Hiroshima Kagura

A couple of months ago we were driving along a backroad in SE Hiroshima on our way to Shikoku when we saw a small shrine at the side of the road with all the banners flying and the parking area full of cars, matsuri!!

We pulled in and were delighted to find kagura being performed.

The kagura in this area is related to Iwami kagura, but one noticeable difference is that the "heroes" don't wear masks but rather use makeup.

It was a very small shrine, but it had a kagura-den, which was in fact the largest building at the shrine. The audience was small, and mostly elderly people. The kagura group was from somewhere else in the region.

The steps down from the shrine to the kagura den were lined with shimenawa, creating a sacred space for the kami to descend to the performance. I asked the locals who were manning the stalls what the name of the kami was, but they didn't know so they suggested I ask the priest. He had been enjoying the O-miki (offering sake shared by the congregation and kami) and he admitted he had forgotten!

As is usual in the back country of Japan, the villagers were very friendly and we were treated as honored guests. They gave us a bunch of yakitori and a pack of the areas speciality, candied peanuts.

Visiting village matsuris is one of my favorite activities. There is no comparison to the crowded, tourist-filled events that are the famous city matsuris.

Shimoyama Inari Shrine, Hamada,

Shimoyama Inari shrine is on the large hill at the mouth of the Hamada River on the opposite bank to the Castle Hill.

If one counts all the smaller Inari shrines in the grounds of other shrines then Inari shrines are the most common in Japan.

Like most kami, Inari has had, and continues to have, multiple identities and meanings. Primarily it is the kami of foodstuffs, but also the kami of industry, which is why many companies either erect Inari shrines on their property, and/or donate torii to established shrines. Inari is often erroneously called a "fox god", but in fact the foxes are just the messengers of Inari.

At this shrine the main kami is listed as Kuramusubi which believed to be another name for Ukanomitama, the most "official" of representations of Inari, and a son of Susano. Inari has both male and female identities, Uganomitama being female. Inari also has hindu/buddhist manifestations, primarily as Daikiniten. The head shrine of Inari is at Fushimi near Kyoto. It was founded by the Hata family, an immigrant clan considered to be from Korea or China, though there are some who believe they are a lost tribe of Israel that wandered across Asia.

At Shiroyama Inari there is a secondary shrine to Sarutahiko who is also considered a manifestation of Inari sometimes, and a secondary shrine to Izanagi and Izanami, the creator couple who created the islands of Japan.

Underneath this shrine you can see a hole in the base. This is fairly common and exists to allow the "spirit foxes" to enter and leave.

Aquas (outside)

The Aquas aquarium building is not much to look at as you speed by on Rte. 9, but a closer look reveals that it represents a shark

Opened in 2000, the building was designed by the Nikken Sekkei design company.

The dorsal fin?

The main body.

The mouth, "Jaws"!

and the tail.

Recently opened was a new Penguin House, a white concrete box to the side of the mouth. Maybe it represents a big piece of polystyrene trash that litters Japanese beaches. I once showed some photos of beaches in Cornwall to some neighbors, and the first question they asked was "where is the trash?". I've been repeatedly told that the mountains of trash on Japan Sea beaches comes from Korea, and some of it indeed does, but most of it has kanji, hiragana and katakana on it, meaning its from Japan.

More posts on Aquas

Aquas Aquarium

Aquas is the largest aquarium in western Honshu and is located within Iwami Seaside Park on Route 9 between Hamada and Gotsu. More than 400 species of critters are on display.There are lots of flying fishes, the Prefectural fish.

The changing colors of the Cuttlefish fascinated me. It had been more than 40 years since I had been to an aquarium, and I was pleasantly surprised at the displays and environment, not the dark, damp, concrete structures I remember from my childhood.

What fascinated me the most were the jellyfish, particularly the gentle writhing of their (tails? tendrils?

I kept coming back to them.

There is a transparent tunnel under the largest tank filled with turtles, sharks, and all manner of aquatic beings.

The main attraction is a show by a pair of white Belugas. Apparently they blow bubble rings. I didn't see the show as I was too busy watching the jellyfish.

Typical Japanese Landscape 12

Japan is mostly mountains, so this time some mountain shots!

For those who have never been to Japan, it is hard to fathom just how much concrete there is, and how much "nature" is manipulated and controlled.

I can't remember whose quote it is, but "The Japanese have a wonderful sense of beauty...... and absolutely no sense of ugly!"

