shirahata hachiman daijin

As it does every year, my local jinja — Shirahata Hachiman Daijin (白幡八幡大神) — has put a rice-straw and vegetable snake up on the inner torii. This is part of a matsuri held on the first day of the rabbit in March, when an archery ritual is performed to predict the quality of the harvest for the coming year. The snake has a sword in its tail, which associates it with the snake/dragon killed by Susano’o in the myths in the Kojiki and Nihonshoki, but I do not believe that… Read More »2026 Snake

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the damage done to the stone fence (tamagaki) at Shirahata Hachiman Daijin by a truck driver who, I suspect, was blindly following GPS guidance and not paying attention to how big the vehicle was. I mentioned at the time that I expected it to be a short-term problem for the jinja, and so it proved. The repairs have now been completed. As you can see from the pictures, only one part of the tamagaki needed replacing — the large pillar at the left… Read More »Repairs

One advantage of paying my respects at Shirahata Hachiman Daijin every day is that I do not miss the days when the cherry blossoms are at their best. Here are some photographs. Unfortunately, we also had some very rainy days, so the snake is looking a bit sad.