Ushitora Shrine

The next stop along the Onomichi Temple Walk is Ushitora Shrine, founded in the mid 9th Century and therefore believed to be the oldest shrine in the town.

The shrine is set in a grove of massive camphor trees the oldest of which is more than 900 years old. The ropeway up the mountain now passes over the shrine.

The 4 kami enshrined in the main shrine are Izanagi, Amaterasu, Susano, and Kibitsuhiko.

There are a lot of secondary shrines in the grounds including a large pyramidical rock, but the only one I could be sure of was an Inari Shrine.

Kushida Shrine

Kushida Shrine

Kushida Shrine is the most important shrine in Hakata. Founded in 757 when Hakata was the main port for official international travel and commerce. Being an urban shrine it is quite compact but there is a lot to see.

On display is a "float" from the hakata Gion Yamakasi Matsuri, one of the great festivals of Japan. 10 meters high these floats are no longer used because of overhead power lines, but during the first 2 weeks of July ten of them are put on display around Hakata.

Inside the main hall are half a dozen or so big tengu masks with particularly long noses. there are also soem nice carvings in the building itself.

The main kami is Ohatanushi, I believe the ancestral kami of one of the priestly lineages from Ise. Amataerasu and Susano are also enshrined.

There are dozens of smaller shrines in the grounds, among them Inari, Matsuo, Suwa, Konpira, Awashima, Tenmagu, and Ebisu.

There is a huge Camphor tree, said to be 1,000 years old, and 2 stone anchors which is claimed came from the invading Mongol fleet but which are in fact from Chinese merchant ships.

Origin of shimenawa

Shimenawa, the ropes usually made of rice-straw though increasingly of plastic, are found in many places in Japan though typically at shrines. They can be found wrapped around sacred rocks, sacred trees, strung across torii, shrine entrance gates, and across shrine structures. they come in a huge diversity of styles and sizes up to the 5 ton giant at Izumo Taisha.

There are many theories as to the origin of shimenawa, many connecting it to the use of rope to mark possession of things or space, and I have also read that it originates in the rope tied around the campsite of central Asian nomads, but the simple truth is nobody knows for sure.

When it comes to the mythological origin of the shimenawa however we are given two different origins, one connected to Amaterasu and the other to Susano. Not surprisingly the myth connected to Amaterasu is by far the dominant.

According to the Iwato myth, wherein Amaterasu hides herself away in a cave and plunges the world into darkness, she is finally tempted out by the dance of Uzume, and after Tajikarao pulls her out another kami stretches a rope across the cave entrance to stop Amaterasu from going back in. I realize that myths do not have to make sense, but this story makes no sense at all because if a shimenawa is supposed to stop a kami from entering a space, then why are they used to mark space that is inhabited by kami?

In Okayama there is a story that tells how Susano instructed the local people how to make a chinowa, a hoop woven out of reeds or sometimes rice straw that by passing through purifies the person. Further north in Tottori a similar story tells how in return for a kindness Susano teaches a local man how to string a rope along the street to purify it and keep out disease. Shimenawa mark sacred space, and in Japan the sacred is equated with purity, so these stories make much more sense.

So why is the Amaterasu version the most common? Since the beginning of recorded history the Yamato have been denigrating Susano and elevating Amaterasu. Much of contemporary "shinto" is still tied to Imperial Shinto and the State Shinto of the late 19th Century. These forms of shinto placed the imperial family and Amaterasu at the apex and this is still put forward today. The Yamato were relative latecomers, even their own myths say that Susano and his descendants ruled over "Japan" before they did, so it makes sense that some of Japanese culture must originate from Izumo traditions.

Nishinomiya Shrine

Nishinomiya Shrine is just outside the grounds of the Oasahiko Shrine near Bando in Tokushima, and is a massha of that shrine.

The kami enshrined is Amaterasu, and my guess is this shrine was created in the Meiji era as that is when many shrines to Amaterasu were created as part of State Shinto.

Amaterasu is often referred to as the highest of the kami, but that is more an ideological viewpoint rather than historical fact.

The two small komainu were very unusual....

Vacation 2011 Day1: Sumiyoshi Shrine

The last part of my first day of vacation I was in Hakata and I visited the Sumiyoshi Shrine there.

The head Sumiyoshi Shrine is in Osaka, but the one in Hakata is believed to be the original one.

The main kami are Sokotsutsuo-no-kami, Nakatsutsuo-no-kami and Uwatsutsuo-no-kami, which are kami connected with navigation and safe travel by sea. the mythical "Empress" Jingu is also now enshrined here as the myths say she received oracles from the Sumiyoshi Kami before her mythical "conquest" of Korea.

I recently read that the 3 kami were originally aspects of the undersea Dragon King, a kami long associated with distant lands.

Travellers and emissaries going from Yamato to Korea and China would first stop at the Sumiyoshi Taisha in Naniwa (Osaka) and then visit other Sumiyoshi Shrines along the Inland Sea until finally leaving from Hakata.

Its a nice oasis of green in an otherwise built-up area and has some fine Zuijin and komainu.

There is a secondary shrine to Amaterasu in the grounds, and an Ebisu shrine in front.

As a major shrine it is able to employ Miko.

Behind the main hall are 2 Inari shrines.

Funadama Inari Shrine

The shrine is located in a residential area not far north of the main train station in Matsue, and while it is an Inari shrine there are none of the usual trappings associated with Inari.

In the corner was a Jizo, and I always somehow find it reassuring that the governments attempt to seperate the Buddhas and the Kami was never completely successful.

