Author: John D. (Page 81 of 202)

Tōji temple shrines

May 3, 2015 / John D.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are Japanese religious?

May 2, 2015 / John D.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

French tea room

May 1, 2015 / John D.

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

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

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

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

Offerings and a gohei with white strips on a temporary altar

Masa Okutani officiating over the opening ritual

Masu Okutani reads out the norito specially prepared for the occasion

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

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

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

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

Anime and manga shrines

April 26, 2015 / John D.

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

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

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

Love Live! ema

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

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

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

Love Live! lucky charm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Religion and the environment

April 25, 2015 / John D.

Can religion help prevent the destruction of the environment?

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

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THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN SOCIETY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CONFERENCE THEMES:

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

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

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

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

Can spiritual practice provide a focus for environmental concerns?

Oomoto workshop

April 23, 2015 / John D.

The Oomoto sect puts an emphasis on aesthetics and universalism

The 12th Oomoto Workshop will be held from April 27th to May 6th, 2015. For a report of a previous workshop, please see this account by Australian, Jann Williams.

Program: Come and join us!
April 27 Arriving
April 28
07:30 Moving to Ayabe city 09:00 Climbing up to the Mt. Misen in Ayabe
April 29
06:00-06:30 Morning service at the shrine 09:00 Tour of the Oomoto ground in Ayabe 09:45 Attending the anniversary service for the Fourth Spiritual Leader 14:00 Tour to Amano-Hashidate, a famous touring spot in North Kyoto 21:00 Coming back to Kameoka
April 30
06:00-06:30 Morning service at the shrine 10:00-11:30 Chin-kon (Meditation) 13:30-14:30 Tour of the Oomoto ground in Kameoka 15:00-16:30 Lecture (History of Oomoto) 17:10-17:40 Evening service
May 1
06:00-06:30 Morning service at the shrine 08:30-09:00 Morning meeting for Oomoto staff (Introducing yourself) Oomoto Spring Grand Festival in Ayabe 10:00-11:30 Lecture (Teaching of Oomoto)
13:30-15:00 Lecture (Esperanto Movement of Oomoto) 17:10-17:40 Evening service 19:30-21:00 Esperanto Lesson May 2
06:00-06:30 Morning service at the shrine 10:00-11:30 Lecture (Activity of Oomoto) 13:30-15:00 Lecture (Activity of Oomoto Part 2) 17:10-17:40 Evening service at the shrine 19:00-20:00 Ro-ei (chanting a poem)
May 3
06:00-06:30 Morning service at the shrine 09:00-11:30 Visiting Mount Takakuma in Kameoka 13:00-17:00 Watching Noh dance
May 4
06:00-06:30 Morning service at the shrine 10:00-12:00 Attending Ceremony in Kameoka 15:00-20:00 Visiting Kyoto-city
May 5
Oomoto Spring Grand Festival in Ayabe
May 6 Leaving Oomoto

The Oomoto workshops in English were started in 2011 by the International Department of Oomoto. The aim of the workshops is to provide an overview of Oomoto to the international community. They are run four times a year over an intensive period of one week. The workshops are based at the Oomoto Headquarters in Kameoka, around 20 kilometers west of Kyoto, Japan. Time is also spent at the spiritual centre of Oomoto in Ayabe during the workshops.

Oomoto priests at their grand spring festival

The workshops are held in association with the Oomoto Grand Festivals in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. This provides the opportunity to experience traditional Japanese arts and crafts such as poetry, music, dancing and tea making. Joining in the Japanese folk dancing is encouraged! The broad timetable for the workshops and festivals follows: •Winter workshop and Grand Festival: Early February •Spring workshop and Grand Festival: Early May •Summer workshop and Grand Festival: Early August •Autumn workshop and Grand Festival: Early November

In addition to learning about traditional Japanese arts and the role they play in spiritual life, the workshops provide an overview of the history and practice of Oomoto including the role of Esperanto, the work of Oomoto in places such as the Middle East and Mongolia and their approach to meditation. Workshop participants also take part in services at the local shrine at least once a day.

Accommodation and meals are provided by Oomoto. A donation to cover some of these costs is welcome.

Workshop participants will spend a night in Ayabe, the spiritual centre of Oomoto, for three of the four Grand Festivals. Only in summer, when the Grand Festival is held in Kameoka, will participants spend all nights of the workshop in Kameoka. The Summer Festival also celebrates the birth of Onisaburo Deguchi, the Co-Founder of Oomoto. The winter workshop coincides with the Setsubun Grand Festival in Ayabe. For further information about the workshops contact Katsuya Kimura at: k-kimura@oomoto.or.jp

Earth Day 2015

April 22, 2015 / John D.

Nature calls us back to a proper relationship to the Earth on which we live

Earth Day is upon us once again, and for Green Shinto supporters it’s a day to be treasured with the softest possible environmental footsteps…

What else can we do? Sign the petition and lend your support to groups such as this – http://www.earthday.org/

Shinto may be called ‘a nature religion’ but it’s by no means a campaigning green religion. Not yet! With growing pressure, the day may well come soon, but in the meantime let us listen to the voice of sacred streams and holy rocks calling us back home. Home to Mother Earth.

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For those in Tokyo, there are several activities which can be read about in Japanese here: http://804.jp/