Imimiya Shrine

 

Imimiya Shrine in Chofu is quite a large shrine with roots in the mythic past.

According to the myth-legend, Emperor Chuai and his consort Jingu stayed here during their campaign to subjugate the Kumaso people of Kyushu and erected a shrine and performed rituals here.

Later, in 728, the spirit of Chuai was transferred here from Kashii Shrine in what is now Fukuoka.

Jingu and Ojin, were enshrined as comanion shrines and so there were three seperate shrines.

Following one of the numerous fires that destroyed buildings, the three were  combined together and the shrine renamed Imimiya.

One of the major secondary shrines within the grounds is the Arakuma Inari Shrine.

A champion sumo wrestler, Kaiketsu Masaki, used to pray here every year before the Kyushu tournament, and later another wrestler, Ono Kuniyasu, was also assoiated with the shrine.

Consequently, there is a small sumo museum next to the shrine, and may explain the small sumo wrestler-like stone figures.

Other shrines within Imimiya are a Wakamiya Shrine enshrining Emperor Nintoku, a Takara Shrine enshrining Takeuchi no Sukune.

There is a Yasaka Shrine which, along with Susano and his family, also enshrines 42 other kami from the time of "shrine consolidation", the offiial name for the program that closed local shrines. There is a Soja Shrine, which was a shrine where all the kami from the area were gathered to enable the local governor to avoid travelling to perform his duties, and another shrine to Ojin.

Two small islets just off the coast, Manju and Kanju, linked to another myth about Empress Jingu, are also considered part of the shrine precincts.

Imimiya Shrine has a whole slew of festivals throughout the year, but the most interesting is the Kazukata Garden Festival held in August. It is referred to as the "strangest festival in the world", although I have been unable to find the exact source of this accolade.

To understand the festval we must refer to another myth-legend, that of Jinrin. Jinrin is one of most popular kagura dances in my area, though I must admit I never delved into the story before, other than the good guy-bad guy motif.

While encamped here, Emperor Chuai and his army were attacked by the Kumaso. It is said that this was at the instigation of Jinrin from Sila, one of the three kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula. It is also said that Jinrin led the attack, and was a fearsome figure that killed many of  Chuai's soldiers, and so Chuai himself took up a bow and arrow and slew Jinrin.

The head of Jinrin, with the visage of a demon, was buried here and the emperor's soldiers danced round the spot with raised spears. The stone covering the buried head is the Oniishi in the shrine and the focal point of the festival.

During the night of the festival, women and girls carry lanterns, and the men and boys carry banners atop bamboo poles, and everyone dances around the Oniishi.

So far, nothing seems to explain why this might be considered a strange festival, until you consider that some of the bamboo poles are 30 meters high and weigh up to 100 kilograms.

There is a photo at the end of this post showing some of the poles, and a link to a video of the festival...

The photo below is a monument to silkworms. According to the myth, a Chinese Emperor brought silkworms with him to this spot, and so sericulture began in Japan.

The previous post was on the nearby gardens and mansion of the Mori Clan

Below is a photo I took on an earlier visit to the shrine during August. Unfortunately we could not stay until the evening to watch the festival, but could see all the huge bamboo poles used in the festival. Here is a link to a youtube video I found on the festival.

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Month of Little Sleep part 9

Past midnight and the inevitable Iwato was performed. It is one of my least favorite dances, but the last sequence after Amaterasu has been brought out of the cave and the assembled kami celebrate is performed with gusto by 8-beat groups such as Tanijyugo, and it gets quite frenetic with much leaping about.

Then onto Jinrin with the usual spectacular demons entrance.....

Next up was a rare performance of Benkei & Yoshitsune. Benkei, the legendary and archetypal sohei (warrior monk) is waiting on Gojo bridge in Kyoto to challenge the next samurai who passes. he has done this successfully 99 times. A slight, young Yoshitsune comes along.

Yoshitsune had been trained in swordsmanship by a tengu in the mountains north of kyoto, and his acrobatic skill is too much for Benkei who after being defeated becomes Yoshitsunes lifelong loyal vassal.... a very similar story to Robin Hood and Little John....

next dance was Tenjin, the first time I had seen the dance this season. Sugawara Michizane, the hero,, deified as Tenjin, wears a mask uncannily like the Guy Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta, takes on his arch-enemy Fujiwara no Tokihira.

