Monday, December 14, 2009

O-miki by the bottle.

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If you are a sake brewer or are rich you can donate a barrel of sake to a shrine. For most people, however, a bottle of sake is normal. The one pictured above is on the steps leading to the honden of a small, but brightly painted, shrine on the south coast of Shikoku.

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After pouring sake around the rice paddy, this bottle is then placed next to the sacred sakaki tree in then center of the paddy in preparation for the planting ceremony Tauebayashi.

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Often you will see several bottles in front of the honden, like here at a shrine near Hiroshima Station.

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At Okazaki Shrine in Kyoto there were a LOT of bottles of O-miki. The names of who donated is written on each bottle.

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During ceremonies a little sake is put in 2 "jugs" on the offering table, as here at a temporary shrine on Iwaishima

4 comments:

  1. I'm now following you. I spent ten days in and around Tokyo in late August of 1970. The military lost myself and 120 other soldiers on our way home from Vietnam when we were diverted to Japan to avoid a Typhoon.

    I was a sign-artist as a youngster, and consequently I was really impressed by the advertising art that I saw while I was there. I've not looked at all of your posts, but I will. Anything with kanji on it gets my attention!

    And I like your photographs. All of them!

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  2. Hi MrCachet..
    Thanks.
    I too was a signwriter when younger :)

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  3. You take wonderful pictures. I love visiting your blog. It's so inspiring!

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  4. Yes they are very nice pictures indeed!

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