Author: John D. (Page 55 of 202)

Kokugakuin research fellow

November 1, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Kokugakuin University Visiting Fellows Program

by Seiji Hoshino
Kokugakuin University is pleased to announce a call for applications to The Kokugakuin University Visiting Fellows Program for the academic year 2017-2018.

“Toward the promotion of international academic communication and cooperation, and in the interest of stimulating global research on Japanese society and culture, Kokugakuin University administers a Visiting Fellows Program to support qualified foreign researchers with fellowships as Kokugakuin University Visiting Fellows.”

Qualifications:

Applicants for the Visiting Fellows program shall be researchers engaged in a field of study dealing broadly with Japanese culture and society.
The focus of a Visiting Fellow’s research must be one shared with one or more faculty members of Kokugakuin University to allow the provision of appropriate collaboration with and direction to the Visiting Fellow.

In principle, Visiting Fellows must be candidates for the Ph. D. degree (or equivalent) affiliated with universities or research intuitions located outside of Japan.
Citizenship or nationality is not taken into consideration when selecting Visiting Fellows.
The successful applicant for the Visiting Fellows Program shall possess a sufficient command of the Japanese or English language to allow successful completion of research and academic activities in Japan.

During the term of his or her designation as Kokugakuin Visiting Fellow, an individual may not receive other fellowships or funding exceeding JPY300,000 (or equivalent) per month, and may not take on any employment not permitted by the conditions of his or her visa.

For full details, please follow the link:
http://www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/intl/kokusai0200012.html

Application Deadline: December 15, 2016

Haniwa in the Kokugakuin Museum, a treasure trove of items related to Shinto origins

Kogakkan research offer (Feb/March)

November 1, 2016 / John D. / 3 Comments

Program Dates: February 20, 2017 (Monday) to March 10, 2017 (Friday)
Deadline: November 30, 2016 (Wednesday)
Website: http://ise-japan.kogakkan-u.ac.jp/
Email To: kcie@kogakkan-u.ac.jp

I am writing to let everyone know about a fully funded study program (lectures and field trips) for researchers (graduate or post-graduate) that is sponsored by Kogakkan University and Ise City in Japan. It will be held in and around Ise, which is home to the Ise Jingu shrine complex, and there are two days in Nara and Kyoto planned as well. The application deadline is November 30, 2016 (Wednesday). The program will be held from February 20, 2017 (Monday) to March 10, 2017 (Friday). Applicants can be based overseas or in Japan.

I think it is a great opportunity to learn more about Shinto, the region, its history, and Japanese culture in general. Please see the link below for details about eligibility, requirements, last year’s schedule, past participants, and so forth.
http://ise-japan.kogakkan-u.ac.jp/html/news.php?no=20161005205943

Also, you can visit my website for links to blogs by former participants in order to get a better idea of what is included in the program.
http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=2739

Feel free to contact me off list if you have any questions, or you can get in touch with the program representative directly (Mr. Tamada Isao kcie@kogakkan-u.ac.jp).

Best Regards,
Christopher Mayo
Associate Professor, Kogakkan University

Part of the Ise complex, close to where Kogakkan University is situated

UNESCO festival heritage

November 1, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

Officials of the city of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, rejoice Monday night after a UNESCO preliminary review panel recommended adding 33 traditional festivals in Japan to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Chichibu’s float and shrine dance festival is among the recommended festivals. | KYODO

UNESCO panel recommends adding 33 Japan festivals to heritage list

A UNESCO preliminary review panel recommended that 33 traditional Japanese festivals be registered on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, the Japanese Cultural Affairs Agency said Monday.

Listing of the 33 festivals is set to be officially approved at a meeting in Ethiopia in late November of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee, and the international body usually accepts the panel’s recommendations.

The festivals, most of which date back to the Edo Period (1603-1868), are held in 18 prefectures across Japan and feature parades involving floats made with traditional woodwork and metalwork techniques and decorated with lacquered products and dyed fabrics. The festivals are held as expressions of hope for peace and security as well as rich harvests in each community, the agency said.

Among the 33 festivals, the Yamahoko parade portion of the Gion Festival in Kyoto, and the Hitachi Furyumono parade in Ibaraki Prefecture, were added to UNESCO heritage list in 2009.

But the government has decided to combine the two with 31 similar festivals to list them as a group on the UNESCO heritage list.

The expected registration of the festivals will bring the total number of Japanese items on the intangible cultural heritage list to 21, the agency said.

Kyoto’s Gion Festival, a recognised cultural heritage

Alfred Kazin on the religious impulse

October 30, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

The following is taken from Brainpickings, a website about creative and spiritual matters. It captures what for me is the appeal of Shinto for Westerners, namely that it is not a religious path of salvation but a communal recognition of a lifeforce beyond understanding. There is no dogma and no doctrine, precisely because the great mystery of life defies verbal definition. ‘Those who speak do not know,’ as the old Daoist adage runs.

Simply divine

Wonder, awe, the celebration of life are positive goals that a whole community can embrace. Striving to change oneself smacks of isolation and egocentricity. It’s something the Jewish-American writer and literary critic Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915–June 5, 1998) explored in his journal.

******

“Half a century before the heyday of self-help books and websites, which commodify human life as a problem to be solved rather than a glorious mystery to be savored, he writes:

The other day … I suddenly realized, with a shudder almost … how easy it is to fall into the other-imposed trap of trying endlessly to correct and reform oneself, in accordance with this and that, one’s idea of the right person to be, when all the time, one is not merely “stuck” with oneself, as one is rightly enough, but one suffers from constrictedness, from reaction, from the million-and-one reasons, so boringly personified around one in one’s contemporaries and half-friends and stupid, genteel colleagues, who are always telling us over again that man is bad and sinful!

