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Hibara Jinja and Amaterasu

August 11, 2011 / John D. / 1 Comment

What happened to Amaterasu when she was banished from the imperial palace? It’s an intriguing question that goes to the heart of the imperial connection and the mythical descent from the sun goddess.

For some Hibara Jinja is sacred ground

Some time ago I made a trip out to Omiwa, one of Japan’s most ancient and sacred shrines (see entry under Shrine Visits). My purpose was not Omiwa itself, but nearby Hibara Jinja. According to Shinto mythology, it is where Amaterasu was taken when she was banished from the imperial palace by the legendary Sujin. The shrine is a bare fifteen minutes walk from Omiwa where the Yamato palace was located, so she didn’t exactly get banished very far. Interestingly the unmanned shrine is the only other one to have the characteristic triple torii of Omiwa.

Hibara Jinja is the first of the many shrines known as Moto Ise which housed Amaterasu on her long trek around the middle of Japan looking for a permanent home. It’s thought that she might in fact have been carried on a military conquest to subdue the territory for the Yamato kings. According to the mythology, she appeared in a dream to announce that she wanted to be housed in Ise, because of its pleasant location. As it happens, it was a site of strategic importance for the conquest of eastern Japan.

Statue of Amaterasu (Ise museum)

There’s speculation that Amaterasu was banished from the imperial palace because of an internal dispute amongst the ruling factions, and that her supporters lost out to those who championed a different deity. There’s also speculation that Amaterasu was male at the time and underwent a gender change (which would make her well ahead of her time!). Perhaps her gender was altered to fit in with the solar cult of the fishermen at Ise, which she apparently supplanted.

As the military campaign through central Japan was successful, Amaterasu’s prestige rose as a result. It’s thought that sometime around the fifth or sixth century she was claimed by the Yamato kings as royal ancestor, perhaps because they were looking for a solar deity to outshine the powerful ancestral kami of rival clans. Connection with the sun was already a vital part of kingship on the continent, and so a mythology was concocted to show royal descent.

Then in the late seventh century a usurper called Tenmu (c.631-686) ordered the compiling of a ‘history’ to prove the divine descent of his family line from the sun goddess, in order to boost his authority. It was only much later, after his death, that the official court records of Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720) appeared. Tenmu was the first Yamato ruler to take the title of emperor, and the mythology he ordered to be compiled still prevails today. The present emperor is held to be the 125th in line from Amaterasu.

The triple torii of Hibara Jinja

Shinto for non-Japanese (Appropriation)

August 10, 2011 / John D. / 25 Comments

Shinto festivals bring people together, regardless of race

A video called White Shamans, Plastic Medicine Men presents the debate about whether Native American religions can or should be practised by those of other ethnicities, particularly white cultures because of the power imbalance. It’s an issue known as Cultural Appropriation. There are those who argue the same charge applies equally to the transfer of Shinto to the West.

One of my students was shocked by the notion of non-Japanese practising Shinto. ‘Japan is kami no kuni (land of the gods),’ he declared. ‘It’s for Japanese people.’ His viewpoint is not uncommon. Many people think of Shinto as a tribal religion, similar to Judaism or the religions of Native Americans.

My own feeling is very strongly that while this may have been the case in the past, we stand at the brink of a new age. You cannot stop the spread of ideas in a borderless and global world. It’s tantamount to holding your hands up to stop the incoming tide. We live in a postmodern situation where people are able to choose from options different from those in which they were born, and it’s inevitable that customs will ‘jump’ from one culture to another. In Japanese terms we’ve seen this with Zen and Nichiren-shu already.

Making the jump: Hilo Daijingu in Hawaii

Now the time is clearly ripe for Shinto to make the jump to the West, which would by no means represent something unusual. Christianity provides an example of an ethnic faith that made the leap, since it was originally formulated by and for Jews. In more recent times shamanism has been adapted to New Age needs from a variety of ethnic religions in something known as ‘core shamanism’. It’s not going to go away; indeed, it’s likely to be an evolution of traditional practices for a new age. Nothing in nature is static, and neither should culture be.

