Fall colors: Hikimi Gorge

Hikimi Gorge is located in the mountains of the SW corner of Shimane, near the border with Hiroshima.

There are actually 2 gorges, the Upper Gorge located on the Hikimi river, and the Lower Gorge located on the Hiromi River. Both gorges run into Hikimi Town, and both are fine places for viewing the Fall colors.

The Chugoku Nature Trail, a route which combines footpath and road sections passes through the area. In the Lower Gorge there are cabins for rent.

For most people Fall colors means the scarlet of the maple leaves.

Kamimukae: welcoming the gods.

Last week was the childrens kagura festival over the river in Kawado. The video shows a part of the second dance performed at kagura events, the Kamimukae. The first dance, Shiohare purifies the stage area in preparation for the kami, and the kamimukae invites and welcomes the kami to the performance.

Kamimukae is usually danced by 4 dancers, but if the kagura group is small then 2 or even 1 dancer can perform it. Like Shiohare, the dance revolves around the 5 directions (north, south, east, west, and centre) and so indicates the Taoism that is at the heart of much of shinto.

What was nice about this performance was that one of the dancers was a girl, something that is becoming more common, but is still not usual.

Women were forbidden from performing on stage in Japan at around the same time as in England, and Iwami Kagura being a folk tradition in a remote area has been slow to change.

Of course, the mythical originator of kagura was a woman, Uzume, and kagura by miko is also normal.

Minoji Yashiki

One of the pleasures of exploring the backcountry of Japan is discovering the unexpected, and so it was with our trip up into the mountains near Hikimi Gorge. The Minoji were a wealthy farming family in the area, and a yashiki could best be described as a manor house. A few years ago the family donated their old home to the town, and it has been restored and opened to the public.

There are hundreds if not thousands of similar "folk museums" scattered across Japan, but this one has many nice touches that elevates it above most, and best of all it is free.

One nice touch was that the fire in the kitchen area was lit. The daikon drying under the eaves, and the arrangements of flowers were also good.

The bathroom was impressive even by modern standards.

The house had the biggest and grandest kamidana I've ever seen.

The largest outbuilding was devoted to a display of agricultural and woodworking tools and equipment, with explanatory maps, diagrams, and some photos.



The 2 floors of the storehouse were given over to displays of domestic items, clothes, tableware, dolls etc. The displays in both buildings were of a high quality.

In the gatehouse is a small cafe.



Tourist attractions in Japan tend to fall into 2 categories, expensive and boring, or cheap and interesting. Minoji Yashiki is definetely in the latter category.

Unfortunately access by public transport is extremely limited.

It is located within the boundaries of Hikimi Town, at the junction of Route 191 and the road that heads down through Hikimi Gorge to Hikimi Town.

It's open from 9 to 4 Tue. through Sun.

Fall colors: Gingko trees

2 weeks ago we took a drive up into the mountains near where Shimane and Hiroshima Prefectures meet. We were heading for Hikimi Gorge to see the Fall colors as down where we lived the leaves had only just started to turn.

On the way we stopped at several shrines that I had not visited before and I was please to find Gingko trees in their full golden brilliance.

I prefer the gold of the gingko to the scarlet of the maples, especially the carpets of leaves that cover the steps and ground.

Originally from China, the gingko is often planted at shrines and temples.

Kawamoto "civic centre" (inside)

The first part of this post can be found here

The musical instrument museum in Kawamoto is only a few metres wide, little more than a corridor running alongside the swimming pool, but is very tall and gives the impression of being a cathedral.

The complex of buildings were designed by Arai Chiaki, a local architect. The little museum is free, and worth a visit if you are in the area, but probably not worth a special trip unless you are really interested in musical instruments from around the world.

The benches are designed as piano keyboards and are a nice touch.

The foyer also uses height to increase the sense of space.

The auditorium has no particular features, though it was filling up with people for a concert so I wasn't able to wander around and find any interesting viewpoints.

Itsukushima Shrine, Matsubara, Hamada.

This branch of Itsukushima Shrine is located in the fishing village of Matsubara in Hamada at the base of the hill upon which stood Hamada Castle.

