Showing posts with label Iwami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iwami. Show all posts

Friday, September 16, 2011

Kuromatsu Matsuri part 2


This is a continuation of an earlier post. The flotilla of boats carrying the mikoshi headed out to the island to pick up the goddess............
 

Nothing much will happen on land for a few hours and we were lucky enough to be invited in to a party......



Once the sun had gone down the lanterns on the beach were lit.....


Eventually the boats came back, and did three circuits of the torii on the little islet just off shore...



Three of the small boats in the conoy were lit in the shape of kanji.....

 


The musicians on the boat carrying the mikoshi and priest keeps up the incessant rhythmn and now the musicians on the beach join in.....

 


Once the boats make it back to land the mikoshi is carried to the beach. First the children carry their mikoshi out of the sacred matsuri area to the local shrine....
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later the men start to carry the much heavier mikoshi....... but they never get off the beach..... they go forward, start to stagger from side to side, stop, back up, and try again...... this goes on till the early hours of the morning....

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Kuromatsu Matsuri


A couple of weekends ago was one of my favorite matsuris at Kuromatsu, a fishing village on the coast not far from here.
I usually experience the matsuri from one of the flotilla of boats that take part, so this year for a change I thought I would see it from the land.
The matsuri takes place on the beach in front of the local shrine....


Around 5 in the evening the mikoshi is brought down to the beach......


It needs to be taken out to a small uninhabited island offshore where the honden of the shrine is located so that the goddess can be transferred into it and brought back to the beach for the matsuri.....


The boat used to carry the mikoshi, priests, and musicians, is a purpose built boat just used for this annual trip.


Once all are onboard the boat joins a flotilla of fishing boats that will escort it out to the island and back....


but first all the boats do three circuits of a small outcropping of rocks a few hundred meters offshore on which have been placed 2 small pine trees with a bamboo crosspiece to for a natural torii...


Then everyone heads out to the island to pick up the goddess....

The second part of this story can be found here...

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Maidens planting rice

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Here are some more photos of the Tauebayashi festival down in Kawahira last weekend.

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Someone asked if in the olden days the saotome, planting maidens, used to be virgins, and I have been unable to find out for sure. I suspect it may have been the case sometimes, but rice-planting rituals varied so much from region to region that it was probably not a universal thing.

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Was talking with a friend recently who had just finished planting his rice and he said that according to his father during the Taisho period (1920's) it was the women who planted the rice. The men did the preparation of the paddies. Since the war the rice planting has become mechanized and the men do it mostly, though I often see old ladies out in the paddies afterwards planting on the corners where the machines can get to.

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I believe in premodern Japan the whole family would have been involved in the planting.

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When I first came to Japan I was told several times that all the old women I saw who walked bent over at 90 degrees were that way because of a lifetime working in the paddies. Like many things I was told it turns out to be a myth. There are millions of old women bent over who have never been in a rice paddy in their lives. It is caused by calcium deficiency. Prewar japanese diet was very poor. High mortality and low longevity were the norm until the postwar period.

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Anyway, the matsuri was enjoyable again this year, though I missed the young kids playing the music.

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The men, of course, have things to do..... lots of supervising and encouraging the women :)

Monday, May 23, 2011

Rice Planting Matsuri

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Its that time of the year again. In my neighborhood the month of May is spent planting rice. My neighbors dont go on vacation for Golden Week, the time off from their regular job is spent preparing the paddies and planting.

Down in Kawahira half a paddy remains unplanted......

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Its waiting for the arrival of the procession from the local community center. Its Tauebayashi time again.

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The maidens line up along the paddy and wait.....

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While the farmer and his oxen do a ceremonial circuit of the paddy.

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Then the drummers and singers begin to perform the rice planting song.

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A man and a woman place a bottle of Sake at a sacred sprig in the center of the paddy, plant a few rice seedlings around it and ask the kami of the rice paddy to watch.....

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

More ceremonies at Shunki Taisai

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As well as the main ceremony at the Shunki Taisai there were several other ceremonies going on during the day. In one of the secondary shrines Miko Mai was performed several times during the day.

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Three priests also took part in the ritual and no-one else was within the shrine.

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As is obvious to anyone reading this blog, I am quite fascinated by Miko and their costumes. Lots of previous posts can be found here.

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In the main hall of the shrine there was a continuous set of purification ceremonies going on all day for those wishing to pay for the service.

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Down below the main shrine was a special shrine just for cars. Most areas will have a shrine or temple that specializes in rituals for car blessing and driving safety, but this was the first time I had seen an area specifically set up for it.

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The number of ceremonies and services offered by shrines has increased in the post-war years as shrines do not have access to the lucrative funeral business that funds Buddhism.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Kawado Suijin Matsuri

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Not only was Thursday Childrens Day and the Kawado Childrens Matsuri, but also the annual Kawado Suijin Matsuri. Following the ceremony in the shrine the mikoshi procession heads down to the river. The men on the right are carrying a huge length of giant bamboo which has an Onusa (purification wand) attached to it. It will replace the previous years one and will project out over the river to purify the area Suijin is believed to like to spend time.

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To the accompaniment of drum and flute the procession heads along the riverbank to the two traditional wooden river boats waiting to take them upstream.

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The smaller boat will carry the young men and a bunch of bamboos with banners attached. Each banner has been offered by a household that has a new child or grandchild born since last years matsuri.

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The main boat carries the heavy mikoshi, 2 musicians, 3 priests, a village representative, a local TV cameraman, and 2 boatmen.

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Both boats head upstream a few hundred meters to where further ceremonies will be held.

More details and photos can be had in earlier posts by clicking on the suijin tag below.

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

The view from Sanbe

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Sanbe San is the name given to the highest point in Shimane, a cluster of 7 peaks.

!,126 meters above sea level, I have only climbed it one time.

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Most people go up it on the trail on the north side but I went up a barely used trail on the south side.

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As you would expect there are some great views once you get out of the trees.

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In the distance the Shimane Hanto with Izumo Taisha at its base.

According to the Kunibiki myth the peninsular was dragged from Sila and held to the land of izumo by a rope that is now the beach you can just see. The other end of the peninsular was tied by a rope to Daisen in Tottori.

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A huge caldera.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Sanbe San

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This is the draincover for the town of Oda, a fairly nondescript town close to the border between Iwami and Izumo. The mountains in the background are known as Sanbesan, and are the highest in Shimane at 1,126 m above sea level.

Oda does not have much to see for tourists, and is pretty much just the rail access point for visitors to the nearby World Heritage site of Iwami Ginzan, but I did wander around last fall hunting the fall colors.

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This view of Sanbesan is from near my house, and must be about 25k distant as the crow flies. I took the photo on a winter walk up Maruyama.

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On the lower slopes. Sanbesan is actually a cluster of 7 volcanoes, and the highest one is named Osanbesan. We were on our way to visit the Buried Forest Museum, actually a fascinating place where you can go below ground and see 4,000 year old trees that were buried in a major eruption.

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This is on the south side, and its where I slept out before climbing to the top early the next morning. I had walked two days from my house to get here. One of these days I will write up that walk :)