Showing posts with label tanijyugo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tanijyugo. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Around Kawado on the Gonokawa River

 


I begin the second leg of my walk up the Gonokawa River to its source from my home. I live on the other bank to the one I am walking up. My plan is to later walk down the river from the source to the sea on this other bank. Looking across the river you can see a section of the river that has no road on that bank, hence my reason for starting this leg here, rather than Kawahira where I finished the first leg.


Behind me is my village.


Across from my village is where te Yato River enters the Gonokawa. This is a decent-sized tributary with a dam and reservoir and it starts up in the mountains around the ski resorts of Mizuho. The bridge carries the now closed rail line, the Sanko sen that used to follow the river all the way up to Miyoshi in Hiroshima.


On the walk up to the bridge that crosses over to Kawado I pass by the big sacred tree where Tanijyugo has their giant Onusa, purification wand, that pacifies the turbulent water god of the river.


The bridge that crosses the river to Kawado is painted in a very distinctive colour scheme that , I believe, represents the river, the sjy, and cherry blossoms. Not sure when the bridge was built. There was a major flood of Kawado back in the 1960's so it certainly postdates that. I have seen an old photos of a low wooden bridge in the 1920's, but for most of history the on,y wa to cross was by ferry.


Now protected, somewhat, by a high embankment, Kawado used to be the main town of the area. The large building is a traditional soy sauce brewery.


On top of the cliff at the first bend in the river is the Kawado suijin Onusa. This is the biggest one in the area and the main focus of the local Suijin Matsuri.


Looking upstream, that house is the only habitation in the several kilometers between Kawado and Tazu.


Kawabune, a generic term for riverboats. Traditionally made of wood, aluminum, and fibreglass are now more common, as are small outboard motors. I am guessing they are primarily used for fishing for Ayu, sweetfish, similar to trout. Larger, flat-bottomed boats were used for freight.


Looking back downstream to the Kawado Bridge. This next section of the road has no buildings and very little traffic, the main road being on the opposite bank, as it is for most of the river. The rail line is overgrown.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Autumn Matsuri 2014 part 3


t50484

On the sunday morning all signs of the previous night had disappeared and ceremonies were held. The first took place in front of a side altar. There was no musical accompaniment. After reading out a norito, the priest then read out the names of the handful of us who were taking part. We were then purified with an onusa and one by one called up and given a drink of omiki and a part of the mochi that had been used as offerings to the kami. The folded paper also contained some grains of the rice that had also been on the altar.

t50468

The next ceremony was a much grander affair with taiko and flute accompaniment. The village elders set offering upon the elder and norito were read, Once again there was purification. At the end of the ceremony the kami was transfered into the mikoshi which had been brought into the shrine.

t50471

When I first moved to the village I asked about the mikoshi and was told that there were not enough men nowadays to be able to carry the mikoshi. A recent survey of villagers showed that the villagers wanted the mikoshi procession to be revived. This was the first time in 14 years.

DSC05014

The mikoshi was really heavy as we carefully manhandled it down the steep steps. From the shrine it was then carried around the village. The roads where we passed were lined with a simple shimenawa. In the middle of the village another short ceremony was performed. The priests and musicians followed along.

t50478

Many of the older people who came out of their houses as the mikoshi passed were really pleased to see the mikoshi again. Once acrried back up the shrine steps and deposited back in the shrine we all shared some more omiki.

t50483

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Autumn Matsuri 2014 part 2


t50367

When we arrived at the shrine at 10:30 the Shioharae was in progress. This is usually the second dance of the night and purifies the dance area for the rest of the nights performances. It is a shinji, a ceremonial dance as opposed to a theatrical dance. There was a TV crew from Tokyo filming the visiting American "dancer" and I found the performance of the audience a little disconcerting.

t50378

Next up was Yumi Hachiman, a 2 man dance featuring the hero Hachiman, the patron kami of the shrine, defeating a demon.

t50398

It is a standard fighting dance where good triumphs over evil and featuring a spectacular smoke and firework entrance of the demon.

t50421

Our local kagura troupe are really good. They are all amateurs, but their performances are always tight and professional. The next dance was Kakko-Kirime. The first part involves Kakko, somewhat of a fool, who steals a sacred drum from a shrine and attempts, unsuccessfully  to activate it. I like the dance because it allows the dancer to incorporate a lot of his own moves and sequences. In the second half of the dancer the kami Kirime descends and teaches kakko the correct way.

t50438

I left then, past midnight. There was to be 6 more hours of dancing, but I was feeling out of sorts and I needed to be fresh for the final part of the matsuri, a series of ceremonies tomorrow morning followed by the carrying of the mikoshi.....

