Kyoto Archives - Page 2 of 2

Kyoto city mayor offers a certificate of marriage to a British couple (Kyodo pic)

A Shinto wedding followed by a certificate from Kyoto city – the promotion scheme has been much in the news over the past few days as the first of the international marriage certificates was handed over to the lucky couple. The delightful setting of Kamigamo Jinja has been in the forefront of the trend, with the shrine welcoming couples from around the world who wish for something different to celebrate their nuptial vows. The report below comes from today’s Japan Times.

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Kyoto issues souvenir marriage certificates to foreign newlyweds
Kyodo, Apr 10, 2015

The city of Kyoto on Friday began issuing marriage certificates to foreigners who wed in the ancient capital and delivered the first one to a British couple. The certificate bears the signature of Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa and contains a congratulatory message from him. The city said it aims to boost tourism with the measure, although the certificate is not a legal document.

When newlyweds Stuart Loakes, 34, and Emma Mulcahy, 29, held their wedding ceremony earlier in the day at Kyoto’s Kamigamo Shrine, Kadokawa read out his message. “I am proud that you have selected Kyoto, a city with more than 1,200 years of kaleidoscopic and brilliant history as the starting point for such an important stage of your life,” he said.

Loakes said he is proud to be the first to receive the certificate. The groom added that he came to like Kyoto so much during a previous visit that he wanted to return one day with his wife.

Shinto style weddings offer something different

Cherry blossom has arrived in Kyoto! The trees along the Kamogawa are out in glorious bloom, and people are flocking to the petals in Hirano Jinja, Kyoto’s special shrine for cherry blossom. Yesterday was the first fine day for the emerging blossom, but since it was a Monday the crowds were not yet out in force. Next weekend is sure to see a peak.

Hirano Jinja is one of thirteen Kyoto shrines in Cali and Dougill’s Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion (Univ of Hawaii, 2013). From that we learn the shrine was founded in 782 in Nara, before being relocated to the new capital of Heiankyo (Kyoto) in 794. The present buildings date from 1625, and with their unpainted wood and cypress-bark tiles they present an evocative rustic appearance.

The shrine has long been considered prestigious. It may have been intended by Emperor Kanmu to guard the north-west of his new capital, and the Engishiki (967) mentions it as guardian of the imperial kitchen. It was one of only 16 shrines to receive regular offerings from the emperor, and the hereditary priests were drawn from the powerful Urabe clan who specialised in tortoise-shell divination. (The Urabe were one of the three ‘houses of Shinto’, who later divided to form the influential Yoshida lineage.)

The four Hirano kami are unusual. According to the shrine, Imaki okami is a god of revitalisation; Kudo okami is a deity of the cooking pot; Furuaki okami is a deity of new beginnings; Hime no okami is a deity of fertility and discovery. There are suggestions of links with Paekche (in Korea) and that the last kami is in fact the ancestral spirit of Emperor Kanmu’s mother, who was descended from a king of Paekche.

The people who throng the shrine these days are little concerned with history, however. Their concerns are with saké, picnic, conviviality and the brief glimpses of the moon appearing through clouds of pink blossom. Within the compound are some 500 cherry trees, and the shrine was noted even in Heian times as a place to go for blossom viewing. Now with lanterns dotting the grounds and a classical guitar strumming ‘Sakura’ in the Haiden, the shrine is a celebration of spring beauty and the touching brevity of life in this world.

Cherry blossom selfies are much in vogue this year

Even without cherry blossom the Honden (Sanctuary) has an attractive air with its gabled cypressbark roof, slender chigi crossbeams and goldplated details such as the imperial chrysanthemum