, Abe has staunchly defended his colleagues’ right to visit the site, and paid for equipment, bearing his name and title, which was used to decorate an altar.

In response, China has insisted that “no matter in what capacity or form Japanese leaders visit Yasukuni, in essence it is an attempt to deny Japan’s history of aggression through militarism”.

South Korea on Thursday summoned Japan’s ambassador to lodge a strong protest over the lawmakers’ visit, and President Park Geun-Hye has warned Tokyo against shifting to the right and aggravating historical grudges.

“If Japan has a different perception of history and aggravates the scars of the past, it will be difficult to build future-oriented ties,” she said this week.

Yuji Miyata, whose uncle is enshrined at Yasukuni, said he understands why the high-profile visits are a troubling reminder of the past for some, including a Chinese man who unsuccessfully tried to burn it down in 2011.

But Miyata, a 48-year-old businessman, said most of the shrine’s five million annual visitors come to honor fallen ancestors and pray for peace.

“I can understand why foreign politicians are critical,” he said. “They may see this in the context of the Japanese empire invading other countries. But for us, the general public, we don’t think about those things when we come here, we just pray for our relatives who died.”

Earth Day

April 22, 2013 / John D.

Coming together on Earth Day (courtesy mobilecommons)

Earth Day is an annual day on April 22 to heighten awareness of the need for environmental protection. The April 22 date was adopted by the United Nations in 2009 and is celebrated in more than 192 countries. The concept was first put forward by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. It was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations.

It’s a day when all of humankind can come together in celebration and concern for this remarkable ‘little rock’ on which we are hurtling through space. It’s a weird thought, as Alan Watts, put it, to think of ourselves rotating around the sun on a planet so green and blue. And the more one thinks about it, the more one feels inclined to offer gratitude for the wonder of existence.

The eco-system that sustains us is delicate and fragile. It behooves all of us to treat it with care and not to take it for granted. The predations of modern consumerism need to be regulated and converted into sustainable lifestyles that are not based on selfishness, shortsightedness and greed. Earth Day is a reminder to us of our responsibilities to the future. Let’s strive to treat our Mother Earth better from this day on!

Human life depends on this; Make every day an Earth Day (courtesy trunks1z)

Harmony of human and nature

Reverence and gratitude for the blessings of nature

Kumano hiking

April 20, 2013 / John D.

There are areas of Japan with a numinous quality, where the veil between this world and the sacred is at its thinnest. One is Izumo; another is Kumano. On opposite sides of Honshu, the two regions are nonetheless linked in a mysterious way and both lay claim to being the site of Yomi, where Izanami was buried.

Pilgrims along the Kumano Kodo

If Ise represents light and sunshine, Izumo and Kumano are the lands of darkness. Ise is imperial-oriented, heavily subsidised by Jinja Honcho, and allied with the ruling élite. Izumo and Kumano are are characterised by myth, folklore and tradition. They offer an alternative to the Meiji-imposed mainstream, as suggested by the reference to the rebel Kumagusu in the article below.

For Green Shinto, Kumano and Izumo epitomise grass-roots spirituality and the religion of the common folk. If the emperor system had been abolished at the end of WW2, as most of the world wished, Ise would have suffered a loss of prestige but the vital flow of age-old beliefs would have continued unhampered in the two ancient realms.

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SIMON BARTZ in the Japan Times [The below is an edited excerpt of the first of two parts.]

“Once you cross Tonda River, you’re entering the Land of the Dead,” says Brad, a tousle-haired, bespectacled, Japan-loving walking encyclopedia from Canada and also our chief guide on this venture into Kumano — the spiritual heartland of Japan, located on the Kii Peninsula, Wakayama Prefecture.

Land of the Dead? Mordor-like or Mordor-lite? I’m decidedly not scared at this point, but . . . that’s down to naivety. I will almost die, and fall in love in the process.

Me, Brad, a few of his colleagues, and a squad of all-male, all-gaijin (Western) journalists are standing beside the Takijiri-oji Shrine, which most hikers use as a starting point to trek through Kumano, and Brad is spinning a mythical tale, which goes something like this: The female creator deity Izanami died giving birth to the fire deity, so she went to Kumano, the Land of the Dead. Her hubbie, Izanagi, the male creator deity, sought her out. But after seeing her corpse, he was naturally upset and fled the Land of the Dead and jumped into the Tonda River, which runs in the valley below. There he did the misogi (purification ritual) and when he washed his body deities were born. And life, the universe and everything moved on . . .

