On Shimenawa
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items about shimenawa from The Daily Yomiuri (Japan):
"The theme of renewal, banishing the old year's
evil spirits and getting a another item
from The Daily Yomiuri:
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On the Shinto shrine at Izumo"One of the best-kept 'secrets' from foreigners is that there
are two quitedifferent Japans. The first, like the Tokyo region, is dotted with factories, crisscrossed by bullet trains and ultramodern in appearance. The other is north of the east-west mountainous backbone of the main island of Honshu and faces the Korean peninsula. In this Japan there is little industry and the people are slow of pace, especially in winter. And winter, when the wild duck that is the specialty of the region appears on the tables of the country inns, is the time for a gourmet tour. "Few foreigners visit this part of Japan because there's not much to see --- with one great exception. At Izumo there is the Shinto shrine dedicated to Okuninushi-no-mikoto, a deity traditionally thought to have introduced medicine, sericulture (raising of silkworms) and agriculture. The shrine, a landmark site of Japanese civilization dating to at least the seventh century, and probably a good bit earlier, contains buildings constructed mostly around 1874; the main shrine, which is surrounded by a double wooden fence, dates from 1744. "For those who wish to inspect the shrine, visit the local ryokan, or traditional inn, and eat some of the best food in the land - as in France, the good cuisine is found in the provinces - the procedure is simple. Take a plane from Tokyo to Izumo airport, a journey that lasts just over an hour, and a 25-minute cab ride or somewhat longer bus trip (cabs cost close to $20 for the ride) to Izumo village. "Shinto --- literally, ''the way of the gods'' ---is to the outsider an astonishing mixture of the sacred and the profane. On the spacious grounds of the Izumo shrine, just to one side of the avenue of aged pines that leads to one of Japan's holiest places, the priests have parked a big, black steam locomotive of the D51 type, a venerable workhorse of the first industrial revolution in Asia. The locomotive is set there to attract children, but adults also swarm into its cab, pulling at its levers and murmuring in delight. "Shinto, a religion that lacks dogma or even holy writ, is very much a force to be reckoned with. Nearly 80 million Japanese swarmed to their local shrines on New Year's Day this year. Shinto is a religion that stresses such observances and it judges mankind by the criterion of works, not faith, like some branches of Christianity. "At Izumo one walks up the avenue of pines --- the locomotive is parked on the left --- and arrives in the shrine compound facing a prayer hall; the hall is impossible to miss because an enormous shimenawa, or sacred rope, is fastened to its front. Turn left at the rope and enter the concrete building, not a great beauty, that houses an office and a museum with a collection of samurai swords. The obligatory ritual that precedes a visit to the inner shrine --- it can be seen clearly, towering up to the height of a seven-story building --- is short and simple. One removes his overcoat and a young woman attendant puts a white vestment over one's shoulders, a kind of doctor's coat in Western eyes. Then one stands by a running tap and dips one's hands briefly into the water over a sprig of freshly cut pine. "A priest then conducts one toward the sanctuary, a wooden structure marked by chigi, huge beams that stick aslant into the sky from the roof of the building. Behind the sanctuary is a pine-covered hill known as Mount Yakumo, the Mountain of Eight Clouds. The 300-foot peak is considered as holy as the innermost shrine itself and no visitors are allowed to set foot there. "The purification ceremony that follows is a rare experience. A priest in full robes and shiny black hat stands in the West Corridor and waves a wand toward the shrine. White strips of paper inscribed with sacred Shinto symbols are attached to the wand; they flutter as he moves. After chanting a spell and a prayer he turns and waves the wand toward the visitor. The visitor next places a sprig of sakaki (''sacred tree,'' Cleyera japonica) on a low altar under an eightlegged gate, stands back, claps four times and bows for a moment. Behind, in the East Corridor a few yards away, another attendant waits with a cup of sake. She holds a kettle of the rice wine and pours it into an unglazed porcelain cup in the visitor's hands. The correct response is to drink up in one swoop - then to receive the cup, wrapped in white paper, as a souvenir. The whole ceremony lasts no more than five minutes. "Then a visitor is free to roam between the Inner Fence and the Sacred Fence, over a pebbled compound with flat grayish stones dominated by the sanctuary, the chigi striking up into gray winter skies. It's not an easy moment to forget, standing at the appointed ''festival viewing place.'' "Izumo is one of the holiest places in the land, second only to the grand shrine at Ise, where the emperor worships his legendary ancestor, Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess. At Ise no secular visitors are allowed inside the sanctuary, but at Izumo the tradition is more flexible, less mysterious, altogether more friendly. One has a close view of a shrine that marks the place of origin of the Japanese people, according to eighth-century chronicles. The chronicles denote Izumo as the habitation of the entire pantheon of Shinto gods, numbering many millions according to some accounts. "Those without the patience or interest in going through the purification ritual may roam along a Worshipping Route that winds all around the shrine. But one is separated from the grand shrine by the latticed Inner Fence, and it is impossible to take unobstructed photographs. The priests have no compunction about allowing cameras into the inner compound, but to prepare for a visit to Izumo, arrangements must be made in advance in Tokyo. The priests also require that a non-Japanese speaking visitor bring an interpreter, since almost no one in that part of Japan speaks English. The priests make it plain that an interpreter is a must. But they make no other demands, said Yoshimasa Hara, an official who met with an American visitor. ''We don't want people to regard this just as tourism,'' Mr. Hara said, ''but those with an interest in our religion can certainly enter'' the inner shrine....." ---from HENRY SCOTT STOKES,"HOME OF JAPAN'S SHINTO GODS," The New York Times, February 21, 1982, Section 10; Page 6. |
