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Kami = paper

July 3, 2011 / John D. / 0 Comments

There’s a website for religious tolerance that has an explanation about Shinto, along with other world religions:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/shinto.htm

It presents a simple overview which may be of benefit to those coming for the first time to the religion and answers many of the questions that newcomers have. However, it has a bizarre section on ”Origami” which it translates as “Paper of the spirits”, and goes on to say that “This is a Japanese folk art in which paper is folded into beautiful shapes. They are often seen around Shinto shrines. Out of respect for the tree spirit that gave its life to make the paper, origami paper is never cut.”

What?!

There seems to be a clear mistake in translation here, for Ori-gami means ‘Folded paper’.

On the other hand, it does give food for thought. About the shide (white paper zigzags) of Shinto, for instance. The notion of it being sacred and therefore not permitted to cut is interesting.

There’s a curious linguistic relationship between kami=paper and kami=god, spirit. There’s also the apparently false etymological link of kami=upper, superior, above.

Is it just coincidence that we look up to kami, just as we look up to the white paper that flutter on the ropes of Shinto? And if I am not mistaken, some of the goshintai (spirit-body) are in the form of paper, or paper cloth, which at one time was very expensive.

In this case, the kami literally is paper!

Divine poetry

July 3, 2011 / John D. / 2 Comments

In the wonderful preface to Kokinshu (the finest defence of poetry I’ve ever come across), Ki no Tsurayuki writes as follows:

“Japanese poetry has the human heart as seed and myriads of words as leaves. It comes into being when we use the seen and the heard to give voice to feeling aroused by the innumerable events in their lives… It is song that moves heaven and earth without effort, stirs emotions in the invisible spirits and gods, brings harmony to the relations between men and women, and calms the heart of fierce warriors.”

Poetry contest at Kamigamo Shrine

It’s a wonderful depiction of the power of poetry, and he goes on to trace the roots back to the age of gods.

“Its origin goes back to the origins of heaven and nearth, but its transmission to our time with regards to sunbright heaven began with the work of Shitateru hime and with regards to the earth, mother of metals, with the work of Susanoo no Mikoto.”

This set me to looking up the references to the two figures in Kojiki. Shitateru hime (literally Princess Shining Under) is an earthly kami, daughter of Okuninushi, and also known as Takahime no Mikoto. When her husband died, she composed a poem at his funeral.

Susanoo composed a poem on his marriage to Kushinadahime, the beautiful princess he rescued from the eight-headed monster he slew.

In this way, it seems the two kami were the first to compose poetry, according to the mythology. The divine origin is in accord with Tsurayuki’s notion that poetry resonates in accord with heaven and earth, promoting harmony between the two. Indeed the whole of creation resonates in harmony with the ‘mingled music of Nature’.

Poetry indeed!

The Heian-era poetry contest where participants write verses before a saké cup floats past them

Sacred rocks (iwakura)

July 3, 2011 / John D. / 0 Comments

To anyone living in Japan the phenomenon of iwakura and kami-inhabited rocks is very striking. I would even suggest that it’s central to Shinto. So I find the omission of discussion about iwakura in English-language material to be puzzling and paradoxical. When you find whole shrines built around a rock (Iwafune, Tenkawa and Kamikura are three of the most striking ‘iwakura jinja’ I’ve visited), then it is clear that something very special is going on. And when you find a trail of notable iwakura stretching from Tsushima island down through Kyushu, clustered around the Inland Sea, and then around the Honshu mainland, then you can see that sacred rocks are not just numerous but obviously held enormous spiritual significance for the earliest practitioners of ‘Shinto’. On top of this you have mention in Kojiki and elsewhere of kami arriving in ‘rock-boats’ from Heaven. Er…. a rock-boat???? Why would anyone choose a rock to travel in when they could choose a tree… or a flower…. or a whole island??

Despite the centrality of iwakura to the Shinto tradition, you don’t find the topic raised in Sokyo Ono’s book, which is the best-known and longest selling English language book on Shinto. You don’t find it raised in The Catalpa Bow, which is dedicated to ancient beliefs. You don’t even find it as a topic in Stuart Picken’s comprehensive and encyclopaedic Essentials of Shinto, which has 400 dense pages. The Kokugakuin online entry briefly describes rock worship but does not offer much in the way of explanation as to why or how this arose. http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=251 It was while pondering such matters that one day I happened on a picture of the shaman’s rock in the middle of Lake Baikal. http://www.wildernessphotography.com/Baikal/shamanrockvera.html