More Typical Japanese landscapes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

December harvest

Coming from northern Europe, I still am delighted by the fact that gardens in Japan keep producing all year long and the ground doesn't become frozen solid like concrete! Started picking Komatsuna, which is often called Japanese Mustard Spinach in English, but is actually not related to either mustard or spinach. It is believed that the name derives from a Kamatsu, once a village near Edo.

Cauliflower, karifurawa in Japanese, is not wildly popular in Japan. It was introduced from Europe in the Meiji Period. You don't often see it in supermarkets, so I was surprised one day while walking a backroad to come across a farm building filled with cauliflowers being boxed. I asked the farmer "how much" and he just gave me one. The kindness of strangers is something I've experienced often in all the countries I've lived in, but in Japan it tends to be in the countryside. On the same walk a car stopped, the driver handed me a big ripe persimmon, then drove off.

Yoko tried planting some ginger this year, but only half of it came up. Shoga in Japanese, it was introduced from China about 1,800 years ago. It is used a lot in Japanese cooking, but my favorite way of eating it is the thin slices that accompany sushi.

Otafuku mask

The Otafuku mask doesn't appear in any Iwami kagura dances that I know of, but it is worn by the female half of a kyogen duo. Otafuku is commonly known as the "goddess of mirth", and also goes by the name of Okame. It is believed that the mask is developed from the Uzume mask. The motif of the Otafuku mask is a common design found all over the place, but not often talked about is the sexual side of her nature.

I found this pair of huge masks gracing the entrance to a large shrine in Shikoku. I have seen her paired with a tengu before, and I've read about a performance at a fertility shrine in Asuka involving a tengu and an otafuku that is overtly sexual. The tengu/red demon most probably is derived from Uzume's husband, Sarutahiko, a giant being that has a very large nose.

My favorite derivation of the Otafuku mask though is this little sculpture I found at a fertility shrine in Yamaguchi.

Iwami Kagura Mask index

Yasugi Bushi, Dojou Sukui.

This is the manhole cover from the town of Yasugi, east of Matsue in Shimane. It shows a dancer dancing the Dojou Sukui. Doujo are small eel-like fish and the dance involves scooping with a basket.

The song accompanying the dance is the Yasugi Bushi, the local folk song that is now known throughout Japan since recordings of it were made in the early 20th century. It is considered one of the most difficult of all Japanese folk songs to sing.

An Invitation to Kagura

An Invitation to Kagura
Hidden gem of the Traditional Japanese Performing Arts.

David Petersen

ISBN 978-1-84753-006-6

362pp




When I first became fascinated by Iwami Kagura there was precious little information about it in English. In the past 2 years 2 books have been published which redress this problem. Recently I reviewed God's Music, and now I can review An Invitation to Kagura.

As the subtitle of the book suggests, kagura is the least well known of the performing arts in Japan, and yet to those who have seen it its is one of the most exciting.

The book introduces just about every aspect of the art that one could possibly want to know, from it's history up to where and when you can see kagura nowadays. The author was introduced to kagura while living in Hiroshima, and it is the "secular" kagura seen at festivals in the Hiroshima area that are the focus, with shrine based kagura of the remoter areas occupying the periphery. My own experience is the opposite, with the festival-based kagura an interesting "fringe" to the core of shrine based performances.

The author makes no claim to producing an academic work, rather a labor of love, but the book is nevertheless well researched. The authors background is in theatre, so the relationship of kagura to kabuki and noh is covered, and his listing of the main stories would make the book useful as a guide to visitors to kagura performances.

His versions of Japanese history are a bit too Yamato-centric for my taste, with not enough delineation between myth and history, but that is a minor quibble for what is an excellent book. In conducting his research the author travelled to surrounding areas of west Japan, and his chapters on the regional variations of kagura I found most useful. The photos are good, though only black and white.

The book is self-published, so as well as being available through bookstores or amazon.com etc, it is also available as a less expensive e-book from
http://stores.lulu.com/lang-arts

Fall colors: Dangyo Gorge

We've had freezing gale-force winds and snow flurries, so all the leaves have fallen off the trees, but here are some pics from 2 weeks ago when we took some friends up to Dangyo Gorge.

Dangyo Gorge is located just off Route 261 between Iwami Town and Imbara. 261 now punches a hole straight through the mountain, so you take the turnoff along the old road. The limestone gorge has been carved by the water and there is a section of about 500 metres where the floor of the valley is solid rock sculpted into nice shapes.

In the bottom of the gorge is a small park with garden, vending machines (of course), and a small shrine. Footpaths go up and down the gorge and climb out to the road at several points.

On top of the gorge is a small hotel that only opens in the summer season, and a campsite open all year. There is a small settlement of farms further down the valley.