Yamabushi blowing his horn in Kumano

This is just one of many myths; Kumano has thousands of years of complex religious beliefs involving Shintoism, Buddhism and other obscure belief systems (this place also attracts yamabushi [mountain ascetics], who dangle off cliffs and sit naked under freezing waterfalls).

“The important thing to remember is that Kumano is open to everyone,” says Brad. “This place goes to the core of spirituality rather than holding fast to any specific doctrine.”

As our bus winds up and down through the cedar- and cypress-clad mountains, Brad, a crucial cog in the Tanabe City Kumano Tourism Bureau, says, “This reminds me of Nepal. You climb up and down mountains and then enter a river-valley community where you find lodgings for the night and then continue hiking the next day. That’s the general idea when you visit this area.”

Looking out at the mountains, I get my first “hit” of what this is all about. It feels good. Another guide, Akagi-san, (clad in a traditional yamabushi costume, and fondly nicknamed “Bakagi-san,” blows his horagai (conch trumpet), which is used to attract the attention of the deities and also to communicate.

Nachi's syncretic mix of Buddhism and animism

Pilgrims — from emperors to peasants — have endured a 40-day return hike to Kumano from the ancient capital of Kyoto for thousands of years. Their goal: to visit the Kumano Sanzan, or the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano — Kumano Hongu Taisha, Kumano Nachi Taisha and Kumano Hayatama Taisha.

They would follow a network of routes called the Kumano Kodo, with the most common being the trail following the coast to the town of Tanabe and then turning east on the Nakahechi Route that cuts through the mountains. Brad says that tomorrow we will hike along part of that route — moving through the Land of the Dead.

Next we stop to drink water from the Nonka No Shimizu spring and gaze in awe at the huge Ipposugi cedar tree, with all of its branches pointing south. “That’s because there’s a lot of spiritual power in that direction,” says Brad. [South was associated with Kannon, and as Kumano was the southernmost area of Honshu, the citizens of Kyoto viewed it as sacred land.]

Ipposugi is one of many trees that were saved by the avant-garde environmentalist Minakata Kumagusu. The microbiologist with a fondness for folklore would scamper naked in the woods and then return to a village and tell people that a tengu (long-nosed goblin) had led him to a new species of fungi. He was a fierce opponent of the Meiji Restoration authorities who, in their effort to split Buddhism and Shintoism, were intent on destroying many of the holy areas that fuse the beliefs in Kumano. Kumagusu even got jailed for his dedication to the rebel cause, but in his cell the gods shined upon him, and he found yet another new species of slime mold growing on the wall.

Brad says: “When the government inspectors arrived to check the area to see what had to be destroyed, Kumagusu would be a kind of ‘guerrilla’ guide: One of his famous tricks was to take them to a local inn and get them hopelessly drunk so they’d just pass out and then return to the city with a hangover the next day without destroying anything.”

When I take in the magnitude of silence and peace in this lush valley, I realize this is the “land of living,” and that Tokyo, where I live, is the “land of the dead.” Rather an array of trees than an army of sad-faced salarymen. I get my second “hit,” and it’s a big one.

Torii marking the original site of Kumano Hongu, end point for pilgrimages and now candidate for Japan's largest torii (33.9 meters tall and 42 meters wide)

Izumo celebrates (May/June)

April 18, 2013 / John D.

Izumo Taisha, soon to celebrate the completion of its 60-year cycle of renewal (courtesy Connect Shimane)

By now most people have heard of the Ise celebrations this year for the completion of its 20 year shikinen sengu cycle of renewal. The buildings will have been reconstructed, the furnishings remade, and the long series of festivals involved in the process will peak in October with the removal of the sacred mirror of Amaterasu behind a veil of protective cloth to its new housing.

Prior to the Ise celebrations, however, are those of Izumo which take place on a 60 year cycle. It means 2013 is literally a once in a lifetime concurrence of the two major renewals. David Jones, a “Shimane Kentohshi Ambassador for Tourism”, has contacted Green Shinto about his Connect Shimane blog site, which carries useful information about the series of events lined up to celebrate the completion of Izumo’s shikinen sengu, and it’s a hugely impressive programme – it really does seem a once in a lifetime occasion. There is a full listing in Japanese at this link, but for a quck overview I’ve included the activities in English below.