Shaman's Rock in Lake Baikal

Since this is thought to be the area where Siberian shamanism arose, I was intrigued by the fact that it might offer some clues and made arrangements to travel there. Sure enough, the rock abounds with local legend to do with spirit possession. For as long back as anyone has knowledge of, the rock was treated with reverence and people passing by on horseback would get off and walk. Rituals would be held before it. There is a cave which is interesting as an opening into another ‘world’, but there is also a great sense of presence about the rock which gives one the feel of spiritual energy as Yamakage sensei puts it. Whether this accrues from the centuries of worship, from the suggestiveness of its treatment as a spiritual focus, or from genuine geomantic causes I’m unable to say…

After Siberia I travelled to Korea where there is a tradition of rock worship that if anything is even more striking. In Seoul for instance you can visit the shamanistic site of Seonbawi where you will see that the tradition is still very much alive and flourishing.

Seonbawi rock at Seoul

And I must say the spiritual energy of the rocks is very palpable. For one thing there is the haunting shape of the main rocks which look like two shadowy presences overlooking the city below: http://www.san-shin.net/Inwang-seonbawi.html

So back to Japan. My travels and talks here with various people and priests has led me to the following conclusions;

1) Rocks can give off a spiritual energy through which people were moved to worship the universal lifeforce.

2) Rocks serve as representations of mountains, and mountains were the abode of the gods being closest to heaven.

3) Rocks were used as altars before which worship was carried out…

4) Like trees, rocks were ‘yorishiro’ into which gods descended, but unlike trees they are far more durable and a symbol of the eternal

5) Some sacred rocks (estimated at 20%) have a special shape which makes them revered. Some are meteorites. Others are conveniently located at the top or base of the mountain which they represent.

Yet others have a particular sense of presence.

Now all this I believe is related to shamanistic practices elsewhere and the cultivation of New Age crystals etc. Also I was intrigued to read this year of a new theory about Stonehenge which suggests that the rocks from Wales mysteriously transported over hundreds of miles had special healing properties. “The bluestones were thought to have healing properties; fresh-water springs found in the same location as the bluestones were considered sacred. As recently as the 18th century, people travelled to Stonehenge for the purpose of breaking off a piece of rock to be used as a good-luck object.”

Iwashimizu Hachiman (Yawata town)

June 20, 2011 / John D. / 1 Comment

Today I made an expedition south of Kyoto to the small town of Yawata.

Another reading for Yawata is Hachiman, and the town boasts Iwashimizu, one of the three major Hachiman Shrines. You could say that in a way Hachiman is the most important kami in Japan, because more shrines are dedicated to the deity than to any other. He is said to be based on Emperor Ojin and to be a deity of war and protector of Japan.

Iwashimizu Hachiman is on a small wooded hill, with bamboo forest and atmospheric surrounds. The shrine is under repair, though by good fortune there happened to be an event involving a tea ceremony, utilizing the fresh water for which the shrine is famous. At the entrance were two huge arrows, symbol of the warrior deity Hachiman, but the most bizarre feature were the ema (votive tablets), many of which bore a picture of a distinguished white man in a suit. Say what? This turned out to be none other than Thomas Edison, and the reason that he was being celebrated was because he used the local bamboo for the filament in his electric light bulb. He first noticed its suitability in a fan he came across in 1879 made from Yawata bamboo. Out of curiosity I asked a priest about the religious significance of this, though he just smiled and said it was good for business. Fair enough, for Shinto seems quite often to be a celebration of history. I wonder though if any other white man has made it into the Shinto folklore?

According to guidebooks, Iwashimizu is unusual in keeping a live horse rather than the statues often found elsewhere. I was looking forward to seeing the sacred horse, but unfortunately there was a notice saying that it had died a few months ago at the age of 25. Horses incidentally are the origin of ema (which means ‘horse picture’). Originally real horses were offered to the kami (who descended to earth on horses – presumably a reference to ancient horse-riders), and the custom evolved into wooden representations, then into simple pictures on a tablet of wood. With the fullness of time it seems pictures of horses have now turned into pictures of Edison!

After Iwashimizu, I visited another shrine in Yawata called Hiko Shrine. It was quite unlike any shrine I have visited so far, for it was set up in Meiji times to protect air travel and to pray for victims. The torii looked as if it were made of aluminium, there were aircraft parts dotted around the compound, and the Honden was built in the style of ancient Greece. All very peculiar! A small museum told of the founder, Chuhachi Ninomiya (1866-1936), who built model planes based on bird flight and had ambitions to make a proper plane but was thwarted by his superiors in the army. If not for that, the museum claimed, he would have beaten the Wright brothers to the job.

Shinto comes in many guises and is endlessly fascinating……

Green Shinto

Kami = paper

Divine poetry

Sacred rocks (iwakura)

Iwashimizu Hachiman (Yawata town)