Overcoming Fear
July 19, 2007
Fear is the mind killer, said James Herbert.
To overcome fear, I guess that perhaps a Shintoist might go to a shrine to have a priest perform a sweeping (harai), purification ceremony, wherein the 'ethereal vampire' which is your fear would hopefully be swept of into nowhere you would, hopefully, be left feeling pure and free of fear.
It would be difficult, to say the least, if not impossible, to perform this ceremony upon yourself, but there are instructions for making the paper wand used in the ceremony at the bottom here and prayers used in the ceremony can be found here. You may be able to get a friend to perform it for you.
Better still perhaps, another method of purification is ritual rinsing (misogi) of which there are various techniques, including getting under a waterfall (preferably not such a big one) or into a stream or river, and reciting perhaps the misogi prayer also included on the page above.
People do Misogi in Watefalls, rivers (I think that this may be Rev Barrish, in Oregon) and in the sea.
I think that it helps if the water is not warm, and you are in a natural setting. I used to do misogi in a little waterfall up on Kora mountain in Kurume, Kyushu, and I highly recommend it. Getting under a mountain waterfall and reciting something can cure you of all manner of concern, if only via brain freeze and general numbness, leaving you with a pleasant warm feeling afterwards. Please don't over do it though.
My Buddhist Beckian interpretation of both rituals is that they aim for 'emptiness' or freedom from 'automatic thoughts.' Under this interpretation, the ethereal vampires are ideas or words going round and around in your head and these can be swept away by concentrating on something else, nice white pieces of paper fluttering around, cold running water, and with the help and belief in your favourite spirit.
Japanese Superstitions
May 08, 2007
The following is a fairly long list of Japanese superstitions, or at least the ones that I do not recognise has existing in the UK. But I may be wrong about origins. Most of them are not connected with Shinto directly but there are a few towards the end. Many of them are from the Japanese language Wikipedia article on superstions.
If you whistle at night a snake, ghost or monster will come and get you. Originates in the time when there was slavery in Japan and one would attract a trader (to whom one might sell someone) by whistling at night. Thus children were taught to avoid whistling at night by stories of snakes and ghosts. This was the 3rd most popularly believed superstition among Japanese men and women in 2006.
There are many superstitions related to the Chinese calendar and various regular unlucky and lucky days related to Buddhist 'six day' interpretations of the calendar. The six day cycle
includes "daian" (big peace) the most auspicious day, "butsu metsu" (anihilation of the Buddha) the most unlucky when it is a bad news to hold a wedding (and wedding reception halls
are very cheap) and tomobiki (friend pulling) on which day it is bad news to hold a funeral lest friends of the deceased are pulled towards their deceased friend.
A calendar related superstitions that seems to have been widely believed is that females born in the year of the fire horse ("hi no e uma") every sixty years, last time 1966) will turn
into devils and cause suffering to their husband and children. The birth rate in Japan nominally declined by 25% in that the last Fire Horse year. I say "nominally" because, for example, a family member of mine is registered as having been born on the first day of 1967 but there is some question, at least in my mind, whether she may not have been born a little earlier. She is charming and her family members are fit and well.
Space in Shinto again
April 03, 2007
In Japan one does not say that a room in a house measures "10 by 12" but rather one counts room area in spaces, that is to say the number of tatami mats that would be needed on the floor of the room. In the West we seem to be thinking of the boundaries of space, in Japan the Japanese seem to be thinking of the space itself.
Typical Japanese house floor plan (scroll down to see numbers that show numbers of mats)
http://goodhouse.homepage.jp/1newly/003shimosakamoto3b.htm
Typical Western floor plan
http://www.virtualtours360.net/images/floorplan%20sample2.gif
Japanese roads are not given names. Japanese addresses are given by area name. Japanese houses are given numbers according to where they are in an area not where they are on the street(spatial boundary). Again this seems to suggest that space (or areas) in Japan is named, and thus emphasised, rather than the roads, lines or limits of space. This can make Japanese towns difficult to navigate
http://www.m-net.ne.jp/~kikuchiy/chimei1-1.htm
compared to even London towns where one can give a street name (the link below to where I grew up)
http://tinyurl.com/262qqm
In Japanese houses there are a lot of named spaces such as the "tokonoma" where wall hangings are put up and ornaments are placed, or the holes at the top of walls, or the gaps in partition walls. Here are some diagrams showing the various "spaces" created in traditional Japanese architecture
http://www.toyoshima-g.co.jp/yougo/0505.htm
Japanese traditional architects seem to enjoy making houses that are akin to 'rectangular Swiss cheese', with all sorts of spaces to enjoy by virtue of the interplay and presentation of spaces.
http://tinyurl.com/22pdxa
http://tinyurl.com/24hopc
Western interior design seems to emphasise boundaries such as walls and their coverings, and *content not space*, particularly a in traditional English interior
http://tinyurl.com/2x7go3
Corridors and hallways are given prominence as spaces over and above their practical uses as passage-ways.
Japanese pottery is often sparsely or "naturally" decorated and rather than using geometric shapes, its is the "foot print-like" (kutsugata-chawan, kutsu-chawan) shape of bowls, their deformation and texture and individuality that is prized. This at least demonstrates a lack
of interest in geometrical lines, and a greater interest in texture and perhaps encapsulation of space. Again this may suggest the importance of space itself in Japanese aesthetics.