Incidentally, anyone with a few spare moments may like to look at the Connect Shimane website and the impressive slide show with accompanying music. It’s an upliftingly beautiful, almost spiritual, series of photographs. Click on the music button on this link, then sit back and soak in the atmosphere of one of Japan’s most folkloric areas. http://www.connect-shimane.com/

Suzumidono Matsuri (courtesy Connect Shimane)

Schedule of celebrations

May 10th (Fri)
*Honden Senza-sai (Priests relocates Ohkuninushi’s spirit back to the newly renovated Honden, the main sanctuary building)

11th (Sat)
*Honden Senza Housei-sai (The Emperor’s messenger visits the Honden and presents the Emperor’s offering)

12th (Sun)
Gagaku (Imperial Court music and dance, by Kasuga group from Nara)
Izumo kagura

13th (Mon)
*Rei-sai Zenya-sai (Reisai-Eve ritual)
Izumo kagura
Nihon Buyo (Japanese dance) by top Japanese Hanayagi male dancers (Juraku Hanayagi and Noriyuki Hanayagi)
Iwami kagura

14th (Tue)
*Tekisha-sai (archery)
*Rei-sai (Izumo Taisha’s most important annual festival. The Emperor’s messenger visit Honden and present the Emperor’s offering)
Izumo kagura
Joint concert by Hohzan Yamamoto (National Treasure Shakuhachi player) and internationally-know guitarist Hideshi Takatani
Ryukyu-mai dance (Okinawa traditional dance) by Okinawa dancers

Horseback archery on May 26th (courtesy Connect Shimane)

15th (Wed)
*Rei-sai Ni-no-matsuri (extended Rei-sai)
*Mikoshi Gyo-sai (carriage baring Ohkuninushi’s minor spirits will carried around Taisha Town)
Kemari (imperial court ball game) by Konpira-gu Kemari group, Kagawa Prefecture
Yakumo-goto (2 string chin), by Yakumo-goto group, Ehime Prefecture
Izumo Kagura

16th (Thu)
Reisai San-no-matsuri (extended Rei-sai)
*Izumo Yashiki Kansha Daisai (local warshipper’s thanks-giving to Ohkuninuchi)
Izumo Kagura

17th (Fri)
Izumo Kagura
Iwami Kagura

18th (Sat)
*Okagura-sai (the end of Rei-sai festivals)
Iwami Kagura
Johmon Daiko (drum) concert by Gohshin Moro, a bongo drummer
Kagura drama ‘Susano-o’ by Izumo Taisha branch from Hiroshima Prefecture

19th (Mon)
Iwami Netsuke exhibition, exhibition of Takamado-no-miya Collection (Mikasanomiya branch of the Imperial family)Kitcho ritual (a group of masked men walk around Taisha Town beating the ground with bamboo sticks for good luck)
Renge-e-mai dance from Kokubunji Temple, Oki Islands (This dance is said to be danced only in Oki, outside the Imperial Palace).
Taue-mai (300 year-old rice seedling planting dance) by a group from Fukushima Prefecture
Ohura Kagura, from Iwate Prefecture
Iwami Kagura

20th (Tue)
Acoustic Concert by the artists born in Shimane
Brass Ensemble by Kohichi Inoue, Junichi Yoshikawa etc

21st (Tue)
Tsugaru Kagura by Izumo Taisha branch in Aomori Prefecture
Izumo Kagura

22nd (Wed)
Izumo Kagura
Iwami Kagura

23rd (Thu)
Iwami Kagura

A group of masked men walk around town beating the ground with sticks in an event known as Kitchou-sai on May 19 (courtesy Connect Shimane)

24th (Fri)
Iwami Kagura
Izumo Kagura
‘Creation of Izumo Taisha’ story narrated by Atsuko Asano, A famous actress having close association with Izumo myths

25th (Sat)
Oki Kagura
Houin Kagura, 400-year old kagura from Miyagi Prefecture, kagura created mainly by mountain ascetics
Mai-hyashi, Shimai (type of Noh dance) by Izumo Taisha branch from Kohchi Prefecture

26th (Sun)
Izumo Kagura
Tea ceremony by the master of the Sansai School of Tea Ceremony, Izumo City
Noh by Ujin Sakurama, a Living National Treasure, and Kyogen by Mansai Nomura, talented Kyogen dancer and actor.
‘Heisei Grand Sengu’ series were written specially for the occasion, and ‘Sengu’ is performed this time.
Horse-back archery ritual

