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.

Some views of the Gonokawa on a cloudy day in early summer

Behind the dam at Hamahara


From the bridge at Kawamoto


From the bridge at Imbara


The last "horseshoe" bend before home.

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.