Miko-mai, or Miko Kagura

 

 

Today was the matsuri at Tsunozu. Last night was the all night kagura, but I was feeling a bit under the weather so didn't make it, but went there today to catch the mikoshi parade and the Miko mai.

Miko-mai is probably the most common and widely seen form of kagura in Japan, though its rare in my neighborhood. Most of the bigger shrines that have full-time staff and miko will perform it.

Here at Tsunozu the miko are 4 young elementary school girls. First the dance was performed inside the shrine at a ceremony for all the "leaders" of the village and matsuri. Later it was performed outside the shrine for all the assembled villagers.

Tsunozu really takes their matsuri seriously, with all the local kids getting the afternoon off school.

Unfortunately this year, just as the procession was beginning the heavens opened up and we were drenched in a downpour.

Cave of 1000 Buddhas

The Cave of 1,000 Buddhas is another of the "attractions" at Kosan-Ji on Ikuchijima in Hiroshima Prefecture.

One descends into a labyrinth of underground caves and tunnels past a series of tableaux and depictions of buddhist hells.

Then one enters the realm of the buddhas.

The caves and tunnels are all man-made.

One emerges back into the light at the foot of a giant statue of Kannon.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 7

a

For our next matsuri we again headed downriver, this time on the opposite bank to Kawahira. The shrine, like most shrines round here, is at the top of a small hill necessitating a climb. From the top of the hill the sound of the matsuri can be heard all over the village down below.

The harvest matsuri is quite small in Kawahira, the village puts much more effort into the Rice Planting Festival (Tauebayashi) . We came here a few years ago for the Omoto kagura, and the villagers were very friendly and welcoming. This time, after we sat down, the village headman came over and put his forehead to the floor and thanked us profusely for visiting his humble village.

The village kagura group is quite small, and the dancers are relatively speaking quite old. The first dance we saw involved quite a "portly" dancer.

Recently several visitors have asked if the swords they use in the dances are real. Well, obviously they are not sharpened, but they are made of steel, and I'm always surprised that with the frenetic swordfights in many dances that no-one gets slashed.

This time an accident happened. One of the dancers hands started gushing blood. Someone ran in and wrapped about 2 meters of sellotape around his hand and the dance continued.

After the dance he was taken to hospital for stitches, and being such a small group the loss of one dancer meant a rejigging of the schedule.

A couple of dances later was "Yorimasa". and the main feature of this dance involves several vicious monkeys playing havoc with the audience. Just before the monkeys entrance I stood up at the back to get a good shot of the monkeys entrance from behind the curtain, and almost jumped out of my skin as one of the monkeys burst in to the shrine from behind me.

The monkeys charge in and out of the audience, stealing food from the audience members, sometimes wrestling with them too.

The main thing they do though is go for the babies and very young children, grabbing them and running away with them. If the child or baby screams in terror the audience, and particularly the mother, are all smiles.

This evening's sunset

As I've mentioned before, where we live is in a narrow valley, so we rarely get to see sunsets, so when we get the chance to see one it's a little special.

Driving home today we pulled in at Kuromatsu around that time.

My Sky Hole.85

My Sky Hole.85 is a large public sculpture by world-renowned Japanese artist Inoue Bukichi.

It's one of a large sequence of works titled, not unsurprisingly, My Sky Hole. This one was completed in 1985

It's located outside of the Wel City building in Hiroshima, a few hundred metres from the Peace Park.

He was born in Nara in 1930, and died in 1997. There is another of his works in Hiroshima.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 6

We headed downriver to Matsukawa, the village of Oda, who have their matsuri during the daytime.

The village no longer has its own kagura group, so Kamiko Kagura group from Hamada were playing.

The dance being performed when we arrived was Gojin, concerning the 5 elements played out as 5 kami with territorial disputes. One of the kami is a buffoon, seen here with a long trail of green snot hanging from his nose. The group leader told us that Gojin was traditionally the final dance in a kagura performance, but nowadays the finale is usually Yamata no Orochi, as it was today.



It was a really great performance of the dance, unusually with all 8 serpents. It's one thing to see this dance performed on a stage, quite another to literally have it in your face. This first video shows some of the choreoraphed dance of the 8 snakes. As far as I know there is nothing else like this anywhere else in japan. If anyone has seen anything like this, please let me know.



This next video shows Susano battling the serpents. At one point he seems to be overpowered, but fear not, he triumphs.

2 of the heads of the serpent were laid right at our feet.

Typical Japanese Landscape 24

The view from the top of Sangaisan (378m) looking SW towards Taimasan.

Looking SE, inland towards Kanagi.

NE along the coast towards Gotsu.

Looking down over the university and port at Hamada.

Back to Water Country

We had some friends from upcountry visiting this weekend, so we took them to our favorite museum, Mizunokuni.

A strong contender for the Least Visited and Most Underrated Museum in Japan, as usual we were the only people there.

Lots more posts on Mizunokuni can be found here

Everyone we've taken there has really enjoyed it. I'm guiding for 3 groups in the next few weeks so will be going back.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 5

After Ichiyama matsuri we stopped in at Kawado, the village just across the river from mine, for the last matsuri of the night.

I've watched hundreds of kagura dances, and yet am still learning something new almost everytime I see a dance. Every village has developed their own variations on the dances and stories, and I suppose I have also become more knowledgable about details.

The last dance we watched was Shoki, a 2 person dance with Shoki and a single demon.

Shoki was a "demon-quelling" Chinese God who has become equated with Susano in Japan. The Susano and Shoki masks are interchangeable, though here at Kawado Shoki did not where a mask at all.

I learned an interesting thing about Kawado's version of Shoki. The person chosen to play Shoki is not set. It is chosen each year by the group depending on whoever has had good fortune that year. Usually that means someone who has gotten married or had a child. This years dancer had recently celebrated the birth of his fourth child.



In this video there is something I hadn't seen before. After the demon has pranced about the stage, Shoki climbs up and starts shaking the tengai over the demon. The tengai is the canopy over the kagura stage, and the kami descend through the paper streamers to possess the dancers.

The Heights of Eternal Hope for the Future

Miraishin no Oka is a 5,000 sq. m. sculpture park on the hilltop overlooking Kosan-Ji on Ikujima, a small island in the Inland Sea off Hiroshima.

The brainchild of Environmental sculptor Kazuto Kuetani, all the sculptures and the marble that coveres the hillside was shipped from the Carrera quarry in Italy, where he has worked for the past 18 years.

The only way to visit the hill is through Kosan-Ji, which charges 1,200 yen entrance, but what you get for that price is quite astounding.

On a sunny day the hilltop is blinding. There is also an Italian restaurant in the park.

The island can be reached easily from Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku or Ohnomichi Town in Hiroshima.