27th (Mon)
Iwami Kagura
Horse-back archery, Ogasawara-ryu school of archery from the Kamakura period (AD 1185-1333)
Japanese dance by Sakon Murayama
Lectures on ‘Ohkuninushi’ by Prof. Suzuka, Tohjuurou Sawamura etc
Live performance by comedians born in Shimane

28th (Tue)
Sumo Grand Champion Harumafuji ceremonial ritual display.
Harumafuji (29 year-old Mongolian, 70th Grand Champion) – ritual
Anminishiki (35 year-old, highest ranking Sekiwake, from Aomori Prefecture) – Sword-bearer
Okino-umi (28 year-old, highest ranking Maegashira, local favourite from Oki Island) – Tsuyuharai (attending wrestler)
36th Shohnosuke (Highest ranking referee, the name is inherited) – Referee

Iwami Kagura
Gagaku by Ono Gagaku Group, Tokyo

29th (Wed)
Iwami Kagura
Unryu and Myu joint concert (Unryu is a flutest, Myu is a ‘healing singer’)

30th (Thu)
Iwami Kagura
Izumo Kagura

31st (Fri)
Oku-izumo Kagura
Izumo Kagura
Hideki Tougi Concert (Gagaku player by training/multi instruments player/actor) with: –
Madoka Sugai, multi award-winner ballet dancer (currently at Das Bundesjugendballett, Hamburg)
French artist Markestel (Mark Squarchiafichi)’s paintings of Kojiki, projected on screen at the same time

Suzumidono Matsuri: description below (courtesy Connect Shimane)

June 1st (Sat)
*Suzumidono-matsuri (Izumo Taisha’s annual ritual, the head priest walks over a path scattered with new sand and Makomo (marginal plant, Zizania latifolia). The iris-like leaf is said to bring healthy life and good harvests when taken home afterwards.
Iwami Kagura
Izumo Kagura

2nd (Sun)
Izumo-no-kuni Shinbutsu Reijyo (Shinto shrines and Buddhism temples in Izumo Region) joint prayers for world peace
Izumo Kagura
Iwami Kagura
Matsue Dou Gyoretsu (large drum procession)

3rd (Mon)
Iwami Kagura
Special Concert by Masayoshi Yamazaki (musician/singer-songwriter/actor) and Chitose Moto (Okinawa folk song singer)

4th (Tue)
Iwami Kagura
Azumi Inoue Family Concert, by a well-known singer (sung the theme song of the animation ‘Totoro’)

5th (Wed)
Iwami Kagura
Eitetsu Hayashi Drum Concert (Japanese drums)

6th (Thu)
Yasugi-bushi folk song and most famous comical dance associated with the song from Yasugi City, ‘Dojou-sukui’ (mini eel catcher). Of course they do not use eels on stage!
Iwami Kagura

Dojou-sukui, the mini-eel catchers (courtesy of Connect Shimane)

7th (Fri)
Iwami Kagura
Megumi Abiko Concert (Japanese guitar player using Tsugaru/Okinawa shamisen-guitars and western guitars)
Hiromi Yamaguchi Concert (Japanese Enka singer)

8th (Sat)
Izumo Kagura
‘Invitation to Japanese Myths’ narrated by Maki Mizuno, Japanese acress

9th (Sun)
Izumo Kagura
Iwami Kagura

Oki Islands

April 18, 2013 / John D.

Islands are one of Japan’s greatest assets. These little microcosms dotted around the mainlands offer idlyllic escape from the rat race and transport the visitor to an earlier age of timeless traditions. The Shinto practised here is unencumbered by the machinations of mainstream politics, and the faith in animist and ancestral spirits finds outlet in sake´and celebration. Like the fresh sea air, it is pure and invigorating.

The Japan Times recently carried an article on the Oki Islands, which lie off the Shimane coast in the Japan Sea. There are 180 islands in all, though only four are inhabited. I’ve long wanted to visit them, and any excuse to reconnect with the haunting Matsue area has to be welcome. After reading the article, I’ve moved the islands up my list of priorities.

In the extract below can be sensed the appeal of Japan’s traditional spirituality, with shrines that speak to safety at sea and gratitude for the bounty of its produce. (For the full article, click here.)

For a longer, detailed account of shrines on the Oki Islands, see Joseph Cali’s excellent blog on the Shinto Shrines of Japan.

