Adakaya Kojins

The main kami in my area is known as Omoto, and is represented by a straw serpent. Up in Izumo a similar kami goes by the name of Kojin, and it is also represented by a serpent made of rice-straw. In the Higashi izumo area these straw serpents have developed into large sculptural forms. The 2 pictured here are from Adakaya Shrine.

You won't find Kojin in the ancient chronicles as it has nothing to do with the ruling classes or the political Shinto of the shrines. It is a "folk" kami, which simply means it was/is actually worshipped by people. It is a kami that combines elements of ancestor and nature worship.

Though now in the grounds of Adakaya Shrine, these 2 altars would have been moved here during the late Meiji Period when the government closed down half the folk shrines in the country and moved them to state shrines.

The number of gohei in front of the altars, as well as the care and attention that goes into creating these straw serpents attests to the continued importance of Kojin to the local people. The only other place I have seen such large Kojin was on the eastern side of Dogo, the largest of the Oki Islands.

Shimenawa & Rock

Rock and stone plays a major part in ancient Japanese mythology, so it's not surprising to find them marked as sacred with a shimenawa.

Iwakura, "stone seat" are rock outcroppings found often on mountaintops and are places where the kami descend to earth. They will often be fenced off behind shimenawa rather than having the shimenawa on them.

As with most other places in the world, rocks with unusual shapes and such will often have stories and legends associated with them. The one above is at a female fertility shrine on Mount Daisen, and its easy to see what it reopresents.

This rock has Sainokami carved in it. sainokami are male/female kami found in pairs at village boundaries, crossroads, etc. originally represented by a male and female rock, later they began to be carved as figures.

And, of course, there are lots of memorial stones that will have shimenawa on them.

I'm looking forward to reading a book I just got on the new discipline of Geomythology, the study of the geological foundation to human myths.

Sai Shrine

The full name of Sai shrine is Sainiimasuomiwaaramitama Shrine. It enshrines Omiwa Aramitama, the spirit of the sacred mountain Mount Miwa. It is an affiliate shrine of the great Omiwa Shrine, and is located right next door, close to the southern end of the Yamanobenomichi in Nara Prefecture.

Mount Miwa has been sacred since ancient times, and is an example of a "kannabi", a mountain where the kami resides IN the mountain, rather than descending onto the mountain. After ceding "Japan" to the Yamato, Okuninushi settled in Mount Miwa, and 5 of his relatives from Izumo inhabited other mountains surrounding the Yamato Basin, and it seems most likely that the concept of kannabi is from Izumo

It is possible to go up on the mountain, though there are many restrictions. There are about 6 periods during the year when it is forbidden, but the rest of the time you pay a fee of 300 yen, put on a white sash and begin the climb here. No photography or eating is allowed, and you can only spend 3 hours.

The spring at the shrine is renowned for its healing qualities.

Kotoshironushi, Okuninushi's son, is also enshrined here.

Shimenawa & trees

Shimenawa, the sacred ropes that mark sacred space, can often be found wrapped around trees.

Sometimes the tree features in an old story or myth, but most often they are simply very old.

Shrines are one of the few places where these ancient trees can still be found in Japan.

One way I look for shrines is to look for an unusually large clump of trees in the landscape, and often that is where the shrine is.

One historian has suggested that when Japan first began building its capital cities in the Nara area the cutting down of the forests led to all kind of environmental problems so shrines were placed where the rivers came out of the mountains and therefore were protected.

There used to a lot more of these sacred groves of ancient trees but the government cut them down when they closed half the shrines in the country. They were local "folk" shrines, not "national" shrines with connections to the imperial rulers, and so were irrelevant to the new state shinto they created.

The biggest shimenawa in the world

The biggest shimenawa in Japan, and therefore the world, is located up in Izumo at the great shrine of Izumo Taisha.

It adorns the Kagura den, located next door to the shrine proper.

It's more than 13 meters in length and weighs somewhere between 5 and 8 tons.

A new one is constructed every 3 years.

What big ears you have!

Pairs of fox (kitsune) statues are common throughout Japan, as they are the guardians of Inari shrines. There is a massive diversity of styles and designs, and I have seen some pretty strange ones, but never any with ears like this!

They are at a small Inari shrine within the grounds of a temple in Takahashi, Okayama.

Omiki by the One Cup.

Omiki is the name given to sake that is left on altars as offerings to the Kami.

