Tenjin Shrine, Bando

This small shrine is located by the side of the road leading to Oasahiko Shrine in Tokushima. It is a massha of Oasahiko shrine. Massha and Sessha are small subsidiary shrines usually located in the grounds of a larger shrine. The distinction between a massha and sesha is blurry, but usually a sessha will have a kami that has a relationship to the main god of the main shrine, and a massha will have a kami unrelated to the main kami.

The sign says it enshrines the kami of scholarship and learning which is now generally considered to be Tenjin, the name given to the enshrined spirit of Sugawara Michizane. Shortly after his death there were plagues and his angry ghost was deemed responsible for them, and it was not until much later that he became associated with learning and scholarship.

Angry ghosts that caused plagues and other misfortunes were a major concern of religions and rituals in ancient Japan, both "shinto" and buddhist. The Gion matsuri being another fasmous example.

Tenjin on the beach

Starting this weekend and running for 2 weeks is a sand sculpture event on the beach in front of Aquas. The theme is Iwami kagura.

On Friday evening only 2 sculptures had been completed, the artists were hard at work on a third. It looks like there will be 8 in total.

To open the event, kagura was performed on friday and saturday night.

Friday night was the group from nearby Arifuku Onsen.

The first dance was Tenjin, based on the story of Sugawara Michizane who was banished to Kyushu and died there. Posthumously he was raised in rank and became the kami of scholarship. Students preparing for exams will visit a Tenmangu shrine.

The first part of the dance consists of Sugawara and an aide waffling on about how unfair it all is.

The second part is a sword battle with Fujiwara Tokihira, the man responsible for Sugawaras banishment. Tokihira is of course killed.

It was a very competent performance, very tight, which is not surprising as the Arifuku Onsen group play once a week....

Kami statues of Kunisaki

Many of the exterior trappings of the religion now called Shinto can be traced to the influence of Buddhism, but one aspect that never really took a hold is statuary of kami. A few do exist though, but not many, so here are some I found on the Kunisaki peninsular in north Kyushu.

Probably the most common kami statue is Ebisu, and that probably comes from Ebisu being primarily a "folk" kami. Like the one pictured above he is often holding a large Sea Bream.

This very beautiful statue was at the entrance to an Awashima shrine and shows the kami Sukuna Hikona who is now considered to be the kami of Awashima shrines. He is often connected with Okuninushi and the two of them are said to have been responsible for the spread of agriculture and also medicines. The ear of grain looks like millet and may be connected to a story wherein he climbed a stalk of millet and sprang off to Tokoyo no Kuni, the eternal land.

He was a very, very small kami, so tiny in fact that he slipped through the fingers of his father. He arrives in Izumo in a tiny boat made from a seed pod and wearing a single bird skin as a coat.

I have no idea who this is. It was among the carving around a shrine, and often these carving show buddhist stories, but this guy has a long beard and deosnt appear to be wearing buddhist clothes so he may well be a kami. If anyone has any ideas who he is or why he is chasing a fox, please let me know.

At Tenmangu shrines, dedicated to Tenjin, the kami name of Sugawara Michizane, statues of bulls are usually found. According to the legend the bull pulling his funeral cart just stopped and refused to move any further, so that is where he was buried.

OMMMMK 8

The eighth, and what turned out to be the last, matsuri for me in October was at Sano, a village up in the mountains behind Hamada. It was my first time at this matsuri and I accompanied a group of non-Japanese tourists, so the shrine, yet another Hachimangu, was quite crowded.

Because of the foreign guests could only stay a few hours the kagura group chose to play the opening shinji (ritual dances) later and started straight in with the theatrical dances. First up was Tenjin, the deified spirit of Sugawara Michizane a high-ranking courtier and poet who was banished to Kyushu by Fujiwara no Tokihira in 901. Sugawara died shortly thereafter and a series of disasters befell the Fujiwaras and the court and it was decided that Sugawara's vengeful spirit was responsible so he was deified and posthumously elevated in rank.

The dance is primarily a standard fast-paced battle between Sugawara and Tokihira.

The next dance up was everybody's favorite, Orochi, the piece that most typifies what Iwami kagura is all about, color, speed, drama, and excitement. This is usually the finale of a matsuri night of kagura performed at around 5am.

As is typical, only 4 serpents danced instead of the full complement of 8. Space in shrines is usually too small.

Halfway through the serpents gig an old gentlemen walked into the writhing mass and in turn lifted up the head of each dragon and gave the dancer a glass of sake....... no-one seemed to mind.

