A place to reflect, ramble, and rofl at adventures from my study abroad in Nihon...
Honestly, there could be shenanigans.

19.6.10

No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye

An announcement, before I continue with the Lake Biwa posting:
I found a video with the dance on Ogura Jinja's attractively designed website. You'll have to scan ahead a four minutes into the video (or six minutes in if you want to skip the mostly stationary section) to see the kagura. The video isn't hi-def or anything, but you can see enough of the dances and hear the gagaku pretty well.


I continued down the train line towards Ishiyama, first stopping at Miidera. From the station, you simply walk up the river--by "up," I mean "uphill" towards Hiei-zan--and follow the signs to the temple. I've learned to make great use of the local sightseeing maps which you can usually find just outside bus stops and train stations, although having a portable map of the area is highly useful as well...Before finding Miidera, I first ran into this charming little shrine along the way: Mio Jinja.
The only flier I got from this shrine was all in Japanese, so just had a long, painstaking conversation with Mari-chan about what the pamphlet was saying. Some parts were rather difficult for her to explain, but I think I got most of it. Mio Jinja's primary deity is Izanagi no Mikoto, the male kami of creation in Shinto mythology. From what I understand, he wears three belts, red, white and black, which each become their own separate kami...

(That was the difficult part.) The kami derived from the red sash is associated with the Hour of the Rabbit, and Mari-chan described the rabbit as a the kami-sama's kashin, I believe. The translation was literally "vassal" or "attendant," but perhaps a better word for it would be "familiar," since it's an animal.

The rest of my ideas on the reason for all the rabbit imagery is all conjecture. I'll have to ask my Japanese religion teacher if she knows any more about it. Considering that after Izanagi's journey to the underworld in search of Izanami, he had borne three extremely important kami including the kami of the moon, I don't find it a completely far stretch, but it may simply be coincidence after all.

In order to cleanse himself of the impurity of the underworld, Izanagi performed the first purification ritual, washing himself in the ocean. When he washed his face, Amaterasu was born from his left eye, Tsukiyomi from his right, and Susanoo came from his notrils. Personally, I find Susanoo's nasal origins quite hilarious, seeing as he is the kami of the sea and storms. Again, I don't know if these three kami have anything to do with the three kami from the belts, rabbits are closely associated with the moon. In Japanese mythology, there is a rabbit in the moon, tsuki no usagi, making rice cakes, instead of the man in the moon we see in Western cultures. (On an utterly tangential note, Sailor Moon's name in Japanese, Tsukino Usagi, is a pun on this.)
Miidera, originally called Onjouji, was established in the year 672. In 859, Enchin, a grand-disciple of Seicho (the founder of the Tendai sect of Buddhism) gave it its new name, meaning "three wells temple," after the springs used for the first bathings of Emperor Tenchi, Emperor Temmu, and Empress Jito. While at first, Enryakuji on Hiei-zan, and Miidera, at the foot of the mountain, were both very important religious centers for the capital, over the course of history they became rivals when the Tendai sect split in two.

A statue of Kannon...although this pose is similar to the Nyoirin Kannon's,
usually she/he is depicted six arms rather than just two, holding various objects such as
a Dharma wheel, a wish-granting jewel, and a lotus.
Because of time constraints, I only had time to explore the westernmost side of the Miidera grounds.
 
Detail of the woodwork on one of the buildings next to the Kannon-do
Incense burning from inside the Kannon-do
The outside of the Kannon-do
Wonderful of Lake Biwa and the Kannon-do complex just uphill from the hall

I made one last stop at Nagara Jinja, before continuing to Ishiyamadera.

Ok, I've got nothin' here. Not really sure what the story behind this place is, and it's hard to find any information about it online in English. Plus, Google-translate fails.

Awesome dragon fountain though.
Given the stone and the plaque, I'm pretty sure this yanagi is special somehow...
Just a restaurant with an interesting painting on the outside...
a least, I thought it was a restaurant. Might be a shop.
An interesting little garden on the way to Ishiyamadera from the station
An elusive ghostly koi flitting about in the pond

Ishiyamadera in 15 Minutes
When I arrived at Ishiyamadera, it was five minutes before closing time at 4:30. (Some temples and shrines are looser about their closing times, and wrap things up at sunset--which can be much later than 4:30 depending on the season.) No such luck, though. I debated whether or not to go for it or turn back, for about two minutes. Then I went back up to the ladies at the admissions booth, pointed at my nokyo-cho, and asked where I could get it stamped. I didn't understand everything they said, but they pointed uphill--way uphill--gave me a note and waved me past without an entrance fee. I took it that the note, which said 4:45, indicated the time by which I had to get my muscular buttocks off the temple grounds. So I sprinted up about three flights of stairs, accordingly, asked a couple along way if I was going in the direction of the Honden, and the lady lead me up the last flight of stairs and gestured me to hurry inside. The temple staff was clearly packing up for the evening, but one of the monks kindly did the stamp-signature for me, last minute and everything.
Then I took literally a 15-minute tour of Ishiyamadera.

Imagine me scampering all over Ishiyamadera's very moutainous grounds snapping dozens of photos.
And now, imagine this with the Benny Hill theme in the background.
Fin

Just kidding.
Needless to say, I was completely out of breath after the Reader's Digest Visit to Ishiyamadera.
I ran into the couple again as I was catching my breath in a small setting area near the temple entrance. I didn't recognize the lady at first until I understood she was asking if I got my book signed in time. She also offered to drive me to the train station, when I told her where I was going, but I told her that it was fine and that I was just going to walk back. It wasn't a particularly long walk, but I appreciated the gesture anyway. She told me to take care/be careful, and we parted ways.
I walked along the Setagawa River for most of the way, watching all the kayakers...
They are "kayakers," yes?
Spontaneous self-portrait...turned out more interesting than I expected, with the lights.