Kazin’s journal is strewn with this restless search for self-generated sacredness — for a source of goodness and meaning not imposed from without, be it by spiritual mythology or by secular society, but synthesized from within. It comes most acutely alive in an entry penned earlier that year, in which Kazin reflects on Auden’s notion of “sacred objects” — catalysts for awe, which inspire the basic impulse to make art — and writes:

Without worship, without respect, without wonder, without the great work with which our wonder and awe plunge us, what is there — what?”

Worship of the fundamental mystery in a way that transcends words

Shimane website

October 22, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

It’s kamiari time in Izumo, when all the gods of Japan (except Ebisu) gather for their annual meeting in Shimane. How appropriate then that Green Shinto should carry a piece about Shimane.

2012 marked 1300 years since the publication of Kojiki. To mark the occasion Shimane Prefecture commissioned an English language website, which Izumi Hasegawa of the Shusse Inari Jinja in Matsue worked on. Our thanks to her for drawing our attention to this gem of a website.

As readers of Green Shinto will know, we are a big fan of the attractive Izumo Province, which is full of folklore, historical sites and mythical associations. These have previously been hard to access for English speakers, but now light is shed thanks to Izumi’s work on the website.

Shimane coast, along the coast to Hinomisaki

The contents include a piece about the Kojiki; the entry to the underworld (Yamotsu Hirasaka); the fearsome monster, Yamata no Orochi; Tales of Okuninushi; the splitting of the country, known as Kunibiki; the role of Saké; the roots of Kabuki (Izumo no Okuni); Izumo Taisha, grandest of all shrines; and a feature article on Sengu rebuilding.

Our favourite piece is the account of Okuninushi and the Rabbit (or Hare), because of the compassion it shows with animals. Sadly, despite being an animist religion, Shinto’s record on animal rights is not noteworthy. The historical ban on eating meat was instigated on Buddhist principles, and there is no known case in which Shinto priests have spoken out against animal cruelty. Here in the tale of Okuninushi are grounds for thinking they should.

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

The following is taken with acknowledgement from http://www.japanesemythology.jp/okuninushi/

Okuninushi and the Rabbit

Okuninushi lived in the land of Izumo in Ashihara-no-nakatsukuni with his numerous brothers. One day, his brothers heard of a goddess of unrivaled beauty named Yagami-hime. She lived in the land of Inaba, and every one of them wanted to ask for her hand in marriage. When they set out for Inaba, they brought Okuninushi along as their servant to carry their baggage, which was so heavy that he soon lagged behind the group.

Cape Keta, where Okuninushi met the rabbit of Inaba. (photo from website)

When his brothers reached Cape Keta in Inaba, they came upon a rabbit lying on the ground that had been stripped of its skin and was crying in pain. The brothers said to the rabbit, “You should wash off in seawater and then climb to the top of a high hill where the winds blow strongly to dry off. You’ll recover very quickly if you do.”

So the rabbit did as it was told, but instead of recovering, things got worse. As the winds blew, its skin dried and cracked, and the salt from the seawater got into its cracked skin. It couldn’t stand the pain, and fell down crying.

When Okuninushi, who was still trailing the group, finally reached Cape Keta, he saw the rabbit crying out in pain, and asked it what had happened.

The rabbit replied, “I’m from the island of Oki, and I wanted to cross over to the mainland. There was no way for me to do it on my own, so I decided to fool the sharks that live in the waters around Oki. I called out to one of the sharks, ‘Let’s see which there are more of, you sharks or us rabbits. Have all your fellow sharks line up one by one from here to Cape Keta, and I’ll count you. Then we’ll know for sure which group is bigger.’ ”

“And they did just like I said. So I ran over them, counting each one, and just as I was about to reach land, I said, ‘I just tricked you all into doing what I wanted.’ Just then, the last shark in the line caught me and bit my fur right off me. As I was lying here, a large group of gods came along and told me to wash off in seawater and then go where the wind would dry me off. I did what they told me, but now things are even worse.”

This bronze statue of Okuninushi and the rabbit of Inaba is on the grounds of Izumo Taisha. (photo from website)

Hearing this, Okuninushi told the rabbit, “Go to that river over there and wash off in fresh water. Then gather some cattails, spread them out on the ground and roll over them. You’ll be as good as new in no time.” So the rabbit did as it was told, and soon it had completely healed.

Then the rabbit said to Okuninushi, “Your brothers will never earn the love of Yagami-hime. Even though you look like a poor servant, she will fall in love with and marry you.” When Okuninushi finally arrived at Yagami-hime’s palace, the rabbit’s prediction came true. Yagami-hime said to his brothers, “I will have nothing to do with any of you. Okuninushi is the one I will marry.”Hearing this, his brothers were enraged, and they decided to kill Okuninushi. Each time they tried, his mother came to his rescue and was able to save him, but their plots became so frequent that his mother said to him, “If you stay here, your brothers will succeed in killing you.” So Okuninushi fled far away, to the house of Susano-o in the land of Ne, the Underworld.

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

For the Shimane website on mythology, click here.
For Matsue and its connections with Lafcadio Hearn, click here.
For a review of a PhD on Izumo Taisha, click here.
For a piece on Izumo no Okuni, founder of kabuki, click here.
All about the mists, myths and otherness of Izumo here.
The wonderful Izumo Taisha is written about here.

Susanoo slays the monster Orochi, just one of the many myths set in the Izumo region

Festival Day, Oct 22

October 20, 2016 / John D. / 0 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct. 22 Kurama Fire Festival in Kurama

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

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

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

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

Yasukuni comments

October 18, 2016 / John D. / 2 Comments

85 lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine

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

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

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

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

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

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

**********

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

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

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

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

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

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