In spreading to the West, Shinto will inevitably change its character. One such change will be the emperor-focus, and it’s interesting to note for instance that in Hawaii at least one of the shrines reveres George Washington as a deity and has wrapped itself in American patriotism. However, as Shinto is developed by non-Japanese with animist leanings, one suspects that worship of national leaders in such manner might be dropped altogether in favour of more balanced, environmentally friendly practice.

With the spread of Shinto to non-Japanese, it is more likely to develop as a spiritual pursuit rather than a communal way of life. Inevitably this will cause debate about what can legitimately be called ‘Shinto’ as self-appointed priests emerge. Trained priests will of course have a vested interest in preserving their status and defending ‘the purity’ of traditional Shinto. But should they have the right to stop others practising in their own way? Green Shinto thinks not.

Personally those of us who favour a nature-based religion look forward to the development of a ‘neo-Shinto’ movement, in the same way that neo-paganism has captured large sections of those escaping the confines of Christianity. Shinto has much to offer the West, and the potential is exciting. The future looks promising indeed –– like a new broom offering purification and a fresh start!

A non-Japanese future for Shinto?

First sight of a torii (Lafcadio Hearn)

August 9, 2011 / John D. / 0 Comments

In Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894), Lafcadio Hearn shares his delight at discovering the folk customs of the Matsue region (Shimane prefecture). It was his honeymoon period and he is enchanted by all he sees. The book is available online – http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8130.

Here Hearn comes upon a torii for the first time…….

There is a lofty flight of steps here also, and before them a structure which I know is both a gate and a symbol, imposing, yet in no manner resembling the great Buddhist gateway seen before. Astonishingly simple all the lines of it are: it has no carving, no colouring, no lettering upon it; yet it has a weird solemnity, an enigmatic beauty. It is a torii.

‘Miya,’ observes Cha. Not a tera this time, but a shrine of the gods of the more ancient faith of the land—a miya. I am standing before a Shinto symbol; I see for the first time, out of a picture at least, a torii. How describe a torii to those who have never looked at one even in a photograph or engraving? Two lofty columns, like gate-pillars, supporting horizontally two cross-beams, the lower and lighter beam having its ends fitted into the columns a little distance below their summits; the uppermost and larger beam supported upon the tops of the columns, and projecting well beyond them to right and left. That is a torii: the construction varying little in design, whether made of stone, wood, or metal. But this description can give no correct idea of the appearance of a torii, of its majestic aspect, of its mystical suggestiveness as a gateway. The first time you see a noble one, you will imagine, perhaps, that you see the colossal model of some beautiful Chinese letter towering against the sky; for all the lines of the thing have the grace of an animated ideograph,—have the bold angles and curves of characters made with four sweeps of a master-brush.

Main torii at Omiwa Jinja

A useful note to the passage runs as follows: “Various writers, following the opinion of the Japanologue Satow, have stated that the torii was originally a bird-perch for fowls offered up to the gods at Shinto shrines—’not as food, but to give warning of daybreak.’ The etymology of the word is said to be ‘bird-rest’ by some authorities; but Aston, not less of an authority, derives it from words which would give simply the meaning of a gateway. See Chamberlain’s Things Japanese, pp. 429, 430.”

Shinto: The Way of the Gods (W.G. Aston)

August 8, 2011 / John D. / 0 Comments

‘Shinto: The Way of the Gods’ by W.G. Aston London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1905 390 pages, medium size. ISBN 1-4179-4872-8 $23.07