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Month of Little Sleep part 9


t5798

Past midnight and the inevitable Iwato was performed. It is one of my least favorite dances, but the last sequence after Amaterasu has been brought out of the cave and the assembled kami celebrate is performed with gusto by 8-beat groups such as Tanijyugo, and it gets quite frenetic with much leaping about.

t5837

Then onto Jinrin with the usual spectacular demons entrance.....

t5897

Next up was a rare performance of Benkei & Yoshitsune. Benkei, the legendary and archetypal sohei (warrior monk) is waiting on Gojo bridge in Kyoto to challenge the next samurai who passes. he has done this successfully 99 times. A slight, young Yoshitsune comes along.

t5942

Yoshitsune had been trained in swordsmanship by a tengu in the mountains north of kyoto, and his acrobatic skill is too much for Benkei who after being defeated becomes Yoshitsunes lifelong loyal vassal.... a very similar story to Robin Hood and Little John....

t5967

next dance was Tenjin, the first time I had seen the dance this season. Sugawara Michizane, the hero,, deified as Tenjin, wears a mask uncannily like the Guy Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta, takes on his arch-enemy Fujiwara no Tokihira.

t6018

It was 2:30am, still 4 more hours of kagura to go, but I left to grab some sleep as the next day there was an all night Omoto Matsuri up in the mountains and I wanted to stay all night for that....


Monday, October 29, 2012

The Month of Little Sleep part 8


t5571

Last Saturday was the opening night of our villages matsuri and matsuri begins in the evening with ceremonies in the shrine. Most shrines do not have a resident priest, for ceremonies a priest comes in from a nearby shrine, but we do have a resident priest. Few people attended the ceremony:- a few of the kagura group, the village elders, and a handful of others.

t5574

Once the ceremony was over the braziers were lit, food began to be cooked, and people started to arrive and take their places in the shrine......

t5604

The first dance was the Bell dance, and strangely last week was the first time I remember seeing it for the first time and here it was again. The photo shows clearly how important the hands are in kagura dancing...

t5643

Next up was Shioharai, the Purification dance, by two dancers, and if you look at the dancer on the left you can see he is certainly not Japanese. he is an American musician who has been staying with us studying kagura and Omoto. We arranged for him to sit in on the groups practises and they suggested that if he practised he would be able to dance for the matsuri, so with a week of solid practise, extra lessons from one of the young group members, and some help from aneighbor who used to dance the Shioharai he was able to pull it off...

t5666

Next up it was the kids turn with Hachiman, and the young lad playing Hachiman was particularly confident and strong....

t5695

In fact all four kids did an excellent job so with such strong talent in the younger generation it seems that our villages group will continue indefinetley, unlike some villages who have no kids filling the ranks...

Friday, March 11, 2011

A one hour walk in the morning

walk3246

Yoko dropped me off about one kilometer upstream at my favorite overlook.

walk3234

I hung around for about 20 minutes hoping for the sun to break through but I was getting cold so started to head back home.

walk03242

Yoko gets to drive up the river every morning and often remarks when she gets home how beautiful it was with the mist and sun and snow.

walk3264

I stopped in at the Zen temple. There is a nice garden behind it and I hoped to get some shots of it in the snow, but the priest wasn't home, so no luck.

walk3286

Headed down to the riverbank to take photos of the plum blossoms and scared off a heron

walk3306

And a flock of ducks. I think these might be a species of Eider. I suspect they will be heading north soon.

walk3320

We have a lovely new set of tetrapods.......

walk3330

and back to the village about an hour after I left....

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Plum blossom viewing

walk3302

Woke up to a few centimeters of of snow this morning so took the opportunity to go for a short one hour walk......

walk3272

Tomorrow I will post more of the walk, but for today here are the plum blossoms.

walk3305

I prefer the plum blossoms to the cherry blossoms..... as do the Chinese apparently.

walk3298

The harbinger of spring...............

walk3285

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Tondo food & drink

tondo2610
Upon arriving at Tondo matsuri the first thing to do is get a drink of Kappo Zake, sake poured into a piece of bamboo that is then heated in coals and drunk from a bamboo cup. It really is delicious with a hint of bamboo flavor.
tondo2613
While the men are busy warming their butts by the coals, drinking sake, the ladies of the village are busy preparing food.
tondo2631
On the altar in front of the bonfire is a bottle of sake. In this form it is called Omiki. More on that later.
tondo2645
Once the fire is underway time to tuck in. First course is Nanakusa no sekku, rice porridge with the 7 herbs of spring. I asked the ladies which 7 plants were used and they said the standard ones, though I suspect there was some local variation. There usually is, though local people will believe their version is the national version. The official list is Seri (japanese parsley) Nazuna (shepherds purse) Gogyo (Jersey cudweed) Hakobera (chickweed) Hotokenoza (henbit) Suzuna (turnip) Suzushiro (daikon) Being a barbarian I found the porridge almost tasteless........ some milk and sugar would have helped.....
tondo2649
Main course was a huge pot of Wild Boar stew.... from the hills around the village, with masses of vegetables and tofu. Really tasty. Ive spoken with lots of "town" Japanese who have never eaten wild boar. They tell me it smells. They also say that mutton and turkey smells.
tondo2651
Over the coals mochi are toasted. Big pass for me. Can't stand mochi, though there was also Zenzai, which is mochi cooked up in a sweet bean sauce. Thats OK.
tondo2653
Finally the Omiki, though not the usual omiki. This is Kinpakku Iri, sake with gold flakes added. The gold flakes have no meaning, there are simply to make the sake expensive. I like Tondo. Lots of free food and drink and everyone is in good spirits.