Shinto 神道
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The inari fox, shinto kami of fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success. Fushimi inari taisha Kyoto Japan
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
Wedding procession at the Meiji shrine in Tokyo. The two men are kannushi and the women behind them are mikos. Then, under a red parasol, come the bride and groom. The woman adjusting the bride's dress is not one of the guests but a part of the service personnel, there to see that everything runs smoothly (hence why she is dressed much more demurely than the rest of the people).
The white hood of the bride is called a watabōshi (綿帽子), while she is dressed in a shiromuku (白無垢), a white over-kimono, denoting purity. The man is wearing is wearing the typical male dress for traditional formal occasions: a jacket called a haori (羽織) and hakama (袴), trousers you can see in circumstances like these, but also on some performers of Japanese martial arts such as kendo and iaidō.
Kannushi (神主 - also known as shinshoku, 神職) is someone who performs holy rites at and look after a Shinto shrine - kind of a Shinto shrine priest. To become one you have to study at an approved university or pass an exam - their position is usually inherited by their children (and although men are most common, women can become kannushi too). The head-gear they are wearing is an eboshi (烏帽子) and their white robes are knon as jōe (浄衣 - lit. clean clothes). They clothes actually hold no real symbolic significance, but reflects old court clothes. The stick, or baton, both men are holding is a shaku (笏), originally a part of a the formal dress of a nobleman.
A miko (巫女) is a young woman working at a Shinto shrine. The role has ancient traditions and in the beginning she was most likely a shaman but in modern Shinto her role is more institutionalized and includes doing ritual dances, participating in rituals, like weddings, but also more mundane tasks as selling talismans and souvenirs. Their traditional clothes include a red hakama (or sometimes a skirt), a white haori (kimono jacket) and red and/or white hair ornaments.
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
At the Kanda shinto shrine - Kanda-myōjin (神田明神). This shrine dates its roots back to 730 AD, but it has relocated a couple of times and ended up here in 1603, moved to this place by the shogun (to make place for the expanding Edo castle, though officially to guard against misfortune because of an unhappy kami). Before this, in 1309, the warrior and rebel Taira no Masakado was enshrined in the Kanda shrine as a kami. The other two deities enshrined here are Onamuchi-no-mikoto (Daikoku-sama) and Sukunahikona-no-mokoto (Ebisu-sama). The shrine was added to the Tokyo ten shrines (東京十社 - Tokyo Jissha) during the Meiji era, but the emperor hesitated to do so since Masakado had led a rebellion against the central government in Kyoto in his day. This was resolved with the kami being removed from the shrine. However he proved to be so popular that he was reinstated after the second world war.
The shrine itself, as it stands today, was built in 1934 in the Gongen style after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 - but using concrete instead of traditional wood, which meant that it actually survived the fire bombings of the Second World War (when not much else in this area did). The shrine was very important for the warriors, and today its proximity to Akihabara has given it a bit of a special niche, selling talismans and blessings for electronic equipment (and all the usual talismans too, for good health, good luck, luck in business, etc).
I was a shrine maiden in the New Year. I enjoyed it very much.
A great new shrine this year is the Mishima Shrine in WQNC SIM.
It's a very photogenic sim, so come and have a look!
avater:*GUARAN-DOU* CHIBIT
Location:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bohemian%20Rhapsody/140/16...
This is the inner hall of Kashima Jingu Shrine. It is located in the area that's captured in the aerial photo (the previous image). The inner hall is situated in the innermost of the 150,000 square meter shrine site. Even the path from the main hall is 300 meters long.
In the shrine, I saw several large and small halls, ceremonies, Shinto priests walking in a procession, hundreds of worshippers, forests, steams coming out of trees and thatched roofs, spray of water dropping as it had snowed on the previous day, natural sunlight, and colourful ghosting flares through my lens.