Together with Ernest Satow and B.H. Chamberlain, W.G. Aston (1841-1911) was one of the early giants of Japanese studies. He was Anglo-Irish, a British diplomat who served in Korea and something of a genius too. Accomplished in literature, linguistics, and history, he was the translator of Nihongi and an authority on Shinto. The book he wrote on the subject is erudite as well as readable. His classical education enables him to make comparisons with ancient Greece, and he displays familiarity too with Chinese and Asian traditions. The book helps to contextualise early Shinto, highlighting the Asian origins of its rites and beliefs. As with Percival Lowell, Aston wrote in an age when religious expression was much richer than at present, and there are references throughout to customs which have since died out. Although he portrays Shinto as ‘primitive’ compared with Buddhism, lacking altruistic morality and an intellectual framework, he displays a familiarity with the complexities of the religion that one suspects even Shinto priests might envy. He is particularly good at outlining the development of religious feeling, illustrating for instance how nature worship turns to animism, then personification and spiritism. Interestingly, he sees ancestor worship as a late arrival, introduced from China and exploited by clan rulers for political purposes. The book is strongest on the early history, the mythology, and analysis of the many types of kami. Yet after so much fascinating detail, Aston chooses to close his book, oddly, with a startling declaration: ‘As a national religion, Shinto is almost extinct. Such meat for babes is quite inadequate as the spiritual food of a nation which in these latter days has reached a full and vigorous manhood.’ It is the one point where one feels the fallibility of the author.

Summary: An outdated book that is rich in detail yet very readable. Of interest to those looking for a deeper understanding of the religion.

William George Aston

Two Poets: Anu and A.J.

August 6, 2011 / John D. / 0 Comments

There are two poets I know who write with a Shintoesque heart… Interestingly, one of them is a Hindu and the other Taoist – two traditions that draw inspiration from nature and celebrate the cosmic flow of the life force.

Anurudha Gupta

Dance

Can you hear in my heart
The beating drums, O Krishna
On my breath your flute?

With bells on my toes I dance.

Wet Moon

Did you see the moon
Fallen in the lake?
I scooped it out with my hands
Frozen, dripping wet.

Then on the black night sky
I hung it out to dry.

The Last Rain
When the rain came back, I was waiting
I knew there would be one last meeting.

A.J. Dickinson

AlwayZ
This Way
Alwayz fresh
Each moment
Each day
AlwayZ

JUST THIS

Fragments of light
Swirl merge dance unbind release
Our refractions our fears
Our turning prisms

Our kisses our tears
This magnetic full spectrum
Quantum continuum

Being’s eye view
of all
of us
of this
as it is

Our stage brief swirl
Our moment here world
Our vast
nightSky
consciousnessMind
Our warm
nourishing
heartSun
Our blueSkyAwareness
Behind beneath
throughout
Permeating energizing
This Infinite Great Love
This Intrinsic Great Awareness
This Inherent Great View

Just This
This graces
every/each
me/we/you too
Just as I AM
Just as it is
Just THIS

Hakone Jinja matsuri

August 5, 2011 / John D. / 1 Comment

The torii on Lake Ashi

Hakone Shrine is often photographed because of its picturesque torii in Lake Ashi. It stands in the midst of a pleasant resort area with views of Mt Fuji (on a clear day), and I was lucky enough to be there for its main festival (Aug. 2). It consists of an opening ritual and procession that leads from the shrine through Hakone machi, where the whole affair embarks by boat for a brief trip around the lake to Konagata Shrine (formerly a massha). Here a closing ritual is held that mirrors the opening one at Hakone Shrine. It’s a pleasant and orthodox affair, with participants far outweighing spectators (tourists are way down this year because of the Tohoku disaster).

The haiden where it all begins

Bringing the spirit-body down the steps

There were several points which struck me. Of particular interest was the use of an on-sashiha to shroud the goshintai as it was carried from the shrine to be put into the mikoshi. I’d never seen this before at a festival, and it’s the way the sacred mirror at Ise is transferred every twenty years. The white sheet protects the sacred ‘spirit-body’ from view (which by tradition only the head priest is supposed to see).

The on-sashiha that conceals the sacred spirit-body

Sarutahiko, the deity who guides the way

Sarutahiko took a guiding role at the front of the procession, presumably because the main kami of Hakone Shrine is Ninigi no mikoto, Amaterasu’s grandson. When the latter descended to earth, he was shown the way by the redfaced longnosed ‘earthly kami’. My reading of this myth is that the invading ‘wajin’ or yamato people formed an alliance of sorts with the native Jomon or Ainu people. (Sarutahiko literally means ‘monkey rice-field prince’, and myths around the world are full of insults such as ‘monkey face’ for indigenous people by conquering newcomers.)