The head shrine is the famous Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, a World Heritage site. The kami enshrined in Itsukushima shrines is Ichikishimahime, a daughter of Susano "born" when Amaterasu chewed up Susanos' sword and spat out three girls. Ichikishimahime's head shrine is not in fact Itsukushima, but in Munakata in what is now Fukuoka Prefecture. Ichikishimahime and her 2 sisters were kami who offered protection on the sea journey between north Kyushu and the Korean Peninsular in ancient times.

There is a small secondary shrine to Inari in the grounds.

Also a small shrine to Ebisu, another kami with an Izumo lineage. His head shrine is at Mihonoseki.

Uzume mask

This is the smallest of all the Iwami Kagura masks and is the goddess Uzume. In the most well-known of the ancient Japanese myths, Iwato, it is she who was responsible for getting Amaterasu out of the cave and so bringing light back to the world. She performed a type of shamanic dance, and at the end she pulled down her skirt and exposed her genitals. The cheers of the gathered kami piqued Amaterasu's curiosity so she peeked out of the cave and was pulled out by Tajikarao. This dance is considered to be the mythological origin of kagura.

The kagura dance of Iwato doesn't include the striptease, and is usually a fairly sedate and stylized dance, but I did see one performance wherein Uzume danced frenetically around the stage with sacred sakaki branches and hinted at the shamanic nature of original kagura.

Kagura Mask Index

Daisen

This is the manhole cover for Daisen Town, situated at the base of Mount Daisen in western Tottori Prefecture. It shows the town flower, sazanka, a type of camelia, and the town tree, kyaraboku, a kind of Yew, against a backdrop of the mountain.

Mount Daisen, at 1729 metres is the highest mountain in the Chugoku region, and is a volcano with 3 peaks. During the winter months climbers who are planning to climb Mt Everest come here to practise. The mountain was important as a center of Shugendo, and modern yamabushi can still be seen here on certain festival days.

Daisen is also mentioned in the ancient Izumo legend of Kunibiki. In the legend the Shimane Peninsular was formed by bringing pieces of land from Korea and other parts of Japan and was attached to the mainland by giant ropes anchored around Mount Daisen and Mount Sanbe in Iwami.

Shinto in History

Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami

Ed. John Breen & Mark Teeuwen

Univ. of Hawaii Press

ISBN 0-8248-2363-x

368pp


The word shinto is very problematical. I use it a lot in my blog, but am uncomfortable with it. Problem is there is no easy alternative word.

Shinto is often used to refer to an organized religion completely separate from Buddhism, and as such Shinto is a new religion created in the late 19th century which became the State Shinto of emperor worship. It's when shinto is referred to as "the indigenous religion of Japan" that the problems arise.

The first record of the word shinto in Japanese is referring to state rituals of the 8th Century which were of predominantly Taoist origin. Many researchers question if there is anything at all left if one strips away the influence of Buddhism, Taoism, Yin Yang theory and Confucionism from early Japanese religious practises..

All the chapters in this book look at different strands of Japanese religious history, and the book is organized chronologically. The contributors are a who's who of researchers and historians specializing in Japanese religion, and all the contributions are of a high quality.

A book for those who wish to get beyond the simplistic ideas that dominate so much and cause the rich diversity and complexity of Japanese history to be overlooked.

Iki-Iki Matsuri

Iki Iki Matsuri

This weekend was the local "Lively" Festival (Iki Iki Matsuri). The highlight on the second day was the parade. The ladies dance the town dance. Each village that makes up the town have their own "happi" coats with different designs and colors.

2 streets are closed off and stalls and a stage are erected. The festival is a "civic" matsuri, created to instill a sense of identity when the town was created out of widely scattered villages. It's similar to a County Fair in the states.

On the stage there are of course performances of kagura. Also the local Taiko troupe perform, as well as various folk dances. This year instead of a karaoke contest there was an eating contest.

There are exhibitions and displays by all the local arts and crafts societies. I'm always interested to see what the other maskmakers are up to.

There are lots and lots of food stalls, as well as local produce, cheap Chinese toys, tools, a few games, and of course beverages.

Being a rural town there are displays of the latest agricultural machines.