Mountain Bounty

 

Day 9 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, and I am walking through some remote mountain country I had no been to before.

It's early May, so plenty of flowers..... also industrial waste..... there is a lot of abandoned construction company sites filled with scaffolding and such.... also plenty of dumped vehicles...... but a few times I've seen industrial drums rusting.....

Snakes have been out and about for months already..... not sure what species this guy is, but its not a poisonous mamushi...... wouldnt bother me if it was.....

This gentleman was tending his hives. Don' t remember seeing many hives in Japan, but the honey must come from somewhere..... I suspect most not from Japan....

This couple have been harvesting fuki, a wild plant eaten quite a bit.... I believe it is called butterbur... pieces of the stem re often found in bentos...

The ubiquitous roadside shrine.... with fresh flowers.....

The bamboo shoot harvest was a couple of weeks ago around my village, but I guess up here in the mountains it is a few weeks later..... when trimmed, this barrowload will fetch a pretty penny from city folk.

I start to drop down into the area around Mito Onsen... where a small, civic matsuri is taking place.... the first kagura dances are ritual and not masked, but I decide not to wait around for the later dances....

The previous post in this series was on two interesting shrines I visited earlier in the day.

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Takakura Arahito Shrine

 

All decked out for matsuri, The Takakura Arahito Shrine seems to be the main shrine of Oi on the Yamaguchi coast near Hagi.

Just before reaching the banners and steps leading up to the big shrine, I syopped in at a little shrine.

It had a couple of banners flying, but only had a few small roadside-style shrines, and no buildings.

There was no sign and I could find out nothing about the kami enshrined here or any history.

Same goes for the main shrine, Takakura Arahito Shrine.

Arahito literally means "wild man". Arahitogami refers to a kami that is or was a human.

Aragami means a "wild" or "turbulent" or "rough" kami, often equated with Susano as storm deity.

Kami are generally considered to have a dual aspect, a rough, violent side, and a gentle side.

The shrine is obviously important, and it's unusual to see quite so many banners.

There is a good chance that most local people have no idea who the kami is.

I once stopped at a matsuri in a local shrine in the mountains of Hiroshima, and even the priest didn't know the name of the kami.

Still, not knowing bugs me, and I will keep my eyes open in the future for any reference to arahito...

The previous post was on the walk along the coast to here from Koshigahama.

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Great Spring Festival at Taikodani Inari Shrine

 

Shunki Taisai translates to "Great Spring Festival," although, as far as I can tell, it is not a very common event.

In May 2011 we went down to Taikodani Inari Shrine in Tsuwano for their Shunki Taisai. As far as I know, they have not held one since.

It was quite a grand affair, with numerous priests, mikos, and representatives of the town dressed in samurai outfits.

I was very surprised to see some of the miko wearing swords.... don't think I have seen that before...

a Himorogi was set up in the shrines open courtyard. A himorogi is an area demarcated with 4 bamboos with shimenawa. It is believed this was the form shrines took in ancient times before they utilized buildings a la Buddhism.

First, the miko purified each other and then the townsmen.

Then it was the turn of the priests....

One of the great things about Tsuwano is that there are never crowds, so events such as this, or the Heron Dance or even Yabusame, you can get close to the action, not view things from a distance at the back of a crowd like at the major tourist destinations...

All the participants lined up and awaited the Guji, head priest.

The Guji arrives under the shade of a ceremonial parasol....

Then all the participants follow in procession and line up inside the himorogi...

Offerings are made and norito are read....

The guji then leads the procession up into the main hall of the shrine where further rituals are held.

later in the afternoon we watched kagura in a building half-way down the hill belwo the shrine...

The previous post in this series on Tsuwano was on the Taikodani Inari Shrine where this festival took place.

if you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the most recent posts.