The Month of Little Sleep part 3

Sunday night was matsuri downriver in Kawahira, a village I always enjoy visiting because of the friendliness and genrosity of the villagers....

The hachiman dance was in full swing as we arrived around 11pm. Unusually, Hachiman and his aide were being danced by two young women. Girls and women dancing kagura is unusual. A few groups have started to allow girls to dance, but it is not the norm.

Even more unusual was the fact that these two young women were not from the village, they were not even from the area. They are students at the university up in Matsue and for the past year they have been making the 2 hour drive once a week to come down and practise in the village. They danced well and the villagers were very appreciative of their help in maintaining the traditions....

Next dance was Suzukuyama, a classic battle between the good guys and the demon.

Past midnight and the next generation of dancers and fans are still keeping up.....

Next was Yasogami, and extra long dance because of the stand-up routines and pantomime and slapstick. In this scene one of the brothers attempts to woo, unsuccessfully, the princess....

1:30am and Jinrin starts up....

The Month of Little Sleep part 2

Walking back from the matsuri at Ichiyama we stopped in at the matsuri at Kaewado. We got there about 3am.

The kenmai dance has just started....

Followed by a different version of Kakko.....

And then a really good version of Jinrin.....

The finale was Kurozuka with the demonic white fox.....

and the sky was lightening and time to wander home across the river....

The Month of Little Sleep part 1

For me, the month of October has to be "The Month Of Little Sleep". In our area the rice has been harvested and now it is time for matsuri, and around here matsuri means all night kagura. Every village has their own matsuri and there are some I try to visit every year as well as many I have not had time to visit yet.... the first for me this year was saturday night in Ichiyama...

Got there around 10pm and the Iwato dance was just starting....

Next dance was Hachiman with the almost obligatory demon/hero battle.... I keep rooting for the demons but they never win.....

Next up was a ceremonial dance, Kenmai, which means "sword dance" but involved no swords. It was seperated from the sword part of the dance which is performed at Omoto Kagura.....

Next up was Jimmu, a dance based on the exploits of the mythical first emperor of Japan who subjugated the various clans and tribes of Western Japan in his invasion from Kyushu to kansai....

Next up was Kakko, a dance about a comedic figure who steals a sacred drum and attempts to unlock its power.....

Around 2:30am,  we took our leave of the good folks in Ichiyama and started to walk towards home...

More information about these dances, including videos, can be found by clicking on the labels of this post...

Hasso Daishi

Hasso Daishi

I passed by this little temple as I was walking between Temple 14 and Temple 15 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, and was struck by its unusual color scheme.

It wasn't marked on the guide maps I was using, but it enshrines Iwafune Jizoson and the Hasso Daishi.

Hasso Daishi are the Eight Patriarchs of the esoteric teachings that became known as Shingon in Japanese. Beginning with Nagarjuna, the first five were Indian, the sixth and seventh were Chinese, and it was from the seventh, Huiguo, that Kukai, the eighth and final one, received the title.

The ornamentation on the roof certainly seems to me to be Chinese. This temple is listed as bangai #44 of 50. As well as the 88 regular temples of the pilgrimage there are 20 "bangai" temples. There are also another 200 "bangai" sites that have a connection with Kukai so maybe there are 50 in Tokusthima.

Maybe the cat is the ninth?

More Manhole birds

A unique bird is featured on the manhole for Nankoku in Kochi, the Onaga Dori, or Long tailed Cock has the longest feathers in the world that have been known to reach 10 meters in length. The birds have been bred here since the early Edo Period. The local daimyo used to use the feathers to decorate spears carried in his processions to Edo.

Haruno, also in Kochi features what I believe is a Japanese Wagtail, but I may be mistaken...

Ozu, in Ehime Prefecture, like Miyoshi in Hiroshima, still practise the ancientbart of fishing with cormorants...

