A morning walk through Senjokei

Senjokei

Ted of Notes From The Nog fame was visiting for a couple of days, so decided to take advantage of the fine weather and went for a hike down Senjokei, a local beauty spot.

It's a narrow gorge that has 12 waterfalls within the space of 3 kilometres.

We started at the top of the gorge in Hiwa, thinking, correctly as it turned out, that on top of the mountains the sun would have already burnt off the mist that was filling the valleys down below.

The trail through Senjokei is part of the Chugoku Nature Trail that passes through most of the interesting spots in Shimane. On all the sections of the trail that I've walked I have yet to see anyone else out walking.

There was a bit of color, though the wet and cloudy weather has made it a less than usually spectacular Fall display this year.

The mountainsides are too steep for the state to clearcut the forest and replace with tree farm

The trail has lots of walkways and stairs constructed to get through and around otherwise impassable sections of the gorge. There are also three pretty footbridges. There are also numerous toilets and picnic shelters along the trail.

The gorge opens out and the river hits the Yato River at Eno.

Kosan-Ji: the statues...

This pair of Phoenix's stand in the grounds of the Kongo Kan (New Treasure House) across the road from Kosan-Ji Temple.

The Museum houses a large collection of Buddhist art, mostly from Japan but some from Korea.
Entrance to the museum is included in the entrance fee to Kosan-Ji. Within the temple there is also a large collection of Tea Ceremony objects, and a collection of Modern Art.

Most of the statuary within the temple displays the same flamboyance and vividness as the temple buildings.

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.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 9

The ninth, and final, matsuri I went to in October was in Waki-cho, a seaside village that is part of Gotsu.

Earlier in the afternoon we stopped by a bunch of shrines in the area that were all having their matsuri that night. While we were at the shrine in Waki there was a ceremony going on for all the people of the village that had turned 60 years of age that year. The Chinese dating system that the Japanese adopted is based on 60 year cycles, the 12 animals times the 5 elements, so 60 is the end of one complete cycle and holds special significance.

That night at the matsuri I saw something I'd not seen at any other matsuri. Elevated "boxes", protected from the weather and with views over the crowds to the kagura stage. These were for all those elders who had become 60 that year. A nice touch I thought.

The matsuri was well attended, though Waki no longer has its own kagura group, one from Hamada was performing. All the streets of the village had the shimenawa running along them, and a lot of matsuri banners were flying from peoples houses.

This will probably be the last post on kagura for a while :)

A muted Fall at Gakuen-Ji

I had to go up to Izumo on Monday so I dropped by Gakuen-Ji on my way back.

The fall colors were only just starting, and it was cloudy, so it was a more muted display rather than vivid.

Gakuen-Ji is, I think, my favorite temple. Nestled in the mountains to the north of Izumo Taisha, the temple is actually older than Izumo Taisha.

Except for the last couple of weeks in November when the place gets inundated with busloads of visitors, Gakuen-ji is usually empty.

Kosan-Ji. The architecture,,,

Kosan-Ji temple on Ikuchijima is probably the most unique and unusual temple in Japan.

The temple complex is composed of many "copies" of the most famous examples of temple architecture from throughout Japan.

They are built at a slightly reduced scale from the originals, but have been "improved" and embellished with intricate carvings and color schemes that bear no connection to the originals.

Gaudy is certainly a word that could be applied, and perhaps Kitsch, though there is no concept of kitsch in Japan.

Thye temple officially belongs to the True Pure Land sect, but actually has no congregation. It was built by Kanemoto Kozo for his dead mother, to ensure her passage to paradise.

A large chunk of his fortune has gone into the building of Kosan-Ji, but with an entrance fee of 1,500 yen times the millions of visitors the temple has received over the years, it is probably making a profit now.

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.

Bounty by the barrowload

There is something deeply satisfying and fulfilling bringing back barrowloads of food from the garden. I am led to believe that shopping is a source of fulfillment to some, but I don't believe that any feelings coming from shopping can even come close.

This year was the best ever sweet potatoe harvest I've had. Not just lots of them, but big ones.

Both sweet potatoes and taro grow easily. Just put em in the ground and wait!! My kind of gardening.

Choseikaku Villa

Choseikaku Villa was built in 1927. This nearly 400 sq. m. villa displays many of the features of architecture of this period, with elements of western architecture mixed with traditional Japanese.

It was built by Kanemoto Kozo for his aging mother who lived nearby in Setoda Town on Ikuchijima near Ohnomichi in Hiroshima.

Kanemoto made his fortune from weapons. Interestingly, most Japanese websites about him will just mention that he worked in "steel tubing", but most non-Japanese websites point out that his product was guns.

After his mother died he "bought" a Buddhist priesthood and proceeded to build Kosan-Ji temple around his mother's villa.

A guided tour of the villa costs an extra 200yen on top of the regular entrance fee to Kosan-Ji.

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 8

The eighth matsuri we visited in our October Matsuri marathon was our own village's matsuri. The shrine was packed when we arrived, and stayed packed all night. A large chunk of the audience was composed of young people, especially young women. It seems the Tanijyugo group has grown in popularity and now has many fans from outside the village.

The kids did a great version of Jinrin, and showed the same dedication and professionalism as the rest of the group.

In the Kurozuka dance the leader of the group played the priest. Buddhist priests appear in many of the dances, though nowadays kagura is classified as "shinto", historically it has a lot of buddhist influence, not just in the stories, but in the mandalas that compose much of the dance movements.

The evil kitsune appears first in the form of a beautiful maiden. All the female parts in kagura are played by males, but the hands often give away the gender of the dancer.



At one point the hapless priests assistant climbs up into the tengai and the fox follows and they fight suspended above the floor. This is unique to Tanijyugo group, and a specially strenghtened tengai held up by chains is used.

3 a.m. and the orchestra shows signs of flagging :)

This was the first time I saw our group perform Yasogami, with Okuninushi's 80 brothers represented by 2 fools.



In this part of the dance Okuninushi and his brothers perform a dance that is normally done using swords and when done properly is quite exciting and complex. here though the bumbling brothers make a mess of it.

Typical Japanese Landscape 25

The display of Fall colors begins. Today in my village.

Riverboats & Candy-colored bridge

A couple of traditional wooden riverboats tied up with our infamous blue, pink, and green bridge behind. I recently learned the significance of the colors of the bridge. The blue represents the sky, the pink represents cherry blossoms, and the green represents the mountains. Some more photos here.

The boats are made of Japanese Cedar, and the design has barely changed in over a thousand years. Locally they are called "Takatsubune", to distinguish them from "Kawabune" which are similar but narrower and not flat-bottomed.

There are lots of kawabune used on the river by fishermen, and fibreglass ones are becoming more common. These two Takatsubune are waiting to carry the local kami with attendant priests, musicians, amd villagers, upstream for the most important religious ceremony of the year, the Suijin Matsuri.