It was 2:30am, still 4 more hours of kagura to go, but I left to grab some sleep as the next day there was an all night Omoto Matsuri up in the mountains and I wanted to stay all night for that....

Kawamoto Kagura Competition 2012

Last weekend I went upriver to the Kawamoto Kagura Competition. While I believe that kagura is best appreciated in a shrine, kagura competitions do offer another type of experience.... comfortable seats, good lighting, and a big stage which is more suited for the Hiroshima style of kagura.. Even though it was a secular event, the first dance is always the purification of the space, performed here by a group from Mitani.

Next up was the local Kawamoto group and they performed Akoden, a variation on the wicked fox transformed into a beautiful maiden. Though Kawamoto is in Iwami their group performs Horoshima style, with lots of mask changes etc. This was a rousing dance for the home audience with plenty of stand-up comedy, pantomime, and slapstick....

The Otsuka group from Kitahiroshima then did Rashomon, a dance I dont think Ive seen before that is actually the prequel to the more common Oeyama dance. Fast, furious, but ending with the demons escaping and so setting the scene for Oeyama...

Next up was the simpler 2 man version of Hachiman performed by the Mihara group. Mihara is a little up in the mountains near my village and Yoko works there. She is friends with Mr. Yamaguchi the group leader who dances the Hachiman part. At 70 years of age Mr Yamaguchi is certainly one of the oldest kagura dancers around..... though still spry and athletic.

My own village of Tanijyugo was up next with Jinrin,.... 2 heroes and 2 demons...

There were six more dances after the lunchbreak but I only stayed for one more, Momijigari, another Hiroshima favorite with many mask changes and 4 maidens who transform into demons.....

Kagura competitions have grown in poularity in the past 50 years and do offer the opportunity to see a lot of kagura in an all-day setting rather than the more intimate shrine setting of all-night kagura..... Most towns in Iwami and north Hiroshima now have annual kagura competions. The smaller towns without auditoriums will put them on in school gymnasiums....

Kagura Interlude

Got the chance to see a little Iwami kagura when we were at the Shunki Taisa down in Tsuwano a few weeks ago. A group from Masuda were performing, and as I had never seen any kagura from this area I stopped in while Jinrin was being performed. This is Takamaru the aide to Tarashinakatsuhiko, the name of the "emperor" known posthumously as Chuai. They are the good guys.

The bad guys are a horde of demonic invaders from a "foreign" country led by Jinrin. In this dance there were just 2 demons, this one is not Jinrin.

A furious and frenetic battle ensues.....

Until evil is defeated by the good guys....

The next dance was Kakko, and he wore a style of mask I hadnt seen before.....

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 8

The eighth matsuri we visited in our October Matsuri marathon was our own village's matsuri. The shrine was packed when we arrived, and stayed packed all night. A large chunk of the audience was composed of young people, especially young women. It seems the Tanijyugo group has grown in popularity and now has many fans from outside the village.

The kids did a great version of Jinrin, and showed the same dedication and professionalism as the rest of the group.

In the Kurozuka dance the leader of the group played the priest. Buddhist priests appear in many of the dances, though nowadays kagura is classified as "shinto", historically it has a lot of buddhist influence, not just in the stories, but in the mandalas that compose much of the dance movements.

The evil kitsune appears first in the form of a beautiful maiden. All the female parts in kagura are played by males, but the hands often give away the gender of the dancer.



At one point the hapless priests assistant climbs up into the tengai and the fox follows and they fight suspended above the floor. This is unique to Tanijyugo group, and a specially strenghtened tengai held up by chains is used.

3 a.m. and the orchestra shows signs of flagging :)

This was the first time I saw our group perform Yasogami, with Okuninushi's 80 brothers represented by 2 fools.



In this part of the dance Okuninushi and his brothers perform a dance that is normally done using swords and when done properly is quite exciting and complex. here though the bumbling brothers make a mess of it.