At major shrines it will be donated by the barrel. At most shrines it will be donated by the bottle.

At small wayside shrines (Hokora) or secondary shrines (Sessha) in the grounds of main shrines, the Omiki is left by the "One Cup".

Put on the market in 1964, to coincide with the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, the Ozeki Sake Company's "One Cup Sake" came in a small jar holding 180ml. Other companies soon followed suit.

The size was based on a traditional measure of rice or sake, the "go", which was a small wooden box with an interior volume of roughly 180ml.

Obviously, some kami prefer other beverages, like cafe au lait....

.. or shochu cocktails.

O-miki by the bottle.

If you are a sake brewer or are rich you can donate a barrel of sake to a shrine. For most people, however, a bottle of sake is normal. The one pictured above is on the steps leading to the honden of a small, but brightly painted, shrine on the south coast of Shikoku.

After pouring sake around the rice paddy, this bottle is then placed next to the sacred sakaki tree in then center of the paddy in preparation for the planting ceremony Tauebayashi.

Often you will see several bottles in front of the honden, like here at a shrine near Hiroshima Station.

At Okazaki Shrine in Kyoto there were a LOT of bottles of O-miki. The names of who donated is written on each bottle.

During ceremonies a little sake is put in 2 "jugs" on the offering table, as here at a temporary shrine on Iwaishima

O-miki by the barrel

A huge stack of sakedaru (sake barrels) at Matsuo Shrine near Kyoto. Matsuo is the home of the patron kami of sake brewers.

Sake when offered to the kami is known as O-miki. It is one of the primary offering (shinsen) to the kami. After a ceremony the omiki will be shared among the participants and congregation.

I don't drink sake, but gladly drink omiki.

The wooden sakedaru are wrapped in a ricestraw blanket to protect them during transportation.

Most of the major shrines will have a stack of sakedaru, usually, but not always, donated by brewers.

Shichi-Go-San

Stopped by an unusual Inari Shrine near Fukuyama on Saturday and there was a Shichi-Go-San ceremony going on. The song the priest is singing is not something I've heard before. There is a cadence and lilt to it that was quite foot-tapping, quite unlike the normal "shinto" chanting which sounds similar to the buddhist chanting it's influenced by.

The Miko performs the purification part of the ritual.



Shichi-Go-San is usually November 15th, so this was a little late. Before the creation of "state" shinto in the Meiji era the celebration took place in the home. Boys of 3 and 5 years old and girls of 3 and 7 years old visit the shrine for purification.

THis little boy, for whom the ceremony was held, is holding a bag that contains Chitose-ame, "thousand year candy" for healthy growth and longevity.

Shamanic dance in Japan

Shamanic dance in Japan

From 6:30p.m. yesterday evening until 5:30a.m. this morning I visited the Omoto kagura Matsuri in the village of Eno.

Had a fantastic and exhilarating time thanks to the hospitality and effort of the villagers and dancers,... lots of free delicious food and sake!, and some great dances.

At some point I will post in more detail about the rituals and dances, but for now a few videos of the shamanic elements of the night.

A little after midnight a young villager gave a stellar performance of the Mat dance, Gozamai. The congregation/audience showed their appreciation at the finale for a great effort of an athletic dance.

Around 1a.m. was the Tengai dance. It still remains my favorite of all the Omoto dances. Unusually it was kagura dancers who pulled the strings, not priests.

Around 4a.m. Omotosan, in his form as the rope snake, was taken down from the altar and the priests and dancers performed the Tsunanuki, the Rope Pulling dance.

Following Tsunanuki, Omotosan is suspened from the Tengai canopy, and the final dance in the shamanic portion of the festival took place. Jyojyu is the dance wherein possession is most likely to occur. This year Omotosan chose not to speak.

Hibara Shrine

Hibara Shrine lies on the Yamanobenomichi at the base of Miwa-san. It is an affiliate shrine of Omiwa Shrine, and like it, enshrines the kami of the mountain, now reckoned to be Okuninushi.

There are no buildings at Hibara Shrine. Buildings at shrines only began after the introduction of Buddhist temples.

Amaterasu was worshipped here but it seems that after Okuninushi was installed from Izumo there were problems between the two of them, so Amaterasu was moved to Ise.

This small shrine was added in 1987. Called Toyosuki-iri-hime no miya. Toyosuki iri hime was an imperial princess who was the "priestess" in charge of the mirror that was the shintai ( god body) of Amaterasu.