The main kami is of course Ukanomitama, and the secondary kami are Sokotsutsuno o no mikoto, Nakatsutsuno o no mikoto, and Uwatsutsuno o no mikoto, the triad of kami known mostly as the Sumiyoshi Kami. With strong connections to water and sea travel, the Sumiyoshi Kami are now mostly associated with the Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka, though originally they were from north Kyushu and have strong connections with Korea.

By the side of the shrine was a nicely shaped phallic stone. There was no signboard for it, but as Sarutahiko is listed as enshrined at the shrine the stone may well be a Dosojin.

There were a couple of smaller secondary shrines within the grounds that most likely were gathered here from the surrounding area. Enshrining Okuninushi, Susano, and Amaterasu, there is also a Haniyama Hime listed who is an earth/clay kami created from the feces of Izanami. The final kami listed here is Kan Yamato Iware Hiko no Mikoto which is the long name for Jinmu, the mythical first emperor of Japn

Tanzan Shrine

Probably the first thing you notice at Tanzan Shrine is the rather unusual 13-story pagoda. Pagodas are of course Buddhist, and this was a temple and monastery complex until the government made it a "shinto" shrine in early Meiji.

The pagoda was built on top of the bones of Kamatari Nakatomi by his son Joe Fujiwara and the temple was primarily a private family mausoleum until later when it came under the wing of the Tendai sect and expanded.

Nearby is where Kamatari met with Prince Nakano Oe (later Emperor Tenji) and plotted the assasination of Soga no Iruka.

The Soga were the most powerful clan and most probably ruled Japan at that time, the Imperial family being mere figureheads (like they were for most of history). After their fall the Fujiwara ( the new family name of the Nakatomi) in essence ruled Japan for the next 1,000 years or more.

The history of the ruling elites of Japan, like many other places, reads like a gangster novel, assasinations, plots, revenge, inter-gang warfare, etc. and in truth the distinction between gangster and ruler is a very fine one indeed.

Leading away from the main building a line of torii lead to 3 shrines to Inari. There are in fact and incredibly large number of Inaris, though there are collectively lumped together as one.

There are numerous other sub-shrines within the grounds, a Shinmei Shrine dedicated to Amaterasu, a Sugiyama Shrine dedicated to Isotakeru, the son of Susano that came with him from Korea, the local Mountain God, an Okami Shrine to Suijin the water god, and a branch of Hie Shrine enshrining Oyamazumi, probably dating from the time the Tendai sect took over the temple.

When I went to Tanzan many years ago it was hard to reach, even though it is close to Asuka, though now they have built a new road directly from Asuka that I believe is open.

Tanzan is very popular during the Fall when the leaves are changing.

Hibara Shrine

Hibara Shrine lies on the Yamanobenomichi at the base of Miwa-san. It is an affiliate shrine of Omiwa Shrine, and like it, enshrines the kami of the mountain, now reckoned to be Okuninushi.

There are no buildings at Hibara Shrine. Buildings at shrines only began after the introduction of Buddhist temples.

Amaterasu was worshipped here but it seems that after Okuninushi was installed from Izumo there were problems between the two of them, so Amaterasu was moved to Ise.

This small shrine was added in 1987. Called Toyosuki-iri-hime no miya. Toyosuki iri hime was an imperial princess who was the "priestess" in charge of the mirror that was the shintai ( god body) of Amaterasu.

2009 Ichiyama Kids kagura festival

We went over to Ichiyama last night for the annual Kids Kagura Festival. Each year there are fewer and fewer kids performing. Partly thats due to the village losing population to the cities, but a friend suggested that because Ichiyama still dances the older, slower 6-beat style that some kids from the village dance with other groups that dance the more exciting 8-beat. I think it is due to the commitments that Japanese kids have to their school clubs and brutal exam system. Japanese kids get very little free time nowadays.

The video is from the Iwato dance. Koyane, mythical ancestor of the Nakatomi, who became the Fujiwara, and Futotama, mythical ancestor of the Imbe Clan, perform rituals, unsuccessfully, to entice Amaterasu out of the cave.

Uzume's dance, considered to be the mythical origin of all kagura, is successful in enticing the hidden sun out of her cave.

The arrival of the demon,... here in the Hachiman dance, is always fun!

As usual we had a very enjoyable time.

Three Lights Shrine

This is not a mosque, but a shrine. The symbol is of the three kami enshrined at Mihashinoyama Shrine on Sangaisan, at 378 metres the highest mountain overlooking Hamada.

The three kami are Amaterasu, represented as the sun, Tsukiyomi, the kami of the moon, and Susano represented as a star,.... the three lights.

There are actually 3 shrines on the mountaintop, lower, middle, and upper. The middle shrine, shown above, contains the main buildings, and is in the style of the meiji era, so I suspect that the attribution of the 3 kami occurred at that time. Prior to that the 3 kami were known as Gongen, buddhist manifestations of Japanese kami.

The most common version of the story of the creation of the 3 kami is from the Kojiki, when Izanagi fled from visiting his dead wife, Izanami, in the underworld, Yomi. While ritually purifying himself in a stream, Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susano are expelled from Izanagi's eyes and nose.

In the Kojiki version of the myths, thats the last we hear of Tsukiyomi, and there are very few shrines to him in Japan. I've never come across another shrine where all 3 of the kami are represented in the same way as here.

The mountaintop shrine was known as a place to view sunrise, and a place to pray for safety on sea journeys and for fishing.

There are great views looking down over Hamada as well as down the coast and also inland.

Its possible to drive to within a few hundred meters of the shrine, and there is a footpath up the mountain that starts behind the University.