An Old Temple in my Neighbourhood

[GrauGeist]

Mike, the Chaniwa is a Tea Garden, and these are different than the Karesansui (rock garden) or the Tsukiyama (hill garden).

The Chaniwa garden has the Tea room surrounded by a tranquil setting that includes a water feature and elements of nature.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots Shinpachi!

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks Mike, GG and Gnomey for your comments

There is a highschool beside the temple but few visitors notice it as the gate looks a part of the temple.

A guard watches the sacred straw festoon for celebrating the new year.

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi - sacred straw festoon????

 

[Shinpachi]

We call it "Shime-kazari".
That is believed to cause fortune

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, thank you, I am learning more and more with each post. Is a new one made every year? Do the various elements used in making it signify something special? or particular types of good fortune? love, money, fame, etc.

 

[Shinpachi]

A good question again, Mike.

The decoration is basically made of straw with an orange, fern leaves and sacred paper work. It is renewed every year for decorating the gate during the first seven days of new year.

The sacred straw festoon (Shimekazari) originates in a myth of Shinto.
Long long time ago when the nation of Japan did not exist yet, there was a Goddess called "Amaterasu(sunshine)" in the central part of the islands. She had a younger brother but he was a rowdy person and did not obey her advice at all.

Got angry, she had shut herself up into the cave closing the heavy door of the rock . The world became dark without her.
Her annoyed embarrassing vassals decided to hold a lively banquet in front of the cave everyday.

Several days passed. The banquet was so noisy and cheerful that Amaterasu was so curious about what was going on outside that she had opened the rock door a little to see. Then, an awaited vassal threw the door open and held Amaterasu out immediately.

Light returned to the world. They set a thick straw rope at the door of the rock so that Amaterasu was never in the cave.
This rope was the origin of the sacred straw festoon - Shimekazari or Shimenawa. It was to have a meaning to prevent evil and disaster since then.

Attached image tells the myth.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

More interesting history. Thank you Shinpachi for the lesson. Oh, and very nice photos also sir.

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, yes, thank you very interesting. It is somewhat similiar to the Greek/Roman story of Proserpina:
Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent his son Amor also known as Cupid to hit Pluto with one of his arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily (an island outside of Italy), at the fountain of Arethusa near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna with four black horses. He abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in Hades, the Greco-Roman Underworld, of which he was the ruler. Notably, Pluto was also her uncle, being Jupiter's (and Ceres's) brother. She is therefore Queen of the Underworld.

Her mother Ceres, the goddess of cereals or of the Earth, vainly went looking for her in any corner of the Earth, but wasn't able to find anything but a small belt that was floating upon a little lake (made with the tears of the nymphs). In her desperation Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing a malediction on Sicily. Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, making a desert at every step.

Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto (Jupiter's brother) to free Proserpina. Pluto obeyed, but before letting her go he made her eat six pomegranate seeds, because those who have eaten the food of the dead could not return to the world of the living. This meant that she would have to live six months of each year with him, and stay the rest with her mother. This story was undoubtedly meant to illustrate the changing of the seasons; When Ceres welcomes her daughter back in the spring the earth blossoms, and when Proserpina must be returned to her husband it withers.

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks Aaron and Mike for your kind comments.
It seems that there were cultural exchanges between east and west even in the myth era.
Very interesting.

Attached photo shows the rope size of the myth at Izumo Grand Shrine in Shimane Prefecture.

Japanese emperor is not allowed to enter this Izumo shrine.
Why?

King of this shrine was a native Japanese and emperor's enemy.
When he surrendered, he made the emperor promise that he would not touch this shrine forever.
Strictly saying, Japanese shrines must be classified into two groups.
One belongs to the emperor's family and the other to the native though it is hard to identify which is which today.

Goddess Amaterasu belonged to the native.

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, very very impressive. That is some rope. I continue to learn, thank you 先生

 

[Shinpachi]

You are welcome, マイク(Mike)

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff Shinpachi!

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks Gnomey

 

[mikewint]

新八私の友人や教師

 

[Lucky13]

Outstanding Shinpachi!

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks Mike and Lucky!

 

[Shinpachi]

I came across visitors from Australia yesterday

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots!

 

[Wayne Little]

Bl**dy Aussies...