A visit from our mountain neighbors

All afternoon yesterday the forest behind my house was alive with the calls of our troop of monkeys. My human neighbor was away, so there had been no firecrackers set off to drive the monkeys away.

This troop, with about thirty members, are very shy and skittish which makes it hard to get good photos of them. 100 meters away on the opposite hillside is another troop of mo nkeys that are far more aggressive.

I've been very fortunate in my life to have lived many years surrounded by and among wild critters. It helps me, I think, to maintain a certain perspective on my place in the scheme of things.

The monkeys, wild boars, foxes, badgers, etc etc can at times cause problems, but they are more than offset by what they give, to me at least.

One Wise Monkey

One Wise Monkey

A couple of weeks ago I was showing some American visitors around my village and they expressed surprise that monkeys were sometimes a "problem" for us, so, this little video I shot this morning is for them.

Actually the monkeys haven't been down in a month or so, and this has meant we were able to harvest persimmons this year. This morning, however, I heard a noise outside the window and sure enough there was this guy.

I suspect he was a scout. Often I've seen a single adult male come down to the village to check out what's "on" at the buffet. Usually a day later the whole troop will come down.

This guy was no dummy though. He didn't rush back to the troop to make his report, but stuck around half a day and filled his belly with the ripe fruit.

I say "guy", but I didn't get to check out his equipment, so it may have been a she. Seems in japan at least the female monkeys tend to be smarter. It was a female who discovered hot-spring bathing, and it was a female who discovered how to wash food.

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil

The Three Wise Monkeys, Kikazaru who hears no evil, Mizaru, who sees no evil, & Iwazaru, who speaks no evil.

Behind them thousands of Sarubobo (baby monkey), a kind of amulet shaped like a faceless doll.

At a small temple in Gion, not far from the Yasaka Pagoda.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 7

a

For our next matsuri we again headed downriver, this time on the opposite bank to Kawahira. The shrine, like most shrines round here, is at the top of a small hill necessitating a climb. From the top of the hill the sound of the matsuri can be heard all over the village down below.

The harvest matsuri is quite small in Kawahira, the village puts much more effort into the Rice Planting Festival (Tauebayashi) . We came here a few years ago for the Omoto kagura, and the villagers were very friendly and welcoming. This time, after we sat down, the village headman came over and put his forehead to the floor and thanked us profusely for visiting his humble village.

The village kagura group is quite small, and the dancers are relatively speaking quite old. The first dance we saw involved quite a "portly" dancer.

Recently several visitors have asked if the swords they use in the dances are real. Well, obviously they are not sharpened, but they are made of steel, and I'm always surprised that with the frenetic swordfights in many dances that no-one gets slashed.

This time an accident happened. One of the dancers hands started gushing blood. Someone ran in and wrapped about 2 meters of sellotape around his hand and the dance continued.

After the dance he was taken to hospital for stitches, and being such a small group the loss of one dancer meant a rejigging of the schedule.

A couple of dances later was "Yorimasa". and the main feature of this dance involves several vicious monkeys playing havoc with the audience. Just before the monkeys entrance I stood up at the back to get a good shot of the monkeys entrance from behind the curtain, and almost jumped out of my skin as one of the monkeys burst in to the shrine from behind me.

The monkeys charge in and out of the audience, stealing food from the audience members, sometimes wrestling with them too.

The main thing they do though is go for the babies and very young children, grabbing them and running away with them. If the child or baby screams in terror the audience, and particularly the mother, are all smiles.

Monkey raid

Monkey Raid

Sitting at my computer yesterday I heard a rustle in the persimmon tree just outside the screen door. An adult monkey had jumped into the tree to try and grab some unripe persimmons. As I moved to grab my camera he jumped back onto the fence. There were 4 other monkeys sitting on the fence, and as I went outside to try and get some photos they jumped down and ran back into the forest. The leader sat on the fence and watched me. There are between 20 and 30 monkeys in the troop that live on my mountain. This was a raiding party of adults, no children. On the topic of monkeys allows me to post some photos I took while in the mountains of Miyajima. The deer is being preened by the monkey, probably for lice or some other such tasty morsel. A fine example of mutual assistance.

Baby Monkey mask

This is not a very common kagura mask, in fact the only time I've seen it used in a performance is with our village's kagura group. One of the dances they perform every year at the all-night matsuri is Yorimasa, and part way into it the stage is suddenly invaded by a family of monkeys. The adult monkeys chase into the audience and grab unsuspecting young kids,... older kids have seen it before so they stay out of the monkeys' reach. The baby monkeys are played by 3 and 4 year old kids. It's they who wear this mask.

Most groups matsuri performances will include some form of pantomime or audience participation.

Around here kids start early with kagura. In a few places girls have started to take part, but mostly kagura is still for boys and men.

This mask is, of course, for sale at an unbelievably low price!!!!

Kagura Mask Index