"I aint afraid of no dragon"

I had hoped to visit at least 12 matsuris this year, but unfortunately scheduling conflicts, the weather, and a trip to Kyushu meant only 8......... still, there is always nect year :)

Tenmangu Shrine, Tsudera

The Tenmangu Shrine in the village of Tsudera is located a little off the Kibi Bike Path, and is a fairly standard, small, local shrine, but it is my nature to not be able to pass by a Torii without going in to explore.

The honden backs right up to the Sanyo Expressway and the shrine was newly reconstructed using money from the construction project. The honden was decorated as this particular saturday in June was the annual matsuri.

In front of the honden were the offerings laid out for the kami, in this case Tenjin, the deified identity of Sugawara Michizane.

What was unusual, and something I don't remember seeing before is that flowers were used. Thats a Buddhist practise, and though officially "separated" by the government, buddhism and shinto evolved symbiotically and one can still find evidence of the mix. Also unusually this shrine, and others in the area, still had a buddhist bell.

Deep in the shadows of the interior of the honden peeking out from behind a screen was Sugawara himself.

Soja Shrine

Part of the fascination for me in visiting shrines around Japan is to discover the differences and varieties. Architecture, layout, styles of shimenawa and statuary all vary by region, and the first thing I noticed about the larger shrines in southern Okayama is that they all have covered entranceways.

Soja shrine in Soja City gave its name to the town. "Soja" roughly translated means "all the kami shrines", and when the shrine was founded towards the end of the Heian Period the town changed its name from Hachiba to Soja.

Enshrined here are 324 kami!!!! Apparently the local bigwig found it rather tiresome to have to travel around and visit all the shrines in his jurisdiction every year so he gathered them all together in one place, hence the name Soja Shrine.

The two main kami enshrined here are Onamuchi, which is one of names Okuninushi goes by, and one of his wives, Suserihime, a daughter of Susano.

This area of Okayama, formerly the province of Bitchu, still continues a tradition of kagura, so in front of the main shrine were a lot of fine, wooden masks. The mask in the middle with the snot pouring from his nose is apparently Inasehagi!

A very partial list of some of the other 324 kami enshrined here is

Tenjin
Inari
Numata Sha
Ebisu
Gion Sha (Susano and family)
Ikegami
Kinoyama
Okami
Itsukushima
Kotohira (Konpira)
Various Aragami

The entrance to the shrine is right next to the Soja Local History Museum, not far from Soja Station. Soja is a good place to start or end a trip on the Kibi Bike Path.

Izanagi Shrine, Tenri

Izanagi Shrine is located just across from the Sujin Kofun on Route 169 in Tenri, just a little off of the Yamanobenomichi.

The shrine is mentioned in the Engishiki of the tenth Century, but at that time it was located in Yamada, southeast of its present site. It was moved here in 1641.

Enshrined here along with Izanagi is Sugawara Michizane, commonly referred to as Tenjin.

As often happened in the early years of Meiji, the shrine was renamed, but reverted to its original name after the end of WWII.

There is also an Inari Shrine in the grounds.

Kagamiyama Tenmangu Shrine, Hamada.

Kagamiyama Tenmangu is hidden away on a large hillside right next to Route 9 as it passes through central Hamada. It is reached through a narrow alleyway and then a long flight of stairs. As is often the case, the shrine is located right next to a small temple, and in all probability they were one and the same place until the government executed shinbutsubunri, the seperation of buddhas and kami, in the mid 19th Century.

The main kami of the shrine is Tenjin, the kami of scholarship and poetry. There are 2 secondary shrines, one an Akiba shrine, a very popular kami spread throughout Japan by yamabushi, and an Ebisu shrine. The shrine does not appear to be used much, probably owing to the fact that 100 metres away is a branch shrine of Izumo taisha, which is very popular.

Route 9, the main road through Hamada starts in Kyoto and runs all the way to Yamaguchi. It follows the ancient Sanindo, one of 7 roads that radiated out from the fledgling capital in Asuka, near Nara, in the 6th Century when the Yamato were beginning to consolidate their control over Japan.

Tenjin kagura mask

Tenjin is known as the kami of scholarship. If you want help to pass exams you go to a Tenjin shrine.

Originally Sugawara no Michizane, a high-ranking government minister and poet in the late 9th Century, he died in virtual exile in Kyushu after falling from favor due to the machinations of his enemy Fujiwara no Tokihira. After his death a series of plagues and calamities befell Kyoto which were blamed on Sugiwara'a "angry ghost". To appease his ghost he was posthumously restored in rank and enshrined as a kami.

The Tenjin dance is a straightforward sword fight between Sugawara and Fujiwara, with Fujiwara being killed. The video I posted here is from the Tenjin dance.

Kagura Mask Index