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Year of the Snake

As I have mentioned on this blog before, every year I visit Koganeyama Jinja (黄金山神社) on Kinkazan (金華山), an island off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, in northeast Japan. This year, I went straight from Shikariwakë Jinja, so I spent three hours on rural local trains, rather than on the Shinkansen, but the boat over to the island was the same as ever. This year is the year of the snake on the Chinese zodiac, and the jinja has a special matsuri every time this rolls around. There are a… Read More »Year of the Snake

Jinja Structures

After talking about the matsuri, I want to write about the buildings at Shikariwakë Jinja. I don’t often talk about jinja architecture, but this time I talked to the architect, so I will make an exception. The architect in question works at a company that is physically located inside Jinja Honchō, although I believe it is legally separate. Obviously, the connection is very close, and the firm unsurprisingly specialises in jinja. They worked on the rebuilding of Shikariwakë Jinja, and the architect was there because the dedication ceremony for the… Read More »Jinja Structures

Mikoshi Procession

The procession itself covered quite a lot of ground. The recruitment email said that we would be walking ten kilometres, but judging from what my phone recorded, I think it was nearer 15, and maybe even a bit more than that. There were no really steep hills on the route, but there were a number of definite slopes, and we all really felt them. “The next bit is hell,” is how I was warned at one point. (It wasn’t that bad.) Because the procession included several horses, there were occasional… Read More »Mikoshi Procession

Kami are Heavy!

The mikoshi procession started at 1pm, but the matsuri to transfer the kami to the mikoshi started at noon, and so we were asked to gather at 11am. That is doable from Tokyo, and you do not even need to get the first Shinkansen of the day. The second will do… So it was an early start for me. I arrived at the jinja just as the chief priest was arriving, and he leaned out of his car window to call to me. “Are you Mr Chart?” I guess I… Read More »Kami are Heavy!

Shikariwakë Jinja

At the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a matsuri at Shikariwakë Jinja (website in Japanese only) in Shiwa, Iwatë Prefecture. The jinja is also known as Akaishi (“Red Rock”) Jinja, because it is red, and has a rock in it. This is the red rock. The information board behind it is, unfortunately, forty years old, and virtually illegible. After the mikoshi procession, I saw children throwing stones and trying to land them on top of the rock. This sort of thing is common, and the idea is… Read More »Shikariwakë Jinja

Purification and Wolves

Princess Akiko (彬子女王) has just published a new book, The Shape of Prayer (Inori no Katachi, イノリノカタチ). It is only available in Japanese, and the link is an affiliate link because it might as well be. This book is another collection of the essays that she has published in the magazine Waraku (和楽) which has a lot of interesting articles about traditional Japanese art and culture. I would read it if I had more free time. It is also the sort of publication that carries adverts for $50,000 watches, so… Read More »Purification and Wolves