Amaterasu

Amaterasu. Acrylic on paper. 2006

I'm a painter as well as a mask-maker. This is my version of Amaterasu, the "Sun-Goddess", and though I use some shinto symbolism it also owes much to Changing Woman, one of the Navajo deities.

Any introductory text on Shinto will say that Amaterasu is the most important kami in Japan, but that is only true of contemporary shinto which is closely related to the emperor-centric State Shinto created in the late 19th Century.

Amaterasu is the kami that the current Imperial family claim descent from and that is why she is now pushed as the "head" kami. Before the 20th Century there were actually very few shrines dedicated to her.

The most well known myth of Amaterasu is the Iwato story wherein she hides herself in a cave and plunges the world into darkness and is later tricked into coming back out. The above shot is a scene from an Iwami Kagura performance of Iwato.

You can see a small selection of my paintings from the past 38 years here

Akaoni mask (red ogre)

This is a small Red Ogre mask made in Iwami Kagura style. With its hairless face and red color it looks the most like the euroamerican devil. Like all my masks, it is for sale, so please contact me if you are interested. You might be surprised how affordable it is. Like all my masks, it is a fully functional mask, but is also used as a "gargoyle" to drive away bad spirits from a home.

In this photo you can see one of the features that distinguishes Iwami Kagura,.... the fantastically elaborate and vivid costumes.

Kagura Mask Index

Bullfighting in Japan

This manhole cover is from the town of Tsuma on the island of Dogo, the largest of the Oki Islands which lie off the coast of Shimane. Bullfighting has been a tradition there since the early 13th Century, though Bull Sumo is probably a more accurate title. The bulls lock horns and push. The loser is the one that turns tail and runs away. There is no truth in the rumor that the loser ends up as Oki beef. The story goes that bullfighting began as an entertainment put on for Emperor Gotoba who was exiled to the Oki Islands.
Bullfighting of this style also occurs at several other places in East and South-east Asia.
There are several bullfighting rings on the island, but the Oki Moo Moo Dome is the largest and is covered so bullfighting can be enjoyed whatever the weather.

Nowadays the bulls are raised for fighting, but originally in Japan they were used as beasts of burden, in fact there was a law against killing and eating cows not because of Buddhism, but because they enabled farmers to be more productive. Nowadays Oki beef is known as being particularly tasty, probably because the cows actually get to spend time outside in the sun grazing.

More from the Oki Islands

Typical Japanese landscape & anaguma update

This is a fairly typical shot of the Japanese landscape. I took it a couple of days ago on my trip up to Togawa. About 65% of Japan is forested mountains. In the distance you can see the roofs of Ichiyama. The lighter green down below are the rice paddies. Summer is my least favorite season in Japan, visually-speaking. Grey, green, and brown is the palette. The wet air and overhead sun makes a very monochromatic view. In the winter you have strong shadows and when there is snow, strong contrast. In the spring there are a multitude of shades of green from the new growth, and colors from the blossoms. In the fall you have blue skies, low sun making shadows, and the reds, browns, oranges and yellows of the changing leaves.

Stepped outside my front door yesterday and right in front of me were one of the local feral kittens and a juvenile badger (anaguma). They were studying each other inquisitively about 50 cms apart, no hackles raised. Unfortunately the badger ran off due to my intrusion, and all I could get was this one snap. It was not the badger I posted a video of recently , that was an adult, this was a juvenile about 30-35 cms in length. Why these usually nocturnal creatures are hanging out around my house during the day is a mystery.

Shioharae

The first dance in any Iwami Kagura performance is the Shioharae, in which the dancers purify the dance space in readiness for the kami. While there are nowadays performances of kagura put on in public spaces for tourists, the home of kagura is in the shrine, and like many activities it is performed firstly for the kami.

This performance is by the Ichiyama kagura group in their home shrine of Ichiyama Hachimangu. The 4 colors worn by the dancers represent the 4 directions. Above the dancers is the tengai, a canopy of paper streamers. The kami descend through these streamers into the dancers.

Kagura dancers hold various torimono, objects through which the kami pass into the dancers. In this dance the torimono are wands and metal rattles. Other common torimono are fans and swords. The dancers create mandalas with their movements, am influence from esoteric buddhism by way of Shugendo.

The dance lasts about 40 minutes.

Togawa Omoto Shrine

One of the first walks I did to explore the area I now live in was along the Yato river. After passing the dam and walking along the bank of the reservoir, after it once again became a small river I came to the small mountain settlement of Togawa. Maybe 20 households at the most, large farmhouses and a few rice paddies, at the end of the village set in a dense grove of trees was the local shrine, the Togawa Omoto Shrine.

Omoto is the original, local land kami. Up in Izumo he is known as Kojin, and like there it is a very popular kami here in Iwami. Omoto (and Kojin) is represented by a rope snake, usually found wrapped around a sacred tree. To my mind, this is the heart of the ancient form of Japanese religion, before the advent of modern State Shinto with its emphasis on the Imperial family, and national rituals. When I go for walks I am hoping to find these kinds of shrines.

The feeling at these kinds of shrines is one of silence and the sacred. The surrounding woods are dense and dark, with shafts of sunlight penetrating to illuminate the natural, aged materials of the shrine.

