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October Means Matsuri, Matsuri Means Kagura.

It's that time of the year again......... apologies to any of you who don't like kagura....

Saturday night we headed up into the mountains to the matsuri at the hachimangu shrine in Yamanaka. Never been to this matsuri before so I'm interested to see the kagura. On the 10k drive up to the village we pass 4 shrines all with lanterns blazing..... 4 more all night kagura matsuris....a lot of people in the area will not be sleeping tonight.

We arrived about midnight. Matsuris usually start around 9pm, but the first 2 dances are ritual dances and fairly standard..... not likely to be anything different or unusual. The third dance, the first "theatrical" dance is usually Iwato, and Ive seen that so many times.......

When we walked into the shrine Ebisu was dancing...... and the smaller one was 3 years old. They start young with kagura round here....

We were soon approached by people from the village.... "thank you for coming", "where are you from?" "would you like to eat some Oden?" "would you like some Omiki?".

Bowl after bowl of tasty Oden, cup after cup of Omiki,... 4 or 5 of the village men join us for conversation.

How does our kagura compare to your village? was a question often asked.

The next dance was Jimmu, a tale about the mythical first Emperor. a standard 4 person sword fight, the goodguys.... Jimmu and his aide. The badguys... The Nagasune Brothers, leaders of the people living on the land that the Yamato are invading and taking.

Spent a long time chatting with a man from Izumo. Again, comparisons between Izumo kagura and Iwami kagura were much discussed. He was well-versed in the old stories of Izumo and disdainful of the Kojiki/Yamato version of things..... He knew that Susano was the original kami of Izumo Taisha.... and he told me that most of the kami of Izumo were from Sila (Shiragi). Refreshing.

The next dance was Iwato! It should have been the first dance, but apparently one of the dancers was "tired" (a euphemism for too drunk already I suspect) so it was rescheduled.

It was a very relaxed matsuri. The dancers only dance this one time of the year. They dont play for other shrines nor enter into competitions. Most men in the small audience spent some time relieving musicians who were playing a little too loosely...... around 3a.m. we slipped out and headed down the mountain.....

Invented traditions: Emperor Jimmu & Saint Valentine

Invented traditions are not unique to Japan, they are the mainstay of all nation-states, but Japan does seem to have an inordinate amount of them.

This month we have had two of them.

On Wednesday, February 11th, it was National Foundation Day in Japan. National Foundation day was created in the Meiji era to celebrate the founding of Japan by the first Emperor Jimmu on February 11th 660 BC! This date comes from the early chronicles of Japan written in the late 7th Century by the Yamato rulers to justify their rule over Japan. Historians believe Jimmu, and the nine emperors after him, are pure fabrication. Certainly the date of 660BC is hundreds of years before the first of the people who would later be known as the Japanese started arriving in the islands. Its also 1,000 or more years before the Yamato rose to regional prominence in the Kinai area.

From the Meiji era until the end of the Second World War these ancient fairy tales were taught as history, and while this is no longer strictly true there is certainly an encouragement to believe them as history even nowadays. There is a school history textbook that includes a map of Jimmus invasion from Kyushu to the Kinai, and nowhere does it state that this is myth not history. Also even today in front of Heian Shrine in Kyoto is a sign in English about "2,600 years of Imperial rtule in Japan".

There is. I believe , a general tendency in Japan to believe that Japans culture and history go back much further in time than historical fact. (an excellent book looking at Japanese historians and the ancient myths is here)

Then, on the 14th of February we had Valentines day. I know valentine traditions are quite varied around the world, but for me there are two aspects that define it. One, it is a day for romance and romantic love, and secondly, there is the element of anonymity and secrecy. Japanese Valentines day has neither of these elements.

Valentines Day in Japan is for women to give chocolates to men. This should include your boyfriend, if you have one, but mostly its for giving chocolate to your boss and your male co-workers. There is no anonymity, as the chocolate is "giri choco", obligation chocolate, and one month later on March 14th, White Day, the men are supposed to return the favor to the women who gave them giri choco. In actual fact White Day is much more low-key, and I believe there is far less return-gift giving.

The chocolate companies in japan make half their annual sales in the few weeks leading up to Valentines Day. There lies the clue as to who invented this unique Japanese tradition.

The Englishman has some funny post on Japanese valentines chocolate...

Japanese Historians

Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600-1945.
The age of the Gods and Emperor Jinmu.

John S. Brownlee

UBC Press
ISBN 9 780774806459
256pp


In front of Heian Shrine in Kyoto is a small sign in English giving a short history of the shrine, and one phrase jumped out at me.... "2660 years of Imperial rule".
This is of course a totally absurd number, with the current Imperial line MAYBE going back about 1600 years. It's the equivalent of stating that Columbus discovered America in the 4th Century and not the 15th Century.
The date of 660BC comes from the Kojiki, a book written in the early 8th Century to justify the Yamato Clan's rise to power, and to "correct" false versions of history. The early part of the Kojiki concerns itself with the founding myths of Japan, but even nowadays the Kojiki is treated as history by some, in a way some people view the Bible as history.
Brownlee's excellent book looks at how Japanese historians have dealt with the founding myths since 1600, when a new generation of neo-Confucian scholars discovered that the dates used in the Kojiki were completely inaccurate. In the later Edo-period, a new school of thought arose called Kokugaku, National Learning, and they sought to return to a "pure" Japanese thought before the introduction of Chinese thought and culture. They believed the myths were historical truth. When the Meiji Restoration occured, and the new government attempted to create a new Japan based firmly on the Imperial institution, they adopted the Kokugaku view. From then until the 1930's, historians were intimidated, pressured, and coerced, until every single Japanese historian claimed publicly that the founding myths were historical truth.
The chapter on notable Japanese historians of the 1930's examines in details the lives of these men and how they succumbed to the nationalism that drove Japan.
There is an epilogue that looks at the situation in post-war japan, and this could be a book of its own, as even though scholarship is no longer so tightly controlled by the State, education is, and the national myths still occupy a position that overlaps into history. February 11th, the date the Kojiki gives for tyhe ascension of Jimmu, is still the National Foundation Day, a brief look at Japanese tourist websites will reveal that Jimmu is written about as the "first Japanese Emperor", not the mythical first Emperor, and a recent Junior High School history text book has a map of Jimmu's advance from Kyushu to the Kinai, without making it clear that this is myth, and not history.
Excellent book providing background material to the current problems with Japanese school history books.