Footsteps of “summer"
"Shrine", "Yukata", "Shaved ice (kakigori, “かき氷”)" and "Country road".Combination of these elements make us feel something excited, nostalgic and painful in the summer of our childhood or teenage, reminding of typical summer festivals in Japan though there are nothing directly relating to the festivals.
To share this feelings with you, we'll explain what "emotional" is about above words for the coming several weeks.
The fist theme of this series is shrines where plays an important role in Japanese local religion.
Shintoism as Japanese traditional religion
What is the most famous religion in Japan?The answer is 'Shintoism' .
Shintoism is a traditional Japanese religion which dates back to over three thousand years ago.
In Shintoism, nature (mountains, rivers, trees etc) and even the dead are believed to have spiritual power, whose concept is called deity in everything (Yaorozuno-kami "八百万神").
Shintoism has shrines as religious facilities and they worships different deity, sometimes the “deity” is a well known person and in other case he is a raccoon dog.
The concept of “deity in everything” deeply affects the ethical view of modern Japanese.
Many Japanese thinks themselves “Atheistic” but the fact is that they can't aware of believe the religion because Shintoism roots so deeply in Japanese life.
Shrines in modern Japanese culture.
Present day, how does people involve with shrines?Shintoism have mainly two annual events when most Japanese visit shrines.
Celebrate the new year
The first is when we celebrate the new year.According to the etiquette, we pray for good health, safety of our family, fulfillment academic etc at the beginning of every year.
Along with it, pick a fortune slip which tells their fortune of the new year.
There also exists a habit of making "Ema (絵馬)" on which you write your hopes or goals such as “I want to pass the entrance exam!”, as you can see in the following picture.
Summer festival
The other case Japanese visit shrines is when summer festivals called "Matsuri (祭り)" in japan takes place.Almost every shrine in Japan has its matsuri in late summer or early autumn when Buddhism originally thinks the spirits of our ancestors comes back to our world from the heaven or the hell.
Indeed, Shintoism is different from Buddhism, but in old Japan, authorities at the time tried to combine the two religions, which the both consequently have the almost same annual events.
Therefore Shintoism also celebrates the event and have summer festivals in shrines.
Summer matsuri generally consists of solemn rituals and joyful celebration, and these celebrations can include food stalls and entertainments such as fireworks or bon-odori (bon-dance).
Many Japanese thinks themselves “Atheistic” but the fact is that they can't aware of believe the religion because Shintoism roots so deeply in Japanese life.
How to behave in shrines
To get to the main building of the shrine, you have to walk along the approach called “参道”. The road of the approach is covered with pea gravel. Walking firmly on it detaches the evil spirit from you.
The road is equipped with "grove of a village shrine (Chinju-no-mori “鎮守の森”)" on the both sides.
You are exposed to spiritual power (Ki "氣") poured from the trees, and have your mind and body purified by the power.
Going through the approach, you will find a red entrance gate called Torii “鳥居” without any doors as shown in the top picture of this article.
After passing the gate, there is a place to wash your hands.
Then you can get to the main building where deity stays in and you can worship.
The right manner of worship is as following from the official web site of Association of Shintoism shrines;
- Make a slight bow (Rattle the bell by shaking the rope, if there is one),
- Stand straight, and bow twice deeply,
- Clap your hand twice slowly as if you are trying to draw the attention of the deity,
- And bow deeply once again.
Each steps of worships have its meanings or objectives.
All of them are set to have a good “communication” with deity because in Shintoism, the worship is not done to call for giving.
Knowing the backgrounds of the facilities and manners will certainly makes your sightseeing more enjoyable one.
For more information, please visit the official web site of Association of Shintoism shrines.
All of them are set to have a good “communication” with deity because in Shintoism, the worship is not done to call for giving.
Knowing the backgrounds of the facilities and manners will certainly makes your sightseeing more enjoyable one.
For more information, please visit the official web site of Association of Shintoism shrines.
This article will be updated with a movie showing how to wash your hands and how to worship at shrines!
登録:
コメントの投稿 (Atom)
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