Sacred Horses

This year is the year of the horse, and so the 1^st January issue of Jinja Shinpō had a front page image of a sacred horse paying its respects at Isë Jingū (伊勢神宮).

Jingū has four sacred horses, two at each of the Inner and Outer Sanctuaries. These are offered by the Imperial household, and the two currently at the Inner Sanctuary are called Moto’isamu and Kusashin, while the two at the Outer Sanctuary are called Kusa’oto and Emitomo. They pay their respects to the kami when they are first presented, and then three times a month — on the 1^st, 11^th, and 21^st, at eight am. They are dressed up in blue caparisons with the chrysanthemum badge of the Imperial house, and go to the main sanctuaries, where they bow their heads. It is, apparently, possible to watch this.

The back page introduced a number of sacred horses that you could go and visit, in various parts of Japan, in addition to those at Jingū. Komuro Sengen Jinja (小室浅間神社) in Yamanashi Prefecture has had a horseback archery (yabusamë — 流鏑馬) ceremony for about 850 years, but has only had a full-time sacred horse for about thirty. The riders at the yabusamë are traditionally the ujiko (氏子), the parishioners, rather than professionals, and about thirty years ago the priests realised that the ujiko now had almost no contact with horses. The sacred horse helps to rectify this, along with another seven horses kept in the precincts. (They may all be sacred — the article is not entirely clear.) Thanks to these horses, the ceremony survives.

Kamo Wakë Ikazuchi Jinja (賀茂別雷神社), also known as Kamigamo Jinja, in Kyoto has a white sacred horse, and the current one is the tenth. This horse plays a central role in a ceremony on January 7^th, when it is dressed up and presented to the kami. It also visits the jinja on Sundays and public holidays, where apparently it has been trained to bow at the torii before heading to its stable. Visitors can feed it carrots.

Niukawakami Jinja Shimosha (丹生川上神社下社) in Nara Prefecture has two horses, one black and one white, in reference to ancient offerings of horses made to the kami — black to make it rain, and white to make it stop. The horses are called “White Dragon” and “Black Dragon” (“Hakuryū” and “Kokuryū”), but are normally called “Shiro-chan” and “Kuro-chan”, which is roughly “Whitey” and “Blacky”. (I am guessing at the readings, but this is how the names would normally be read, and there are no readings given, so I am guessing that they are standard.) Although the original offerings go back about 1300 years, the jinja started keeping horses again about ten years ago, after a break of six centuries or so. Apparently, Kuro-chan is famous for opening the gate of their paddock himself so that they can leave the jinja to go back to their stable in the evening.

As Niukawakami Jinja shows, the tradition of offering horses to the kami goes back as far as we have records. However, Kumano Jinja (熊野神社) in Tokyo has three ponies, because the chief priest and his wife are both horse trainers, and because the jinja has a day-care centre for pre-school children. The children play with the ponies. One of them is called “Kirara”, which seems to be the Japanese for mica, but the other two are called “Choco” (a brown pony) and “Vanilla” (a white pony) — the children also named them.

There are not many jinja with live sacred horses these days, although quite a few large jinja have stables for them, but almost all have “picture horses” (ema — 絵馬) for you to write your requests on before offering them before the kami. Horses still play an important role in Shinto.