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~toushou8/otyawann.htm
http://syoindo.noblog.net/blog/g/10220755.html
http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/syuuzou/toji.index.html
http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/syuuzou/toji/40271.html
In Japan spaces themselves are related to power more so than in the West, I think. Such as there is a lot of emphasis placed upon where people sit in a room, at a table, in a car, or in
a lift. Space or spacing is perhaps inscribed with more meaning. Some pages describing the relative importance of the positions in a room.
http://www2.kid.ne.jp/teien/kannaiannai/yo_suwaru1.html
http://www.yuinou.com/manual/page2.htm
http://www.jobclick.jp/static/mg/050530_06.html (bottom)
Behaviour in Japan is especially 'spatially contingent', with some behaviours allowed in some spaces but not in others. Rules concerning the appropriateness of behaviours depending on the place in which they are carried out, are applied in the West too, but in Japan to an even greater degree.
Such as in the almost anything goes 'red-light-district', Kabukicho, Tokyo
http://flickr.com/photos/yeungkeefu/141311940/
Or the fact that the (spatial) addresses of Yakuza, are publically listed (in Japanese):
http://www.cji.jp/Link/coffebreak/story32.htm
Indeed in Japan it is rare that one should hold a dinner party at home, or allow non family members to enter the home, since the family in Japan is defined spacially (as "ie"). Entering a home in Japan, almost defines one as family member.
[Sad aside: The tragic and brutal murder of 22yr old British, English teacher, Ms. Lindsay Anne Hawker, by a twisted 28 year old Japanese man may have been precipitated in part by different conceptions of the importance of space. As is often pointed out, there is less violent crime in Japan. One article claims that there is a kind of lurking violence in the "honne" as opposed to "tatemae" of Japanese culture.
http://tinyurl.com/2n42x5
Be that as it may, I think that one of the problems arose from different interpretations of the fact that Ms. Hawker entered the murderer's appartment. As far as I am aware, entering a man's room is a vastly more value-laden in Japan than it is in the UK. While I believe the rape statistics that show that one is far less likely to be raped in Japan, as far as I know it is almost impossible to convict someone of rape in Japan if the victim enters a private space. Japanese women are aware of this and thus are far more reticent to enter a private space with a man. Unknowingly, Ms. Hawker may have sent a message to her murderer that she had no intention of sending. This does not of course excuse the murderer. I hope they catch him soon.]
In the Japanese Garden
1) The relationship or spacing of the elements in the garden is very important, perhaps more important than the things themselves. Thus the Japanese garden contains a plants that might not be all that much to look at on their own (unlike a rose bush perhaps) but gain their beauty by the interspacing of elements.
2) The relationship between the garden and the surrounding environment, as far away as mountains in the distance, is also and important part of the garden design.
3) Geometrical patterns - that emphasise lines - are rarely used but but rather it is spatial relationships between elements that are prized.
4) The parts of the garden may represent much larger spaces, such as a whole inland sea, Japan as a whole or a whole cosmos.
5) Rather than will natural look of the English country garden, or the trimmed artificial look of the stately home garden, the Japanese garden aims for controlled nature, a nature more natural than nature. I don't know if or how this last point connects to conceptions of
space but it relates to Japanese conceptions of nature.
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/24886024/
Gay and Lesbians in Shinto
October 11, 2006
Generally speaking there is less "coming out" in Japan. I can think of a few possible reasons for this
1) Groupism
In the tight knit groupy world which is Japan, coming out will mean that one brands ones family has having a "not-normal-person" (from the point of view of the prejudiced majority), so people are less likely to admit their peculiarities, for fear of bring disrepute upon their groups.
In general groupism promotes the need for harmony, and sameness.
2) A greater degree of taboo on homosexuality.
This is less likely since there is historically a respected tradition of homosexuality in Japan among the clergy, and warrior class. There was a time not so long ago, when it was looked upon as rather noble c.f. the novels of Ihara Saikaku such as the famous Great Mirror of Male love "5 women who love love" which I recommend some scholarly works, such as the following introduction, some of the jokes in "the chrisantemum and the fish"
3) Generally less importance placed upon sexuality as being definitive of the person. This is what I have argued in previous posts. In Japan there are people that are transsexual in that they prefer to behave as expected of the opposite sex. They, some of these "okama" or queens are quite famous, often express a sexual preference for people of the same sex. However, there seems to be a dearth of interest in defining ones sexual orientation, in isolation. For example, there was
a fairly popular humorous manga in which one of the male characters enjoyed anal sex with his girlfriend's shoes, and generally the pleasures of anal sexuality
and even the pleasures of homosexual sex between men seems to be something that that is presented as having a more general appeal. Sexual "orientation" is thus presented as more of something that one does rather than who one is. Hence defining ones sexual orientation "Am I more into boys or girls?" and further then defining who one is on the basis of ones sexual orientation, "Am I a gay" does not seem to be so common, due to the less central, less self defining, less sacred-and-tabooed position that sex has in Japanese society.
First Shrine in Europe
March 29, 2006
A Shrine was inaugurated in France(pdf) last week on the 25th of March. It claims to be the first Shinto shrine in Europe.
It is attached to a Shingo sect Buddhist temple about 170 km South South East of Paris on the A6 near Joigny.
The shrine is a subshrine (bunsha) of Mizuya Shrine(English) of Mie prefecture.
According to the article the priestess in attendance, Rev. Mami Takebe, does Jodo (a kind of martial art using sticks) at a dojo in Paris, and is the daughter of a priest.
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