2 days ago I drove the 10k up into the mountains to visit the shrine again to check on some information for this blog. I was very surprised to find that the shrine had been completely rebuilt. Building a shrine is no cheap project (unlikel so much contemporary housing in Japan). A lot of native materials and labor go into the making. My first question was, where did the money come from? There is no "direct" financial support for religion in Japan. How could such a small community get the money? Just above the village, the small local road punches its way 800m through the mountain in a brand new tunnel. I suspect that the construction of the tunnel and the road widening infringed on village property slightly, and so compensation money was made available. The amounts of money that are spent on mostly unnecessary construction of roads and tunnels in Japan is truly staggering.

While it was good to see a shrine being rebuilt or refurbished, good that the life of the spirit still plays an important part in the community, it was sad to see that the grove of trees had been cut down. The shrine is now open, and light, but something powerful has been lost.

Japanese Plants: know them and use them,

Japanese Plants: know them and use them

Betty W. Richards Anne Kaneko

Shufunotomo Co. Ltd

ISBN4-07-975121-4

228pp


This book is small enough to fit into a pocket or purse, yet absolutely packed with useful information on the flora of Japan. It covers trees, flowers, bushes, grasses, vegetables, and fruits, almost everything you are likely to see anywhere in Japan. Each plant is given in its English, Japanese, and Latin names, and has a color photo.

Information on where you can see the plant, where it came from, it's life-cycle, interesting tidbits on its cultural values and history, and, most usefully, how it is used. Wild food collection is still widely practised in the rural areas of Japan, and if you are a "stalker of the wild asparagus" this little guide is indispensable.

There is enough information for it to work as a field identification guide, or simply for learning the Japanese names of plants.

Excellent little book, I can't recommend it enough!!

June harvest (part 1)

Japan is a very fertile place! It's also very wet, with a mild climate, so it's very easy to grow a lot of food. Here is a selection of what we've been getting from our gardens this month. (I already posted about Lima beans)

Compared to Europe or the U.S., potatoes are relatively expensive in Japan, and there is not a great variety. I'm a meat 'n potatoes kind of guy, so a big chunk of my garden space is given over to the mighty spud. In our village this year everybodies potatoes did not do well,.. the plants were stunted and yellow, but I still managed to harvest about 40 kilos, certainly not enough to last the year, but never fear..... one of my neighbors, a full-time farmer - a rarity in Japan- , grows lots, and as she grows them for sale she throws out any that are under 4-5 cms. Once she found out I love those tasty little spuds she now gives me about 60 kilos every spring!!! The potato was introduced into Japan about 400 years ago by the Dutch. Coming from their base in Jakarta, potatoes became known as "jagatara imo", now shortened to Jyagaimo.

Garlic was known in Japan in ancient times, being mentioned in the 7th Century Kojiki. In the Heian period it was known as a food and a medicine. At some point there was a Buddhist proscription against eating garlic and so it fell out of favor and didn't start to be eaten again till the Meiji period (late 19th Century). The Japanese palate shies away from "strong" flavors, and so it is not used a lot, mostly in Italian and French dishes. We preserve some in soy sauce, and in olive oil.

Various kinds of small onions, spring onions, green onions, etc have been grown for a long time in Japan, but the large, globular onions were not introduced until relatively late, in the Meiji period. It was introduced by Americans into Hokkaido, and the american influence on the newly colonized northern island's agriculture is easily visible today. From there it spread south. It was also introduced on a lesser scale in the Kobe area from an American living in that Treaty Port. I always plant some of our onions close together and then pick them when they are small,... perfect size for pickled onions, something not available in the stores here.

Recommended Japan web resources

These are five websites that I access regularly, and for those living in Japan, or those interested in visiting, they all offer valuable information.

Japan Map

This is the complete geologic survey map of Japan. From the home page, click either of these

and you are taken to a map of Japan. Click on the map where you want to see, and again at the next level. The contour map is zoomable, and scrollable. Train stations, Post Offices, schools, shrines, temples, etc are all marked. A word of warning.... Japan is building new roads constantly, and in some cases the map has not been recently enough updated to include the changes, also many of the footpaths that are marked have fallen into disuse and no longer exist. I sometimes double-check with Google Maps, but it is still the map I print out and refer to on my walks, wether in countryside or city.


Hyperdia timetable

For finding routes and times for train journeys in Japan, this site is excellent. Not only that, but it is simplicity itself. Enter start point, destination, date, and time, and hey presto the first 5 choices are shown. It works with all the private rail lines as well as JR, and also includes connecting buses. Completely detailed with changes, waiting times, and ticket prices.


ZNET Japan

In-depth articles by many good historians and journalists that cover the issues you won't read about in Japan's banal and incredibly non-controversial media. Labor issues, Japan's international relations, Article 9 and military, historical revisionism, etc. much of this material is translated from Japanese. There is also a small set of links to other alternate media sites on Japan.


Encyclopedia of Shinto

This is a huge site, and is the complete translation of the Encyclopedia of Shinto into English. Laid out in the original chapters, the online version has added short videos and an excellent search function. If there is anything you want to know about Shinto, this is the place. I write a lot about shrines and ceremonies, and often this is the only place to find information in English. Any shinto terminology in my blogs that you aren't sure about, definitions can be found here.


Gensyoushi

This is a directory of thousands of the older, major, Shinto shrines in Japan. The opening page gives you a clickable map of Japan. Choose your area, and the left of the page is a list of shrines organized by old province names. Each shrine page has many photos, all the relevant historical information, and a map link.

Milky Way Hall (inside)

Going inside Milky Way Hall I was surprised to find an open central area filled with a shallow pool. Luckily a shaft of light was coming in through the buildings superstructure.

Designed by local architect Shin Takamatsu, Milky Way Hall is a 700-seat uaditorium and conference centre in Gotsu.

See outside Milky Way Hall