The mikoshi was another intriguing item, with a circular mirror hanging on each side and birds at its four corners. It spoke to me of the shamanistic origins of Shinto, with the bird representing the flight of the shaman and the mirrors the means of repelling evil spirits.

Mikoshi with mirrors and birds

Acting as M.C. for the event was a young priestess, who, unusually for such events, was cuter than the miko. The priestess, who holds the rank of ‘gon-negi’ and is third in the shrine seniority, announced each step of the ritual with perfect poise and posture throughout. There was a grace and dignity to her performance that made it a virtual work of art. The event finished with a kagura dance by the miko, which was carried out in fine fashion, but it was the young priestess who stole the show.

Priestess selects the tamagushi

Miko dancing kagura

For me, the highlight of the whole event was the passage across the lake by boat. While the mikoshi went off in a small boat, the rest of the procession embarked on a replica of Nelson’s Victory. Say what? No one appeared to have the least concern about the incongruity, and I guess it’s a glorious example of the Japanese ability to integrate foreign elements and make them culturally their own. And so off across the lake sailed Sarutahiko et al on the flagship of Britain’s greatest admiral, the myth of one island country joined bizarrely with the legendary hero of another.

Procession boarding the Victory

The mikoshi boat

There goes the mikoshi past the torii

And there goes the Victory!

The Fox and the Jewel

August 4, 2011 / John D. / 1 Comment

‘The Fox and the Jewel’ by Karen A. Smyers US: Univ. of Hawaii, 1999 271 pages, medium size. ISBN 0-8248-2102-5

The book is subtitled ‘shared and private meanings in contemporary Japanese Inari worship’, though in a sense the book is more a study of two Inari centres: Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, and Toyokawa Inari in Aichi prefecture. The former is a well-known Shinto shrine, the latter a Soto Zen temple. The author is an anthropologist who has written on various aspects of Japanese religion, and here she explores in detailed but accessible manner various aspects of Inari. Together with Hachiman and Tenjin, the deity is among the most popular of kami and closely associated with rice and business success. Sometimes pictured as a young woman and sometimes as an old man, Inari is accompanied by foxes who act as the deity’s messengers. Worship bridges Shinto and Buddhist traditions in the form of Dakiniten, and Smyers unpacks aspects of the cult in systematic manner. She provides a history and examination of the origins, as well as investigative probes into the priestly structures at the shrine and temple. She also spends much time investigating why the places are so popular for pilgrimage and what kind of activities are carried out. There are several case studies drawn from lay worship groups, and distinction is drawn between the male priestly rituals and informal female shamans who draw on direct experience. Though they coexist, there is also friction between them.

Two of the chapters deal with the titular attributes, the fox and the jewel. The fox is rich in folklore, and the author speculates about the liminal nature of the creature, moving in and out of the darkness as if between worlds. Different people see different facets in the fox, and from China came a strong association with sorcery. Traditionally fox possession was seen as resulting in severe illness. The statues of foxes that stand before Inari shrines invariably have a wishing-jewel, which can facilitate the fruition of potential and may also be related to the creature’s shape-shifting. There is much too in these chapters of the phallic and sexual implications, with the yin-yang interaction energising the fertility fostered by the deity.

Otsuka covered with torii

Artist's impression of one of Inari's manifestations

One of the most interesting sections for those like myself familiar with Fushimi Inari was that about the ‘otsuka’ or rock altars. These were a spontaneous development at the end of the Edo period which was originally opposed by priests. There are now some 10,000 of these rock altars, which are inscribed with individualised names of deities covering a wide range. And this plurality and flexibility is what emerges most clearly at the end of the book, for Inari worship more than most consists of personal response and individual imagination. As the author herself concludes, ‘The deity Inari has a number of forms, variable gender, and a variety of specialities that have changed as Japanese society has developed… Because there is no central myth, dogma, or scripture that accompanies the symbols, there is no fixed orthodoxy governing them. Their significance is not tied to a set of verbal meanings’.