鹿島神宮(鹿嶋市)
The Honden (本殿, main shrine) of Shintoism is always built to be hidden by Haiden (拝殿, prayer hall) as the former is considered as the private space for a god while the latter is for the public reception. Honden of Nishina Shinmeiguu in the left is attached with Chuumon (中門, inner gate) in the right.
These two wooden structures are registered as a National Treasure (国宝), the highest category of the heritage conservation scheme at the national level.
The shrine is built in the Shinmei-zukuri (神明造) style that is identical to the Ise Shrine. The architectural style preserves the autochthonous architectural tradition of Japan before receiving the influence of Buddhist architecture from China and Korea.
Old conifer trees surrounding the shrine complex also look impressive and mystic.
The water from the spring is believed to have a magical power to increase the fortune. It is a tradition to wash coins and bills with the water to effectuate the magic.
It is a folk belief rather than Shintoism.
Sarasvati is originally an Indian goddess of water but other roles were attached later such as music, art, war and speech. Benzaiten comes from its Chinese translation meaning the "goddess of eloquence (弁才天)." It was wrongly or intentionally written as Benzaiten (弁"財"天) in Japan due to the same pronunciation, which means the goddess of speech and fortune.
I suppose this makes the background of money laundering practice.
The shrine's priests may be embarrassed to see it so widespread globally.
The shrine also enshrines Ugajin (宇賀神) that is a god or a spectre that looks like a snake with human head, which is also believed to bring good fortune.
It is an interesting place of religious syncretism.
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Prompt: japanese shinto temple with stone steps lined with lanterns leading to a waterfall during cherry blossom time in spring long exposure--ar 16:9 --v 5.2 --s 250 --style raw
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Standing on Itsukushima Shrine one is surrounded by Shinto and Buddhist Shrines dating back centuries. This view shows the proximity of Gomado Hall, part of the Daiganji Temple.
Shinto ritual purification
Shinto priests at a temizuya at Fushimi Inari-taisha Shinto Shrine to Inari, the god of rice, Kyoto, Japan. The temizuya consists of a water basin to perform "misogi," a ritual that involves rinsing the hands and mouth with water, symbolizing the purification of the body and mind before visiting the deity.
21/04/16 www.allenfotowild.com
Shinto shrines are places of worship and the dwellings of the kami, the Shinto gods. This is the worship hall (haiden) of Kami Ichinomiya Oawa Shrine, dedicated to Ogetsuhime, the god of grains, in particular Awa millet (foxtail millet, Setaria italica). Ichinomiya means 'first shrine' and is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest shrine rank in a province or prefecture. Kamiyama, Shikoku Island, Japan.
Beneath the West Pier at Whitby.
I was rather surprised to find that right at the end of the West Pier was an open trapdoor and ladder in the wooden floor giving access to the concrete base of the pier itself. There in the shadows below, beyond the barrier blocking further progress back towards the town, were the dark outlines of several fishermen- each standing alone at his watch like so many herons intent on their catch. Above, near the top of the ladder and right at the end of the pier two sociable sea-anglers trimmed and fussed over their lines ceaselessly and the beams of their head-torches pierced the cracks between floorboards sending flickering, shifting shafts of light down into the space below. It was all a bit reminiscent of 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind'
From the wellspring within an evergreen primeval forest, Nachi Waterfall is Japan's tallest waterfall, with an uninterrupted drop of 133 meters.
The waterfall is appreciated for its natural beauty, but also worshipped as the dwelling of Shinto deity.
In Shinto, kami are spirits or deities that inhabit natural phenomena. Nachi Falls itself is worshipped as a kami, specifically called Hirō Gongen, a manifestation of the waterfall deity.
In Shinto, water is purifying, and Nachi Falls is one of the most powerful symbols of this concept. It’s used in rituals of misogi (purification), where practitioners may stand under smaller cascades to cleanse body and spirit. The sheer force of Nachi’s plunge is a dramatic, awe-inspiring representation of nature's power to purify.