Photographs from a small group of islands
I’m not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, but the serene smile I managed to capture on the priest below leads me to believe that he might just be on to something.
Either that or he’s just found out how much money is in his temple’s offering box.
The controversy surrounding Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine is well documented. The enshrinement of Class A war criminals coupled with Prime Minister Koizumi’s yearly visits make it an issue of extreme tension (to say the least) between Japan and its neighbours.
Meaning Yasukuni is a magnet for right-wing fanatics and revisionists alike. And needles to say the chaps below weren’t singing the latest Hamasaki Ayumi single, or knocking out a rousing rendition of ‘Give Peace A Chance’.
Sunday’s earthquake in southern Japan once again proved that scientific attempts at predicting tremors are ineffectual at best. Especially as the area hit was considered (relatively) safe.
It turns out however that a ritual at a 1,200-year-old Shinto shrine in Miyaki may have predicted the quake five days before it struck. But don’t for a minute think that the ceremony involved the perusal of old calendars and ancient texts to decipher the future. No, all that was used was a humble bowl of rice porridge.
On February 26th a bowl of porridge was placed in front of an altar, and then on March 15th it was removed for a fortune　teller to examine it and make his predictions. The results were then passed on to the local religious man who broadcast the news on local television.
Priest Masahiro Higashi said, “It was good porridge this year with a shiny surface and not much mould, but I saw a rare crack.” And after rambling on about harvests and other such stuff, he added prophetically, “But be careful and be prepared for earthquakes.”
So there you go.
What do you see?
Some Buddhist sects here conduct walking-over-fire rituals, with worshippers gingerly crossing smoldering hot ground created by the burning of religious amulets. And recently in western Tokyo, some itinerant priests supervised such an event (if that’s the right word).
The woman in the picture however looks like she just happened to be on her way back from the supermarket, but a slightly wrong turn meant that before she knew it her shoes had been removed and she was being guided (complete with shopping) across the glowing ground.
The world of sumo is unsurprisingly a very traditional one. Wrestlers are expected to know their place in the sports strict hierarchy, and personal conduct is of the utmost importance.
Yet one sumo tradition that doesn’t always go down too well is that women are not allowed onto the dohyo (wrestling ring). Even during an award ceremony.
With sumo’s links to Shinto, the dohyo is considered sacred. Meaning wrestlers must throw salt onto the ring as an act of purification before they enter. And the problem this holds for women is that due to the bleeding associated with menstruation and childbirth, they are considered unclean.
But this being the 21st Century, such blatant discrimination is understandably frowned upon. Yet for sumo fans, the issue is far from clear-cut. Professor Yoshihiro Oinuma of Tokai University, polled 165 visitors about the problem at the 2004 November tournament. Of the respondents, 52% said they believed women should be allowed onto the dohyo during the award ceremony, whilst the remaining 48% disagreed.
In regards to the ban in general, 62% of fans felt that it should be maintained, whilst 52% said the issue should only be decided by sumo association officials. And in a grand gesture of indecisiveness, coupled with a large dollop of ambiguity, 75% said that generally speaking, they wanted to maintain groups that try to keep their own traditions.
Sumo stable master Takasago said, “I don’t think the results of the poll alone show a decisive trend.”
I think he may be right.
But judging by the picture below, perhaps those sticklers to tradition have a point after all.
