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.

more cool links!

I recently had my computer crash, and while I was able to retrieve most of my data, one thing I lost were my web bookmarks. In trying to refind them I've come across these useful websites that I have added to the links on the right of this page.

Contemporary Japanese Architects is a photographic database of modern architecture in Japan. Search is by an index of each architects name. The photos are excellent quality, though there is no other information other than location and date. The collection is mostly focussed on Tokyo. I found this site while researching for my own humble architecture posts.

JAANUS stands for Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System, and calls itself a dictionary, but is more like an encyclopedia. The database is searched by keyword, and I often come to this site when researching obscure aspects of shrine architecture.

Japanese Old Photographs is a huge collection of photos of Japan from the library collection of Nagasaki University. You can search for photos by location, subject, or photographer.

Old Photos of Japan is a blog I found thanks to Quirky Japan Blog. There is a daily post of an old photos with extensive details and information about the subject of each photo

Susuki, Japanese Pampas Grass

If there is one plant that symbolizes Autumn in Japan it is Susuki. Miscanthus Sinensis Andress is called Chinese Silver Grass, or Eulalia in English, though it is more commonly known as Japanese Pampas Grass.

Growing to a height of 2 metres, it is a common sight this time of the year along riverbanks and roadsides.

The reeds were formerly used as thatch for roofing.

Susuki appears in many haiku as it is the plant that symbolizes Autumn.

Sotoura Konpira Shrine, Matsubara, Hamada.

Sotoura is a small settlement at the head of a small inlet by Matsubara in Hamada. The small Konpira Shrine is built on top of a rocky outcropping.

The roof of the honden is odd!... the chigi (cross pieces) are aligned at 90 degrees to each other. I've seen this one time before, and if memory serves me well it was also a Konpira shrine. I have no idea if it means anything, but am still trying to find out.

Konpira is a very popular kami, known mostly as a protector of journeys, kind of like St. Christopher. As most journeys in ancient Japan were by sea, it's not surprising that they can often be found in coastal villages..

Like most Japanese Kami, Konpira has gone through many identities and forms. Originally a Hindu god, for most of the past Konpira was a Buddhist god. In the late 19th Century when the government created the new state religion of Shinto they changed its name to Kotohira, though most people still use the name Konpira. The government also decided that Kotohira was really an ancient Japanese Emperor, ... a lot of emperors werte enshrined by State Shinto, though that was not traditional.

November Harvest Persimmons

November Harvest Persimmons

Been picking what's left of the persimmons. The monkeys took most of them. I don't begrudge them their food,... so much of the Japanese forests have been replaced with sterile tree farms that have no food for any species.

The rounder shaped species of persimmon is called amagaki in Japanese, and these can be eaten straight from the tree. I'll peel them and slice them then dehydrate them for later use.

The more oval-shaped persimmons are called shibugaki, and they are too astringent to eat without first hanging and drying. Then they become similar to dried figs. Strings of them hanging are a common sight in the countryside now.

Egrets

Egrets are notoriously difficult to photograph without a strong telephoto lens, as they will fly away if you appraoch them, or even if you stop to take a picture, so I was pleased to get these shots the other day in the river at hamada.

There are several species of egret in Japan, lesser, intermediate, great, etc, and I believe they are a type of heron, though the common grey herons are nowhere near as skittish as egrets.

You see them everywhere, in rivers, ponds and lakes, and once the rice paddies are flooded and planted they congregate there.

Typical Japanese Landscape 10

The "beach" at Gotsu

kawamoto "civic centre" (outside)

Kawamoto is a small town upstream of my village on the Gonokawa river. The population is around 4,500, a mere quarter of what it was 50 years ago, yet on the hill overlooking the town is quite a grand civic complex.

There's a heated indoor swimming pool, a library, a musical instrument museum, and a full-size concert hall. I went to the concert hall for the first time a couple of weeks ago to see the world famous taiko group Kodo on their world tour.

The town has a reputation as a "music town", and until recently a full-time music teacher was employed at the center which also has recording studios.

The complex was designed by architect Arai Chiaki, another homegrown Shimane architect, and opened in 1998. The complex does get used by local people, but I wonder if the money would not have been better spent on a decent hospital (nearest big hospital is an hour away) or installing a mains sewage system?

"hime" Iwami kagura masks

Here are 2 versions of "hime" masks in the Iwami Kagura style.

Hime is commonly translated as "princess", although it meant a woman of high birth.

Nowadays, in terms of masks at least, is simply means female.

There are several female characters in Iwami kagura, and often the same mask is used for all of them, but the commonest is Amaterasu in the Iwato dance. Most kagura groups use the same mask for Uzume, the other female character in the Iwato dance, but we use a slightly different mask which I will post next.

Kagura mask index