In Kurayoshi, Tottori, a type of duck is featured.... I have been unable to find out why

Finally, Yuu in Yamaguchi features a kingfisher, kawasemi. There are numerous species of Kingfisher, but I presume this is the Common Kingfisher.

Akiyoshido details

The cavern of Akiyoshido has numerous features that have all been given evocative names.... this one is called 1,000 Rice Paddies....

There are of course lots of stalagmites and stalagtites.....

Its the biggest cavern in Japan and located in Mine City, Yamaguchi...

This one is named "King of the Cavern"...

This may well be Jellyfish Climbing Waterfall....

Vacation 2011 Day 20 Essouira

And so.... the daily grind of vacation rolls on..... up before the sun, but before the moon is down..... the gulls all sit and look to the east....

And yet another glorious sunrise.....

And then to breakfast.... and after breakfast its time to lounge around in the hotel and drink coffee. By my usual standards it was a luxury hotel.... two riads joined together... light streaming down from the central courtyard...

And then off to wander the alleys in search of doors to photograph.....

I wandered into the old Jewish Quarter.... looked like a postwar bombsite with many shells of derelict buildings, but a few inhabitants still...

And then time to relax on the seawall and watch the sun goes down....

Kobe Earthquake Museum

The Kobe Earthquake Museum is the short version of The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Museum which is part of the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institute.

It is near the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art along the waterfront in Kobe.

It was designed by Showa Sekkei, who also designed the nearby Fashion Museum and opened in 2002.

Supposedly the unusual double-skinned glass structure is built to withstand an earthquake of any magnitude..

Shikoku 88 Temple 16 Kan-onji

Situated in the suburbs of Tokushima, temple 16 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Kannonji, doesnt look at all interesting, though that may have been colored by my own mood, coming to the end of a long few days and only a few hours away from a hotel, bed, and bath....

The gate was quite nice, though the nio were missing. Only the white-clad pilgrims gave any clue that this was not just a suburban temple.

Reputedly built in the middle of the eigth century, Kukai later visited and carved the Thousand-armed Kannon and installed it as the main deity. The temple belongs to the Shingon sect.

I didnt see it, but there is supposed to be a painting of a woman on fire, donated by the woman herself, who believed she was burned as punishment for the sins of her youth....

Kawamoto Kagura Competition 2012

Last weekend I went upriver to the Kawamoto Kagura Competition. While I believe that kagura is best appreciated in a shrine, kagura competitions do offer another type of experience.... comfortable seats, good lighting, and a big stage which is more suited for the Hiroshima style of kagura.. Even though it was a secular event, the first dance is always the purification of the space, performed here by a group from Mitani.

Next up was the local Kawamoto group and they performed Akoden, a variation on the wicked fox transformed into a beautiful maiden. Though Kawamoto is in Iwami their group performs Horoshima style, with lots of mask changes etc. This was a rousing dance for the home audience with plenty of stand-up comedy, pantomime, and slapstick....

The Otsuka group from Kitahiroshima then did Rashomon, a dance I dont think Ive seen before that is actually the prequel to the more common Oeyama dance. Fast, furious, but ending with the demons escaping and so setting the scene for Oeyama...

Next up was the simpler 2 man version of Hachiman performed by the Mihara group. Mihara is a little up in the mountains near my village and Yoko works there. She is friends with Mr. Yamaguchi the group leader who dances the Hachiman part. At 70 years of age Mr Yamaguchi is certainly one of the oldest kagura dancers around..... though still spry and athletic.

My own village of Tanijyugo was up next with Jinrin,.... 2 heroes and 2 demons...

There were six more dances after the lunchbreak but I only stayed for one more, Momijigari, another Hiroshima favorite with many mask changes and 4 maidens who transform into demons.....

Kagura competitions have grown in poularity in the past 50 years and do offer the opportunity to see a lot of kagura in an all-day setting rather than the more intimate shrine setting of all-night kagura..... Most towns in Iwami and north Hiroshima now have annual kagura competions. The smaller towns without auditoriums will put them on in school gymnasiums....