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Nishinoshima coastline (photo by Angeles Marin)

BY STEVE JOHN POWELL

The next day, exploring the small town, we were intrigued by the ubiquitous sight of what looked like white socks spinning round on small motorized clothes-driers. Closer inspection revealed that the “socks” were squid torsos, gutted and impeccably cleaned. Squid are a major concern in the Oki Islands, where fishing and tourism are about the only money-spinners.

Then later, at the end of one tiny inlet, we stumbled across small but beautiful Yurahime Shrine, dedicated to the guardian deity of the sea and said to have been founded in 842. And as if they sense its spirituality, sometimes in winter so many little cephalopods throng the adjacent Ikayosenohama (Squid-calling Harbor) that, the priest assured us, you can catch them with your hands.

However, our main challenge that day was to find mysterious Takuhi (Burning Fire) Shrine, hidden away near the island’s highest point. The helpful lady at the little tourist office recommended us to hop a bus as far as it went, then booked us a taxi to take us from the bus stop to the foot of the mountain.

The countryside was delightful: Narrow roads wound round soft green hillsides dotted with mossy shrines and cattle with oddly twisted horns grazed on the slopes while black butterflies the size of bats flopped around like lovesick fedoras.

When the asphalt ran out and a steep overgrown path began, the taxi driver stopped. He instructed us to help ourselves to a stout stick from a box by the path.

“Walking sticks?” I asked.

“To ward off snakes,” he explained, gesturing that we should beat the undergrowth as we walked.

The constant chirping of cicadas revved up to an intimidating roar as we beat our way up the narrow path through thick dank vegetation. But the tree cover gave us welcome shelter from the sun’s midday ferocity. Occasional clearings offered stunning views of the shimmering golden sea, with mist-shrouded islands stretching away like a dragon’s tail.

Fortunately, the mountain’s summit is at a none-too-lofty 450 meters, and before long we were confronted by a magnificent 800-year-old cedar that stands before the shrine up there — a building every bit as impressive as we’d been promised. Built out from a huge cave in the mountainside in the mid-Heian Period (794-1185), so that it’s half inside it and half in the open, the astounding structure looks as if its builders just gave up and left it there.

Wooden tori gate at end of path (courtesy superstock.com)

Like Yurahime, Takuhi is dedicated to the sea-guardian deity. In olden times, islanders used to light a beacon outside it to guide boats into the bay in bad weather — hence it’s called either the Burning Fire or Torch shrine. Hiroshige made a woodcut print of the scene, and boats still sound their horns when they come in sight of this shrine.

Before leaving Nishinoshima, we returned to the Kuniga cliffs, this time to see them from above. A regular bus service took us from the port to the wide-open spaces of the clifftops, with their delicious breezes and lush pastures. Up there, it felt a world away from the humid claustrophobia of Takuhi’s snake-and-mozzie kingdom. The cliff-top trail has been voted one of Japan’s Best 100 Hikes.

Cows and horses rule these heights. They love to prove the point by resolutely dozing in the middle of the road, holding up traffic as if in sit-down protest. Atop the cliffs in blissful satori, we watched entranced as wraithlike wisps of mist streamed over the rocky coves below.

For our fourth and final day, we took a short ferry ride over to Nakanoshima, more commonly known as Ama, where we arrived at midday to find the town buzzing in anticipation of the evening’s matsuri (festival). The cool of evening brought a colorful parade, spurred on by mighty taiko drums and the consumption of much beer and sake — along with lashings of scrumptious festival food: takoyaki (octopus balls), baked sweet potatoes, dumplings, taiyaki (fish-shaped buns) and, of course, heaps of skewered roast squid. After a few days communing with the mountain gods, it was a cheery welcome back to the world.

Following a stellar fireworks display, launched from a floating platform out in the bay, a free bus was laid on to take everyone home. We were debouched in the middle of nowhere in utter darkness, but the jolly island ladies who packed the bus assured us that our minshuku, booked for us by the tourist office in Ama port, was just a few yards down the road. They were right.

Next morning we awoke early and strolled round Oki Shrine, which was handily just across the road. The priest arrived in his white tunic and baggy purple pants and told us the story of how the emperors Go-Toba (1180-1239) and Go-Daigo (1288-1339) were banished to these islands. I suppose exile is always a bit ignominious, especially when you’ve been brought up as a demigod. But, gazing around at the forested hillsides glistening in the soft morning sunshine, I couldn’t help feeling that, as banishings go, this really wouldn’t have been such a terrible punishment.

Ferries to the Oki Islands leave from Matsue and Shichirui in Shimane Prefecture and Yonago and Sakaiminato in Tottori Prefecture. There are daily JAL flights from Osaka Itami Airport to the largest island, Dogo.

Kayaking into a different dimension (courtesy visitshaimane.com)

World Heritage anime (Tamaki)

April 13, 2013 / John D.

One World Heritage listed shrine I haven’t been able to visit yet is the remote Tamaki Shrine in Totsukawa, Nara prefecture. It lies on the Omine Okugakemichi, one of the pilgrimage routes registered in the Kii Mountain site, and is closely associated with shugendo (mountain asceticism). Next time I visit Kumano I am planning to get to it, but if the anime proves a success it seems I won’t be the only one…

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Entrance way to Tamaki Shrine (alleghenyaikido.com)

By TORU AMEMIYA/ Staff Writer January 22, 2013 Asahi Shimbun

TOTSUKAWA, Nara Prefecture–A modern fantasy novel series set amid the Kumano Kodo ancient pilgrimage routes and other historical spots is being adapted into an animated TV series scheduled to premiere in spring.

The animated adaptation of Noriko Ogiwara’s “RDG Red Data Girl” is raising hopes for a revival in tourism in Totsukawa, a town still reeling from damage caused by Typhoon No. 12 in autumn 2011.

“With this as a momentum, I’d like many people to learn about our history and culture, such as the Kumano Kodo routes and the Kumano pilgrimage,” said Suehiko Yuba, a 70-year-old Shinto priest at Tamaki Jinja shrine in Totsukawa.

The protagonist in the “RDG” series is a girl named Izumiko Suzuhara, who has been raised at Tamakura Jinja, as shrine reminiscent of Tamaki Jinja shrine.

The real shrine sits along the side of the 170-kilometer Omine Okugake-michi road, which connects the Yoshino-Omine mountain range and the Kumano Sanzan shrines. The road is also part of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Izumiko is a normal, shy girl who doesn’t leave the area surrounding the shrine until she finishes junior high school. But one thing leads to another, and she enrolls at a senior high school in Tokyo.

There, she finds herself surrounded by boys and girls with unusual powers, including “yamabushi” mountain ascetic hermits and “onmyoji” practitioners of “onmyodo,” a type of esoteric cosmology. Izumiko finds she has a unique mystic power that everyone wants to gain, and she ends up determining the fate of humankind.

The novel series is filled with elements of Japan’s spiritual world, including the ancient religion of Shugendo. It is written in a comprehensible manner so that it can be enjoyed by children and adults.

(courtesy www.sekaiisan-wakayama.jp)

According to Kadokawa Shoten Co., a member of the “RDG” production committee, original character designs were provided by popular illustrator Mel Kishida.

P.A. Works Co., a Toyama-based anime studio renowned for its very fluid and expressive techniques, is producing the series.

Decisions on the date of broadcast and which broadcaster will air the series in the Kinki region have not been announced.

Close to the border shared by Wakayama, Nara and Mie prefectures, Tamaki Jinja is actually closer to Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine on the side of the Omine Okugake-michi road in Tanabe city in Wakayama Prefecture. It still serves as an accommodation for Shugendo practitioners.

Also known as the “Oku no In (the innermost hall) of the Kumano Sanzan shrines,” the main building of Tamaki Jinja lies near the 1,076-meter Mount Tamakisan.

The shrine is far from town and nestled in a steep mountain area with poor means of transportation. But on clear days, one can view the peaks of the Kii Sanchi mountains rising above the sea of clouds like islands. From the peak of Mount Tamakisan, about a 20-minute walk from the shrine, one can even see the faraway Kumanonada Sea.

In the novel, Izumiko often stands on the mountaintop for a secret dance that has significant implications in the story.

Flooding caused by Typhoon No. 12 killed six people and left six others missing in Totsukawa in 2011. Tamakijinja suffered minor damage, including a broken branch of a 3,000-year-old cedar tree designated as a natural treasure by the Nara prefectural government.

Due to “harmful rumors” that followed, the number of visitors to the shrine dropped to 10 to 20 percent of the usual 30,000 annual visitors, shrine officials said.

(courtesy Japan web magazine)